Thoughts on new low CPU usage build (Plex and downloads mainly)

[The_Bell]

Hello unraid community,

 

I have been lurking on this forum for a few days and I'd finally like to ask for some advice on a new build I'm planning.

 

Some context

First of all, a little bit of context of where I am at the moment and why I want to upgrade. I currently have 2 machines in my attic: a Synology DS418j with 4x4TB WD Red drives (they are WD40EFRX model so actually CMR, 5400RPM). This is currently set up as SHR2 (2 drive fault tolerance). It's probably the most entry level NAS Synology offers, and was bought like 4 years ago when I just wanted storage and the box had to be in the living room (so had to be small and quiet). Alongside the NAS I repurposed what used to be my main computer into a server that has a few apps on it: Plex, Sonarr/Radarr, Transmission, NZBHydra/SABnzbd for all my media needs, and finally Roon Server for straming music. This computer is an i7-2600k, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SATA SSD drive, a Geforce 1070 GPU (I used to to PC gaming), on an Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard.

 

I have at the moment 2 problems with this setup:

 

- I am running out of space on the NAS.

- The PC I use as a server, while working fine, is quite power hungry for what it currently does which is very little (a bit of network downloading, some transcoding when needed but rarely since most of my Plex clients can direct play). It draws about 65W on idle, going all the way up to 90W when doing some mild workloads, to 130W when doing some software transcoding).

 

Now because I bought a 4 bay NAS, my storage upgrade options are very limited. I can either replace all 4 drives and get 4 new 8TB WD Red Plus drives, or I can get a new 8 bay Synology and keep adding more 4TB drives to it. If I replace all drives I'm gonna end up with 4 drives I have no use for. If I buy an 8 drive Synology that's 1000 EUR, so I thought instead to consider an alternative: buy a new computer to set up unraid on it, and consolidate the NAS and the server into a single machine.

 

Proposed build

Having had a look around, I think I could build something based on this:

 

- Gigabyte C246M-WU4 (has 8 SATA ports, 2 NVM ports)

- Fractal Design Node 804 case

- Intel i3-9100 (I can use iGPU for transcoding Plex when needed, and for the rest of the workload that CPU should be more than enough, but also I keep my upgrade options open for something more powerful in the future like a Xeon if I want ECC or an i5/i7 if not)

- 32 GB of RAM (I was thinking I don't need ECC to be honest)

- 2 NVM drives to use as cache drives or as application drives

 

With a setup like this, I could start off by adding the 4 existing drives, set 2 of them as parity and 2 of them as data. This would get me the same storage I currently have but all in a single server.

 

After that, I was looking at the following upgrade path for storage:

 

- I can keep adding 4TB drives (up to in total as my storage needs grow, and keep 2 drives for parity.

- Alternatively I can start looking at bigger hard drives (to be used as parity first) and do the same.

 

So I have a few questions regarding this setup:

 

- First of all, does it sound like a sensible plan?

- With the current specs and maxed out hard drives (8) and given the case and MoBo chosen,what PSU would you recommend me getting (both in terms of Watts and type/size?

- Thoughts on the i3-9100? I'm quite confident it should be able to handle it all, but any inputs would be appreciated. Is the stock cooler good enough for it?

- Should I really bother with ECC? Feels like there's no need for it really, if I stay away from ZFS?

- Any recommendations on what memory and what nvm drive(s) to get that are good value for money?

- Am I missing something important?

 

I don't have any specific budget in mind but I think it'd make sense to keep the cost below what a new 8 bay synology would cost me (currently I see them for about 1000€)

 

One last thing: my current Asus Sabertooth P67 has 6 SATA ports from an Intel P67 chipset (2xsata 6gbps and 4x sata 3gbps) and from a Marvell controller (2xsata 6gbps), and I have a Corsair Carbide 300R case which has space for 4 interal bays and 3 external bays (which I could use with a adaptor as internal). I was also wondering if it'd make sense to maybe build the unraid server in my current system, see how I like it overall, and then maybe move it to the new hardware later? How hard is it to move an unraid setup to a new hardware? It might not be worth the trouble. And in case I wanted to explore this option, what considerations should I give to what SATA ports to use to connect my HDDs and my SATA SSD?

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited December 7, 2021 by The_Bell

[trurl]

2 hours ago, The_Bell said:

start off by adding the 4 existing drives, set 2 of them as parity and 2 of them as data.

Unraid must format any disk it will use in the array or pools, so you will have to get the data off those. In any case you should always have another copy of anything important and irreplaceable. Parity on any system is not a substitute for backup.

 

With so few data disks you might consider single parity.

2 hours ago, The_Bell said:

Marvell controller

not recommended

 

Your proposed build looks good and will be fine for intended use and good upgrade path as you mentioned. Changing hardware is easy. I have upgraded everything in my system at least once and it always just worked.

[JonathanM]

2 hours ago, The_Bell said:

Should I really bother with ECC?

 

[The_Bell]

19 hours ago, JonathanM said:

 

Thanks. I'll bear that in mind. The Gigabyte specs mention they support ECC unbuffered memory, as opposed to registered ECC. Would a module from Kingston like this one be OK? https://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KSM26ED8_16HD.pdf