The ProloNAS
When you decide to dive into the adventure of running your own home server, the same questions usually come up: “Where should I start?”, “Isn’t it expensive?”. And often, people either give up or end up buying a proprietary NAS that they’ll throw away a year later once they realize it only brings headaches and wasted money.
A server isn’t a piece of furniture. It’s simply any computer capable of running Linux.That’s why mini PCs powered by Intel N100 processors are so popular: for around $100–130 on Chinese platforms, you can get a machine that runs 24/7 for years, capable of handling everything you’d expect from a home server or personal cloud without sacrificing performance.
It’s objectively inexpensive, and anyone with a bit of curiosity can get started.
A mini PC for $100 + a USB dock for $50 that holds multiple hard drives = a complete platform for $150, versus $350–1200 for branded NAS systems.
That’s all a ProloNAS is. It’s then up to you to scale your storage capacity according to your needs.
Example Hardware
- Mini PC — Note: choose 16 GB / 512 GB: Aliexpress
- DAS (Direct Attached Storage) — Note: select “EU plug”: Aliexpress
- More refined alternative with a fan: Amazon
These are not affiliate links — buy wherever you prefer.
Why a NAS?
A NAS (Network Attached Storage) is a machine centered around storage, designed to be shared over a network.The idea is to have a reliable and secure storage space that serves as the backbone for your personal services and apps such as a self-hosted cloud like Nextcloud, a photo sync tool like Immich, or a media server like Plex. You can also store camera footage, backups, or even development projects on it.
But why not just use a mini PC with an external hard drive?
Sure, a simple mini PC with 1–2 TB of storage will do for most people.And your movie collection might fit on an external drive of a few extra terabytes. But that’s neither reliable nor scalable a single shock or hardware failure could permanently destroy your data.
A real NAS is built around storage reliability. It uses redundancy strategies like RAID to protect against drive failure, and snapshot systems like ZFS to guard against corruption.
In short, a NAS lets you host everything yourself that you currently entrust to third parties while maintaining control, reliability, and data safety.
The Problem with Consumer NAS Systems
Many brands offer “ready-to-use” NAS platforms: Synology, QNAP, Ugreen, and others. They promise simplicity and sleek web interfaces, but the reality is quite different.
First, the price.
$350 is the starting price for a 2-bay NAS (without drives) from Synology. For that, you get a 2019 processor, no SSD slot for the OS, and a measly 2 GB of RAM.
Now, compare that to the ProloNAS: an N100 (4 cores), 16 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD for $100–130, plus a 4-bay DAS for $55. That’s half the price of a 2-bay Synology, and a quarter of the price of a 4-bay one.
Locked-Down Operating Systems
“Yeah, but at least with a Synology, you plug it in and everything just works.”
One year.
That’s how long it took before I threw away my Synology and realized I should have started with a ProloNAS (which later became a full-fledged server).
Manufacturers ship heavily customized Linux-based OSes: ancient kernels, limited app repositories, and complete dependence on their proprietary tools. As a result, you can’t fully tailor your NAS to your needs, and many Docker containers simply won’t run because the kernel is too old.
Total Vendor Lock-In
“I’m fine with the built-in apps.”
Yeah, I thought so too… until my needs exploded: media center, password manager, Git hosting, strong authentication, web hosting, and more.
Why stay stuck with half-baked proprietary tools when you can rely on open-source projects that are regularly updated and interoperable?
And what happens when the manufacturer decides to drop support or limit hardware compatibility? It’s already happened, Synology made certain drives incompatible unless they were “certified” by them. They even disabled hardware transcoding on their NAS units: see here.
In short, you have no control over a product that isn’t open, nor truly yours.
OK, but how do I turn my Mini PC Serveex into a ProloNAS?
As mentioned earlier: by adding a DAS (drive hub) and setting up a redundant storage system with RAID and ZFS, you can transform your mini PC into a robust and scalable NAS.
Enjoy !