First Home NAS Build - A bit indecisive right now and could use some help

[YaBoiHuni]

Hey folks,

Looking at a beginners home NAS solution for Plex/Jellyfin, Backups of 2 Mac Laptops and 2 PC's.

I have been strongly considering the following:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($128.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($175.99)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($78.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($17.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($79.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 8 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($120.00)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 PE 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($97.13 @ Amazon)
Total: $698.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 

OS & Dockers: Kingston A400 240GB

Cache: WD SN700 500GB

Storage: 4x8TB IronWolf in Raid 1

 

How does this setup look? Is there anything I should worry about regarding my choice of OS/Docker storage? Is 240GB enough for the OS/Dockers?

 

 

Cheers

Edited January 16 by YaBoiHuni

[YaBoiHuni]

Continued research over the weekend and changed the build a bit more to include a NVME Cache and larger OS/Docker Storage. Any advice would be awesome!

[Aran]

The hardware looks good but what do you mean with 'OS' on the kingston A400? Dou you mean VM's?

You can ditch the Kingston SSD and use the WD NVME for docker and cache. There's no need for a cache-only SSD. (in your case)

 

Just for asking, but have you considered buying used hardware? You don't need the newest hardware for your needs. I will save you a couple 100 bucks. (assuming you already have your hdd's)

 

Also, unraid is not based on traditional raid. It's actually just JBOD with one or more parity disks.

[YaBoiHuni]

2 hours ago, Aran said:

The hardware looks good but what do you mean with 'OS' on the kingston A400? Dou you mean VM's?

You can ditch the Kingston SSD and use the WD NVME for docker and cache. There's no need for a cache-only SSD. (in your case)

 

Just for asking, but have you considered buying used hardware? You don't need the newest hardware for your needs. I will save you a couple 100 bucks. (assuming you already have your hdd's)

 

Also, unraid is not based on traditional raid. It's actually just JBOD with one or more parity disks.

I clearly didn't not do enough research. I did not realize that unRAID did not run directly off a internal drive, but a USB instead. I think I'm going to plan to drop the 240GB drive and pick up a reliable USB for the OS. Also, yes I do plan on buying mostly everything used since there's a market for these items (except the drives since I have them already).

 

Then put the dockers and VM's on the Cache drive.

 

I was also recommended these in the case I want Intel QuickSync.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hmDRtn i3-12100

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VZcDv3 i5-12400

 

 

Edited January 16 by YaBoiHuni

[JonathanM]

42 minutes ago, YaBoiHuni said:

I clearly didn't not do enough research. I did not realize that unRAID did not run directly off a internal drive, but a USB instead

Unraid doesn't run off the USB, it unpacks from it on boot and runs directly out of RAM, only occasionally writing to the USB when config or state changes are made, and reading those changes during boot time. Think of the USB as Unraid's firmware.

[Lolight]

4 hours ago, YaBoiHuni said:

I think I'm going to plan to drop the 240GB drive and pick up a reliable USB for the OS.

 

I was also recommended these in the case I want Intel QuickSync.

With Unraid it's generally recommended to only go with USB 2.0 for reliability purposes.

Agree on Intel

 

Also:

 

[YaBoiHuni]

10 hours ago, Lolight said:

With Unraid it's generally recommended to only go with USB 2.0 for reliability purposes.

Agree on Intel

 

Also:

 

Right on, thanks for that. I have a handful of USB's around me.....all Sandisk acquired over the years lol, guess those will be continued to be used for ISO.

 

I do however, have a Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 16GB but its USB 3.0. I should probs avoid that one too huh?

[Aran]

I use a Sandisk USB thumb drive on one of my servers and it still works. My other server uses one that doesn't even have a brandname (on the outside). Older sandisks will be just fine. My setup uses only 800MB.

 

If you stream your media outside your LAN then yes, that intel Quicksync could come in handy. I don't know the price difference between 16GB and 32GB but 16GB is enough.

 

As a sidenote: regarding IOMMU groups of the devices on a motherboard, it seems to me that i'm always lucky with asrock motherboards. I don't know why and i don't say that asrock is the way to go but it's what i feel.

[Lolight]

14 hours ago, YaBoiHuni said:

I have a handful of USB's around me.....all Sandisk acquired over the years lol, guess those will be continued to be used for ISO.

 

I do however, have a Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3 16GB but its USB 3.0. I should probs avoid that one too huh?

There were many reports posted on this forum, including in the post above, of Sandisk USB 2.0 lasting for many years without a failure.

I think the most likely reason for the above-mentioned PSA being a flood of cheap Sandisk counterfeits entering the marketplace.

 

Yes, avoid USB 3.0

Edited January 18 by Lolight