Maybe I'm out of the loop but I've never heard of "Topton". As this brand is being mentioned 16 times in this one blog post I'm just assuming that's a sponsored blog post and not an objective overview.
DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
131–140 of 315 posts
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#132HDD have to be bought new, as well as anything mechanical (eg fans). But for motherboards, CPU, RAM and SSD, there is great value in buying used enterprise hardware on ebay. It is generally durable hardware that spent a quiet life in a temperature controlled datacentre, server motherboards from 5 years ago are absolute aircraft carriers in term of PCIe lanes and functionalities. Used enterprise SSDs are probably more…
75W idle is 650kWh a year, that's quite significant in the context of a home.
Well, a Synology NAS would probably consume like 30-40w, so we are talking about an excess of $70-100 a year where I live. Depends on one's budget of course, but not really a big deal for me. And certainly less than what I am saving on the upfront cost.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#133No ECC, no remote KVM. HP Microserver remains the only viable option.
for thousands of dollars, plus what if you don't want remote-in?
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#134I used to have big HDDs attached to my Thunderbolt dock. But it was always annoying having to 'eject' them before unplugging the laptop from the dock. Or sometimes overnight they would disconnect themselves and fill up my screen with dozens of "you forgot to eject" notifications. Yes I'm on macOS. Do NAS avoid this issue? Or you still have to mount/unmount? Why does there seem to be much more market for NAS than for…
A NAS will use a network file protocol (SMB/NFS/AFP/SFTP etc) to access data rather than direct disk access, so the types of failures are different. Generally you don't really have to "eject" but disconnecting during a large transfer can cause incomplete writes.
The main risk with directly attached storage is that most kernels will do "buffered writes" where the data is written to memory before it's committed to disk. Yanking the drive before writes are synced properly will obviously cause data loss, so ejecting is always a good idea.
Generally, NAS is a bit safer for this type of storage because the protocols are built with the assumption that the network can and will be interrupted. As a result, things are a bit slower since you're dealing with network overhead. So, like everything, there are some trade-offs to be made.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#135No ECC, no remote KVM. HP Microserver remains the only viable option.
Built in KVM is not that important any longer, with all the new options for adding an external one. gl-inet comet kvm, nanokvm pro, jetkvm, etc.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#136Q - assuming the NAS was strictly used as NAS and not as a server with VMs, is there a point in having a large amount of RAM? (large as in >8GB) I'm not sure what the benefit would be since all it's doing is moving information from the drives over to the network.
People get carried away with their home lab setups. There's a distinct type of person that thinks they need 100tb of storage in their own house.
If you're running a NAS for a company that has many users and multi disc access at the same time, sure. But then you're probably then not buying hdds to shuck and cheap components off ebay.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#137[dead]
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#138Maybe I'm out of the loop but I've never heard of "Topton". As this brand is being mentioned 16 times in this one blog post I'm just assuming that's a sponsored blog post and not an objective overview.
Every time I've looked into doing a DIY NAS in the last few years Topton seems to come up - as far as I can tell it's because they make MiniITX boards with a boatload of SATA ports.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
MB and other elements are more concerning than the drives.
For system failure, yes, but not if data retention and recovery is your primary concern. When building a device primarily used for storing personal things, I'd much prefer to save money on the motherboard and risk that failing than skimping on the drives themselves
Don't skimp on the power supply either. A dodgy PSU can torch all devices attached to it.
How do I know? I've had two drives and one MB fail in quick succession thanks to a silently failing power supply.
Re: DIY NAS: 2026 Edition
#140What makes a motherboard a NAS motherboard, precisely? I've got a decent Mini-ITX sitting around and I've been contemplating setting up/getting a NAS. Would be nice if I could re-use what I already have and save some money.