First NAS

[Enquiries]

Hi,

Thanks for giving this point of contact it's greatly appreciated.

I have watch a insane number or videos on YouTube and read a bit online but I'm still feeling like I don't know where to start. I'm looking to build a home NAS to store my videos and photos that I take and edit on (hobby photographer). I would also like it to have enough power to run a Plex server and be future proof in case I want to run something like home assistant etc on it.

I think I have settled on the Jonsbo N3 case but I am open to suggestions. I would like 2.5gbe on it at least so it won't take too long sending data to and from it and even give me the ability to edit photos/videos directly off it with a drive for cache. I have built PC's in the past but a long time ago, and the build process isn't an issue for me, it's deciding on what motherboard, PSU etc to get that is the challenge.

Ideally I don't want a cheap Chinese PSU and I want something quite energy efficient and hopefully quiet.

[ed]

I totally get where you're coming from—there’s a lot to consider when building a NAS, but it sounds like you're on the right track. The Jonsbo N3 is a solid case, but if you're open to alternatives, you might want to check out something like the Fractal Design Node 304 for a more compact build or the SilverStone CS380 for more drive bays.

For the motherboard, since you're looking to run Plex and possibly Home Assistant down the line, I'd recommend looking at something with a strong CPU—maybe an AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 to give you some solid performance for multitasking. You’ll also want something that supports 2.5GbE, and for that, motherboards with integrated LAN or PCIe network cards would be perfect.

In terms of the PSU, I totally agree about avoiding the cheap ones. Something like the Seasonic Focus GX 550W or the Corsair RM550x would be great choices—both are known for being reliable, efficient, and relatively quiet.

As for storage, considering your budget, you might want to go for 4x 6TB drives to get you started with RAID 5 for redundancy. Then, you could expand over time as your needs grow. For a cache drive, a small SSD like the Crucial MX500 (500GB or 1TB) would speed up things like photo/video editing, as well as Plex metadata caching.