A while back, I attempted to move my main computer over from Windows to a Windows/Linux Dual Boot setup. It didn’t work out. Now it’s time to try a different approach.

There are several reasons for this, but ultimately one of the bigger ones is that I found that having a Linux desktop wear the same number of hats at once as my Windows desktop didn’t quite work out according to plan. The conclusion I took from that is that what I really need to do is to transition to a couple of bespoke Linux computers. One would be a NAS to handle all the media server duties my computer does (and generally do them better), and then a consolized gaming PC to handle, well, all the games that work on Linux.

For the consolized one, I put together specs for that, and looking at the current price of RAM, I came to the realization that this device might need to wait. So, I moved to the NAS. From there, doing some digging, I learned a couple things.

The first is that the off-the-shelf NAS devices from Synology and other companies, while easy to set up, do have the very distinct problem of having proprietary operating systems where updates for those devices can reach end-of-life support within 10 years, meaning you’d have to buy a new server to get OS updates (including security updates). Considering these devices are designed by their nature to be hooked up to the network, I didn’t like the sound of that.

What I came across as an alternative is rolling your own NAS from a pre-built PC and using an open-source OS install – either getting a computer from a local reseller or recycler (like, in my case, Free Geek), or off of Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. I’ll be doing this, with a computer I’m purchasing off of Facebook Marketplace later today. For the operating system, I’ll be using OpenMediaVault. This should let me run the appropriate Docker Containers for the various software I’ll be using to serve media (Kavita for comics and magazines, Plex or Jellyfin for video media, etc.)

I haven’t quite selected the HDD’s yet, mainly because I need to take a good long look at the case and power supply, to see if I’m going to need to upgrade the power supply for the additional SATA power hookups (I know the system board has the ports available), before buying drives. Once I know how much physical space is available, I can figure out what drive configuration I’ll be using and purchase the hard drives.

Once this is up and running, the next step will be accumulating the parts for the Consolized gaming PC, which I’ll start putting together later in the year.

Wish me luck!

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