Advice migrating from Synology 920+ to custom build Unraid server

[Kopernikus]

Hi,

 

At the moment I have a Synology 920+ NAS running with 4 6TB HDD's en two 512GB M2 SSD as cache.

The NAS is connected with 2 RJ45 cables to my Ubiquiti switch with link aggregation enabled.

I'm using this NAS for file storage and and running docker containers for plex, torrents, vpn, pi-hole, wireguard, etc.

However due the lack of proper docker support (outdated kernel) and poor hardware I wanted to swith to Unraid.

 

I have a few question and proposal setup:

 

Fractal design node 804

--> compact case but enough room to fit my 5 disks + 2 M2

 

Asrock H470M PRO 4 motherboard (6 --> only 5 usable if using both M2 SATA + 2 M2 slots)

--> enough SATA & M2 for my needs, possible to expand with add-in cards

 

Intel 10x00/K (still to decide)

--> Shoud I go with i5/i7 (think i9 is overkill)? And the K or non K version? But certainly with Quicksync support for Plex

 

Corsair DDR4 CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 8GG (16GB (2) or 32GB (4)

--> 16 or 32GB?

 

Corsair RM650, 650 Watt PSU (modular)

--> 650W enough?

 

Dark Rock Pro 3/4 CPU cooler or Corsair Hydro Series H100x

--> Air cooling or water? System only gona be used as NAS and trascoding no gaming etc. + will Dark Rock 4 fit or stick with 3?

 

Case FANS stock Fractal Design or Silent wings / Corsair AF/SP fans

--> Advice regarding case fans, leave the stock ones or replace them?

 

Migrate the 4 HDD's from my NAS + 1 spare (to be used for parity) & the two M2 SSD as cache in raid1

--> HDD still funtioning fine, and using to two M2's as cache

 

Optional ASUS XG-C100C 10Gbps network adapter

--> I was thinking of bonding the stock 1Gbps with this card (but lowering 10Gpbs --> 1Gbps) so I can aggregate it to my switch, however if I ever upgrade my siwtch to a 10Gbps I can disable the agregation and use only this card. Or is it better to only use the 1Gbps build-in? Or but an 1Gbps add-in for the aggragation?

 

And last question, shoud I buy a separate GPU? I now it can be used for Plex transcoding, but the CPU also has QuickSync, and the other hand 75% of my streams used direct play since most of the use Nvidia shield who can handle most formats.

 

Any tips and advice welcome 🙂

 

 

[Vr2Io]

1 hour ago, Kopernikus said:

--> Shoud I go with i5/i7 (think i9 is overkill)? And the K or non K version?

High clock rate more importance then high core count in general, except you need many core.

 

1 hour ago, Kopernikus said:

Corsair RM650, 650 Watt PSU (modular)

--> 650W enough?

If no extreme GPU, then it over kill, I like SFX PSU for small system, more room for cabling.

 

1 hour ago, Kopernikus said:

Dark Rock Pro 3/4 CPU cooler or Corsair Hydro Series H100x

--> Air cooling or water? System only gona be used as NAS and trascoding no gaming etc. + will Dark Rock 4 fit or stick with 3?

May be too big and heavy, I don't like overclock, willing keep all in balance and low power usage. I keep limit 9700K or 9800X in low power region, I need memory capacity, PCIe link more then other.

 

1 hour ago, Kopernikus said:

Optional ASUS XG-C100C 10Gbps network adapter

--> I was thinking of bonding the stock 1Gbps with this card (but lowering 10Gpbs --> 1Gbps) so I can aggregate it to my switch, however if I ever upgrade my siwtch to a 10Gbps I can disable the agregation and use only this card. Or is it better to only use the 1Gbps build-in? Or but an 1Gbps add-in for the aggragation?

No reason aggregate 10G and 1G to form 2G, any other machine plan with 10G ? Found a mainboard have 2.5G should better then add-on.

 

2 hours ago, Kopernikus said:

and the other hand 75% of my streams used direct play

I use direct play also, no Plex or transcode.

[lowlands]

Memory wise I'd go for 2x16GB straight away, leaves the option to upgrade later on if you'd ever want to. I'd say 3200mhz is the sweet spot in regards to speed, but that might be coming from an AMD Ryzen perspective. As that is what I run here.

 

Fractal Design makes excellent cases, I run my Unraid server in a Define R5 and just got a Define 7 for my new desktop machine. Haven't used the Node 804 myself, but that looks like an excellent case too. Cooling wise, the stock Fractal Design fans are pretty good. No real need to replace them, if you want to upgrade go Noctua. The Dark Rock Pro 4 is a great cooler on par with the Noctua NH-D15.

No reason the 4 HDD and 2 M2's won't work in your Unraid build. How are you going to migrate the data though? That might be something to think about.

I would personally not get the Asus XG-C100C card right now if you intend to only use it for link aggregation with the onboard 1Gb NIC. Maybe you'll want to go with fiber or a DAC later for 10Gb and then you're stuck with a RJ45 based card. My Unraid server and desktop machine were in the same room before and I had them linked up with two Mellanox ConnectX-3 cards and a DAC cable. The server has been upgraded and relocated to a different room, they are not both hooked up over the in wall Cat6 in my house and use Intel X550-T2 cards. The heat generated by RJ45 SFP+ modules is a real issue though. I run my Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S+RM switch with the cover removed and a 90mm Noctua fan directly above the two SFP+ modules. Looking to install some heatsinks on the SFP+ slots additionally too. If I had a good option to replace it with fiber runs I would do so for sure.

[Kopernikus]

18 hours ago, Vr2Io said:

If no extreme GPU, then it over kill, I like SFX PSU for small system, more room for cabling.

How many watt would you suggest then for the PSU?

I thought of getting Corsair SF450 Platinium 450W (SFX) then

 

Quote

May be too big and heavy, I don't like overclock, willing keep all in balance and low power usage. I keep limit 9700K or 9800X in low power region, I need memory capacity, PCIe link more then other.

 

What do you use as cooler? I'm not planning any overclock just simpele NAS for media streaming and my dockers. So maybe stock cooler?

Quote

 

No reason aggregate 10G and 1G to form 2G, any other machine plan with 10G ? Found a mainboard have 2.5G should better then add-on.

 

I use direct play also, no Plex or transcode.

No direct plans, I was just planning in the future if I upgrade my switch to a 10G switch, also my Synology now is connected with it's two 1Gbps ports aggrated, or do you think 1Gbps compared to 2Gbps aggragted won't make mucht difference?

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by Kopernikus

[Kopernikus]

17 hours ago, lowlands said:

Memory wise I'd go for 2x16GB straight away, leaves the option to upgrade later on if you'd ever want to. I'd say 3200mhz is the sweet spot in regards to speed, but that might be coming from an AMD Ryzen perspective. As that is what I run here.

If I'm gona stick with the motherboard I wanted then 3000Mhz is max (2933 or something), I was thinking to get 2X8GB and if needed adding 2X8GB more, I think in the scenario I will use unraid as file server/media server (plex) and running a few docker containers 32GB will be more then enough or am I wrong?

 

Quote

Fractal Design makes excellent cases, I run my Unraid server in a Define R5 and just got a Define 7 for my new desktop machine. Haven't used the Node 804 myself, but that looks like an excellent case too. Cooling wise, the stock Fractal Design fans are pretty good. No real need to replace them, if you want to upgrade go Noctua. The Dark Rock Pro 4 is a great cooler on par with the Noctua NH-D15.

Will the Dark Rock pro 4 fit? If I check partpicker site it says only the Dark rock pro 3 will fit?

 

Quote

 

No reason the 4 HDD and 2 M2's won't work in your Unraid build. How are you going to migrate the data though? That might be something to think about.

 

I have have enough spare external hdd's to move my data, I could do it other ways but I'lll make it to complicated then.

 

Quote

I would personally not get the Asus XG-C100C card right now if you intend to only use it for link aggregation with the onboard 1Gb NIC. Maybe you'll want to go with fiber or a DAC later for 10Gb and then you're stuck with a RJ45 based card. My Unraid server and desktop machine were in the same room before and I had them linked up with two Mellanox ConnectX-3 cards and a DAC cable. The server has been upgraded and relocated to a different room, they are not both hooked up over the in wall Cat6 in my house and use Intel X550-T2 cards. The heat generated by RJ45 SFP+ modules is a real issue though. I run my Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S+RM switch with the cover removed and a 90mm Noctua fan directly above the two SFP+ modules. Looking to install some heatsinks on the SFP+ slots additionally too. If I had a good option to replace it with fiber runs I would do so for sure.

Would it be better then to add in another 1Gbps card agregate with the build-in 1Gbps card? Or won't it make a big difference compared 1Gbps to 2Gbps (aggregated)? And you right in the case I upgrade my switch in the future to 10Gbps to buy a fiber DAC.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Kopernikus

[Vr2Io]

34 minutes ago, Kopernikus said:

How many watt would you suggest then for the PSU?

350w - 450w enough.

 

34 minutes ago, Kopernikus said:

What do you use as cooler?

Suggest NH-D9L - Noctua, it support mulit platform, no stock cooler.

 

34 minutes ago, Kopernikus said:

if I upgrade my switch to a 10G switch, also my Synology now is connected with it's two 1Gbps ports aggrated, or do you think 1Gbps compared to 2Gbps aggragted won't make mucht difference?

Aggregate ( first I don't like it because need two or more cable and make WOL not work ), it can't speed up in single transfer session. only multi session have effect.

If only Unraid was 10G, then really no different, except if several machine access Unraid in same time.

Edited December 13, 2020 by Vr2Io

[Kopernikus]

2 minutes ago, Vr2Io said:

Suggest NH-D9L - Noctua, it support mulit platform, no stock cooler.

Do you use it with 1 or 2 fans? Also did you replace the stock case fans with aftermarket?

2 minutes ago, Vr2Io said:

 

Aggregate ( first I don't it because need two or more cable and make WOL not work ), it can't speed up in single transfer session. only multi session have effect.

If only Unraid was 10G, then really no different, except if several machine access Unraid in same time.

Would it make a difference to a buy a double 1Gbps add-in and agragate those two compared to Agregate to build-in and a single 1Gbps add-in?

[Vr2Io]

3 minutes ago, Kopernikus said:

Do you use it with 1 or 2 fans? Also did you replace the stock case fans with aftermarket?

1 fan only, 9700K or 9800X no stock fan, even have I won't use.

 

5 minutes ago, Kopernikus said:

Would it make a difference to a buy a double 1Gbps add-in and agragate those two compared to Agregate to build-in and a single 1Gbps add-in?

It also same if aggregate two addon 1G or build-in + add-on.