BUILDING MY FIRST NAS

[Naquada]

Hi,

I am about to build myself a new PC.  I had been intending to buy some large HDD's so that I could run a media server from it, but having gone down a rabbit hole of Youtube video's which lead me to the excellent NAS Compares channel, I am now thinking maybe I should use my old PC to set up a separate media server using TrueNAS. 

The PC I am using right now is pretty old, just shy of 10 years, and I know I would need to get some more RAM, but is the rest of the PC good enough?  Initially I intend to get three 8tb Ironwolf Drives and setting up RAIDZ1.  I'll likely add another 8TB later in the year, then perhaps a second pool of 4 drives down the road when I need more space. Although at that point, I will probably be upgrading to a proper NAS Case with new hardware.

The specs for my old PC are...

Motherboard  Asus F2A85-M PRO A85X

CPU              AMD APU A8 6600K 4.2GHz Socket FM2 4MB

RAM              8GB 1866MHz DDR3 CL10

Boot Drive      Kingston 240GB SSD

So can I get away with just replacing the RAM?  is 240gb enough for TrueNAS?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[ed]

It’s great that you’re thinking of repurposing your old PC for a NAS setup with TrueNAS! Based on your current specs and planned upgrades, here’s a breakdown of what you might want to consider:

Current Specs Analysis:
Motherboard (Asus F2A85-M PRO A85X): This is an older motherboard, but it should work fine with TrueNAS as long as it has enough SATA ports for your drives. Keep in mind that older motherboards may not have support for newer SATA standards (like SATA 3), but for media storage, this shouldn’t be a huge issue.
CPU (AMD A8 6600K 4.2GHz): This CPU is a bit on the older side, and while it will work for running TrueNAS, it’s not the best for heavy transcoding or more demanding tasks. However, for a simple media server with file storage, RAIDZ1, and a few users, it should be fine. If you plan on doing a lot of transcoding, you might want to upgrade the CPU at some point, but for now, it should handle your needs.
RAM (8GB DDR3): TrueNAS recommends a minimum of 8GB of RAM, but if you plan to use ZFS (which is likely with RAIDZ1), more RAM is generally better, especially as you add more drives. TrueNAS can be memory-hungry, and ZFS uses more memory as your storage pool grows. It’s ideal to upgrade to 16GB or 32GB of RAM if possible to ensure better performance as you scale up.
Boot Drive (Kingston 240GB SSD): A 240GB SSD should be more than enough for the TrueNAS boot drive. TrueNAS uses a relatively small amount of space on the boot drive (around 8-16GB), so you’re well within safe limits here. Just make sure the SSD is reliable and has good endurance since it will be running the system’s OS.
What to Upgrade:
RAM: Upgrading to at least 16GB of DDR3 RAM would be a good idea, especially if you’re planning to run ZFS. As you add more drives and pools, more RAM will help with caching and performance.
Storage Drives: The three 8TB Ironwolf drives are a great choice for your media server, and RAIDZ1 is a solid setup for redundancy. You can always add more drives later, as you mentioned. Just ensure your motherboard has enough SATA ports for the drives, or you may need to add a dedicated RAID controller card if needed.
Things to Consider:
Hardware Limitations: Since your motherboard and CPU are relatively old, keep in mind that they might not handle transcoding well (if you plan to stream media to devices). If you only need basic file storage and sharing, this setup should be good for now. However, if you’re looking for high-quality transcoding, you might want to consider upgrading to a more modern CPU with better multi-core performance, such as an Intel Core i5 or Ryzen 5.
TrueNAS Performance: TrueNAS (especially with ZFS) can be quite demanding on resources. The more RAM you have, the better the overall performance. But for your current plan of three 8TB drives and adding more later, your setup should work well as long as you upgrade the RAM.
Final Thoughts:
Yes, you can get away with just replacing the RAM for now. Make sure to upgrade to at least 16GB (ideally 32GB for future-proofing). Your boot drive of 240GB is sufficient for TrueNAS, and the three 8TB drives are a great starting point.
If you’re planning to scale up the NAS later with more drives or need to run multiple services, consider upgrading to a better CPU and motherboard at that point.