The name server comes from the English and means translated servant. A server is either a software that communicates with another program as a client and thus provides access to services, or the hardware on which this software runs. While there is only the term server for the software, the term host is also used for a server as hardware.
For the layman now probably the question arises, for what a server is needed concretely. More and more information is being stored on hard disks in digital form, for example texts, images, videos or music files. If there are now several computers in a household or office, a server ensures that this data can be accessed from all computers. The server is thus a kind of central and takes over the function of the main computer, which provides the data for the other computers of the respective network. Ready-made servers are offered in different designs. However, servers are not always able to fulfill the customer’s wishes with regard to, for example, expandability, performance, energy efficiency or support. In addition, the price is often very high. If you know something about computers, you can therefore also build a server yourself. The main criteria for a server brand self-build are the costs, the performance and the stability, but also aspects such as the volume or the power consumption should be considered.
And how to build a NAS server yourself is shown in this video: