Hi, I'm trying to build a home NAS from an old office PC, help and advice appreciated!

[Vulpen]

Hello everyone!
I'm completely new to NAS building (and this forum, lol). I'm rather tech savvy, but I just never delved into NAS'es before.

I have an old office PC - Acer Aspire X3990 (https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Aspire_X3990)
CPU: Intel Core i5 (2nd Gen) 2320 with integrated graphics
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333 MT/s single stick (will upgrade to 2x4 with 1600 MT/s if the Mobo/BIOS supports it)
Motherboard: Intel H61 Chipset, Intel LGA1155 Socket (Sandy Bridge), 2 SATA ports
PSU: 250W 80+ Bronze

My use case for this NAS would be to install Nextcloud on it and use it for personal cloud storage and synchronizing of Calendars, Notes, Contacts, etc. So it won't require a lot of horsepower, I won't stream, encode or decode 4k video or host VM's on it.

Now here are the troubles with this build, and my "proposed" ways of solving them, let me know if something won't work or is stupid.


1. There are only 2 SATA ports.
I want to RAID two 1TB hard drives, which will take up both ports, leaving nothing for the OS.

-My first solution includes getting a PCIe x4 to m.2 NVME adapter and plugging it into the 16x port. According to my previous experience trying to install a Linux on such a drive, the adapter is not visible as a bootable drive during boot time. This means that the Bootloader has to be installed in a bootable place instead. It could be on the RAID drives, but that will require complex partitioning and issues with the RAID setup, and I don't want to open that can of worms. It could also live on a USB thumb drive that is permanently plugged into one of the USB ports at the back. I'm hoping it won't die too quickly, since it will only be read from at boot time, but even if it does, it's easily replaceable.

-The second solution would be to partition the two RAID HDD's and have an OS partition, but as I mentioned, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. I heard it's a pain to do and requires changing the install script for the NAS OS, which I'm not quite savvy enough to do on my own. Let me know if I'm wrong.


2. The CPU is not very energy efficient.
According to this page (https://www.cpu-list.com/lga1155-cpu-list/eng/) the most energy-efficient CPU for this socket is the "Xeon E3-1220L v2". I have ordered one online (they are dirt cheap, $8 or so). The trouble is that it doesn't have an integrated GPU.

-Solution one would be to install the TrueNAS OS using the current APU with the integrated GPU, then once everything is set up, disable the boot time errors (so it won't get stuck beeping, cuz there is no video output) and switch the CPUs.

-Solution two would be to install a simple video output card on the PCIe x1 slot (not even sure if such things exist tbh.), or the x16 slot (not a great option, because it's going to be populated by the NVME adapter from issue 1.) and use that, if TrueNAS can't run without a video output for some reason?


Those are the two main issues, but there are also some "smaller" ones:
-The two HDDs I use are from different manufacturers and are somewhat old. I'm not sure if that's going to be an issue or not. I could get new ones from the same batch if it's needed, but I'd rather keep this project low-budget if possible.
-I have no idea what all the hardware/software RAID 0, 1, 10 and whatnot mean and which I should use. Some help there would be greatly appreciated! I think this Mobo supports hardware RAID.
-I'm not sure if this motherboard even supports the Xeon E3-1220L v2 CPU. I've searched forums, there seem to be no BIOS updates for it, but people say there is a good chance it will work. I guess I have to wait and see. If it doesn't, how hard would it be to make a BIOS hack and add support for it (or pay someone to do it?)
-The RAM is obviously not ECC, and the mobo doesn't support ECC, but I don't think this will be a problem. Still, I'm curious, is it even possible to add ECC support via a BIOS hack?

I'll probably have a bunch more questions once I get past all the hardware stuff and begin installing the TrueNAS, since as I mentioned, I have no experience with NAS'es whatsoever. So stay tuned :D
Thanks for reading my wall of text and thank you even more if you're willing to help. Any help or info is highly appreciated! <3

 

[sretalla]

1. There are only 2 SATA ports.
I want to RAID two 1TB hard drives, which will take up both ports, leaving nothing for the OS.

Do you have a USB port?

Connect an external/USB SSD drive (like Samsung T7) and make that your boot media.

The warnings given by the system/documentation about not using USB refers to USB stick/thumb drives, which have poor quality flash memory/controllers, but that doesn't apply to SSDs connected over USB (for the boot pool).

2. The CPU is not very energy efficient.
According to this page (https://www.cpu-list.com/lga1155-cpu-list/eng/) the most energy-efficient CPU for this socket is the "Xeon E3-1220L v2". I have ordered one online (they are dirt cheap, $8 or so). The trouble is that it doesn't have an integrated GPU.

-Solution one would be to install the TrueNAS OS using the current APU with the integrated GPU, then once everything is set up, disable the boot time errors (so it won't get stuck beeping, cuz there is no video output) and switch the CPUs.

That's fine... or even easier, install the boot drive in another system with the needed video resources and transfer the boot drive you made to the desired system with no video card. (the boot media isn't customized for the system hardware it's installed on, so it can be transferred without issue after the install)

 

[sretalla]

I have no idea what all the hardware/software RAID 0, 1, 10 and whatnot mean and which I should use. Some help there would be greatly appreciated! I think this Mobo supports hardware RAID.

NO Hardware RAID... we're using ZFS which absolutely should not be mixed with hardware RAID (not RAID controllers... set your Mobo controller to AHCI mode it it has that) https://www.truenas.com/community/t...s-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.81931/

-The two HDDs I use are from different manufacturers and are somewhat old. I'm not sure if that's going to be an issue or not.

Probably fine... ZFS will perform in accordance with the slowest member in a VDEV, so you may lose something there, but otherwise, no matter.

I'm not sure if this motherboard even supports the Xeon E3-1220L v2 CPU. I've searched forums, there seem to be no BIOS updates for it, but people say there is a good chance it will work. I guess I have to wait and see. If it doesn't, how hard would it be to make a BIOS hack and add support for it (or pay someone to do it?)

Best of luck.

The RAM is obviously not ECC, and the mobo doesn't support ECC, but I don't think this will be a problem. Still, I'm curious, is it even possible to add ECC support via a BIOS hack?

Doubtful.

Consider why you are using ZFS... if you care enough about the data you're putting on it, you'll probably care enough to use ECC (and buy the right hardware to match with that... what would you pay to get your data back if it were lost?)

 

[Arwen]

Be aware that the minimum RAM is 8GBytes, and that 16GBytes can improve performance.

Both TrueNAS SCALE and Core are written for the Enterprise Data Center market. As was ZFS. Throwing old hardware at TrueNAS does not mean that it will be reliable and make your data safe.

I am not trying to stop you, but set expectations of using older, desktop PC, (aka non-server), hardware for a server role.

 

[Vulpen]

Do you have a USB port?

Connect an external/USB SSD drive (like Samsung T7) and make that your boot media.

The warnings given by the system/documentation about not using USB refers to USB stick/thumb drives, which have poor quality flash memory/controllers, but that doesn't apply to SSDs connected over USB (for the boot pool).

That's fine... or even easier, install the boot drive in another system with the needed video resources and transfer the boot drive you made to the desired system with no video card. (the boot media isn't customized for the system hardware it's installed on, so it can be transferred without issue after the install)

There are plenty of USB ports (10 to be exact), but they are all USB2, and I'm afraid it would be a bottleneck in some way. I'm not sure how Read/Write intensive TrueNAS is, or if it just copies everything into ram and goes from there? If you say USB is gonna be fine and not gonna be slow as molasses, then I'd try it.
Otherwise, I'd stick with the bootloader-on-a-usb-stick tried and true solution xD
I don't expect to reboot it often enough so it should be fine I hope.

I hadn't considered the option to install on another machine, that's really useful advice, thank you! <3

NO Hardware RAID... we're using ZFS which absolutely should not be mixed with hardware RAID (not RAID controllers... set your Mobo controller to AHCI mode it it has that) https://www.truenas.com/community/t...s-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.81931/

Probably fine... ZFS will perform in accordance with the slowest member in a VDEV, so you may lose something there, but otherwise, no matter.

Best of luck.

Doubtful.

Consider why you are using ZFS... if you care enough about the data you're putting on it, you'll probably care enough to use ECC (and buy the right hardware to match with that... what would you pay to get your data back if it were lost?)

I see. ZFS sure sounds like a handy thing to have xD
About the ECC ram, it was just a hypothetical, I'm not intending to get such even if it were possible to frankenstein it into this old machine.

Be aware that the minimum RAM is 8GBytes, and that 16GBytes can improve performance.

Both TrueNAS SCALE and Core are written for the Enterprise Data Center market. As was ZFS. Throwing old hardware at TrueNAS does not mean that it will be reliable and make your data safe.

I am not trying to stop you, but set expectations of using older, desktop PC, (aka non-server), hardware for a server role.

Yes, that's a concern, because this machine (at least if you're going by its manual) only has 2 ram slots and only supports 1GB, 2GB and 4GB sticks. So that caps out at 8GB. I haven't tried to put a bigger stick in to see what happens, I might try it out lol. What's the worst that could happen...? :D

I know that the hardware I have is a bit on the old side, and my expectations for this project are not exactly high, I just want to tinker a bit and dip my feet into the NAS space on a budget. If I end up with a working system, all the better!
However, would my use case be better served by another OS like Open Media Vault? It seems to have lower system requirements.

 

[sretalla]

all USB2, and I'm afraid it would be a bottleneck in some way

It won't.

 

[Whattteva]

I have an old office PC - Acer Aspire X3990 (https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/product-support/Aspire_X3990)
CPU: Intel Core i5 (2nd Gen) 2320 with integrated graphics
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333 MT/s single stick (will upgrade to 2x4 with 1600 MT/s if the Mobo/BIOS supports it)
Motherboard: Intel H61 Chipset, Intel LGA1155 Socket (Sandy Bridge), 2 SATA ports
PSU: 250W 80+ Bronze

I honestly wouldn't use anything older than 6th-gen Core series. They're just space heaters and you would have to PAY me to take them cause at that point, I'm just your garbage man. You can get a 6th-gen SFF Dell/HP PC with 16 GB RAM (upgradable to 64) on Ebay these days for only $45 shipped!!! There is really zero reason to use anything older when the alternative is that cheap.

My use case for this NAS would be to install Nextcloud on it and use it for personal cloud storage and synchronizing of Calendars, Notes, Contacts, etc. So it won't require a lot of horsepower, I won't stream, encode or decode 4k video or host VM's on it.

A note on Nextcloud from my personal experience. If you're just going to use it over the web on a PC, I think it's fine. If you were thinking of using it to sync your mobile devices to it (ie. iPhone/Android), I would steer clear from it. The mobile syncing of Nextcloud is garbage. It's slow and super unreliable (ie. Fail/stop syncing arbitrarily or worse, drop random files entirely). For mobile syncing, Seafile is way faster and way more reliable.

-The second solution would be to partition the two RAID HDD's and have an OS partition, but as I mentioned, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. I heard it's a pain to do and requires changing the install script for the NAS OS, which I'm not quite savvy enough to do on my own. Let me know if I'm wrong.

It is indeed a rabbit hole and also unsupported, meaning you may have to redo this dance every version upgrade.

2. The CPU is not very energy efficient.
According to this page (https://www.cpu-list.com/lga1155-cpu-list/eng/) the most energy-efficient CPU for this socket is the "Xeon E3-1220L v2". I have ordered one online (they are dirt cheap, $8 or so). The trouble is that it doesn't have an integrated GPU.

Yeah, as I already mentioned, that PC is really e-waste and should be recycled instead of hoarded. I really wouldn't bother upgrading anything in it. There's a reason why it's dirt cheap, cause it's at the point where it is very hard to convince other people to take it away from you and for people like me, I would even require payment instead.

-The two HDDs I use are from different manufacturers and are somewhat old. I'm not sure if that's going to be an issue or not. I could get new ones from the same batch if it's needed, but I'd rather keep this project low-budget if possible.

A note on low budget projects. You really get what you pay for here and should set your expectations appropriately. That means having backups in case things go south especially when you're already doing Frankenstein stuff with sub-optimal setup to begin with. Things can and do go wrong occassionally even in optimal setups, let alone a sub-optimal one you're attempting here.

In my opinion, if you are trying to just have a simple file server using ancient PC's, you should NOT be using TrueNAS or even ZFS. Just stick to a basic Debian Linux or FreeBSD (depending on your preference) and just use the standard Ext4/UFS. It will run better and more reliable on sub-optimal hardware than TrueNAS.

-I have no idea what all the hardware/software RAID 0, 1, 10 and whatnot mean and which I should use. Some help there would be greatly appreciated! I think this Mobo supports hardware RAID.

As others have said, don't use the hardware RAID at all if you plan on using ZFS.

 

[sretalla]

However, would my use case be better served by another OS like Open Media Vault? It seems to have lower system requirements.

Quite possibly.

All depends on your "real" requirements (maybe you don't know those yet until you see how the OS looks)

 

[Vulpen]

I honestly wouldn't use anything older than 6th-gen Core series. They're just space heaters and you would have to PAY me to take them cause at that point, I'm just your garbage man. You can get a 6th-gen SFF Dell/HP PC with 16 GB RAM (upgradable to 64) on Ebay these days for only $45 shipped!!! There is really zero reason to use anything older when the alternative is that cheap.

A note on Nextcloud from my personal experience. If you're just going to use it over the web on a PC, I think it's fine. If you were thinking of using it to sync your mobile devices to it (ie. iPhone/Android), I would steer clear from it. The mobile syncing of Nextcloud is garbage. It's slow and super unreliable (ie. Fail/stop syncing arbitrarily or worse, drop random files entirely). For mobile syncing, Seafile is way faster and way more reliable.

It is indeed a rabbit hole and also unsupported, meaning you may have to redo this dance every version upgrade.

Yeah, as I already mentioned, that PC is really e-waste and should be recycled instead of hoarded. I really wouldn't bother upgrading anything in it. There's a reason why it's dirt cheap, cause it's at the point where it is very hard to convince other people to take it away from you and for people like me, I would even require payment instead.

A note on low budget projects. You really get what you pay for here and should set your expectations appropriately. That means having backups in case things go south especially when you're already doing Frankenstein stuff with sub-optimal setup to begin with. Things can and do go wrong occassionally even in optimal setups, let alone a sub-optimal one you're attempting here.

In my opinion, if you are trying to just have a simple file server using ancient PC's, you should NOT be using TrueNAS or even ZFS. Just stick to a basic Debian Linux or FreeBSD (depending on your preference) and just use the standard Ext4/UFS. It will run better and more reliable on sub-optimal hardware than TrueNAS.

As others have said, don't use the hardware RAID at all if you plan on using ZFS.

Yes, it's gonna be used primarily through desktop drive mapping, but also on Android via WebDAV or whichever protocol is best for the job.
It's also gonna be used for syncing small files like calendars, notes and contacts via DAVx5.
I actually used a free Nextcloud service up until this point and these things have worked fine for me so far. But thank you for the warning and suggestion, I'll keep it in mind and look up Seafile to see if it won't fit my needs better.

I know it's basically e-waste at this point - the PC has been sitting around gathering dust for years now, which is why I decided to try and give it a new life in the form of a NAS. If it doesn't perform to spec or inflates my power bill, I'll probably get something newer. I've been looking at secondhand office PCs from the DDR4 era, and they are not that expensive, although nowhere near your 45$ figure. Secondhand market is different in each country, they go for around 100-120 USD here. Although if I'm buying new hardware, I'd probably invest in server hardware or even a specific NAS unit. I'm using this e-waste, just because it's what I had lying around and didn't pay a cent for it.

I'll research about Debian too, thanks for the tip. :)

Quite possibly.

All depends on your "real" requirements (maybe you don't know those yet until you see how the OS looks)

True, I'll do some more research on my software options.

 

[farout]

With your hardware I would go with UnRaid (boots from usb).
For Truenas:
As a cpu you could use a sandy bridge or ivy bridge "T" processor with iGPU. They have 35-45 watt TDP. Xeon doesnt make sense here.

For the harddrives you could use a LSI HBA (with added fan) from ebay to get 8 ports. Dont use a cheap sata port multiplier.

RAM as much as the motherboard and cpu allowes ( probably 32GB)

Edit: just noticed that max ram ist 8GB
--> go with unraid