I would like to ask you about special build. Currently I have main desktop where I am using it time to time when I need to do something (Photoshop and Lightroom) and sometime to play games. Also on my equipment I have NUC as proxmox server for home assistant.
Now I would like to expend my system about NAS server but here is a question. Make it sense to switch main PC to combo box where I will create nas inside it and sporadic PC to do my job done as windows VM? Migrate all content from NUC to the server and connect it to the monitor as to be able to connect to VM over it? Or it is better to buy some used parts from servers and create separate device?
Main PC:
Ryzen 7 3700x
MSI B450 Gaming plus
Radeon RX 5700XT
If some changes will be needed of course I will do.
my first thought honestly would be to buy some spare parts or even a refub box and use that for your server box. and running the NAS bit will require your main rig to run all the time as it has to be up all the time to when you want to access stuff.
Not sure if you have the drives already but my build was just under 500 in total. Refurb HP Z420 workstation box was 230 had processor (8 core) and ram (16gb) etc. Chassis was plenty of space too. Then I bought 4 - 3tb Hitachi 7200 RPM SATA drives and used the onboard sata connectors. I started off not using a controller card the onboard was sufficient. - From there the software so far has been free I’m using TrueNAS Scale as my OS which is also the NAS control and backbone.
I added more ram that I had found but you could buy more too.
This way your main PC is free for the photoshop and light room work which does tax a system - and any gaming that it looks like you made it for. and you could take the stuff out of your nuc - and use it for more of a HT PC device - fed by the server.
Also if you like proxmox and I thought about going that route too - you can use proxmox as the VM OS - and run truenas core on a VM and then run something else like linux server on a vm. This would have your NAS bit on one VM - while runnign what ever apps you wanted on the other VM .
Again though I would not want to do this on your gaming rig that you use for work with lightroom. again resources and needing to be on at all times.
The biggest issue of having your NAS with a graphics card inside would be the power consumption of it, the NAS being ON all the time means the graphics card is as well on all the time…
I would follow in Napalm’s direction though your idea is workable IMHO.