blazerguns

thanks a lot for you response. I think it is clear for me now.

Thanks for the response. I actually did read that thread and understood my poor knowledge of xeon side of compute world. The MOBO mentioned there https://www.amazon.com.au/AsRock-C246-WSI-Mini-ITX-Motherboard/dp/B07Z4XWNHY is lovely, just perfect but costs $350 AUD and processor E-2278G (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/174822532616?hash=item28b43c2608:g:fOIAAOSwifVg3ZOf) is about $524 AUD. While I understand the compute power and thread count, I wanted to understand if this is over kill for my needs. 2 docker containers (Plex and OpenVPN) Plex does transcoding (4k stream occasionally). Limited to 1 stream. 95% I only use HD content which are H264 encoded (no transcoding). File storage I dont need or use VMs in that machine. My spec which I shared cost me $550 AUD (cost of the processor). Would my setup not suffice for such low use case?

Hi All, I have been reading through some of the posts here and now I am confused. I thought I had a clear plan lol. My current Unraid setup had a major snafu. My build was around 2013 at that time I wanted a Mini ITX board and so I got Fractal Design Node 304 with https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AM1H-ITX/ Mobo. I never wanted more than 4 disk setup. 2021 the motherboard sole PCIe slot is not working so my SAS card does not work and have only 4 SATA ports. Expansion is not possible so decided for new setup. However, I wanted to still use mITX boards because of case. But research showed there are very few boards with abundant SATA slot to allow expansion for 6 data disks and 2 SSD cache disks. Is this a trend now? Also have only 1 PCIe slot means I must use onboard graphics for 4k transcoding in plex (only 1 stream support). Given the limitations I decided on the following: GIGABYTE B365M DS3H (Intel) - Micro ATX (6 SATA PORTS) - MicroATX instead of mITX Intel Core I5-9400 2.9Ghz Socket LGA1151 Fractal Design Node 804 Aim is to keep cost low as possible. When I researched this forum, I noticed many people are buying dated xeon processors and super micro boards and adding a PCIe3 graphics card for transcoding. I live in Australia and cant seem to find many of the old boards. Is this cheaper option than going intel core CPUs as above? Does Supermicro also have many mITX boards rather than Micro ATX? I have never used xeon processors before and would not like noisy system as this is for home use and something I use at low power for next 6 years at-least. Any suggestions?

Very useful suggestion. Thanks, I was about to connect my cache drive to this. Yikes.

Based on the list provided above I narrowed down to just a 2 port controller. I was thinking about buying https://aus.grandado.com/products/pci-e-to-sata3-pci-e-sata3-0-6gb-s-the-ssd-asmedia-chip-expansion-card-asm1061-1?variant=UHJvZHVjdFZhcmlhbnQ6NTkyMTc2MDM or https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/1408933-i-o-crest-2-port-sata-iii-pci-e-2-0-x1-controller-card-asmedia-asm1061-non-raid-with-low-profile-bracket-sy-pex40039 Any recommendations?

Any size recommendations?

You have sold me on SSD, so 250G would do or should I get the 512G? Also, thanks for the detailed explanation very helpful. I will watch those videos while I wait for my drives to arrive.

Love the comments. Thanks a lot for that. I am waiting to start off on this journey. I am waiting for my new WD Red Plus to arrive to start using Unraid. You are right, really not a big fan of transcoding. I have most of my videos converted to H264 MP4 and my tv is where I used plex and it can handle 1080p and 4k so it would very rare. I never usually use ipad etc for this purpose. I hear a lot about cache drives (perhaps to improve performance). I have not yet thought about it, but given your experience it is worth throwing in a 250G SSD in the mix for cache and docker files?

Thanks for the info. I think it will make more sense once I have the OS running. Waiting on a new hard disk to arrive to build the OS

This is the approach I am taking. I never intended to just move the array from FreeNAS to Unraid. My question was more inline with moving Unraid array from current hardware (CPU/MOBO) to a new upgraded MOBO and perhaps intel CPU and just plug and play. Other have indicated that it is possible as long as I take care of "Parity Slot" it should be simple move. Thanks for the advice, much appreciate it. This is a great recommendation. Thanks for that.

Right. That makes sense.

Ah, I did mean unraid in my current old CPU/MOBO migrated to unraid in brand new hardware with same version of OS. I would never think of moving array from TrueNAS to Unraid. As long as I am keeping the parity disk in correct SATA slot (assuming slot 1), data drives can be in any order? Sorry for asking this multiple times, but I wanted to be sure.

Thanks for this info. Very useful information to know. If I am not wrong, Intel sells them as integrated graphics. Since I do not have intel CPU, I have to look at Nvidia GPU or any other vendor to providing the encoding/decoding. I need to compare the cost of these cards against buying NVedia Shield as that could also be used as PlexMediaServer. In FreeNAS world, people dont like users installing Plex on NAS devices. I understand the reason but for home users it makes no sense to have multiple servers.

Hi All, First time here, sorry If I am not following any forum rules. I decided to move my NAS from TrueNAS core to Unraid for the following reasons. TrueNAS is becoming too complicated to manage for a home user. The forum is too highbrow and unfriendly for noobs. I hear that people here are more community driven and would help out to start my journey to Unraid. I have so many questions to ask, however I will limit to just my hardware. I am a home user, primarily using NAS for music, movies and photos all served through plexmediaserver (TrueNAS Jail install). I would like to replicate similar setup in Unraid. My question is more focused on a decision about need for hardware upgrade before migration. To be honest I would not want to upgrade as the current setup works fine for my needs. However, would be willing to rebuild if I get such advice from any of you. Hardware: (Low power setup) - Motherboard - AM1H-ITX - CPU AMD Athlon 5350 APU with Radeon - RAM: 16GB (DDR3-1600) - Disk: 3TB x 3 HGST disks - OS Boot: from USB My current limitation with hardware is motherboard only has 4 SATA port out of which 3 are in use. The last one would be reserved for Parity drive in Unraid. This means there is no chance of adding extra disk when I need to expand. I do have an LSI SAS9200-8i which can be used to expand but I have never used it so far and not sure of its compatibility in Unraid. My Requirement: - 3 x 3TB (approx 9TB data) - current - 1 x 4TB (parity disk) - Future expansion from 9TB to 17 TB ( next 5 years ) - Atleast single stream 4k transcoding capabilities. My questions: - Given my requirement and ageing (but very reliable) hardware, should I upgrade to newer CPU with better MOBO with ateast 8 SATA ports? If no, can I continue to use this until my CPU/MOBO dies? I would like to move the discs to new hardware and use without needing to rebuild the array. Is that possible? - For hardware transcoding in Plex, I would like to use hardware encoding. Can I add a cheap nvedia card just for transcoding with hardware passthrough in docker (plex)? - Is it recommended to use Unraid installed on USB? - Is there a recommended SAS board for expanding SATA. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks for reading this lost post.