Finally setting up Unraid
I’m definitely a dabbler. Sometimes it’s time well spent, and often its a form of procrastination.
If i am being honest, it’s probably more often a form of procrastination. And my hope is that if I was to objectively look back, that I have learned more from doing it than the opportunities i’ve lost by doing it. In a way, these projects are a proof of my continuous learning and skillset that I’m acquiring.
Alright, that kind of feels like a weird way to start a post. Let’s get back to it.
I’ve wanted to build a NAS for a long time. I’ve been wanting to be “more technical” my entire career in IT and that’s the main reason why I got into it. I thought it’s awesome to build these digital things that can connect to each other and make things happen and work. So after I built my first gaming PC in 2020 I’ve been planning on building a server.
I have a 2 bay Synology NAS that has great software, but the hardware is so ridiculously underpowered! It worked well for a while but the performance was really underpowered, and Synology uses a proprietary format for their documents, so it was useless as a replacement for Google Docs/OneDrive.
Earlier in the year when Unraid changed their license pricing, I purchased a license just in case and in July I upgraded my gaming PC to the AM5 platform and that left me with AM4 parts. As black friday and cyber monday came along, I began looking for the missing parts:
A PSU ( power supply unit) A CPU fan. Case fans. That’s it, that’s really all I needed. And I even had a couple of spare HDDs that I also ear marked for this, although I was using them in the Synology.
The set up was really straightforward and I got everything up and running very quickly. I am amazed at how much more user friendly many settings are and how much easier it is to find support/write ups for more complex topics. Unraid has an amazing community and the Community Store is also a gem.
This is it for now, but I have a lot to share about my dabbling with Unraid.