application containers and even a couple of virtual machines on the NAS I built myself. I have upgraded it four times to a new MB/CPU/RAM combo since I first built it in 2011.

The OS I use for my NAS is stored on a USB drive and loads into RAM on boot so I can change the hardware all I want and the OS and apps configuration does not need to change (except with VMs that may have some hardware pass through).

- The first build was just a dual-core i3 processor with 4GB RAM (pure NAS)
- My latest build has an 8-core/16-thread Xeon with 64GB RAM (NAS, docker containers, VMs)

For storage, I buy external USB drives and shuck them from the enclosures. They are much cheaper that way than buying the same drive as an OEM bare drive. I usually get 8TB WD Red/White NAS drives. In a USB enclosure they are $120-$140. As a bare drive the cost is over $200. Go Figure!