Beginner's Home Server Build - sanity check

[dmk0]

Hi all,

 

I've already posted on various forums, but I would love to get a few opinions

 

I am very much new to the landscape of servers and networking, I only have 2 little prebuilt WD NAS (WD My Cloud Home with 6TB and Expert EX2 Ultra with 12TB) which I am currently using exclusively as media storage - the EX2 Ultra is in Raid 0, no comment . I've recently started freelancing and that's how I have the money and time to start some overdue projects that I always wanted to dabble in. Sadly, I am totally over-stimulated by all the different opinions and reviews on the internet regarding NAS/server hardware. There are many projects that I've always wanted to start learning with, so I am a noob in regards to most of the stuff that I want to accomplish with this project. My use cases for the DIY nas/home server build:

• Working with Docker
  • as of yet, I still don't understand all the capabilities of this mysterious thing; that's why I want to learn how to utilise this
• Hosting my own website
  • I've also started to learn a bit of basic web dev (frontend and backend - I don't really want to call it fullstack, as I am a total noob)
• Self-hosting Vaultwarden (or Bitwarden) for all my devices
  • e.g. my phone when I'm on the move
• Media storage
• Sonarr and other stuff
• Transcoding - I'm an avid anime watcher which means unusual codecs being used
  • I got an Apple 4K TV with Infuse Pro as media library/player for my TV
  • I also have many handheld devices that I want to stream onto

 

A way to stream on the go from my home may also be a future usecase, so setting up VPN and all that needs to be done for this. Also, maybe some virtualization "room" for a friend of mine who likes to dabble.

 

Sadly, I don't live in a house or big appartment - this also won't change in the coming years - I am not looking for a server rack or something big. The best format would be Mini ITX, but as the hardware costs for that stuff are so high, mATX would also be awesome.

 

My part list currently is:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€139.99 @ ARLT)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€153.39 @ Computeruniverse)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€72.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 980 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€63.90 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung 980 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€63.90 @ Alza)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (€111.10 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 11 550 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Custom: 6x 18TB Toshiba MG09 (€1620.00)
Total: €2344.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-25 17:41 CET+0100

 

So, my rationale behind the SSDs is the cache pool for unraid. I think that even 2x1TB is a bit of an overkill, but hey...The costs of those things is really low, tbh.

 

My current concerns: I've came to this list after posting on another forum asking for a few suggestions in regards to my usecase(s) and the main concern was the CPU being too low in performance - core wise - to support docker stuff. I was suggested to go with an AMD build (e.g. Ryzen 5 5600G with the ASRock B550M mATX). My concern here is the transcoding stuff, as I would like to do hardware transcoding, not software transcoding. I am now also looking towards the i5 13500 or the i5 12600.

 

Also, in regards to the virtualization topic for a friend of mine, I am not sure if that is something that can be done with unraid as OS or if I have to go the proxmox route. Any ideas?

 

Your thoughts and opinions are very much appreciated!

 

Edit: I chose the i5 13500 in my current setup for the cores. Thoughts?

 

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by dmk0

[C4RBON]

Unraid will be good for your use case.

 

Community Applications makes it very easy to start using Docker containers.

I personally wouldn't host a website using Unraid.  Many consumer ISPs block connections on port 80 and 443, and don't provide static IP addresses, so it can be difficult.  Additionally, if you have actual users of that website, your home server uptime isn't going to match a professional hosting service.  The entry Linode plans are $5/month which removes so many hurdles to hosting a website.

Self-hosting Bitwarden certainly is possible, but for the $10 per year the Premium service costs, I let them do it.

Media storage and streaming is basically what Unraid is for 😁

If you are on your LAN with the Apple TV and Infuse, you might find you don't often need to transcode; I can direct stream everything from my unraid server to infuse without transcoding.

Yes, you can host VMs on Unraid.  Lots of people host VMs, and there are tutorials for how to set that up (it isn't difficult).  I have a Windows 11 VM on my unraid server.

 

Looking at your hardware selection, I would recommend getting a cpu with some more cores vs the 12100. The 13500 would be a good choice.  More cores gives you flexibility for the future. 4 cores is enough for a basic file sharing/streaming server (with hardware transcoding), but if you want to play with VMs you'll probably want some extra cores.

32 gb of RAM is sufficient. I think 16gb is enough for Unraid and a sane number of dockers that normal people would use.  More RAM is beneficial for VMs.  I have 64gb in my server, but half is for a Windows VM.

2x 1TB is good for a cache pool.  Your Docker Appdata will likely be on your cache, so a pcie4 nvme drive is a good choice.  Two of them gives you redundancy.  Once ZFS arrives (for stable release), you can get a speed boost from having two SSDs.

Regarding Intel vs AMD, I would pick Intel for the QuickSync transcoding.  Intel motherboards can also be easier to pass-though devices to VMs.