Hi everyone. 
 

I am building my first unraid server and I’ve managed to come up with a build that I think would be able to handle Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, and 1-2 VMs. 
 

I don’t have much experience in this but I do love me a huge case. 
 

Is there any changes I could make to my build or anything you would change. 
 

Build : 

 

 

Intel Core i9-13900k 

 

Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX

 

Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 128GB (4x32GB) DDR5-5200MHz 

 

Corsair iCUE H170i Elite LCD 420mm Liquid CPU Cooler

 

Corsair HX1000 1000W 80 Plus Platinum Certified Fully Modular PSU 

 

SSD 1TB x 4 

 

6 x 18TB Seagate Iron Wolf Pros HDD (I have these already) 

 

Thermaltake View 91 Tempered Glass RGB Edition Super Tower Desktop Chassis

 

any advise would be appreciated. Not sure if I am overdoing it 😅

These are very powerful hardware. The only problem I can think about is expandability.

 

Your Z790 mobo comes with one PCIE_X16 slot and dual PCIE_X4 slots. You said you want to run 1-2 VMs on this machine, assuming you plan to add a graphic card on PCIE_X16, then you only left two PCIE_X4 slots for your future 10Gig card and SAS controller cards for sata expansion(you already used all 6 SATA ports on mobo). 10Gig cards on x4 is more expensive and most SAS controller cards are running on x8.

An alternative would be mobo with on-board 10Gig ethernet ports, which will save you a pcie slot. Then use sata expansion card if you want to add HDDs in the future.

Oh and I am not sure if 13900K's igpu can be used to codec in plex or jellyfin right now

Edited April 23, 20233 yr by marco_yang

On 4/23/2023 at 11:21 PM, TurnedHarbour57 said:

Corsair iCUE H170i Elite LCD 420mm Liquid CPU Cooler

Liquid coolers are generally not recommended for server builds.

2 hours ago, Lolight said:

Liquid coolers are generally not recommended for server builds.

I see, 

Any recommendations to cool the 13900k ? 

1 hour ago, TurnedHarbour57 said:

I see, 

Any recommendations to cool the 13900k ? 

 

These are very powerful hardware. The only problem I can think about is expandability.
 
Your Z790 mobo comes with one PCIE_X16 slot and dual PCIE_X4 slots. You said you want to run 1-2 VMs on this machine, assuming you plan to add a graphic card on PCIE_X16, then you only left two PCIE_X4 slots for your future 10Gig card and SAS controller cards for sata expansion(you already used all 6 SATA ports on mobo). 10Gig cards on x4 is more expensive and most SAS controller cards are running on x8.
An alternative would be mobo with on-board 10Gig ethernet ports, which will save you a pcie slot. Then use sata expansion card if you want to add HDDs in the future.

^ This

Would it be possible to start with used hardware until you know what you really want to do with your unraid server. It took me 4 years to figure it all out and now that i'm settled i realize i don't need a €800 pc. Yes, your needs may be different then mine but an 8th or 10th gen i7 with 16gb ram can be very capable and bought for €150 (in europe)

What vm's are you planning to run?

I'd say 16gb is definitely not enough if you plan to run VMs. Start with at least 32gb.

It depends on the vm's. My server has two vm's running 24/7 with a single 8gb stick.

I think the better answer here would be "What are you doing, or want to be doing, with your server?"

If it's just a couple VM's(gaming or productivity?), and the standard plex/ *aaarrrrs set up then no, you do not need those specs:

 

13900k is excessive and unnecessary (i5 13500 with UHD770 is a good alternative)

liquid cooling is usually bad idea because of the potential for pump failure. (go for a AK620 or a even a hyper 212 if you go for the i5)

128GB of RAM is excessive (go 32GB or 64GB for now, expand IF you need to later)

 

I would highly recommend the fractal design 7 xl vs the case you have picked out here.  More space, more sound dampening, etc...