Hey everyone. I really want to replace Google photos with some sort of self-hosted solution. However, I am getting overwhelmed.
The first thing that came up when I did a little bit of research is buying a NAS. However, I just noticed these devices are so expensive with really weak specs. Feel like I am getting ripped off. Also, I heard that it can be slow? Is that true?
Anyway, I was told it is better to just buy a Resperry pi. However, these things are expensive for the specs. Would a used Intel NUC be better? Can you use any mini pc for that?
I have seen some crazy powerful (compared to the pi) cheap used Ryzen mini PCs, can those be turned into servers?
A NAS doesn’t need to have powerful specs. Serving images is a very simple task. Any background processing jobs are just that, background.
Yeah I’m not a big fan of NAS’s. I agree they’re a bit of a ripoff, you’re paying for convenience. The only reason to go with a NAS imo is if you’re unable and unwilling to learn to use linux. Raspi4 are pretty cheap, 4gb model is like $55 iirc. If you’re paying more you’re probably getting ripped off. It’s definitely going to be lower power usage than a NUC or mini PC. But maybe you can find a cheap used one.
But since you’re only hosting photos, pretty much anything should work.
I don’t know why the Pi is so expensive where I live. It is like $200 USD equivalent.
I mean, it really depends - NAS provide multiple drive bays (though the ones worth having should have 8-20), probably with hot swap, indicators which disk is dead, built in RAID of some sort for those disks, and usually a nice webUI - some also provide the photo hosting.
I wouldn’t really try and hang a bunch of disks off a raspi unless you can put it in an area where NO ONE and NO PET but you will ever have access / see it. The chances of physical disaster is pretty high IMO.
I mean no doubt raspi is pretty far off from a NAS. But I’d always prefer to either build my own server or buy a prebought one over a NAS. There’s nothing a NAS does that I couldn’t do with my own build for less money.
isn’t the whole point of a NAS to have multiple 3.5" drives?
The point of a NAS is to have the PC built for you and the OS/software pre-configured. That’s at least what you’re paying extra for. I would always rather build the PC myself and setup the software myself; if I know I’ll need raid I’ll get a raid controller. If I know I’ll need lots of drives, I’ll get a mobo and case that accommodates that, etc.
I wasn’t just talking about rebuilt NAS, but just in general the whole point of a file server is to have a bunch of storage connected to your network. So something like a mini PC or RPi doesn’t seem like it really fills the same niche since you can’t easily connect 3.5" drives to them.
Fair point. There are external storage bays you can get, but yeah, not necessarily the use case those shine for.
The last rPi I bought was all of $40. I thought it was a bargain for the specs.
I wish I can find them for that much. They cost way more where I live
Have you looked online?
You can basically turn any PC into a server, it’s a matter of the operating system you install. You’d want some *nix I would say. Make sure the hardware is supported by OS of choice, and bam. Now you just have to install the software you want to do the serving and configure it right. This will be more complicated than just buying a NAS - part of that price is convenience. There are some prebuilt OSs that do something similar like XigmaNAS, but see if they also provide the serving you want as an option.
