Okay, so, I decided to build my own NAS this year, a little project I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s 2024, and I thought, why not? Let’s dive into this thing. I’ve got some old computer parts lying around, and it felt like a waste to just let them sit there collecting dust.
First things first, I needed to figure out what I was going to use for the brains of this operation. I had an old motherboard and CPU, which were still pretty decent. Then came the memory. Now, I didn’t want to go too crazy, but I also wanted something that wouldn’t crap out on me. After looking around, I grabbed a 32GB DDR5 5200MHz SO-DIMM from Crucial. Yeah, I know there are bigger ones out there, like 48GB, but 32GB seemed like it would be more than enough for a homemade NAS. Plus, these DDR5 sticks are only going to get bigger, so maybe down the line, I’ll swap it out for a 64GB one.
The biggest win with building your own NAS is that you get to use old hardware, right? I mean, that’s the whole point! You buy those pre-built NAS things, and sure, you get a bunch of drive bays and extra network ports, but where’s the fun in that? This way, I get to tinker and save some cash.
- Motherboard and CPU: Reused from old PC
- RAM: Crucial 32GB DDR5 5200MHz SO-DIMM
- Storage: A couple of old hard drives I had lying around
I did some digging online about the best way to set this thing up. If you ever search for the “DIY NAS” topic on the web, you will know that TrueNAS is like the go-to software for this kind of project. Seemed easy enough, and a lot of people seemed to like it, so I went with that. The idea here was to have a central storage spot that didn’t rely on just one computer. You know, so all my stuff is in one place and I can get to it from any of my devices.
I got TrueNAS installed, which was surprisingly straightforward. No major headaches there, thankfully. Then it was just a matter of configuring it to see my hard drives and setting up the network shares. I’m not going to lie, there was a bit of trial and error, but that’s part of the fun, right?
After a few hours of messing around, I finally got it all working. Now I’ve got my own little homemade NAS up and running, storing all my important files. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works, and that’s what matters. Plus, I learned a ton in the process. It’s a pretty sweet feeling, knowing you built something yourself.
So, yeah, that’s my 2024 DIY NAS adventure. If you’ve got some old computer parts lying around and you’re thinking about doing something similar, I’d say go for it. It’s a fun project, and you end up with something really useful at the end of it. And hey, if I can do it, you can too.