I need a cheap and portable solution for a secondary/backup NAS on which I can install truenas.
I have a couple (3) HDDs sitting around that would provide sufficient backup storage for my current truenas install. I would like to put them to use to create a backup to avoid paying for a backup service - backblaze would be at least 30$ a month for me. I already have a storage service that I duplicate the absolutely un-losable stuff to - e.g., photos, music, documents.
I don’t think I need much horsepower for this purpose. It would just be a data duplication target. I would also like for it to be portable - e.g., so that I could move it back and forth between different locations. This would allow me to bring it home for big backups, and then keep it at a relative/friends house so that it wouldn’t be in the same location - I would probably set it up for scheduled replication tasks when the data is all sorted.
Does anyone have any suggestions in this regard. I was thinking that a used NAS with 4 or 5 bays would be a good option, but I can’t find a list or other resource to see which NAS can support truenas.
The other option might be a PC of some sort but not sure what that would look like.
That would look like any PC that you’d consider small enough to be “portable”, but which could still hold your three HDDs.
Without “portable”, any old PC you might have with at least 3 SATA ports would do.
The basic requirements would be a x86 CPU (not ARM) and at least 8 GB RAM, preferably 16 GB.
Honestly, this was my first PC build, so I wanted a cheap project. Building your own NAS is still way more cost effective than buying one, even if you go for a bigger case with more processing power.
Currently I am thinking about a simple intel integrated graphics system. Trying to learn about powertop autotune to see if that is approprate with truenas. I want to see what I can get the current system down to idle is about 60watts currently.
Once I get power down to a minimum I might know better where it is best to put resources (e.g., switch to intel-based system, switch to SSDs) if at all. Do I replace with a new modern build and demote to backup duty or get a cheap used dell or something just for backup.
