Where to go from here, stay with unraid or... ?

I'll try to be brief. I'm on old hardware with an old version of unraid (5.0 something I think, can't double check at the moment because I'm having difficulties accessing the server), built about 7-8 years ago around a lowish power AMD system. Never updated other than HDD expansion and maintenance as needed (not broken don't fix). Never even used a chache drive setup, my needs were just storage primarily, not performance so much. Have about 40TB space, maybe 30TB or so used.

Over the last couple of years it has been increasingly difficult and frustrating to keep the unraid server visible to various Windows computers. Have had a little more reliability with visibility on streaming devices like fire stick.

Now I suspect the hardware may be giving some issues as I can't even see server webpage. Need to troubleshoot. But it's likely time to do something different.

I do have a lifetime unraid license, so more or less starting over with new hardware and migrating drives and/or data is an option. I have an unused ~5 year old core i5 system with M.2 drive if that would be a suitable starting point. I used an SATA expansion board in old system (whatever was popular at the time). Would have to see if this i5 mobo would give enough storage with modern drives. 

So, fix old system and keep chugging along on old unraid version? Use i5 to upgrade hardware to hopefully run newer unraid version? Would newer hardware even be needed? Are windows visibility issues still a plague even in new builds (I see the stickies, doesn't look encouraging?). Is there a better option for me, like prebuiot NAS or something? My storage desires were pretty extreme 8 years ago. Pretty modest in comparison these days so maybe more options like that are worth considering?

Edited October 24, 20232 yr by neurorad