HPE 873830-S01 ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Ultra Micro Tower Server 1 x AMD Opteron X3216 Dual-core (2 Core) 1.6GHz 8GB Installed DDR4 SDRAM Serial ATA/600 Controller 0, 1, 10 RAID Levels - 1 x 200 W

"Building a high performing home NAS"

"I was averaging 60-113mbps depending on the size of files being moved. This was a successful build in my mind! After selling my QNAP NAS, I came out ahead on my expenses for the build."

113Mbps is considered "high performing"?

"on a shoestring budget with the Rock64 SBC"

"TOTAL: $172.39 CAD before tax"

This is without the cost of the hard drives, doesn't seem ot include the cost of an enclosure, and results in:

* 1 Quad-core A53

* 2GB ram (the 4GB version is $45 USD without shipping, so it couldn't have been this one), which you can't ever change

* 0 SATA ports

* 1 USB 3 port

* 2 USB 2 ports

* 1x GbE

I would probably rather consider an HP Micro Server (e.g. https://www.amazon.com//dp/B079MFYDSL ), which for $282 provides:

* 1.6GHz dual-core Opteron

* 2 DIMM slots, 8GB DDR4 provided

* 5x SATA ports (4x in the disk bays, 1 in the optical bay)

* 4 USB3 ports, 2 USB2 ports, internal USB port

* 2x GbE

* 2x PCIe slots

* Hardware RAID support (I wouldn't use it, but it's available).

It would meet all of these requirements the poster had:

* Shoestring budget, under $300 preferred

* Scalable, not locked into a certain number of drive bays

* Gigabit ethernet

* USB 3.0 (for fast backups to my backup drives)

Preferred: compatibility with open source NAS offerings (OpenMediaVault, FreeNAS, etc.)

Low power usage (I don’t have high computing requirements for this system, so it doesn’t need to be driving up my electricity bill to run every month)

(I guess the Rock64 may have lower power consumption, but I don't think vastly lower).

I have a much older Microserver G7 (or NL54), which was much cheaper (I paid about $100), and it's great.

Edit: formatting