Overwhelmed by options for first TrueNAS server for photos, would like some assistance in selection of parts

TrueNAS General
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Hi all, I would like to have a home server primarily for photo backups at this time. Between my personal photos from my camera, various iPhone screenshots, and a photo-scanning project (slides and family history photos), I have a lot of pictures. I want to back them up and organize them. Currently, I use Apple Photos and Lightroom. The goal is to keep this year’s photos on my personal computer (Windows PC) and the rest on the NAS/server.

Hardware- and software-wise, my thoughts are as follows: I would definitely like ZFS, as it provides error correction and data protection against corruption. Total storage needs right now are 20TB-30TB. At some point, once I move out of my parents’, I’d like to build a media server, but it can be either entirely separate or something to consider in a year or more. I’m comfortable creating my own machine (used to build computers at a previous job).

I currently have a smattering of HDs, but I don’t know whether they would be helpful. I could always use them in a DAS for Backups. They are as follows:

M.2 -1TB

HD’s- 3TB, 2TB, 4TB, 500GB, and 2x18TB

Power consumption is essential, and if needed, I set it up to boot in the evening, run its backup, do its thing, and then turn off. If this doesn’t make sense, I’d like it to idle under 80 watts if possible. 6-8 disks in Raid Z2.

For software outside of TrueNAS, Iminich for photos.

Overwhelmed by motherboard and CPU options. Likely building in a Jonsbro N6 case. I would appreciate any suggestions.

If I’m misguided, let me know. I know not all of this might be possible, but at the very least, I’m getting out my thoughts and needs. Would like to spend under $2k on the machine itself, excluding drives.

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If I may, I’d like to suggest you don’t need a NAS at all. You can certainly set a machine to boot and shut down after backups but ask yourself why. That’s a huge equipment investment to not use 23 hours of the day. You would be better off having multiple rotating copies of your library on external USB hard drives. Alternatively you could create a photo server with instant backup of all your devices using immich running on TrueNAS which would be on 24/7. Is that more desirable?

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you can certainly spend more but i think that’s more than enough for a file / storage server.

i don’t have nearly as many photos but for organizational purposes i’m using lightroom + a local drive that’s backed up to a NAS server (fnOS). for viewing / sharing on the TVs, I use photoalbumb, native to fnOS and i’m sure you can use others as well.

all of that (plus more) running on a dell workstation (T3610) I got for $20 - if I wanted, I could have run it on a SC440 (2C/2T + 4GB) that I have for free.

NAS has to be one of the least demanding software that can pretty much run on any hardware. It beats me whenever i hear people talking about the need for some super-duper specs for their home servers. I thought they were running server farms for some global corporations :slight_smile:

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You can buy a complete HPE Microserver under this price, and it has all the server-y goodness you should want for a server–remote management, ECC RAM support, etc. Pretty energy-efficient, compact, etc. Add a small m.2 as a boot device, and four spinners for data. It does only have four drive bays, so make them high-capacity spinners.

Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the UGREEN 6800 NAS for 6 bays, or you could pick the 8800 if you want 8. Again, m.2 boot device, and both of those have two more m.2 sockets for a SSD pool if desired.

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@usergiven I think a NAS would be the right choice for me, as I could leave it on without worrying about powering on my computer regularly and leaving my computer desktop (gaming with a GPU) to upload files. I think I’d still use an external drive or two for backups.

@qili Glad to hear my price thoughts are more than enough for a file/storage server. So does Lightroom also have images referenced/stored on the NAS? I looked into fnOS, and given that I don’t speak/read Chinese, I think I’m going to pass. It seems like a nice interface, however. Looked into the Dell workstations, would prefer 6 or 8 drive bays.

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@dan Good idea on the HPE Microserver. Would like one with 6-8 drive bays. Would consider it for a backup machine. The UGreen machines are enticing; the only downside is no ECC support.

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my workflow is such that my files are all stored locally. essentially my NAS server backs up my local files and my backup server backs up my NAS server - redundancy after redundancy.

In theory i can access the NAS servers as “networked drives’ but it just happens that that is not how i have organized them.