u/Cold_Win4586

After reading a bunch of comments and watching way too many videos, I've pretty much decided to build my own NAS instead of buying a pre-built one.

The main things I'll be using it for are storing family photos, backing up files, and streaming movies and TV shows around the house. Nothing enterprise-level or anything like that.

One thing I'm still not sure about is the software. I keep seeing people recommend TrueNAS, Unraid, OpenMediaVault, CasaOS, and a few others, and it's honestly a bit overwhelming.

If you were starting from scratch today, which OS would you choose and why? Also, are there any beginner mistakes or "I wish someone had told me this earlier" tips that I should know before I start buying parts?

I'd rather do things right the first time than end up rebuilding everything a few months later.

I've been going back and forth on this for a while and can't decide which route makes more sense.

This will mostly be for home use. I want somewhere to keep family photos, back up files from our computers, and store movies and TV shows so we can watch them around the house. Nothing too crazy, just something reliable that I won't have to worry about all the time.

At first I thought building my own NAS would be more fun and give me more flexibility, but then I started wondering if I'm just making things harder than they need to be. A pre-built NAS seems a lot simpler, but I'm not sure if I'd regret spending the extra money later.

For those of you who've already been down this road, would you still make the same choice? If you mainly use your NAS for family storage and media, would you build one again or just buy something like a Synology?

Curious to hear what you'd do if you were starting from scratch today.