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!).
https://www.freedombox.org/apps/
Whatever you end up doing immediately after you finish setting it up, throw some files on it you don’t care about and practice breaking and reassembling your RAID a few times before you put anything important on it. You want to understand the basic process before things fail.
Ooh this is a nice list of apps! I like doing things the hard way so I’ll probably skip the Freedombox part but these app ideas have got me thinking…