Hoping the good folks here can help. I’m wanting to build a new server but this one won’t be running anything other than Unraid to serve files mostly to my Plex Server and general file storage. I’m thinking 6-8 drives (including parity) will be enough long term but need some help on where to start.

 

I don’t think I need a rack style system just some kind of Tower / AMD or Intel build? This could be serving up to 5 streams of data to Plex at once mostly 720p content.

 

Any advice on how to get started with the build would be great. I’ve been using Unraid on HP Microservers for a while now which used to be a good low cost base unit but they seem to have all but gone now.

Edited December 23, 20205 yr by kanine

Get a Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 used.  Can do 8 x 3.5 drives and has 2 x 5.25" drive bays.

 

Thanks, I've been going through the NAS Killer 4.0 guide. Wish there was just a simple 'get this' Mobo / CPU combo board when low power usage is the goal. I'm hoping to hit somewhere around 30-60W when idle it seems quite achievable.

 

I currently use 6Tb MyClouds which idle around 5W but I have 6... Hence the low power goal.

Edited December 25, 20205 yr by kanine

HP Elite 8300 Mini Tower.

add a 3-in-3, 4-in-3, or 5-in-3 cage to the 3 external 5.25" bays, in addition to the 3 internal 3.5" bays, to get you to the capacity of your choice.

 

For reference, when I did some power testing before I built my server, my HP 8000 SFF with Core2Quad Q9650 processor and 16GB ram, idled at just over 27W.  I would expect an 8300 to be something comparable, and they ship with a 320W power supply.

1 hour ago, sota said:

idled at just over 27W

That sounds good, I'm considering a build around the Intel Core i3 10100 Processor but I got a feeling it's gonna idle a bit higher than that.

On 12/27/2020 at 5:32 AM, kanine said:

That sounds good, I'm considering a build around the Intel Core i3 10100 Processor but I got a feeling it's gonna idle a bit higher than that.

It should idle low but will depend on the system.

 

A more basic motherboard with less VRMs will use less power at idle.

 

Use a suitable PSU, gold or better and not oversized. 

 

My Xeon E5 2660V3 idles at 40w for the bare board a GT710 and 4 registered Dimms so I would expect the I3 will be ~20w.

 

You then need to add a watt or 2 for each spun down drive and 3-4W for each 120mm cooling fan.

 

Ideally the board will have a decent fan controller so the fans respond to case temp and can be spun down.

 

Cooling is usually the issue with lots of drives so best to have them mounted right behind a fan wall.

What settings in BIOS to keep watts down when system idle?

 

77W Idle: Disks spun down

I112W Idle: Disks spun up

138W to 155W transcode 4k to 1080p