HellDiverUK

It won't take an i7 at all. Use QuickSync hardware transcoding in Plex and you can do a LOT with a basic Pentium chip. I've had 5x 1080p transcodes running at one time on a Celeron N3160, and only had 20% CPU use. If you're still using CPU to transcode, you're frankly doing it wrong.

Yeah, I have no problems with the Marvell chipset on my AOC-SAS2LP cards, nor the Marvell on my Supermicro X10SBA. But, the Marvell in the QNAP doesn't play ball. @BobPhoenix it must be 64-bit, as the NAS can support 8GB RAM, and can run VMs (It has a J3455 chip).

Just check the one you buy is the new version with the AM4 bracket. There's probably old stock out there that doesn't.

If you watch Jason @ ByteMyBits on Youtube, he had the same problem with his SSDs in his Plex box. He had similar SanDisk drives. https://youtu.be/VR_lvr6V9YI

So, after trying to convert my QNAP to unRAID, I came up against the old Marvell chipset failing issue. Lots of errors on boot, and eventually only 2 SATA bays usable on a 4-port NAS. What, exactly is the issue with unRAID not working with Marvell chipsets? It's clearly not a Linux issue as the QNAP runs linux by default, and plenty of other version of linux don't crap the bed if Marvell are involved. I understand it's something to do with VMs - is there a way of totally removing/disabling VM stuff if not wanted, to improve compatibility with Marvell?

Emby is pretty much the same, lots and lots of tiny files. Really, you want to be using a decent SSD that isn't going to burn out if you've got Plex Media Server on it - something with MLC flash, or some of the more recent 3D NAND. A cheap SSD is just that, cheap. Some of SanDisk's low-end drives are pure trash. I had a similar issue with a Samsung 750 EVO - Samsung's elcheapo drive. After a month I'd burned through 10% of it's life, I swapped it out for an Intel Pro 5400S which has the new Micron/Intel 3D NAND, and after 6 months it's still got 100% life. Edit: Just thinking, do you use the SSD for Plex's transcode directory? If you do, and you do a lot of transcoding, that really thrashes the SSD and will bun it out in no time. Try moving your transcode directory to a RAM disk, as it's purely temporary files.

I concur, looks like a bad cable to me.

This Kraken X62 replaces a Corsair H115i GT. The Corsair was about 3 years old, and making some odd gurgling and rattling noises from the pump, so I decided it was about done. It originally cooled an Athlon 9590 (the 220+W crazy chip), then a 6700K, 5930K, and a 7700K. My X62 came with the AM4 bracket - you just twist off the Intel one, put on the AM4 bracket. Then just screw in the standoffs in to the stock AMD backplate, and you're done.

The Archive drives have a 25GB non-shingled cache area. It all goes to crap when you fill that cache.

I can just about run my 1800X at 3.975GHz with air cooling (Arctic Freezer 33 with dual 1200rpm 120mm fans), but it runs close to 75C in Cinebench R15. When gaming it gets a bit warm due to my 980TI heating up the inside of the case. So, I'm using a Kraken X62 which keeps the CPU down at 50C at most. The CPU will do 4GHz but with lots of volts and lots of heat, but 3.975 is stable with a lot less volts. Oddly, my old 1700X did the same 3.975 on a PRIME X370-Pro, but I had terrible issues with that board and CPU, so was replaced by the 1800X and Strix X370-F by Amazon.

Yes, unRAID is actually better at keeping the CPU at a low speed as there's less stuff running in the background as you get in Windows. For pure storage, the 4220 is plenty, and probably will only go to full speed when writing to the array.

Just as well you're a computer repairs and retail business with a high degree of hardware skills, and solid networking skills. You wouldn't have realised that faulty memory and bad hard drives would cause an unreliable and unstable server otherwise, eh?

How is airflow over the controllers? LSI controllers generally have small heat sinks because they're designed to be used in forced cooling servers. In low air flow machines they can get well over 100C and freak out. Might be worth adding a fan blowing over the controllers, even a low RPM 80mm fan would do the job.

Just tried unRAID on my TS453Bmini. Doesn't work - the 453B has two SATA ports controlled by the Intel SOC, and the other two by a Marvell controller. So, the inner two bays work, the outer two don't work - they throw a load of timeout errors on boot and the drives aren't detected.

It's normal for linux. Buffered memory is a totally different thing, two different things with the same name.

I use an Asus one. It's nothing but a PCB connecting the PCI-E slot to the M.2 socket, there are basically no components on it other than the ones to control the LEDs.

The bursting is filling and emptying of the RAM cache.

Golds are the best drives WD make. They're HGST-based units, so far superior to the Red/Purple/White Helium drives which are lower quality. Though, I really like Seagate's 8TB Ironwolf Pro drives, they're super-quick and quite quiet.

Similar here, an i5-6500T. I prefer having the VPN on the router - the VPN isn't much use if the server dies/crashes or the network switch craps out or something. My previous router, an Asus RT-AC87U could run OpenVPN no problems, but it had a fast dual core SOC. I'm not sure what the TPLink has under the hood, but it's not as fast as the Asus.

unRAID 6 is deathly slow on an AMD TurionII in a N40L Microserver. I highly doubt it'll run on a C-60 which is half the speed.

Looking to do similar myself, though with a MSI board and a dual port Intel NIC. pfsense is excellent, at work our firewall is pfsense running on an old Core2Duo Optiplex, though with pfsense 2.5 coming that needs AES-NI I'll have to upgrade that to something more modern. I currently have a TPLink VR2800 router/modem combo, but it chokes running OpenVPN.

I have three 8TB WD Whites now, which are quieter and use less power. The Seagates were worth more used as they still had warranty, so they were the ones to go. I had no problems with them, and would still recommend to anyone running unRAID.

Just sold my two 8TB Archive drives, both had over a year run time on them. Got £80 each from the local electronic swapshop, which isn't bad. No hassle, compared to selling on eBay and shipping, risk of bad buyer returning them, etc.

WD Blue 4TB - WD40EZRZ - bought batch of 4. 2 died within a month. Replaced by WD, refurbished drives run much cooler and quieter than originals. WD Red 5TB - WD50EFRX - bad sectors after just under a year, sent back to WD. WD replaced with a 4TB Blue. 6 months of arguing with WD eventually got it replaced with a 5TB Purple.

USB3 is fine as long as you're using the native chipset USB controller. It all goes wrong if you try to use addon controllers (AsMedia, and the likes). I use a USB3 Kingston on my H170 board and it's been fine for over a year.