$800 TrueNAS Build Competition

Have you ever thought about building your own NAS with an arbitrary budget? And then did you think to yourself, I could surely outbuild two other chumps? Well if so, you’re at the right place. In this video, the StorageReview team will walk you through two unique DIY builds and compare them to a prebuilt HPE MicroServer Gen10 Plus! Our latest StorageReview project is centered around TrueNAS, specifically, building our own TrueNAS devices with a budget under $800. The ideal NAS will have speed, style, and, of course, great storage. Join us as we walk you through our parts list, some of the setup, and the thought process behind each of the three builds.

$800 TrueNAS Build – The Entrants

At a budget of less than $800 across the board (excluding storage), let’s see which build ranks at the top! To start, Brian will introduce you to the competition, unbox his products, and walk you through the thought process behind picking them out. From the enclosure to the motherboard, to trash-talking Kevin, this section has it all.

Up next, Kevin shares the details on his MicroServer Gen 10 Plus. To quote Kevin on why he went this route instead of DIY, “While Brian and the intern have gone a more creative approach, I took the approach that works.” (Interesting style of smack-talk, Kevin). Coming in under budget initially (~$600), Kevin decided to get some extra goodies to spice up the NAS, including a 100GbE card.

Lastly in the build sharing portion, Intern Ben shows us his parts and walks us through a quick setup process resulting in… an RGB NAS?? Arguably, it does look a bit more like a gaming PC than a NAS build, but hey, it runs TrueNAS in the end, so we won’t discriminate in this realm of the storage world.

To wrap up the video, Brian and Kevin discuss each build’s strengths and weaknesses. Overall, for less than $800, each build appears to have come out very solid with some of the latest generation compatibility. In the end, whether you’re looking for a prebuilt NAS, or go the DIY route, all three TrueNAS builds offer some very interesting routes and modification possibilities.

$800 TrueNAS Build – What’s Next?

As we move into the final stage of this TrueNAS Build competition we wait on our individually selected drives from WD, who is supporting this effort. Some of us have gone for all-flash, others have gone for a mix of flash and hard drive. Once we have the storage in hand Kevin will be performing the benchmarks across each build.

Obvious metrics will include the highest performance, although we will drill down into comparing usability, serviceability, capacity, and general sanity of the build as completed. The big surprise? Once given the results, our audience will be able to vote on their favorite NAS to pick the winner! We’ll also have a very sweet giveaway, so stay tuned.

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