quick note first:
didnt know people here really dont like “too clean / AI looking” posts and call it slop right away. wasnt my intention, im new here and just wanted to share my setup. so this is basically just my notes in a more raw form.
so yeah, i built my own NAS over the last few weeks.
not really to save money, just because i enjoy building stuff and didnt want to buy a prebuilt system.
main trigger was streaming. had netflix, prime, disney etc. but it started to annoy me. you pay every month, dont own anything, stuff disappears and quality is often not great.
so i wanted my own setup.
goal was simple:
small box, low power (electricity here is expensive), runs 24/7, handles media + files + backups and i can access it from anywhere.
hardware is pretty basic:
jonsbo n2 case (small cube)
n5105 board (for igpu / transcoding)
16gb ram
3x16tb exos (used, louder but cheap)
250gb nvme for system
extra sata card (board only has 2 ports)
paid around ~17€/tb for the drives which was the main reason i went with exos.
temps are fine:
cpu around 65°C max
drives around 40-43°C
noise mostly comes from the hdds, fans are quiet.
total cost is around ~1.4k for 48tb which im ok with.
software:
omv as base
snapraid + mergerfs (no traditional raid on purpose)
jellyfin (main reason for the whole thing)
immich for photos
syncthing instead of cloud storage
yeah i know snapraid is not a real backup, offsite is missing for now.
power usage was important for me so i actually measured it with a shelly plug and wrote a small app for it.
current numbers:
idle ~17-18w
average ~24w
load ~40w
real usage is about ~0.5 kwh per day → around 4-5€ per month here.
that was actually better than i expected.
remote access:
everything is reachable via domain + reverse proxy
no vpn right now, maybe later
files:
smb for local access
everything else via syncthing
iphone:
photos auto backup to immich
files synced
basically replaced google drive for me.
media part (without going into sourcing):
the annoying part isnt getting media, its everything after that.
spent way too much time on:
codecs
audio formats
subtitles
naming / folder structure
overall workflow
i ended up building a small workflow that works for me:
important movies → high quality source + manual encode (x265)
everything else → efficient hevc versions
to make this usable long-term i built 2 small tools:
one tool:
takes messy folders, detects movies/series, renames everything correctly and moves files into the right structure for jellyfin
second tool:
converts subtitles to srt and audio to ac3 so i dont have to deal with transcoding or weird compatibility issues later
now i can basically drop a full season or movie folder in and let it run overnight and everything ends up clean and ready in jellyfin
this probably saved me the most time overall
biggest issue:
omv/debian install was a mess at first. tried different installs, thought i messed something up, turned out to be a cpu/driver issue.
after updating → everything worked instantly.
also smb on iphone was just annoying, switched to syncthing and its way better.
end result:
own media library
better quality than streaming
no cloud needed
low running cost
and yeah im probably way too proud of that small box.
curious what others are running:
power usage?
similar builds?
anyone using n100 instead of n5105?
feel free to point out if i did something stupid, always open to improve.
