Linus Tech Tips: How to Build a Custom NAS for Home

Why Not Just Use the Gaming PC?

The argument for a dedicated NAS starts with a simple question: what happens when your gaming PC crashes, gets reformatted, or just needs to be off? If your Plex library, shared files, and backups all live on that machine, the answer is nothing works. A NAS sits separately, runs quietly, and doesn't care what you're doing on your main rig. Plouffe's setup was exactly this scenario — a powerful gaming PC doing too many jobs at once. The NAS doesn't need to be faster than the gaming PC. It just needs to be more reliable and always on. "That's a different design goal entirely" — and every component decision that follows flows from it.

The Part That Actually Costs Money

The processor and motherboard are almost incidental expenses in a NAS build. The hard drives are where the budget goes. Plouffe invested in multiple 8TB CMR NAS drives, and CMR — Conventional Magnetic Recording — matters here because SMR drives, while cheaper and more power-efficient, struggle under sustained write loads. If you're running a NAS that's constantly writing backups or large file transfers, SMR drives will throttle and frustrate you. CMR drives cost more upfront and draw slightly more power, but they handle the workload without complaint. The drive shortage Plouffe encountered during the build is a reminder that storage pricing isn't stable — budgeting flexibility matters. Related: Claude source code leak Anthropic: NPM mistake exposed AI code

The i3-12100: Overkill Is Underselling It

Choosing an Intel Core i3-12100 for a NAS might look like a compromise. It isn't. The 12100 includes Intel Quick Sync for hardware video encoding and native AV1 support through its integrated GPU, which means Plex can transcode streams without a discrete graphics card eating power and PCIe lanes. For a machine that runs 24/7, power draw is a real operating cost. The i3-12100 hits a sweet spot — capable enough for simultaneous transcoding sessions, efficient enough that the electricity bill doesn't become a monthly argument against the whole project.

One Card, Eight Drives

Most consumer motherboards ship with four to six SATA ports. A six-drive NAS already pushes that limit, and any future expansion kills it entirely. The LSI HBA card solves this by converting a single PCIe slot into eight SAS/SATA connections. It's not glamorous hardware, but it's the component that makes a scalable NAS possible on a standard motherboard. Without it, you're either buying a server motherboard with native port density — which costs significantly more — or you're capping your drive count at whatever the board supports natively. The HBA card is the unglamorous piece that makes everything else work at scale. Related: Linus Tech Tips: The $0 Private Jet Ownership Costs Explained

Hexos: Friendly Until It Isn't

Hexos was chosen specifically because it's approachable for someone who doesn't want to spend a weekend reading TrueNAS documentation. The interface is clean, storage pool creation is guided, and user permissions are manageable without a systems administration background. The installation itself had friction — the server wasn't detected on the network initially, requiring manual IP entry, and a licensing error added another delay — but none of it was catastrophic. In a recent video, Linus Tech Tips frames Hexos as the entry point for people who want NAS functionality without the homelab deep end. That framing is accurate, with the caveat that 'user-friendly' still assumes you're comfortable Googling error messages.

The Windows Problem Nobody Warns You About

A week after the NAS was running fine, Plouffe's main Windows desktop refused to connect to it. The culprit was an SMB client security signature setting — a Windows networking configuration that, when enabled, blocks connections to servers that don't require signing. It's a security feature. It's also completely invisible during setup and not mentioned in any NAS getting-started guide. The fix was a single PowerShell command to modify the setting. The frustration was disproportionate to the solution, which is exactly what makes it such an effective trap. If you're building a NAS and connecting Windows machines, check this setting before you assume the NAS software is broken. Related: AI Chatbot Relationships Psychological Impact: Kurtis Conner Deep Dive

Remote Access Without Port Forwarding

Tailscale turns the NAS into something accessible from anywhere without opening ports on your router. It creates an encrypted virtual network between your devices, so SSH access and file browsing work remotely as if you're on the local network. The alternative — traditional port forwarding — works but exposes services directly to the internet, which is a meaningful security trade-off for a device storing personal data. Tailscale sidesteps that entirely. For a home NAS that might eventually serve off-site backup partners or family members on different networks, this is the cleaner solution. It also requires almost no networking knowledge to set up, which fits the overall philosophy of this build.

The Actual Long-Term Math

Cloud storage subscriptions compound. A NAS has upfront hardware costs and ongoing electricity costs, but no monthly fee for the storage itself. Once the hardware is paid off, the cost per terabyte drops to nearly nothing compared to services that charge per gigabyte indefinitely. Plouffe also mentions a planned 'buddy backup' feature in Hexos — essentially off-site redundancy by syncing with a trusted friend's NAS — which replicates one of the main advantages of cloud backup without the subscription. The data stays under your control, the redundancy exists, and the monthly bill doesn't. That's the argument, and the math eventually wins.