Building First Unraid Server From Ground Up

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

I am building my first Unraid server from the ground up.  I did a list all my specs I thought through below.... but my main two questions are about the CPU (core vs Xeon) and RAM (ECC or no ECC).  I have my goals of use in mind, some hardware I THOUGHT I was ready to buy.  So I wanted share my thoughts and a few questions to clarify what I should focus on hardware wise.

 

What I am Doing

Here is what I am going to use it for (in order of priorities):

 

1. Plex server.  I currently have about 15 people on Plex.  Some use it all the time some haven't in months.  But if I had a better system, I would love about another 15 or so family / friends.
   • I would be running ARRs / Tautulli. 
   • Encoding original and library movies.  Obviously Transcoding live streaming.
   • 95% of my library are currently 1080p for movies and 720p for TV.  But I am going to start to include 4k movies and 1080p TV. I will also be starting to have H.265 (vs H.264) encoded videos. 
   • So I will need a dedicated iGPU / GPU for just transcoding and a CPU with lots of Cores & Threads
2. NAS
   • I already already have 6 WD Red Plus drives (4x10GB and 2x14TB).  The two 14TB will be parity, leaving me with 40TB usable.... minus the 15 TB of movies and TV shows I already have will leave 25 TB free.
   • I plan adding another 2 WD Reds by the end of year.....so my total NAS will be a (minimum) of 8 spinning drives.
3. Gaming
   • I have a large collection on Steam. 
4. VM
   • Due to Adobe / Microsoft suites I will be using one Windows VM.  
   • This is where I will also be using Steam.
   • Will need a second discrete GPG. 
     • Something decent but does not need to top of the line.  I want to play FPS, but don't care if every individual strand of hair and blade of grass move independently at 60FPS.  So Nvidia 3060 to 4060.
5. And I am sure once I start getting playing around with Unraid, some other fun plugins / dockers.

 

Original Hardware Thoughts

With Plex server / transcoding in mind, I know he goes off on a few tangents, but this video really does a good job in explaining how the Intel Core i9-13900K 13th Gen (with 770 iGPU) works for a Plex server doing 4k TRANSCODING can be pushed to now:

 

For hardware here is my initial list I was going to go with.... 

• Intel Core i9-13900K 13th Gen (with 770 iGPU)

• Motherboard (still looking into)

  • Z790 chipset 

  • As many SATA ports and PCI slots (and channels for PCI to support the next bullet point) as possible

  • Supports bifurcation.  I do plan on adding PCI cards that will have multiple NVMe SSD / SATA expanded ports.  Without bifurcation, it will only be able to see only 1 of the X number of SSDs attached to the PCI SSD expansion card

• 64 GB DDR5 5200Mhz (or faster)  --- please see my ECC question in the last section

• Nvidia 3060 to 4060 (left over budget will decide)

• 1000 to 1350 power supply (fully modular)

• Liquid cooling (that includes cooling to the CPU)

• Lots of HD bays... it will be a NAS.  I have 6 SATA WD Red drives ready to be installed right now, plus at least 1 or 2 more by the EOY (usually from Black Friday deals)....so ideally supporting 8 SATA drives

• Multiple NVMe SSD slots would be very handy in the motherboard (at least two)

  • I will start with only 1 NVMe SSD for initial purchase (budget wise)

    • I will eventually have a total of 5 NVMe SSDs.  Two for Plex cache and two for Unraid cache (both of these will be parity so total of 4 NVMe) plus one more NVMe SSD for download / file transfer to the spinning disks
    •  2 in the Motherboard ports and the others will need to be visible and available via a PCI expansion card, so lanes and bifurcation on the motherboard is important.
• Two NICs (10GbE speed ideally...this coud be a PCI add on later if there was enough slots available)

 

Questions

Memory ECC Question

• Due to Plex server, this will be on 24/7.  Since the OS resides in the RAM.... how important / vital is ECC? 
• So I didn't realize that apparently ECC memory is only available with Xeon CPU?  

 

CPU

• I am not familiar with Xeon line of CPUs as much but they seem a LOT more expensive and not sure how they compare to the new Intel Core i9-13900K 13th Gen (with 770 iGPU).
  • Which Xeon CPU would be equivalent to the Intel Core i9-13900K 13th Gen?
    • Dell shared a quote with me that price wise they they offered a Intel Xeon W-2295.  But looking at PassMark... it does NOT even come close to the i9-13900K  https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/3701vs5022/Intel-Xeon-W-2295-vs-Intel-i9-13900K

 

It seems on several of the you-built-it sites the specs seem very reasonable / reachable with a i9-13900K setup above within a $3,000 budget. 

 

But I have a $3,000 credit at Dell (basically as a payment for a job I did for friend's company) and believe it or not after consulting with their sales consultants, Dell cannot meet my needs until maybe AFTER their Spring releases (which they have not even announced to their internal teams yet).  They surprisingly do NOT have many (or any) i9-13900K options that have more than 2 SATA ports with very few (or no) PCI slot options after adding an Nvidia card.

 

As a whole.... Am I on the right track?....totally off base?.... anything major I am overlooking or missing or misunderstanding?

Edited March 16, 2023 by Hobbes_Is_Real
correct typo / spelling errors

[Lolight]

20 hours ago, Hobbes_Is_Real said:

Questions

Memory ECC Question

• Due to Plex server, this will be on 24/7.  Since the OS resides in the RAM.... how important / vital is ECC? 
• So I didn't realize that apparently ECC memory is only available with Xeon CPU?  

 

CPU

• I am not familiar with Xeon line of CPUs as much but they seem a LOT more expensive and not sure how they compare to the new Intel Core i9-13900K 13th Gen (with 770 iGPU).

You don't need ECC on a Plex server.

MBs built on the w680 chipset also support ECC.

 

Go with a consumer oriented hardware.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Lolight

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

6 hours ago, Lolight said:

MBs built on the w680 chipset also support ECC.

 

Go with a consumer oriented hardware.

WOW.....I did NOT know this.  Everyone has been saying ONLY the XEON supports ECC.  I have to look if the Z690 chipset supports ECC too????  Either way, I think I am strongly leaning to consumer core.  Easier to get, I can overboard for the budget to future proof it. and probably have a little left in the budget for some colorful bling.

[Lolight]

10 minutes ago, Hobbes_Is_Real said:

I have to look if the Z690 chipset supports ECC too????

No, it doesn't.

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/compare.html?productIds=218834,218833

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

You guys have opened my eyes. 

 

Okay.....Well, that makes the decision just a little easier.  I know the X690 made some huge steps in connecting the CPU and iGPU working together.... but I think that seals it for me.  I am going to use a w680 based motherboard, ECC memory, and the i9-13900K 13th Gen (with 770 iGPU).  The rest till be filled in and upgraded or downgraded to budget.

 

ECC was at the core of my eternal mental debate.

[Hoopster]

17 minutes ago, Hobbes_Is_Real said:

ECC was at the core of my eternal mental debate.

Unlike some other NAS OSes, Unraid does not require or even recommend ECC RAM; however, since I tend to use server/workstation motherboards which support ECC RAM and I use entry-level Xeons on these motherboards, I often go with ECC RAM on my 24x7 uptime systems.

 

I currently have ECC RAM in my main server and non-ECC in the backup server which is not powered on all the time.

 

Too my knowledge, I have never experienced RAM-related issues on either system.

[Hobbes_Is_Real]

So.....my thoughts are, use ECC memory with the Plex server it will be reading / writing / encoding / transcoding a lot.  Plus it will have 6-8 drives NAS and playing games.

 

Then I plan on piecing together a second server with old parts of of old computers for a NAS only for colder storage.  That one I was thinking not doing ECC.

 

Since I am IT minded, my natural impulse is always safer than sorry (maybe it is IT redundancy OCD LOL)

[engin33rh3r3]

What did you end up settling with? I built a 14900k with 128gb ddr5 5600 ecc but I don’t have enough lanes to run all the u.2 ssds. Now looking at Xeon, AMD, or a bifurcation card for the 14900k.