Ultra Budget NAS build 2018: 12TB for 300€

With the release of the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and me still looking to build a NAS (Network attached storage or home server), this ultra budget build was something I came up with:

2019 Update: Ultra Budget NAS Build 2019

Components for the Budget NAS build 2018

  • 1x Raspberry Pi 3 Modell B+ ~35€
  • 4x Cremax Icy Dock MB559UEA-1SB ~8€ each
  • 4x Intenso SATA HDD 6513113 ~60€ each
  • 1x SODIAL Raspberry Pi case ~2€
  • 1x Official Raspberry Pi 2.5A micro USB power supply ~8€
  • 1x Kingston 16 GB micro SDHC card ~3€

Geizhals wishlist

Some additional cabling may be required.

Possible options

  • You can technically omit the case, an old phone charger with enough power should suffice as the power supply. A few more cents could be saved by going for an even smaller SD card.
  • While at the time of this writing, these 3TB Intenso HDDs offer the best bang for your buck, you don’t have to get four if you don’t need 12TB. Currently picking anything less than 3TB makes little sense, unless you have to save every last bit of money: The Toshiba DT01ACA 1TB HDD for 35€ each is the best 1TB option.
  • You should expect the USB bus to be the limiting factor here in terms of performance. While the Pi only supports USB 2.0, you might want to consider getting USB 3.0 cases instead, so you can load the initial data directly from your PC faster. The LogiLink UA0107 costs about 15€ and should be faster than the Icy Dock.

Definitely pick the new Pi 3B+. Because its Ethernet connection doesn’t use USB anymore, it should be much faster than previous models for this application.

Since these HDDs are not meant for NAS operation, you should probably set up a RAID 5 or 1 just to be safe.

For software you could go with just Raspbian or the more specialized OpenMediaVault.

Update: I only noticed just now, but it seems I’m one day late for World Backup Day. Shoot.


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