I have an old Alienware r8 and several 2-4 TB HDDs gathering dust in a closet. The Alienware actually runs remarkably quiet and it occurred to me I could turn it into a DIY NAS.

I’m not entirely sure where to start though. Some immediate questions:

  • What’s a good NAS OS to install?
  • Any fun things I can do besides plex transcoding with a 1080 GPU?
  • Would it make sense to run a Pixelfed/Mastodon server off this guy?
  • Can I run a RAID on it without buying a separate HDD bay?

Background:

I already have a Synology NAS running Plex. It transcodes 1080p fine which is really all I need it for.

Other than a Plex port forward, I have zero experience putting services out on the public web (but would like to learn!).

  • TacoEvent@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
    2·
    22 hours ago

    I see the appeal with unRAID! My drives are pretty straight forward though I pretty much only plan to use the 2 4TB drives. Will probably skip the RAID for now (it’s not going to store anything SUPER important) and just use it as a hobby test server.

    Ollama of course! Looks like the 1080s should be able to handle most 7B models. Exciting! Thanks for the help and suggestions!