I’m planning to build a NAS because I’m tired of relying on Google Drive and paying for it. While looking into options, I realized having my own storage could also handle Plex, home automation, security cameras, Pi-hole, and game servers.

For now, I want to use it mainly for Plex, Pi-hole, possible AI/LLM testing in the future, and a Minecraft server. I also want to leave room to expand later.

My Plex library is already around 25TB and growing. I expect it to reach around 250TB in a few years and eventually want to be able to support 500TB. I’ll be sharing it with friends and family, so I expect multiple transcodes per day. Power use is something I want to keep under control, and my total budget is around 7,000 CAD. Ideally, the cheaper the better. Noise is a concern; it can’t sound like a jet engine all the time, but it doesn’t have to be whisper-quiet either.

So far, I’ve bought six 22TB HDDs from eBay for Plex and two Crucial P3 Plus 4TB NVMe drives for personal files like photos and documents.

I originally planned to buy a UGREEN NAS because I don’t like Synology’s recent practices, but UGREEN delayed their AI NAS by six months, which pushed me toward a DIY build.

I’m comfortable building PCs but don’t have experience with enterprise hardware. I could build something like an ASUS PRO WS W880-ACE SE with a Core Ultra 285, ECC DDR5, an HBA card, and a lot of HDDs, but that setup would be expensive.

I’ve been looking at used enterprise servers on eBay since they’re cheaper and often come ready to go. My main concern is finding one that supports Quick Sync since that seems important for Plex transcoding.

I am looking for guidance because I want to do this once, do it properly, and not have to think about it for another ten years.