The key to a cheap NAS is reusing old hardware and engineering around wear&tear. Have a look at my blog post about that [1]<p>Edit: maybe consider an old laptop running Linux and extend it with USB hard drives.<p>[1] <a href="https://blog.georgovassilis.com/2020/04/01/building-the-perfect-cheap-diy-nas/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.georgovassilis.com/2020/04/01/building-the-perf...</a>