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Dell Inspiron 3910 Compact Desktop Tower PC - 12th Gen Core i3 - 8GB RAM - 1TB HDD $349.98
$350
$550
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Dell™ Inspiron 3910 Desktop PC, Intel® Core™ i3, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, Windows® 11, I3910-3044BLU-PUS
https://www.officedepot
https://www.officedepot
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Dell™ Inspiron 3910 Desktop PC, Intel® Core™ i3, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, Windows® 11, I3910-3044BLU-PUS
https://www.officedepot
https://www.officedepot
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12 Comments
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Also I wish this has an SSD drive as opposed to a HDD.
Price seems great though.
Does anyone know if you can just add an NVME drive to it in addition to the HDD it comes with? Thinking this would work out great for my setup.
Also I wish this has an SSD drive as opposed to a HDD.
Price seems great though.
https://dl.dell.com/content/manua...us&ps=t
Does anyone know if you can just add an NVME drive to it in addition to the HDD it comes with? Thinking this would work out great for my setup.
PCIe expansion card slots
● One PCIe x16 slot
● One PCIe x1 slot
M.2
● One M.2 2230 slot for WiFi and Bluetooth combo card
● One M.2 2230/2280 slot for solid-state drive
https://dl.dell.com/content/manua...us&ps=t
PCIe expansion card slots
● One PCIe x16 slot
● One PCIe x1 slot
M.2
● One M.2 2230 slot for WiFi and Bluetooth combo card
● One M.2 2230/2280 slot for solid-state drive
https://dl.dell.com/content/manua...us&ps=t
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If you want to use a system for a NAS I think you'd want room to store at least 3 and likely 5+ hard drives. This system is too small and only has 3 SATA ports. One of those may be used by the optical drive; not clear from the manual. Below screenshot from manual has info on storage options.
If you want to use a system for a NAS I think you'd want room to store at least 3 and likely 5+ hard drives. This system is too small and only has 3 SATA ports. One of those may be used by the optical drive; not clear from the manual. Below screenshot from manual has info on storage options.
https://www.windowscent
https://forums.serverbu
https://www.storagerevi
I found this version [serverbuilds.net] (4.0) of Serverbuild's build guide very informative. The first photo in that article is the same case I use for my NAS (Cooler Master N400)! It can be a rabbit hole of information; there is a ton of it out there.
Here's what happened to me: I had an old Dell XPS 8910 (with Intel i7-6700 CPU, 16GB of RAM) that I wanted to repurpose as a NAS. I decided on Unraid [unraid.net] as they have a very good user community to help in case of problems, and I read that the OS was easy to use. Unraid also includes a 60-day trial so if I tried it and hated it, I didn't have to use it. I set up a 3-drive NAS using Unraid in the Dell system and it was going well at first, but then I noticed the Dell system was starting to act weird during the first couple of weeks (power LED on front of case burned out; random hangs/crashes) so I suspected an issue with the Dell system (maybe power supply?). I found some info on a Dell forum [dell.com] advising the EVGA 700 BR power supply [evga.com] (100-BR-0700-K1) was the exact same size as the Dell power supply and could be swapped out.
This started my journey towards building my own NAS. I figured, "Why not move the working components to a new case?" The Dell case could only fit 3 hard drives, and I had no room to expand. On to the build!
- I decided on a Cooler Master N400 case, as it can store 8 hard drives.
- I already bought the EVGA power supply, so I'd use that. I can move the i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1 NVME hard drive (used for cache in Unraid) and 3 hard drives from the old Dell system.
- I then bought a new CPU cooler (didn't want to use the old Dell one); decided on the Arctic Alpine 12LP.
- Next, a new motherboard. I didn't want to try to put the Dell motherboard in a new case, as it only had 4 SATA ports and proprietary front-panel connectors. I bought an ASUS Q270M-C motherboard off eBay: It has 6 SATA ports, 2 NVME slots for SSDs (the Dell only had 1 slot) so this felt like an upgrade.
I put all the parts together and it's been running well for a month. I really like Unraid (I bought the Plus version, which can have up to 12 storage devices attached) for $89, so that's another cost to add to the build. To add it up, this is what I paid:- $63.94 for Cooler Master case [amazon.com] (Amazon): Got it on a special deal. It is usually $89.99 or so.
- $60.10 for new EVGA power supply [amazon.com] (eBay; sold by Best Buy). Non-modular, so all cables are connected. But 700 watts, well reviewed, reliable and quiet. More power for expansion in case I want to add up to 8 drives.
- $65.58 for like-new refurbished ASUS motherboard [asus.com] (eBay; sold by computer parts refurbisher who had excellent feedback rating, many years selling on eBay & free return in case of issues)
- $13.11 for ASUS motherboard I/O shield [ebay.com] (eBay): Not required but I wanted it to look nice at the back I/O panel; above MB didn't include it.
- $12.01 for new Arctic CPU cooler [amazon.com] (Amazon)
- $0 for CPU (i7-6700 [intel.com]): "Free" (was repurposed from old system)
- $0 for RAM (16GB DDR4): From old system
- $0 for three hard drives (2TB, 4TB, 6TB): From other projects; reuse
- $0 for Plex Pass [plex.tv] Lifetime one-time purchase (reuse from prior purchase; usually $119.99, often sold during black friday sales for $79-$99; required for hardware transcoding support)
- $89 for Unraid OS [unraid.net] Plus (one-time license purchase)
- Total: $303.74
The great thing about the Intel i7-6700 CPU is that it has an integrated GPU (graphics) and supports Intel Quick Sync Video [intel.com]. The system is able to transcode [wikipedia.org] video very efficiently using this tech and it works very well as a Plex server, too! And by not installing a GPU card in the PCI x16 slot, I could add an HBA [wikipedia.org] card later, if i want to add more SATA ports and install more than the 6 SATA drives the motherboard supports. Really happy with the cost and future expandability provided by the case and motherboard I purchased. Those are definitely the most important things to focus on, in my opinion, as they determine the lifespan of your build.I know you mentioned TrueNAS but that is just one NAS software out there. There is also Open Media Vault [openmediavault.org] (free option), another worthy OS to consider for NAS. I decided on Unraid (but it costs $$), though I thought it was worth paying for as you can also use it to host VMs (I have a few Linux VMs running for testing/experimentation), Plex server & many other applications by using docker containers. It's very easy to set up and has a great community to support its user base. I'm a very satisfied user.
I hope you found this helpful, should you consider to build a NAS in the future. Have fun!
https://www.windowscent
https://forums.serverbu
https://www.storagerevi
I found this version [serverbuilds.net] (4.0) of Serverbuild's build guide very informative. The first photo in that article is the same case I use for my NAS (Cooler Master N400)! It can be a rabbit hole of information; there is a ton of it out there.
Here's what happened to me: I had an old Dell XPS 8910 (with Intel i7-6700 CPU, 16GB of RAM) that I wanted to repurpose as a NAS. I decided on Unraid [unraid.net] as they have a very good user community to help in case of problems, and I read that the OS was easy to use. Unraid also includes a 60-day trial so if I tried it and hated it, I didn't have to use it. I set up a 3-drive NAS using Unraid in the Dell system and it was going well at first, but then I noticed the Dell system was starting to act weird during the first couple of weeks (power LED on front of case burned out; random hangs/crashes) so I suspected an issue with the Dell system (maybe power supply?). I found some info on a Dell forum [dell.com] advising the EVGA 700 BR power supply [evga.com] (100-BR-0700-K1) was the exact same size as the Dell power supply and could be swapped out.
This started my journey towards building my own NAS. I figured, "Why not move the working components to a new case?" The Dell case could only fit 3 hard drives, and I had no room to expand. On to the build!
- I decided on a Cooler Master N400 case, as it can store 8 hard drives.
- I already bought the EVGA power supply, so I'd use that. I can move the i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1 NVME hard drive (used for cache in Unraid) and 3 hard drives from the old Dell system.
- I then bought a new CPU cooler (didn't want to use the old Dell one); decided on the Arctic Alpine 12LP.
- Next, a new motherboard. I didn't want to try to put the Dell motherboard in a new case, as it only had 4 SATA ports and proprietary front-panel connectors. I bought an ASUS Q270M-C motherboard off eBay: It has 6 SATA ports, 2 NVME slots for SSDs (the Dell only had 1 slot) so this felt like an upgrade.
I put all the parts together and it's been running well for a month. I really like Unraid (I bought the Plus version, which can have up to 12 storage devices attached) for $89, so that's another cost to add to the build. To add it up, this is what I paid:- $63.94 for Cooler Master case [amazon.com] (Amazon): Got it on a special deal. It is usually $89.99 or so.
- $60.10 for new EVGA power supply [amazon.com] (eBay; sold by Best Buy). Non-modular, so all cables are connected. But 700 watts, well reviewed, reliable and quiet. More power for expansion in case I want to add up to 8 drives.
- $65.58 for like-new refurbished ASUS motherboard [asus.com] (eBay; sold by computer parts refurbisher who had excellent feedback rating, many years selling on eBay & free return in case of issues)
- $13.11 for ASUS motherboard I/O shield [ebay.com] (eBay): Not required but I wanted it to look nice at the back I/O panel; above MB didn't include it.
- $12.01 for new Arctic CPU cooler [amazon.com] (Amazon)
- $0 for CPU (i7-6700 [intel.com]): "Free" (was repurposed from old system)
- $0 for RAM (16GB DDR4): From old system
- $0 for three hard drives (2TB, 4TB, 6TB): From other projects; reuse
- $0 for Plex Pass [plex.tv] Lifetime one-time purchase (reuse from prior purchase; usually $119.99, often sold during black friday sales for $79-$99; required for hardware transcoding support)
- $89 for Unraid OS [unraid.net] Plus (one-time license purchase)
- Total: $303.74
The great thing about the Intel i7-6700 CPU is that it has an integrated GPU (graphics) and supports Intel Quick Sync Video [intel.com]. The system is able to transcode [wikipedia.org] video very efficiently using this tech and it works very well as a Plex server, too! And by not installing a GPU card in the PCI x16 slot, I could add an HBA [wikipedia.org] card later, if i want to add more SATA ports and install more than the 6 SATA drives the motherboard supports. Really happy with the cost and future expandability provided by the case and motherboard I purchased. Those are definitely the most important things to focus on, in my opinion, as they determine the lifespan of your build.I know you mentioned TrueNAS but that is just one NAS software out there. There is also Open Media Vault [openmediavault.org] (free option), another worthy OS to consider for NAS. I decided on Unraid (but it costs $$), though I thought it was worth paying for as you can also use it to host VMs (I have a few Linux VMs running for testing/experimentation), Plex server & many other applications by using docker containers. It's very easy to set up and has a great community to support its user base. I'm a very satisfied user.
I hope you found this helpful, should you consider to build a NAS in the future. Have fun!
Join The Conversation
Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
Share information with the community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!