First timer trying to make low power Plex build

[theothermatt_b]

Hi all,

I'm just getting into all of this stuff, after running Plex on a Pi with 1tb external storage for a while.

As you might imagine, I'm starting to want an upgrade.

I still don't need it to do very much. One or two 720p or 1080p streams, limited transcoding. No 4k.

 

I keep seeing these builds where people are getting idle power usage of like 15-20w, but of course since they're a few years old, all the links are dead, or the parts aren't sold anymore, etc.

 

Then I started eyeballing the HP S01, which you can snag off ebay for like $150-$200. But I don't think you can cram much storage in there, and I don't think I want to go the eSATA route.

 

So then I started wondering if I should build my own. Unfortunately that looks like it's putting me more in the $500 range, for basically "exactly the HP S01 but with a bigger case," which is stupid that it costs like double for that. But anyway.

 

My main question is:

With these specs, is it possible to get idle power usage down to 15-20w? Is there some trick to getting that low usage? Special parts required?

• a new-ish intel i3
• motherboard with 4x to 6x SATA ports
• 300w power supply (higher? lower?)
• 8gb ram (should this be 16?)

 

Seconday question:

Is it possible to get a prebuilt small form factor (like the HP S01) and still have enough drives on it for unraid to be useful?

 

I've done several days worth of reading and searching, so if i missed stuff, it wasn't for lack of trying. Thanks!

[Lolight]

17 hours ago, theothermatt_b said:

Then I started eyeballing the HP S01, which you can snag off ebay for like $150-$200. But I don't think you can cram much storage in there,

Is it possible to get a prebuilt small form factor (like the HP S01) and still have enough drives on it for unraid to be useful?

Welcome!

 

The S01 is designed for 1 x 2.5" and 1 x 3.5" HDDs, so is not really useful for a NAS with any redundancy.

 

I'd say 20W at idle is quite achievable without any add-on cards, few fans, sleeping/idling HDDs and higher CPU C-states enabled.

Maybe even lower but that would require more BIOS tweaking and capable motherboard.

There's a thread on this board discussing maximum energy efficiency in-depth.

 

Regarding a pre-built...

I'm not aware of anything in the new market that would be attractive to be used as a starter NAS.

There are certain aliexpress options available but that route is only appropriate for the most adventurous NAS users.

 

If looking for a turn-key solution then there's always an option of Synology, Terramaster, Asustor, Qnap...

Some of those could be re-purposed as an Unraid machine but that won't make much sense unless you get a cheap, used one.

 

Even if you're completely averse to computer hardware, you can try to find a capable neighbor kid or someone who would agree to put a system together from a set of previously researched and purchased by you components.

That's the most cost efficient way that can be tailored to your unique needs.

But that still might require some basic hardware knowledge just to install and setup Unraid.

Synology and others are basicaly plug-n-play.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Lolight

[theothermatt_b]

Thanks for the reply!

 

I'm extremely comfortable with building computers (been building them since my teens, in the Win2000 days), I'm just trying to spend as little money as I can without knee-capping myself in the future.

 

The build I'm currently looking at is over $500 and that's before adding any storage.

I was really hoping to get out of this under $300.

Granted this is before looking for used stuff or really shopping around.

EDIT: I got it down to ~$450 at pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rWvsJy

 

Question: I read somewhere that you need a display (or fake display) physically plugged into the computer for QuickSync to work? Is that true?

 

Quote

Maybe even lower but that would require more BIOS tweaking and capable motherboard.

Can you speak more on this? What motherboard features would I be looking for?

Edited August 22, 2023 by theothermatt_b

[Lolight]

20 hours ago, theothermatt_b said:

EDIT: I got it down to ~$450 at pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/rWvsJy

 

Question: I read somewhere that you need a display (or fake display) physically plugged into the computer for QuickSync to work? Is that true?

 

Can you speak more on this? What motherboard features would I be looking for?

The Antec P101 is attractively priced but I'd question its HDD cooling properties, especially when fully stuffed.

Only matters if you care about HDD temps. Many don't but should, IMO.

 

If you prioritize energy efficiency then you should try to use as few drives as possible - easily achievable with the latest high-capacity HDDs.

e.g. a couple (parity + data) of 16TB drives will yield 16TB of storage space, three - 32TB, four - 48TB

Each HDD on average uses aprox. 8W under load.

 

With just a few HDDs in the system there's no requirement for an ATX case/motherboard combo.

You might want to look into getting a smaller form factor system.

Here's an example of smaller NAS oriented cases that are priced the same or just slightly more expensive than the above-referenced Antec:

 

The Fractal Node 304 (6 HDD capacity mini ITX form factor)- $109

The Fractal Node 804 (8 HDD capacity mATX) - $138

 

No, the iGPU's QuickSync will not be disabled.

A monitor is needed only for the initial Unraid setup, after that it can be left unplugged.

There have been reports of some systems refusing to boot up without a connected screen, but that to my knowledge, usually only happens with discrete GPUs.

Then a HDMI dummy plug could be used as a work-around.

 

Bios tweaking would involve disabling as many of of unused peripheral circuitry as possible, in addition to enabling the energy saving mode and all available CPU C-states.

There's a thread on this forum discussing maximum power savings.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Lolight

[theothermatt_b]

I was actually looking pretty hard at the Node 804, thanks!

And i'll check out that thread. I looked at it a while ago, but I know a lot more now, so maybe it'll make more sense lol

[theothermatt_b]

Okay here's a really basic couple of questions that I can't quite find a direct answer for:

 

1) I know the parity drive should be the largest drive in the array (or at least, as big as the biggest drives), but what about the cache? I know more than one cache ssd is recommended, but what are the size details? How big should it be? Is 1tb enough? Can you get started without one and then add it later?

 

2) I saw someone mention that they also had storage (small-ish, like 256gb) for all their docker containers. That doesn't appear on the requirements page, but is that something I should consider as well? If I don't have one, where do the docker containers live?

Edited August 24, 2023 by theothermatt_b

[ConnerVT]

How big should your cache drive be?  One size bigger than you need it to be.  😉

 

The term "Cache Drive" has become a bit antiquated, back from when SSD storage cost was approaching the cost of the CPU in the system.   Due to this expense, folks spent a lot of time planning where to store things, to maximize this valuable space.  Now solid state storage is much cheaper, more things find their way to cache.  Even Unraid has expanded this as well.  The "cache" drive once was the only one you could have.  Now you can have multiple "pools", all effectively acting as cache drives.

 

So, what do people generally keep on the cache drive?  The main usage includes:

Appdata share - stores Docker configuration files

System share - stores both the Docker image and libvirt image

Cache for array - temporary location for writes to shares normally stored on the array.  The Mover can periodically moves files from cache to the array.

 

Other things can also reside on the cache drive, such as storage drives for VMs, files being seeded by torrents, whatever.  As with the three listed above, you put things which fast drive access improves the performance of the applications using the data.

 

So the first thing you need to know is how much space you need.  Just like asking "How big a house do we need?" you need to know how many people (and their stuff) wull fill it up.

 

Appdata and the System share sizes can be approximated once you have an idea what Docker/VM usage will be.  The next thing to estimate is the cache for array usage.  Ideally, you don't want to max out the available space on the cache drive by writing too much to it before the mover has a chance to clear it out.  Yes, Unraid will write to the array directly when the cache is full, but it is that edge just before it is full that causes problems.  Some backup programs do not know the final actual size of the file that it is writing,  Alway best not to get too close to the edge.

[theothermatt_b]

OH, so the "cache" is much less the "stuff stored in memory" like I was picturing and much more like "the local hard drive of the computer"

I was picturing something a lot more volatile and short-term.

 

That one drive (or pool of drives) function as temp storage for writing to the actual array as well as all the stuff you said above: docker configs, system shares, etc.

 

Anyway, if I'm just doing plex, the *arrs, and associated programs like that, along with a relatively small (for this forum lol) amount of storage in the array, like a few TBs, does it seem like 1tb cache would be enough? wild overkill? I just have no sense of what's needed for this part.

 

[ConnerVT]

Many folks do just fine with 1TB.