However, I don't think anything is worth doing unless you over do it, so I wold personally go for a 1TB. 512GB sounds like it should be enough, and you should see a performance boost even during normal usage. I would say any name brand M.2 drive will work fine for you like Samsung, Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, etc. Both perform well, although there are times I wish I had spent a few dollars more on something better than the Inland I can tell it's not a Samsung EVO at times. I also have a relatively cheap Inland Pro M.2 (512GB) that holds a couple VMs. I use a Seagate Barracuda M.2 (256GB) for my OS drive, running WIn2016 Data Center. Makes it easier to replace drive when they die. Personally, if you have the open 5.25' bays on your case I'd suggest getting a 3 or 4 bay removable hard drive rack to install. Unless you've done something really off the wall with BitLocker or some other encryption, a new WIndows install should read you're data drives with no problems.

Yes, re-installing and configuring Windows is a pain but you still have your data drives. Barring the current chip shortage, it should be trivially easy to replace your current MB/CPU and OS drive if you get a failure of some sort.

I'm already at 12x8TB and 2x12TB in one pool, and 2x2TB in another and I started with a simple HP MediaSmart Server with 4x1TB.ĭon't worry about a HW failure other than your data drives. It doesn't sound like you have a HW RAID card, so another thing you may want to look at it is something like DrivePool, DriveBender, or even MS Storage Spaces for file duplication if needed. You got decent hardware still for what you're doing, might as well make it last as long as possible and make it a little more responsive for you. If you want to continue using this PC as your network storage, I'd suggest picking up a 512GB/1TB SSD and migrating your OS to that, and re-purposing your 2TB drive as a data drive. There's really nothing inherently different about a NAS than a PC other than NAS generally being built (like mentioned already) as storage oriented, low power, and generally access remotely. As said above, you're already using your PC as a NAS/Server - you have inbound connections being responded to by media being dished out.

Best nas for home users 2016