Framework 10" Rackmount NAS

Overview

The Framework NAS, or as I would better call it—FrankenNAS, is a pet project of mine born from a few different desires left unsatiated by commercial options. I’m using it as an all-in-one server to host my files, game servers and self-hosted services like Home Assistant. I built this specifically to be rackmounted on my 10” mini rack.

Here’s what I think this does better than anything commercial:

• Cheap: Mainboards can be sourced cheaply either second-hand or as refurbished/QA-rejects from Framework themselves. I was lucky and able to get a fully-functional 8-core 5.1GHz 7840U mainboard for just $50 from their Mystery boxes. Additionally laptop mainboards are designed around energy efficiency and will save more in power compared to DIY ATX servers.
• Modular: The Framework mainboards are by design, modular. Unlike a commercial NAS, you don’t have to buy an entirely new compute, power supply, backplane, case and NIC if you just want to upgrade from 2 to 4 bays. With a mainboard you can replace any of these individually. Suddenly need 2.5GBe? That’s just $20. 8 cores not enough? Upgrade the mainboard and keep the rest.
• Performant: Many commercial NAS’s are stuck with 4GB RAM and 2-core processors. This is fine for running a proprietary OS, but it is completely insufficient to run containers or VMs. My goal is to also be able to run Home Assistant, game servers, and other self-hosted programs. What I lose in reliability by having a single machine, I can make up for in cost and size.

The Build

Where I’m at (as of 12/23/2025):

• Get Framework Mainboard to boot (Worked without any repairs necessary)
• Update Framework BIOS
  • BIOS needs FAT filesystem but Windows can’t flash FAT on large drives by default. Flashed with Rufus. Also had to manually set the EFI System Partition for BIOS to recognize the update installer.
• Test HDDs over USB-C SATA adapter
  • The ATX PSU adapter sucks and doesn’t even have traces for the 12V/5V/3.3V. I soldered my own (very scuffed), but I’m looking for a better option.
  • After soldering HDDs power on and detect
• Flash OS
  • Agonized over differences between TrueNAS, UnRAID, ZimaOS but I’ve finally decided on Proxmox with OMV
  • Proxmox wouldn’t recognize the drives over the SATA controller at first but running installer in debug mode and running sgdisk --zap-all fixed it.
  • 2.5GBe Network adapter from AliExpress would not work but changing kernel driver config forced it to work
• Set up OMV VM
• Set up AMP game server container
• Decide on RAID config
  • Currently agonizing on how to lay out my drives for best data protection and low-power
• Set up file system (probably EXT4)
• Set up remote SMB shares
• Synchronize devices (PC, phone, laptop, NAS) (likely syncthing)
• Design 10” 2U NAS
  • v1 Tolerances too tight. HDD screws off by 0.02”. Print was stronger than it needed to be.
  • Redesigned and now need to reprint

Additional planned features:

• Tailscale
• Home Assistant
• Drive fullness alerts
• SMART data monitoring & integrity checks
• UPS?
• Pihole/AdGuard