Summary
Highlights
Proxmox was installed and configured, creating a mirrored pair for SSDs. TrueNAS Scale was then set up as a virtual machine, with the 14TB drives configured for direct pass-through for ZFS. A mirrored ZFS pool was created, offering almost 13TB of usable space.
The speaker was drawn to the unique shape of the Fractal Terra mini-ITX case and envisioned it as a living room NAS despite its marketing as a gaming machine. The goal was to build a quiet, power-efficient NAS without large storage needs.
A 'Darth Mode' all-black, quiet, and LED-free aesthetic was chosen. Components include a Graphite Terra case, ASUS ROG Strix B760i mini-ITX motherboard, Noctua chromax.black fans and CPU cooler, 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM, a Corsair 750W 80+ Platinum SFX power supply, and a 14th gen Intel Core i3 CPU (chosen for low power, cost, performance, and Intel QuickSync).
The Terra case's unique design, including butterfly side panels, removable top, adjustable spine, and PCIe riser cable, made the initial build seem complex but ultimately easy. The motherboard, power supply, and necessary cables were installed smoothly, with cable management guided by documentation.
The case can hold 2.5" drives, but the goal was to mount 3.5" drives for NAS. The speaker discovered that 3.5" drives could fit vertically and found rubber spacers to stack two drives, absorb vibration, and maintain airflow. An additional case fan was installed, blocking the PCIe riser but allowing future flexibility.
Two 14TB drives and two 2.5" SSDs were installed (one challenging to place). An NVMe drive was used for the OS. The speaker decided on Proxmox as the host, with TrueNAS as a guest VM, to allow for future virtual machines and containers.
Beyond TrueNAS, over 10 LXC containers (Plex, Traffic, Uptime Kuma) were installed on the fast SSD pool. Ubuntu Server and Windows 11 virtual machines were also created. The i3 CPU handled all of this well, with QuickSync available for transcoding.
The machine consumes 28-30 watts at idle with all VMs and containers, and only 24 watts with just Proxmox and TrueNAS running. The speaker was happy with the build for its unique challenge and aesthetics, though noted limitations in future expandability compared to cheaper, larger NAS options.