Most people’s home network is whatever the ISP handed them on install day. Most people’s storage is an external hard drive plugged into a laptop or a cloud subscription they’re paying monthly forever.
Both of these are fixable. Both fixes cost less than you think. And once you’ve done it, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.
This guide covers three things: NAS builds, router/firewall upgrades, and the HBA card — the single most overlooked component in home storage that turns a basic file server into something genuinely expandable.
Part 1 — What’s a NAS and Why Do You Want One
NAS = Network Attached Storage. A box on your network that stores files, serves media, runs backups, and is accessible from every device in your house — and remotely if you set it up right.
The commercial options — Synology, QNAP — work fine and cost $400–$1,500+ for the enclosure alone, before you’ve bought a single drive. You’re paying for a pretty interface and someone else’s margins.
A DIY NAS built on old hardware or repurposed gear will outperform a commercial unit at a fraction of the cost. The software is free. The hardware is cheap. And you own it completely.
Part 2 — The Platform Options
Option A — The Mining Board Repurpose (Cheapest Entry)
This is the move almost nobody talks about.
BTC-S37 / BTC-T37 — Chinese mining boards running a Celeron 1037U. Under $200 AUD for a complete system. What you get:
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2x SATA ports onboard
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1x mSATA slot (128/256GB NVMe for OS — under $70 new)
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8GB DDR3 SODIMM
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Multiple PCIe x1 slots — this is where HBA cards come in (covered below)
Run Lubuntu as the OS. Lightweight. Stable. You’re not running a desktop on this — you’re running a file server.
Add two matched HDDs for your storage pool and an mSATA drive for the OS. Done. You have a NAS under $200 before drives. The PCIe slots give you room to expand with an HBA card when you’re ready for more drives.
Option B — Ryzen 2400G / 2400GE (The Smart Repurpose)
These are turning up on eBay sub-$150 AUD and they’re significantly more capable than the mining board option.
Ryzen 2400GE (HP/Lenovo small form factor units):
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Best use case: Router / Firewall
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Add a dual Intel NIC card (PCIe, under $30–40)
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Install PFSense or OPNSense
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Unless you have 35+ devices on your network, this is more than enough. This single machine will run circles around anything your ISP gave you.
Ryzen 2400G (standard desktop):
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Best use case: NAS / Media Server
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The integrated GPU alone handles 3–5x simultaneous 1080p transcodes without touching the CPU
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4 cores, up to 8 threads, sub-35W TDP at load
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Sub-30W at idle — your power bill won’t notice it running 24/7
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16GB RAM recommended, multiple mechanical HDDs, NVMe for OS via PCIe lanes
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Perfect for Plex, Jellyfin, file serving, light game server hosting
Ryzen 2400GE — Retro Emulation Machine:
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Switch emulation: 30–60fps, game dependent, flawless
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PS3 and below: covered without breaking a sweat
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Under $150 AUD all in — it’s a perfect dedicated home arcade build for the right person
Option C — Intel N100 / N150 Mini PCs
These are fanless in many configurations and have taken a price dump recently.
N100 — The homelab and light ops champion. Known quantity in the enthusiast community.
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Router / Firewall on OPNSense or PFSense — zero reason to run a bad ISP router when these exist
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Home security node, beginner home lab, 24/7 light operations
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Fanless = silent = can live in a cupboard forever
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Sub-50W at full tilt
N150 / Intel N150 Mini PC (16GB RAM / 512GB NVMe configurations):
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Tested at TrojanHQ for Switch emulation — native resolutions, 30/60fps game dependent
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Earlier consoles up to PS2/PSP: 1080p native, 1200p resolution bumps
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Portability: any phone charger outputting 36W powers it. A 25,000mAh battery runs it 12+ hours
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Weight: under 200g
For portable gaming — pair with a Zsuslab 10.5 inch 1080p non-touch monitor (sub-$50). Note: avoid the touch versions if you’re running Linux — they’re a pain under anything but the latest kernels.
DDR4 vs DDR5 note: For emulation use cases, DDR4 2666MHz with correct drivers is 100% sufficient. DDR5 is a better choice reserved for far more demanding systems. Don’t spend more than the use case demands.
Part 3 — The HBA Card (The Thing Nobody Tells You About)
This is where most people hit a wall and give up on expanding their NAS.
Your motherboard has 4–6 SATA ports. You fill them up. You think you’re done. You’re not.
An HBA (Host Bus Adapter) card plugs into a single PCIe slot and adds 8 more SATA/SAS ports. Enterprise-grade storage expansion for $25–50 AUD on eBay. This is the component that separates a 4-drive NAS from a 12-drive NAS without touching anything else on the system.
The Cards to Know
LSI 9211-8i (IT mode) — The community standard. Battle-tested. Works with every NAS OS. 8 ports via two SFF-8087 connectors. PCIe 2.0 x8. $25–35 AUD used on eBay. The IBM M1015, Dell H200, and HP H220 are all rebadged versions of the same chipset — buy whichever is cheapest on the day.
LSI 9207-8i (IT mode) — The upgrade. Same 8 SAS/SATA ports, newer firmware, PCIe 3.0 interface. Better for builds with SSDs in the array. $25–40 AUD used. If the price difference is small, get this one over the 9211.
LSI 9305-16i — For the serious build. 16 ports. $60–90 used. If you’re running 12+ drives this is your card.
Dell H310 Mini Mono — Popular for ITX/small form factor NAS builds. Fits in tight spaces, works in PCIe x4 slots with a riser. Cross-flash it to LSI 9211-8i IT mode firmware — it’s functionally identical after flashing. Well-documented 30-minute process, hundreds of guides online.
IT Mode vs IR Mode — This Matters
IT Mode = the card passes drives directly to the operating system. The OS sees individual drives. This is what you want for TrueNAS, Unraid, Proxmox, and any ZFS-based setup. Software RAID is better for home servers — you can move drives between machines and the array still works. ZFS checksums catch silent data corruption that hardware RAID misses entirely.
IR Mode = the card handles RAID itself in hardware. Avoid for home NAS use. If you buy a card and it’s in IR mode, flash it to IT mode before using it.
Buy pre-flashed to IT mode if you can. The price difference is minimal and it saves the flashing process. Search specifically for “IT mode pre-flashed” when buying on eBay.
The Cables You Need
SFF-8087 (Mini-SAS) to 4x SATA breakout cables. One cable per SFF-8087 port on the card, splits into 4 SATA connectors. Approximately $8–12 AUD each on AliExpress. A 9211-8i with two cables gives you all 8 ports connected.
The Honest Bandwidth Note
For spinning HDDs — don’t overthink PCIe generation. Eight fast HDDs at ~250 MB/s each produce about 2 GB/s of combined throughput. A PCIe 2.0 x8 slot handles 4 GB/s. The drives are your bottleneck, not the card. Only upgrade to PCIe 3.0 or the 9300-series if you’re building an all-SSD array.
Part 4 — The Router Upgrade
Your ISP router is a liability. It’s designed to a price point. The firmware doesn’t get updated. The hardware is the minimum they could ship.
The options that actually work:
Celeron Mini PC (current market) — Fanless, cheap, runs OPNSense or PFSense without complaint. If you’re not chasing the emulation front the N100 is the perfect cheap beast on power for 24/7 light operations. This includes router/firewall, home security, beginner home labs.
Ryzen 2400GE in a HP/Lenovo SFF unit — Add a dual Intel NIC (sub $30–40 PCIe card). Install OPNSense. Under $150 AUD total. Unless you have 35+ devices the cheapest configuration is more than sufficient.
OPNSense vs PFSense: Both are solid. OPNSense is more actively developed and has a cleaner modern interface. PFSense has a larger legacy community and more documentation for edge cases. Either one on any of the hardware above destroys your ISP router on every metric.
Part 5 — A Note on NBN
This is Australia-specific but worth having here.
NBN wholesale line prices were reduced in 2025. If you haven’t checked your plan recently, check it now. Better plans are available at lower prices than 12 months ago. If you’ve been loyal to your ISP for years, call them and say so — retaining existing customers costs them less than acquiring new ones and they know it.
This isn’t hardware but it’s part of the home network picture. No point optimising your local network if you’re overpaying for the connection feeding it.
The Quick Reference
| Use Case | Platform | OS | Cost (AUD est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic NAS | Mining board BTC-S37/T37 | Lubuntu + drives | <$200 + drives |
| Media Server / NAS | Ryzen 2400G desktop | TrueNAS / Jellyfin | <$200 + drives |
| Router / Firewall | Ryzen 2400GE SFF + NIC | OPNSense | <$180 |
| 24/7 Light Ops / Router | Intel N100 fanless mini | OPNSense | <$150 |
| Portable Emulation | Intel N150 mini PC | Linux | <$180 |
| Drive Expansion (any NAS) | LSI 9211-8i HBA + cables | -– | $30–50 |
The ISP router and the external hard drive are both solutions to problems you’ve already outgrown. Everything on this page is built from repurposed or cheap hardware, runs open source software, and is owned completely by you.
No subscriptions. No cloud fees. No hardware you don’t control.
King Frost — TrojanHQ