I’m looking to offload all my media from my main PC and make it accessible to other devices in my house. It’s likely to only be a few TB, probably 2 drives at most.
I’ve been trying to find a low-power solution since it will be running all the time. I do have a PoE switch, so it would be a bonus if it can run off PoE but not a requirement. I’ve been checking out a lot of the SBC’s that have become popular over the past couple years, but even the budget ones have gotten pretty expensive.
What are some good options?
Currently running as my backup NAS is the ODROID-HC4. It’s running Open Media Vault on Armbian. https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc4/
That looks pretty decent. I don’t like the toaster form factor, but I’m sure I can just use SATA extensions and 3d print a good case for it.
OMV can run NFS, right?
Yup. Including smb and ftp
I’m also watching this as I’m in the same boat. I can’t help I’m afraid but I imagine people might ask if you want to ever transcode to the other devices.
I probably won’t need to transcode anything, I just want it to serve files as they are.
How much do you want to spend?
If you go for a Raspberry Pi have a look at Terrapi cases as well the obvious Argon ones.
Another option would be a Zimbaboard. It is more expensive but it has dual SATA connector (you need to buy a Y cable with the Zimbaboard) and there are 3D print designs to create a single unit, e.g. https://www.printables.com/model/224057-zimaboard-dual-hdd-stand.
I’m not sure about PoE and a NAS. Will a PoE HAT or similar provide enough power for the board and the drives?
I use a NanoPi M4 V2, which has a SATA hat accessory. It will support 4 HDDs and even power them if they are all 2.5" drives, or you can do what I did and use 4x 3.5" drives in a simple cheap cage and a separate 12V 8A power supply on the side to power the lot. No problems streaming 4K x265 content using Plex (with a compatible Plex Media Client)