After setting up my first home server using an old gaming PC earlier this year, I eventually realized that this machine wasn’t ideal for my needs. Its mid-tower case occupied too much space and only had room for two 3.5-inch hard drives. I wanted a more compact setup that would allow me to add more storage in the future.
In my last post, I identified the case I chose for my new NAS build. In this post, I’ll go over the other components I chose for it and the challenges I encountered while putting everything together. I’ll also share how I’m using this new NAS and its power efficiency compared to my old server.
Contents#
Parts Selection#
| Component | Product | Price |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | 2x Kingston KSM26ES8/8HD (8 GB each) | $208.98 |
| Motherboard | ASRock B550M Pro4 | $87.99 |
| CPU | Ryzen 5 PRO 5650GE | $137.50 |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 | $49.95 |
| Case | Sagittarius 8 Bay NAS Case | $210.37 |
| Storage (HDD) | 2x Western Digital Red Plus 8 TB 3.5″ | $343.98 |
| Case Fan | 2x Arctic P12 PWM PST | $21.76 |
| Case Fan | Noctua AF 120mm | — |
| PSU | SeaSonic PRIME Gold 650 W 80+ Gold | — |
| Storage (SSD) | Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB 2.5″ | — |
| Storage (NVMe) | Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 | — |
| Operating System | TrueNAS Community Edition | Free |
I purchased the hard drives in December 2025 and other new components around April 2026. A few components, including the PSU and both SSDs, were reused from my previous build.
A few notes on my choices:
- Motherboard: I wanted ECC support and at least two PCIe slots so I could add an HBA and 10GbE networking in the future. I also chose a DDR4-based motherboard since DDR5 memory is significantly more expensive in today’s market.
- RAM: I started with 16 GB of ECC memory to have some headroom over TrueNAS’s minimum recommendation of 8 GB.
- CPU: The Ryzen 5 PRO 5650GE supports ECC memory and has integrated graphics, so a dedicated GPU isn’t necessary. One thing to note is that some Ryzen PRO CPUs are locked to their original manufacturer’s motherboards. CPUs pulled from Lenovo systems are one such example. On eBay, I bought a CPU pulled from an HP system after finding evidence that HP didn’t lock its own chips. Fortunately, it worked on my ASRock motherboard.
- Case: I chose the Sagittarius as it offers eight drive bays and ATX PSU support all in a compact 20-liter footprint. I wrote more about the case in my review here.
- CPU Cooler: The case allows only 55 mm of clearance with an ATX PSU, so I needed the low-profile Noctua NH-L9a-AM4.
- Operating System: I’ve stayed with TrueNAS Community Edition since it has been reliable and doesn’t require a paid license.
Building my NAS#
First, I have to admit that the case was difficult to build in given how compact it is. Also, many of the screws included with the case were mixed together in one plastic bag. I spent the first several minutes sorting them.
I first started installing the cables for the drive bays and the fans behind them. This involved connecting the SATA cables and some MOLEX connectors. The cable provided with my PSU only supports up to 3 MOLEX ports, so that means I’ll only be able to power 6 of the drive bays, which is fine for now.
From there, I switched over to the motherboard chamber. I found it tricky to slowly place the motherboard on the screw mounts since they’re not easy to see from above.
In such a tight space, I found it difficult to connect the SATA cables to the motherboard. I wish I had done this before putting in the motherboard.
It was also here that I discovered there wouldn’t be enough room to place two fans in the motherboard chamber because of the SATA ports, which was an unpleasant surprise. This wasn’t a huge issue since one intake fan in this setup currently provides enough cooling for the CPU and motherboard.
Shortly thereafter, I realized I forgot to put in the I/O shield, so I had to redo this part before mounting the PSU.
One concern I had was that the cables were having to bend almost 90 degrees to fit. I purchased SATA adapters to prevent this.
Once all that was done, the next step was adding the storage drives. The Sagittarius case came with screws, rubber grommets, and mounting tabs to install on each hard drive. I assume these grommets are meant to dampen vibrations from the drives themselves. All in all, these were fairly easy to install.
I also wanted to mount a 2.5″ SSD, so I purchased a 2.5″ to 3.5″ drive adapter from ORICO to fit it in a 3.5″ bay. It didn’t make much sense to install the mounting tabs on the adapter, so I skipped that step.
With the drives all prepped, I slid them into their respective bays behind the removable front panel. I also left some space between the drives to maximize the airflow around them.
What I’m Running on My NAS#
My previous home server hosted several self-hosted apps running within TrueNAS. I’ve scaled down on this and am now using this new machine primarily as a dedicated NAS.
Right now, I only run these apps on it:
- Backrest: Backs up my data on a daily basis to a Backblaze B2 bucket.
- Scrutiny: Monitors the health of my hard disks.
- Immich: Backs up photos from my iPhone.
I’ve since started hosting my other apps on an M1 Mac mini.
Power Consumption#
I bought a smart plug (Tapo P125M) to check the power consumption. Using this, I found that my previous home server was idling at 55–60 W, of which 15 W was due to my Nvidia GPU. My new build idles at 30–35 W. This is after enabling Global C-States in BIOS to allow the CPU to access lower power states.
One thing to note is that my PSU isn’t efficient for such low power loads. I went down a rabbit hole on this only to learn that it’s not worth purchasing a new PSU for this reason alone.
I also explored the possibility of having the hard drives spin down to save power only to find that it wasn’t worth going down this path. This is because TrueNAS does SMART checks on the drives, which will regularly wake them up, defeating the purpose of spinning them down. It also appears that the current version of TrueNAS doesn’t allow you to configure when these SMART checks occur.
Final Thoughts#
This build, which I originally finished in April, wasn’t the most straightforward. But the end result was worth the effort since I now have a compact NAS with plenty of storage options. Fortunately, I haven’t stumbled upon any major technical issues with this, which I’m grateful for.