Ive built PC’s over the years that I have used for general use, gaming, streaming and storage. Thinking I am ready to build a NAS. I have several Nvidia Shield Pro’s that I currently use for my current IPTV streaming and Kodi for movies and shows. The shields work pretty well but I do find that buffering and stuttering, particularly on the IPTV is annoying. I have fiber optic (1 gig up/down)with VPN. The buffering and stuttering does not happen on my laptop running windows 11, i7 processor, 16gig ram and 1070 gpu.
I was thinking building a NAS with an i7 cpu, 32 gigs ram and 4 storage bays would be a good. I would like the motherboard to have an hdmi out that i could use directly to the tv for plex, Kodi and IPTV.
Any thoughts on what motherboard? Can I use a motherboard with say 2 SATA ports and use a PCI to add more ports? Will that setup bottleneck the system?
I suspect many will say this is overkill. Transcoding does not require all that horsepower but better safe then sorry. I am most concerned about the IPTV.
Any help will be appreciated.
Do you use the laptop as your server or one of the Nvidia Shields?
What are you using for storage now?
Are you comfortable using Linux?
Presently using 1 of the shields and the laptop as Plex server. On the Shield I have a 1Tb Samsung SSD and on my laptop I have a 1Tb MVME attached through a Thunderbolt port. The plex servers are for my movies and some TV shows. New set up would allow me to expand my collection and hopefully improve the IPTV experience. I am thinking of going Unraid for server OS.
Honestly if your laptop is getting the job done, I would consider just getting an off the shelf 4 bay NAS and only use it as a storage device
If you need more than 4 drives, that’s where building your own makes more sense
A larger NAS is a lot more expensive and has the same problem of being underpowered
Do you already have any parts you want to use for a NAS build?
No parts to use. I dont want off the shelf NAS because I dont think they have the power. The ones that have the i5/i7 are at a price point where it makes more sense to DIY. Also, there is the flexibility of building a server with lots of ram and as/if necessary adding a GPU. As mentioned I anticipate connecting the nas directly to the main TV through HDMI. I will have TVMATE app on the nas which allows me to stream my IPTV services, Currently, I do that through my laptop as i have found that the shield pro for whatever reason bogs down and i get buffering and stuttering. That would be unacceptable in going forward. I think the problem with the shield with IPTV is the lack of ram and cpu.
It’s generally recommended that you use ECC ram in a NAS. This limits your choices in what motherboard/CPU you can use
The newer intel chips support ECC memory but finding a motherboard for that chip with the right socket can be a little harder (and pricy)
I prefer to stick with intel myself but if you know you’re going to use a GPU you might want to consider a Ryzen chip. It’s easier and cheaper to get a consumer grade motherboard that supports ECC. It could be a significant cost savings
In addition to the sata expansion card make sure you have enough PCI-E slots if you do want to add a GPU or a 10gb PCI-E NIC eventually. Some dual lane GPU’s can cover one of those unused slots
Consider how many SSD’s or NVMe slots you want for metadata or cache drives ect…
The motherboard or GPU will have an HDMI and displayport. If you’re also using this as an HTPC for Plex or Kodi make sure you get the right HDMI output for your TV. HDMI 2.0 vs 2.1.
Something to consider is AV1. You probably don’t care about it now but if you have this thing for a long time, you probably will
If you’re going to go through the effort to do this, I suggest you get a case that holds more than 4 drives
On the smaller size I’m personally thinking about the Fractal Design Node 804 (8-10 drives max)
I know you don’t need anywhere near that kind of storage right now but the cost of the case is not significantly more expensive than something you have to cram everything into
You just have more overall options as far as motherboard size, fans, gpu ect…
One thing almost everybody underestimates is the amount of storage they will need (or want)
There’s a lot to consider and I’m sure I’m sure I don’t even know half of what I need to. I keep looking into parts I want to use only to find out they won’t work
Or an even worse problem
How do hide my Amazon account and credit card bill from my girlfriend
May I make a suggestion.
Get a nas, prebuilt. There are a few nice ones out there.
Consider the cost.
MB 199.00 Cpu 250.00 hd’s 150.00 ram 100.00 total 700.00 psu case
Pre-built nas 400.00 (add hd’s and it works out of box ) plus hd’s 150.00, 550.00 ram 32gig 50.00 plug and play sets up in minutes.
Qnas Tnas a few to choose from
Its not so much the cost factor. I want a system that functions as a HTPC/NAS/PlexServer/IPTV/PC/LightGaming. A large amount of the time is using IPTV. IPTV is hit or miss with often some buffering. I notice more buffering on the shields then I do on a laptop. Usually, when I reboot the shield it works better (less buffering). So my guess is that its a cache, memory, maybe CPU thing. That being said is why I want to take no chances with a off the shelf NAS with Celeron processors. I think its got to be a i5 or i7 CPU. Once you’re up in that range it appears that a DIY is less expensive and will offer more with the added benefit of upgradability down the road. I’d like to consider a 12th or 13th gen CPU and mother board with 6 SATA ports on board. The MSI’s maybe a good choice. The other question would be power consumtion. Either the lower power 65 watt or the regular not sure of the benefits for each other than the energy cost, possible noise factor on the regular CPU’s and cooling. Lots to consider. Any further help appreciated.
