Build your own fast, low-powered, 24/7 server with the help of Nick Peers
ONE SERVER to rule them all. That’s our dream—a single, centralized PC designed for always-on action, but which won’t run up huge electricity bills. It needs to be able to run multiple services simultaneously, from media streaming to cloud sync and backup. It needs to be configured as headless machine, accessible from other devices on your network, and handle more than one connection, so friends and family can benefit from your NAS server.
For the past few years, we’ve been living the dream with the subject of our September 2022 build. It’s as capable now as it was then, but we set ourselves the task of improving it in every way: a more powerful mobo that consumes even fewer watts? Check. Plenty of drive bays to allow us to easily expand storage? Check. Take up as little room as possible? Check. How about capping the price at $600 for the base unit? No problem.
The result? A pint-sized powerhouse that’s not tied to proprietary technologies or operating systems, and one that will comfortably outlast even the best that Synology or QNAP has to offer the home market right now. Don’t believe us? Turn the page to find out just how to spec, build, and set up your perfect NAS-like server.
OUR PREVIOUS NAS build was centered around Intel’s Gemini Lake Refresh range of Pentium Silver processors. ASRock produced a series of mini-ITX mobos with embedded J-series processors—passively cooled by heatsink for silent operation, but quad core and capable of handling all your server needs. But while Intel has updated its low-powered chips over successive generations, these have been restricted firmly to the tiny PC market. It’s only with the launch of its Alder Lake-N line in 2023 that new mini-ITX mobos, sporting the latest N100 processor, have made an appearance.
Unsurprisingly, given the multigenerational gap between them, the quad-core, four-thread N100 comfortably outclasses even the top-line Pentium Silver J5040, achieving a Passmark CPU Mark of 5,623 versus the J5040’s 3,395. That puts it in the territory of the i5-7400 or i3-9100, with one major advantage: while those chips had a TDP of 65 watts, the N100’s TDP is a measly 6W (the J5040 is 10W). You also gain the benefit of an updated Intel UHD graphics chip, which ensures better hardware encoding of media streams when required.
When it comes to sourcing an N100 board, you have a choice of two models: AS Rock’s N100DC-ITX ($129.99, www.newegg.com/p/ N82E16813162133) and the ASUS PRIME N100I-D4 ($133.10, www. memoryc.com/44806). For the purposes of this build, we’ve chosen the ASUS PRIME because it works with a standard PSU. That way, if you’re interested in upgrading your current NAS server, it’s a simple process to swap out the old board (and RAM) for new.
The box opposite reveals the the components w
