First home NAS - parts - used vs new

Technology Buy Curious
1

I’m building my first home NAS, which will be my first PC build. I’m a programmer but have little hardware experience. I’m optimizing for space and lower-noise since I live in a small NYC apartment.

My needs:

  • storing and serving ~6TB of files, photos, etc (maybe NextCloud or similar) which will grow slowly over time
  • no plex or transcoding
  • experiment with some small services (PiHole, VPN, Standard Notes, Calendar sync, etc)
  • no strict financial restrictions, but don’t want to build an overkill machine for no reason
  • looking to use ZFS (just for fun :slight_smile: )

I currently have:

  • 4x 4TB WD Red Plus HHDs
  • Fractal 804 (i have a closet where it fits perfectly, and it allows me to expand to 8 drives)

I’ll need:

  • CPU – I’d imagine I need nothing more than 4 cores?
  • Motherboard – hoping to have 8 SATA ports for future proofing
  • RAM – 16GB? Do I need ECC if I’m using ZFS?
  • M2 drive (for boot)
  • Power Supply – 350W?
  • Fans

My questions:

  1. What should I buy? any suggestions on parts based on my needs?

  2. Intel vs AMD? I was originally going to build for AMD since I heard they’re more energy efficient, but I hear Intels perform better? Maybe a baseless blanket statement?

  3. Used vs New? Buying ‘used’ sounded a little concerning but lots of folks seems to do it. If so, is ebay the place to go? What sorts of parts are safer to buy used? (I’d imagine maybe CPU, Motherboard & RAM?)

Thanks in advance