Need advice for building a (semi) budget NAS for video archive – need simple & reliable solution
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Hey everyone, I’ve been putting this project off for way too long, but I’ve finally reached the point where I really need to do something...
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The original was posted on /r/homelab by /u/TheJorianGamer on 2026-03-28 16:21:28+00:00.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been putting this project off for way too long, but I’ve finally reached the point where I really need to do something about it. I’m a videographer and over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of footage. My current 8TB external drive is completely full, so I basically can’t continue working like this anymore.

I want to build a NAS that I can power on when needed for long-term storage and archiving. I still have an old PC that I’d like to reuse for this. The specs are:

  • Intel i5-3330
  • 6GB RAM (can upgrade if needed)
  • 250GB SSD (for OS/boot)

Based on my estimates, I’ll need around 16–24TB of storage. I definitely want some form of RAID/redundancy so I at least have a local backup. I’m also thinking about adding an offsite backup later (like Backblaze). Budget is a bit uncertain, so I’m mainly looking for a relatively affordable long-term solution. Buying drives or some hardware upgrades is fine, but I’d prefer to avoid high ongoing costs.

Software-wise, I’m honestly a bit lost. I’m mainly looking for something that:

  • Is stable and reliable
  • Has a good GUI
  • Is easy to manage without relying too much on CLI

I’m fairly technical, but when it comes to my data I’d rather not risk breaking things via command line. I’ve had setups fail on me before, so I just want something that works.

I’ve been looking at things like TrueNAS, Unraid and HexOS, but I’m not sure what would fit best. A friend of mine just runs a regular Windows PC with multiple drives shared over the network, which honestly seems pretty simple and appealing. But I’m looking for something a bit more robust and safer than that.

I’m also wondering:

  • Is there something that can handle reliable RAID and possibly run Backblaze?
  • Is Windows (Storage Spaces / network shares) actually a decent option for this, or not recommended?
  • Is my current hardware still good enough, or would I run into limitations?

Also, if you think I’d be better off just buying newer hardware (or even a prebuilt NAS), I’m open to that as well. I’m honestly just done postponing this project, I’ve literally run out of storage at this point 😅. Any advice would be hugely appreciated! Thanks!