13700k Gaming VM, Storage, Backup, Cloud new/used build

[JDTechSupport]

I recently learned that my unlimited Google Drive storage space will be cut off at some point in the near future so in looking for a more homebrew controlled solution I stumbled upon UnRaid.  Then my eyes were opened to the possiblities.  I work in tech but mostly AV/ end user stuff and not VM or server things.

 

I will start with what I am looking to consolidate/replace.

I have a synology 420+ with 2*8TB and 2*6TB Seagate Ironwolfs.  That is primarily used for backing up photos, music, and personal computers.

That space is very underutilized at the moment.

I also have a headless plex/htpc that has a Ryzen 3 2200G, 500GB 970 Evo Plus M.2 SSD, 5TB 2.5" drive for Plex.

Then there is my gaming PC which is a Ryzen 5600x, 1660 Super, 1TB WD 840 M.2 SSD.

My goal is to consolidate all these functions into a single unit that also has some level of data redundancy.  Keeping my data local, backed up, and accessible is also a priority.

 

So my plan right now is the next post (updated).

 

Reading the other posts it looks like I will also need a PCIe USB hub to use on the VM for gaming (headset/controller are usb).  I looked quickly on amazon and they all seem like generic branded ones.  Is there a model that is recommended?

 

Does all of this seem reasonable?  Expansion is not of huge concern.  I woulds say compatibility/functionality is more my goal.

 

Thanks for any/all help.

Edited October 7, 2022 by JDTechSupport
plans changed

[JDTechSupport]

Couple of changes/additions/updates.

 

While I like the Sliger cases, I don't think it is going to work long term for me in this instance.

 

RACK - PTRK-14MDK (free)

UPS - Cyberpower OR1000LCDRM1U 1000VA/600W https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/smart-app-lcd/or1000lcdrm1u/

CASE - Rosewill RSV-R4100U https://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rsv-r4100u-black/p/9SIA072GJ92825

PSU - Corsair RM850 (2021) https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/RM-Series™/p/CP-9020235-NA

MOBO - MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4 ATX LGA1700 https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z690-A-WIFI-DDR4

CPU - i7-12700k or possibly 13600-13700k.  extra cores will be great and not super concerned with transcoding a ton of video.

RAM - still unsure about this. I'm guessing a minimum of 32GB

STORAGE (this is all stuff I currently own) 

  - HDD 3.5" Array

    - 2* 8TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS 7200rpm

    - 2* 6TB Seagate Ironwolf NAS 7200rpm

    - 2* 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm (ST3000DM001)

  - HDD 2.5" Array?

    - 2* 2TB Seagate Firecuda Hybrid

    - 1* 5TB Seagate (ST5000LM000) 5400rpm

  - SSD - Cache (sata on mobo)

    - 120GB Samsung 840 EVO

    - 240GB Adata SU630

    - 256GB Sandisk Z400s

  - NVME - Cache/VM

    - 1TB WD SN850

    - 1TB Samsung 980 Pro

    - 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus

HBA - LSI SAS 9207-8i (ebay $45) Array

5.25" - ICYDOCK ToughArmor MB604SPO-B (4*2.5" and Slim Blu-ray)

GPU - PNY 1660 Super XLR8 Single Fan or RTX 3070 MSI Ventus 2X

UNRAID USB FLASH DRIVE - SAMSUNG FIT Plus 64GB

USB PCIe Card - FebSmart PCIE 4-Ports Superspeed 5Gbps USB 3.0 Expansion Card https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q2BHHRM

 

 

Case comes with fans but I will probably upgrade them to noctua.

 

 

[Lolight]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:31 AM, JDTechSupport said:

    - 2* 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm (ST3000DM001)

  - HDD 2.5" Array?

    - 2* 2TB Seagate Firecuda Hybrid

    - 1* 5TB Seagate (ST5000LM000) 5400rpm

 UNRAID USB FLASH DRIVE - SAMSUNG FIT Plus 64GB

IMHO (it's all relative):

 

1. Those smaller Seagate drives are not worth the trouble for the storage space they provide - occupy limited SATA ports and introduce additional failure points.

2. Do you really want an HBA card? With available at the moment 14-20TB drives you might not need one any time soon.

3. Free rack. Do you must use it (like really, really want) in a home environment? Asking because I don't know about your prior experience with server grade hardware (could be addictive (if becomes a hobby 😀) and many other negative things considering home use).

4. The case - seems to be very flow restrictive (related to my point about the free rack). You want to keep your drives cool. Btw the Sligers seem to have much better flowing.

5.  Your USB flash drive selection is not great. Go with smaller USB 2.0 drives. They're cooler running and more reliable judging by the board's consensus, e.g. 4-8 GB Kingston DataTraveler SE (cool running, all metal case).  But they're becoming hard to find, the USB 2.0 drives in general. Also beware of fakes!

Edited October 9, 2022 by Lolight

[JDTechSupport]

Thanks for the reply!  Its helpful to have someone else's input. 

 

1.  Yeah I figured they weren't much use, but I have them laying around.  Probably don't need any of the 2.5" HDD drives right now.

2.  HBA is certainly not necessary at this point.  My thinking was because of the speeds of the NAS array drives I would rather keep the MOBO sata slots open for SSD cache pool stuff.  I have a stack of 2.5 ssds that are not much use otherwise.

3.  I'm already living that rack equipment life, but i get a lot of second hand stuff from work, so the $$ hasn't been an issue yet.  The rack is in use currently and the locking door is excellent for keeping the little ones out.  It is housing a sonnet rackmini mount with one m1 mac mini, 1U PDU, 1U UPS, 1*3U drawer, 1*2U drawer, Silverstone GD09 gaming PC.  It's shallow though so cases longer than 21ish inches may become problematic.  Of course this will all need a good redo when the server is built.

4.  Air flow was definitely concerning with this case.  It was kind of a tossup between the one I listed and the RSV-R4000U.  Seems that may be the smarter way to go. 

5.  I was going off spaceinvader's recommendations which are now impossible to find in such small sizes.  Any thoughts on the SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ33-016G-G35 ?

 

I was thinking of it just as throw all this old hardware in a box and use it as needed, but that may just be adding complexity and issues (2.5"HDD and such).

I'm still very tempted to move my gaming setup into a sliger 3U unit.  May do that if I need to save space in the future or watercool these next gen hot CPU's.  I would like to fully consolidate into one unit, but need to see how the VM works out first.

 

Thanks again @Lolight

 

 

[Lolight]

16 hours ago, JDTechSupport said:

5.  I was going off spaceinvader's recommendations which are now impossible to find in such small sizes.  Any thoughts on the SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ33-016G-G35 ?

That's the same drive that I've originally purchased for my Unraid based on its small profile, but then decided to place it on the inside of the case, connected to the motherboard via an adapter.

Therefore switched to the much bigger, all metal Kingston DataTraveler.

 

Just out of interest, I run a little app called USB Device Tree Viewer, just to see how those two drives compare to each other on specs.

The one thing that got my attention was a difference in the demanded current metric, with the Sandisk consuming twice as much current, as Kingston.

 

Then, just as in the Spaceinvader's test, I left them both sitting for a couple of hours, idling.

The Cruzer Fit turned out to be much warmer to touch compared to the DataTraveler.

I don't know if the higher demanded current design leads to higher running temperatures.

My observation leads me to that conclusion but it's all speculative at this point.

 

I also don't know if and how any particular drive's controller handles the sleep mode.

A big difference in idling temps in the Spaceinvader's test might be indicative of a sleep mode failure.

 

It would be nice if Spaceinvader would update his test by altering the test parameters, e.g. USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0, low demanded current vs high.

The results might allow to establish some patterns on how those two metrics relate to idling temperatures (important to Unraid in case if the USB drives do indeed spend the vast majority of their time in the idle state).

 

Pulled out my small "collection" of old USB drives.

It's a very small sample, skewed towards the older USB 2.0 standard.

On the demanded current metric alone, some of the USB 2.0 drives showed the lowest numbers, but the spread among the brands is huge!!! 100-500mA

As applied to Unraid, the idle state management is probably much more meaningful to the drive's overall temperature and maybe longevity.

 

In conclusion.

The USB flash drives are so cheap and easily replaceable, it's probably even silly to ask someone like Spaceinvader to run another test.

For whatever it's worth...Here are the app readouts of my drives, (taken at the same USB 2.0 port):

 

USB 3.0 flash drives

 

Sandisk Ultra 16GB

Silicon Power 16GB

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Lolight

[Lolight]

USB 2.0 flash drives

 

Kingston DataTraveler SE 8GB

Mushkin Prospector 16GB

Patriot Flex 32GB

Sandisk Cruzer Edge 8GB

Sandisk Cruzer Fit 16GB

Transcend JetFlash 8GB

Transcend JetFlash 16GB

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Lolight

[hellasus0001]

I've personally been running with a Samsung BAR Plus 32gb usb 3.1 through the usb 3.0 pins to 2 usb 3.0 sockets on two seperate motherboards the past few years - I had a bunch of options such as a few kingston 16gb and this samsung stick, which i had several of too - and it's been working without issues for about 2-3 years. It's good to know in my opinion, because some newer motherboards don't even have usb 2.0 pins anymore. Not that you need to use usb 3 sticks in the usb 3 sockets, it's just nice to know it works well enough as usb 2.0 sticks.

Edited October 13, 2022 by hellasus0001

[JDTechSupport]

@Lolight  Thanks for your testing.  I went ahead and pulled out the stash of old usb drives and ran through them (all on the same USB 2.0 port). 

Here is my list.  I didn't screen shot them but I recorded the demanded current.

 

Verbatim 4GB USB 2.0 - 500mA

Kingston MicroSD USB A/C w/32gb card - Realtek - 500mA

Sandisk USB a/c flip style 256GB - 224mA

Kingston Datatraveler Kyson 3.0 128GB - 300mA

Kingston DTSE9 G2 128GB- 300mA

Samsung USB 3.0 128GB - 300mA

Kingston (Toshiba) DTSE9 16GB - 200mA

PNY 32GB USB 2.0 - 200mA

Sandisk Cruzer Glide USB 2.0 16GB - 200mA

Sandisk Cruzer Edge USB 2.0 8GB - 200mA

Canakit MicroSD Reader USB 2.0 w/ 32GB card - 100mA

 

I was shocked by the microsd reader. 

 

 

[Lolight]

15 hours ago, JDTechSupport said:

I went ahead and pulled out the stash of old usb drives and ran through them (all on the same USB 2.0 port). 

I was shocked by the microsd reader.

Thanks for posting your results.

I was also shocked by my Patriot Flex number - 500mA.

Five times as much as the Kingston and Transcend, both of which tested at 100mA.

The Flex is more than a decade old. I was using it extensively for a couple of years after the purchase.

I remember it running exceedingly hot, much more so than any other of my USB 2.0 drives.

At the time I've attributed the hot running temperatures to the drive's minuscule physical dimensions.

But now think that the demanded current design might be the culprit.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Lolight