Suggestion for low-power backup box?

[the_jest]

I have an existing TrueNAS box (8-bay) that's functioning fine for my modest home use, but is five years old, and I was planning on upgrading it at some point. I'm also reaching the limit of being able to use an external USB disk as a simple backup; i.e. I kind of need a TrueNAS system to back up to.

My typical pattern is to repurpose old equipment as a backup, but the current system is larger than I need for a simple backup box, so I figured it would make more sense to build a new machine to run TrueNAS only to take replication backups from the current one; if I eventually decide I need a more powerful main machine, I will rebuild the existing one as necessary.

Thus, I could use suggestions for something small and low-powered, but trustworthy. A four-bay system will do, that I'd run with two or three disks in RAID Z1, and a single SSD for the OS. Maybe a 10Gb connection. Any thoughts for a case, CPU, and mobo? I thought of a U-NAS case, but they're out of stock on everything; is anyone else making NAS-like cases? A regular mini-ITX case would be far larger than I want for this, and I'm not too concerned about cooling because it won't be doing anything intensive. Mainly, I don't want to get something fancier than I need (Supermicro mobos would seem like overkill), but want something that will be stable for the future.

 

[HarryMuscle]

If you are looking for low power consumption over everything else it's hard to beat a QNAP system. Most of them support TrueNAS.

Thanks,
Harry

 

[NugentS]

Caveat:
Intel Compatible CPU
Needs to support probably 8GB minimum, although you may get away with a bit less if its pure NAS

 

[danb35]

If you can squeeze your necessary backup capacity into four bays, I like the HPE MicroServers.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

@the_jest

Depends on your budget. Some of your requirements will be tough to meet without diving up cost, e.g. 10Gb.

I have 4 QNAPs, 2 I originally bought new, 2 used off evilBay. All running either TrueNAS or Proxmox

People are ditching their QNAPs on evilBay because they are tired of all the QNAP QTS hard coded credentials and vulnerabilities. What most people don't realize is that most QNAP x86_64 HW will run TrueNAS if you are willing to put in the effort.

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[rvassar]

If you're not expecting it to be a full NAS... Get a 4Gb RPi4... Install Ubuntu LTS with ZFS, build a pool from multiple USB drives...

 

[Dice]

A regular mini-ITX case would be far larger than I want for this

This requirement narrows your options and simplicity.
I'd reconsider, and suddenly find myself with lots of simple X9,X10,X11 LGA115x systems second hand to chose from. Fit into any case and off you go.
I've ran a off-site 2nd tier backup system like this, that I booted using WakeOnLAN, to pursue backups monthly or so.
A typical 'state of the art' FreeNAS box from 7-9years ago is still excellently powerful enough. I picked up such a system with 32GB RAM for about $90 - 2 years ago.