leone101 Posted September 30, 2022 Share #1 Posted September 30, 2022 Hi, i'm new in this forum and XPEnology.....i bought Mini PC B2S con 6 Gb ram 128 GB Rom Storage, CPU Intel Gemini Lake N4000processor with Windows 11 pre installed. Is that kind of pc good choice to build NAS using external USB3.0 HDD? Otherwise is there a list of good choices hardwares r tutorials to use for that kind of hardwares? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiteWulf Posted September 30, 2022 Share #2 Posted September 30, 2022 (edited) It really depends on what you want to use the NAS for, and how many users will be using it simultaneously. If all you're intending to use it for is network attached storage with a couple your requirements will be pretty low, CPU and RAM wise. But if you add in a media server, audio and video transcoding, CCTV, VPN endpoint, Photos storage, docker host etc. then you'll need more of everything. I can't recommend USB storage for anything other than local backup (although some may disagree). While you can get decent throughput reading or writing a single file, USB attached storage slows down very quickly as you try to access more files simultaneously (serial vs parallel file access). I'm not talking about multiple users here, but multiple processes on the NAS wanting access to storage and increasing latency. You also lose the ability create any sort of redundant storage pools with USB storage, which is one of the main reasons for using a system like Synology. FWIW I run Xpenology on a Lenovo Tiny M7 (a very small form factor PC) within ESXi, with an M2 SATA disk and a regular 3.5" SATA HDD for storage and it's great for running a TailScale VPN endpoint, a few docker containers and as a Time Machine backup for my Mac. But my Plex servers are all run on proper server hardware with multiple HDDS configured as fast, redundant RAID arrays. Horses for courses as we say Edited October 6, 2022 by WiteWulf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leone101 Posted September 30, 2022 Author Share #3 Posted September 30, 2022 First of all thanks WiteWulf for your professional point of view and answer. I really would like to use that pc as a Nas and media Server first of all using also plex....but flexibility is also important to implement other features..... I will be the only one to use nas features so i don't have the necessity to give family or friends simultaneous access to files. On the other way i'm now without a Nas after my old one broke recently..... I just bought that mini pc on Amazon just because big offer.....in my mind i would like to buy Sinology Nas like DS220+....but because of price i don't know if i could build something with better hardware....solid....and same or less energy costs.......(yes i think is kind of dream :))) ) I think your config is really really good and give u flexibility to do what ever u want on it....but i belive costs are much more than a Mid Class Nas Sinology. I point to mid costs and having no problems leaving it switched on 24h x day. Hope i gave u idea of my requests.....hope u can give me some more advices Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriliars3 Posted September 30, 2022 Share #4 Posted September 30, 2022 First of all thanks WiteWulf for your professional point of view and answer. I really would like to use that pc as a Nas and media Server first of all using also plex....but flexibility is also important to implement other features..... I will be the only one to use nas features so i don't have the necessity to give family or friends simultaneous access to files. On the other way i'm now without a Nas after my old one broke recently..... I just bought that mini pc on Amazon just because big offer.....in my mind i would like to buy Sinology Nas like DS220+....but because of price i don't know if i could build something with better hardware....solid....and same or less energy costs.......(yes i think is kind of dream )) ) I think your config is really really good and give u flexibility to do what ever u want on it....but i belive costs are much more than a Mid Class Nas Sinology. I point to mid costs and having no problems leaving it switched on 24h x day. Hope i gave u idea of my requests.....hope u can give me some more advices ThanksDS220+ has a Intel J4125 with 4/4 cores/threads while Intel N4000 only 2/2 cores/threads. I have Intel NUC J3455 4/4 cores/threads with 8GB/256GB ssd and Windows 11 and virtualized DS918+ with 2 cores and 2GB/50GB, but ram is over 90% use and is low, you need almost 16GB and ssd for good performance like DS Synology station. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leone101 Posted October 1, 2022 Author Share #5 Posted October 1, 2022 Thanks also to you apriliars3 for your feedback.......my last old nas failed and lost more than 6TB of datas.....i really would like to find out right balance and compromise between costs and performances.....in my mind for sure i want to have big data with hardware similar to Sinology or QNap.....i don't understand if virtual machine can adapt giving quite same performance or just decrese them like a gate.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriliars3 Posted October 1, 2022 Share #6 Posted October 1, 2022 Thanks also to you apriliars3 for your feedback.......my last old nas failed and lost more than 6TB of datas.....i really would like to find out right balance and compromise between costs and performances.....in my mind for sure i want to have big data with hardware similar to Sinology or QNap.....i don't understand if virtual machine can adapt giving quite same performance or just decrese them like a gate....I think is very important have 2 backups, almost original file in one hdd, one backup in other disk and other backup out of NAS (external hdd or cloud). Virtualized any system is more flexible, you can take backups of all VM and recovery easyly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leone101 Posted October 1, 2022 Author Share #7 Posted October 1, 2022 i'm trying to use and learn more from VMWare and Virtual Machines.... Now in this moment i really am confused about price/usage/stability between normal Brand Nas or xpenology solution....... i just understood thanks to you two that is better to send mini pc back.....and buy different one to find out the best price/performance at this moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leone101 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share #8 Posted October 3, 2022 so according to you Intel NUC is easyest and cheepest choice to built propriate MINI Xpenology NAS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriliars3 Posted October 3, 2022 Share #9 Posted October 3, 2022 so according to you Intel NUC is easyest and cheepest choice to built propriate MINI Xpenology NAS?You can use old pc with Windows and test, and then you buy other with disks. I have several NAS, Synology DS410J, HP Microserver Gen 8, Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge and Intel Nuc J3455. All options are cheap, depends on your needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leone101 Posted October 3, 2022 Author Share #10 Posted October 3, 2022 i mean if u would buy new one....what would be the best performance/cheeper solution to install on it easly at moment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriliars3 Posted October 3, 2022 Share #11 Posted October 3, 2022 i mean if u would buy new one....what would be the best performance/cheeper solution to install on it easly at moment?I think Intel NUC Jasper Lake N5105/N5095/N6005 more ram and pcie ssd Other options mini itx AsRock J5040, need case, psu,… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newuser7 Posted January 27, 2023 Share #12 Posted January 27, 2023 On 10/4/2022 at 5:19 AM, apriliars3 said: I think Intel NUC Jasper Lake N5105/N5095/N6005 more ram and pcie ssd Other options mini itx AsRock J5040, need case, psu,… May I know if you've setup synology on a Jasper Lake N5105 before? Trying to setup mine but doesn't seems to be able to access DSM after .pat install. I think it might crash or something, as the "terminal" is showing root@arpl:/opt/arpl#, which if I remember correctly, it should show Booting ...... as the last line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriliars3 Posted January 28, 2023 Share #13 Posted January 28, 2023 15 hours ago, newuser7 said: May I know if you've setup synology on a Jasper Lake N5105 before? Trying to setup mine but doesn't seems to be able to access DSM after .pat install. I think it might crash or something, as the "terminal" is showing root@arpl:/opt/arpl#, which if I remember correctly, it should show Booting ...... as the last line. I think is possible. Try use other bootloader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jak8 Posted March 15, 2023 Share #14 Posted March 15, 2023 I was reasonably successful in using a 4th series NUC with esxi but found it somewhat limited in scope. Certainly not a practical alternative to a Synology nas of which I have two, a DS412+ and an DS1817. The latter not being a + series is, in my opinion, simply in effect a marginally upgraded storage device. I am currently investigating means of creating a replacement Xpenology unit utilising a very old SilverStone nas case and an IcyDock sata enclosure but unsure what motherboard to adept for this purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.