So I have a bunch of old hard drives laying around. About 5-6 different hard drives of various capacities ranging from 1TB to 2TB, not counting the 2.5″ drives. Looking at that pile, naturally the first thing that comes to mind is building a NAS. I was going to get a cheap Buffalo NAS for around $50 but then I realized I’d also need it to double as a workstation since I do need (I think ‘need’ is the right word) a computer in my workshop

Here’s the parts I used:

Hardware Setup:

Mobo: Lenovo MTQ45MK -est. $15 | salvaged from an old ThinkCentre M58, what I like is that unlike most OEM PCs, this mobo actually has 4 RAM slots, making it a lot cheaper to add more memories since 2GB sticks are dirt cheap.

CPU: Intel Quad Q6600 -est. $8 | probably the best bang for the buck CPU you can get for socket 775, a quad-core processor that goes for under $10, with an amazing overclocking head room (not that we are going to be doing any OCing, but it’s nice the have the option)

Memories: (x4) Kingmax 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz -est. $4/ea | DDR3 memories are cheaper than dirt these days, plus you most likely have stick or two already lying around somewhere. I already 2 sticks so I only needed to order 2 more. If you want to meet FreeNAS minimum requirements, this is probably the cheapest way get at it, at $16 for 8GB.

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