First Unraid Build Sanity Check

[yossarian86]

I'm looking to make the move to unraid but figured it might be wise to let others eyeball my plans first to make sure I'm not about to step in something with my build.  My needs are pretty tame, I've got about 25TB of data spread across a couple of snapraid arrays. I'd only be using this unraid box for the media storage and to run plex. At absolute most I'll only ever be transcoding 3 streams at once, and realistically it will only be doing one at a time 90% of the time and two at a time occasionally.

 

With this in mind I'm going pretty budget for the board/cpu, this is primarily to get everything consolidated, move from multiple single parity snapraid arrays to a single double parity unraid setup, and to give me some room to grow storage wise.

 

Case: Rosewill RSV-R4000U 4U Server Chassis Rackmount Case | 8 3.5" HDD Bays, 3 5.25" Devices

MB: ASRock H310CM-HDV/M.2 LGA 1151 (300 Series)

CPU: Intel Core i3 9th Gen - Core i3-9100

RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4

HBA: H310 PERC flashed to IT mode

Power Supply: EVGA 650 B5

Drives: Seagate IronWolf 12TB NAS Hard Drive x 8 (2 for parity, 6 for data)

Cache Drive: Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 2280

Unraid OS Drive: Sandisk 32GB Cruzer Fit CZ33 USB 2.0

Misc: 

Cable Matters Internal Mini SAS to SATA Cable x 2

StarTech - PYO4SATA .com 15.7-Inch (400mm) SATA Power Splitter Adapter Cable x 2

 

As you'll see I'm being pretty cheap with everything I can. The only thing I'm already sitting on is the flashed HBA and a few of the IronWolf 12TB's.  Everything but the drives is looking to only be about $700. 

 

My main points of doubt are:

 

• Should I shell out the little bit of extra cash to go with a i5-9400 considering my low # of transcode requirements and that I don't plan on running any VM's or dockers other than Plex.
• Am I making a bad call going for a cheaper board and older CPU, or am I just building to my actual needs.

 

Of course if anybody see's anything wrong other than that, any input would be much appreciated!

[Lolight]

On 10/16/2021 at 6:14 AM, yossarian86 said:

My needs are pretty tame, I've got about 25TB of data spread across a couple of snapraid arrays. I'd only be using this unraid box for the media storage and to run plex.

Case: Rosewill RSV-R4000U 4U Server Chassis Rackmount Case | 8 3.5" HDD Bays, 3 5.25" Devices

Are you absolutely set on going with a server chassis?

[yossarian86]

  

30 minutes ago, Lolight said:

Are you absolutely set on going with a server chassis?

 

Not absolutely, but I'm leaning heavily that direction. Office already has multiple towers in it and I'd like to get a cabinet and start stacking vertically instead of having pc's scattered about.

 

Edit: I think I might see where you're going though. If I'm going to go with a 4u better to go with the 15 bay and a board that can take 2 HBAs. Make use of the big ass space?

Edited October 19, 2021 by yossarian86

[Lolight]

On 10/19/2021 at 11:05 AM, yossarian86 said:

Office already has multiple towers in it and I'd like to get a cabinet and start stacking vertically instead of having pc's scattered about.

 

Edit: I think I might see where you're going though. If I'm going to go with a 4u better to go with the 15 bay and a board that can take 2 HBAs. Make use of the big ass space?

You've mentioned that you only have about 25TB of data.

Any specific reason for other multiple towers?

Getting a cabinet and going vertical sounds quite radical considering your "tame" needs.

Sorry, you don't provide much info on that.

My only point behind questioning you server chassis choice over a regular tower was based on the apparent mismatch between the stated needs and the proposed solution.

[yossarian86]

8 hours ago, Lolight said:

You've mentioned that you only have about 25TB of data.

Any specific reason for other multiple towers?

Getting a cabinet and going vertical sounds quite radical considering your "tame" needs.

Sorry, you don't provide much info on that.

My only point behind questioning you server chassis choice over a regular tower was based on the apparent mismatch between the stated needs and the proposed solution.

 

Right now I've got three boxes running in the office. My old daily driver tower, an old gpu mining rig repurposed into a headless storage box (not even in a case it's pvc pipe and wood), and my current daily driver tower. Each one has a 4 disk single parity snapraid array in it and they're all pretty much full.  Ideally I'd like to consolidate all of that into a single storage box and set it up with enough unused capacity that I won't find myself stuffing disks into something else in a few years.

 

You make a good point about the mismatch though. If the goal is to consolidate putting this into a Node 804 or something would still let me decom the other boxes and end up using less space in the end just the same.

 

If I'm honest with myself the rackmount thing is more of a want than a need. I've wanted to have that for years so I could pilfer old hw from work and maybe move to rackmount ubiquiti network gear, etc etc.

 

I also just have general shopping problems. I've already been considering going with a lg1200 board and a 10/11th gen cpu because I haven't pulled the trigger on the cheaper stuff yet

 

Thanks for the feedback, I should definitely go give some of the standing cases some more looks.

[WETAFROMAN]

The 4 things that stand out to me on this build are - 

 

1. Why go 32GB of Ram if all you will be doing is running Unraid and a Plex Docker?

2. IDK if you have network security further down the line but you may end up wanting to run some of that on the server. Which will take up system resources.

3. You might want to get the i5. Sure you are transcoding probably only max 2-3 streams but depending on what your starting with will make a big difference. If it is DVD/480p SD quality no big deal. But if you are transcoding Bluray/1080p HD or 4K files.... that is going to be much more taxing.

4. One thing you did not mention is your CPU cooler. Neither the i3 or i5 come with one and even if they did I would never recommend a stock cooler for transcoding. Just make sure whatever you get is good quality.

[dgs2001]

If you end up with an LG1200 board as I did, make sure you choose one with good pcie coverage.

 

many of the newer boards have m.2 slots but if you use them this dissables onboard sata connections.

 

I made the mistake of grabbing a cheap Z490 msi motherboard. Its a great board but only has two full size pcie slots and 2 x m.2 slots and once the m.2 slots are in use some of the six onboard sata connections are dissabled.

I think Im going to end up having to change it for a larger e-atx sized board which will have better conenctivity.

 

 

It depends what your aiming for. I was using a repurposed dell T620 tower server with two x e52690 cpu's and 128gb ram. It coped with alot and never let me down, running file storage for a small company and many dockers and vm's too.

 

A change of job has meant building new and wanting to future proof the setup and being a cheapskate I went amazon warehouse LGA1200 with an 11th gen i91100 both used but fully functional.

All just seems a little leaner and smoother than the old hardware, but its impossible to know if that's just my perception.