Need Help with Choosing New NAS Setup

Hardware
1

Hi,
I’m very new to NASes, and know next to nothing about btrfs. I currently have a WD 4TB NAS (but no backup at all!). I use it to run a simple NFS server which I have set to autoload via fstab on my Ubuntu laptop. I also have an external 4TB HDD attached to a Raspberry Pi (running Raspbian) with NFS.

I’m hoping to move to a proper NAS build with local backup and cloud backup (using Crashplan). Given that I have the Raspberry Pi, I plan to run most “server” things (like a torrent daemon, SyncThing daemon, etc.) on that to make sure that the NAS box runs as smoothly as possible.

I’m thinking of purchasing 3 x 4TB WD Red HDDs (that’s all I can afford at the moment). However, I’m concerned about electricity usage (I’m based in India) and about excessive sound/heating of the NAS as well.

Given all that:

  1. Can I go for a NAS like this Terramaster (2 GB RAM) and install Rockstor on that?
  2. Will building my own NAS by buying individual components be a better option or will it be energy inefficient?
  3. Do I need to know about the various RAID configurations or does the Rockstor installation guide me through that?

I’d be very happy to provide any other details that would help you help me in making a decision about this.

~ sol

2

Hello,
The 2GB RAM would be a no go for me at least.
If you consider doing anything else than plain fileshare i would go for something with higher RAM capacity.

I see your typing things like torrent, crashplan etc. it will all consume RAM and CPU.
Perhaps HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 would be a better choice?