Jonsbo N3 Build questions for media server

[Deefur]

So I am in the works of building out a home theater, the final piece to that puzzle is a nice little NAS. Here is my build idea https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9ZGzh3 please could you take a look and make any recommendations or if you see any issues with this build. The RAM i have some 16gb ddr4-3000 sticks laying around from previous pc builds. So my idea is to run Emby along with a few auto discover apps like Sonarr, radarr and observerr. Was also considering throwing an nvidia shield between the projector and the nas to handle the transcoding specifically for dolby. Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Deefur

[denishay]

One of the most important points here will be: who will be accessing your media content (only you, or friends and fanilly), over which system (Internet, LAN only, etc.) and using which devices (tablets, phones, smart TVs, etc.)

 

Because if you have many people accessing content remotely on not-so-great devices (phones or old tablets for ex.), you might require transcoding. And it doesn't come for free for Embby. Only premium users (so with paid subscription) will have that.

 

If you want 100% free, you need to consider Jellyfin. If you want easy, Plex (here again, transcoding doesn't come for free).

 

Getting the content is the easy part. Making sure others can easily access it (Plex app on their TV? Something else? Does the TV has a "private" appstore that doesn't have an Embyy client?) is quite another.

 

So think about the whole setup and sofwtare side. The hardware part is the easy one to solve.

[Deefur]

6 hours ago, denishay said:

One of the most important points here will be: who will be accessing your media content (only you, or friends and fanilly), over which system (Internet, LAN only, etc.) and using which devices (tablets, phones, smart TVs, etc.)

 

Because if you have many people accessing content remotely on not-so-great devices (phones or old tablets for ex.), you might require transcoding. And it doesn't come for free for Embby. Only premium users (so with paid subscription) will have that.

 

If you want 100% free, you need to consider Jellyfin. If you want easy, Plex (here again, transcoding doesn't come for free).

 

Getting the content is the easy part. Making sure others can easily access it (Plex app on their TV? Something else? Does the TV has a "private" appstore that doesn't have an Embyy client?) is quite another.

 

So think about the whole setup and sofwtare side. The hardware part is the easy one to solve.

Yup so to answer your question about remote use, not really only me when i travel witch is maybe once a month. As far as paying for emby goes, I plan to grab the lifetime license, ive heard good things about Jellyfin but those who used it mostly switched to paid emby when they had the money. Plex doesnt really float my boat, the disallowing of 3rd party apps/tools bugs me.

[denishay]

If it's mostly for you only, you might even consider something that doesn't really need transcoding then, if you are happy top download to your device what you would be playing (phone I suppose?).

 

If you got a decent enough upload bandwidth, maybe just VPN in and then enjoy your content the same as you would on your LAN.

 

That means that any setup would do. And what you chose on PartsPicker is way overkill for any of that.

 

One last word on the drives: 12TB @ $219 seems a bit high. You would be able to get less drives at a better ratio. Like the current Seagate Exos 18TB, very often around that same price or barely $10 or $20 more. Plus, they have a 5 years warranty (WD Red Plus only 3 iirc)

Edited December 9, 2023 by denishay

[dimes007]

On 12/7/2023 at 11:31 PM, Deefur said:

So I am in the works of building out a home theater, the final piece to that puzzle is a nice little NAS. Here is my build idea https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9ZGzh3 please could you take a look and make any recommendations or if you see any issues with this build. The RAM i have some 16gb ddr4-3000 sticks laying around from previous pc builds. So my idea is to run Emby along with a few auto discover apps like Sonarr, radarr and observerr. Was also considering throwing an nvidia shield between the projector and the nas to handle the transcoding specifically for dolby. Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

I really love that case.    Whatever ram you have laying around is definitely the right choice especially if its matched and dual channel.

 

You're buying a badass case with a hot swap backplane for a reason.   I would use something like this or this now to wire the backplane fully to make future expansion easier.   When you want to add a disk later and have to take everything apart you're going to kick yourself and parts like that are cheap enough to buy now to save future headaches. 

Q:  Why not use an add in pci card for more SATA ports?   A: More on that later.

 

You won't be able to use the M2 armor heatspreader plate thing with the above so you can look at MBs with separate heat spreaders (but I found no good options).   So I would run same MB without a heat spreader or get something like this.

 

I didn't see any SSD for cache and dockers.   Whatever interactions you have with the machine will be noticeably snappier running dockers and cache on SSD.   128gb NVME/m2 is fine if you have it already.   If you already have a 2.5" high capacity ssd laying around use it in a backplane slot with something like this.   But if its small 256gb or smaller ssd its hard to spend $8.99 to make it work when you can get same size or bigger NVME so inexpensively.   256gb+ is cheap enough now to never consider not doing some sort of cache.   Use appdata backup to backup the your docker configurations in appdata to the array so your config is safe.

 

====

 

My server has the same 12600k and does much of the same functions that you are looking to do BUT IT IS CRIPPLED because 5 of the 6 P cores (10 threads) are pinned and used by a physicalized virtual machine which is my daily driver.   Which is to say that processor is way overkill for just nas/media server/media procurement.   

 

12600 is more expensive.   12400 is $40 less (so ~20% less money for ~30% less multi core speed and ~30% less iGPU performance) so I see why you ended up with 12600k.   Your cooler won't be able to cool the 12600k running full bore, which probably isn't that big of a deal.   Idle power consumption will be a few watts higher 12600k vs 12400.   AND the $40 savings above could be $100 less if you use the stock cooler.

 

I'd still consider 12400 and stock cooler because you're unlikely to realize any appreciable difference in your use above vs 12600k and $100 is $100.   ...but if you want the to pin cores to certain tasks to p cores, don't mind the extra $40 in the grand scheme of your build and future proof a bit go for it.

 

====

 

Another thought is to get a 13400 which is $30 more than 12600k but use the stock cooler (MAKE SURE IT FITS) and that will save you $30 vs. 12600k plus noctua for nearly the same CPU performance (still inferior GPU 730 like the 12400 has).

 

====

 

An easy justification for 12600k/13400 vs 12400?   Pin 2 or 3 of the p cores to a windows 10/11 vm.   Throw in any reasonable video card you have laying around and pass through to the VM.   Use windows 10/11 instead of the Nvidia shield to watch media and have whatever audio codecs the video card supports with full fat windows to do whatever else you want.   If you want to game on it you can stop the *arr dockers so the thermal budget can be fully used by the gaming vm.

 

Nice build.

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by dimes007

[Deefur]

Quote

On 12/9/2023 at 8:53 AM, dimes007 said:

 

I really love that case.    Whatever ram you have laying around is definitely the right choice especially if its matched and dual channel.

 

You're buying a badass case with a hot swap backplane for a reason.   I would use something like this or this now to wire the backplane fully to make future expansion easier.   When you want to add a disk later and have to take everything apart you're going to kick yourself and parts like that are cheap enough to buy now to save future headaches. 

Q:  Why not use an add in pci card for more SATA ports?   A: More on that later.

 

You won't be able to use the M2 armor heatspreader plate thing with the above so you can look at MBs with separate heat spreaders (but I found no good options).   So I would run same MB without a heat spreader or get something like this.

 

I didn't see any SSD for cache and dockers.   Whatever interactions you have with the machine will be noticeably snappier running dockers and cache on SSD.   128gb NVME/m2 is fine if you have it already.   If you already have a 2.5" high capacity ssd laying around use it in a backplane slot with something like this.   But if its small 256gb or smaller ssd its hard to spend $8.99 to make it work when you can get same size or bigger NVME so inexpensively.   256gb+ is cheap enough now to never consider not doing some sort of cache.   Use appdata backup to backup the your docker configurations in appdata to the array so your config is safe.

 

====

 

My server has the same 12600k and does much of the same functions that you are looking to do BUT IT IS CRIPPLED because 5 of the 6 P cores (10 threads) are pinned and used by a physicalized virtual machine which is my daily driver.   Which is to say that processor is way overkill for just nas/media server/media procurement.   

 

12600 is more expensive.   12400 is $40 less (so ~20% less money for ~30% less multi core speed and ~30% less iGPU performance) so I see why you ended up with 12600k.   Your cooler won't be able to cool the 12600k running full bore, which probably isn't that big of a deal.   Idle power consumption will be a few watts higher 12600k vs 12400.   AND the $40 savings above could be $100 less if you use the stock cooler.

 

I'd still consider 12400 and stock cooler because you're unlikely to realize any appreciable difference in your use above vs 12600k and $100 is $100.   ...but if you want the to pin cores to certain tasks to p cores, don't mind the extra $40 in the grand scheme of your build and future proof a bit go for it.

 

====

 

Another thought is to get a 13400 which is $30 more than 12600k but use the stock cooler (MAKE SURE IT FITS) and that will save you $30 vs. 12600k plus noctua for nearly the same CPU performance (still inferior GPU 730 like the 12400 has).

 

====

 

An easy justification for 12600k/13400 vs 12400?   Pin 2 or 3 of the p cores to a windows 10/11 vm.   Throw in any reasonable video card you have laying around and pass through to the VM.   Use windows 10/11 instead of the Nvidia shield to watch media and have whatever audio codecs the video card supports with full fat windows to do whatever else you want.   If you want to game on it you can stop the *arr dockers so the thermal budget can be fully used by the gaming vm.

 

Nice build.

 

 

man thank you so much for this, gave me alot to think about. For some reason i forgot cpu's come with heat sinks i never ever use them so i completely forgot. I have an old build laying around, the case is huge but im sure i can pull some parts outta there. Its an i7-5820k, gtx970, 4x16gb ddr4 3000 ram sticks, and an cosair h100i cooler. the ram sticks ill reuse for sure but the rest. For the nvme slots, i have a 128 m.2 drive laying around i was going to repurpose for caching and docker and other slot was going to be one of those expansion slots, just didnt plan going over 4 drives to start off. Initially i went with the 12600k specifically for the igpu processing but not really sure i need that. My set up is going to be switch>NAS>Nvidia Shield>AVR>Projector but than again i will also have my main pc on the same lan switch so could my main pc be utilized to transcode if needed, that bit is confusing to me. I understand transcoding but what i dont understand is where that needs to be handled, does it need to be handled on the NAS itself, or can the NAS offload that part to something else?

[Lolight]

18 hours ago, Deefur said:

Initially i went with the 12600k specifically for the igpu processing but not really sure i need that. My set up is going to be switch>NAS>Nvidia Shield>AVR>Projector but than again i will also have my main pc on the same lan switch so could my main pc be utilized to transcode if needed, that bit is confusing to me. I understand transcoding but what i dont understand is where that needs to be handled, does it need to be handled on the NAS itself, or can the NAS offload that part to something else?

You don't need to transcode if your device(s) is capable of direct play.

Nvidia shield should be able to direct-play anything.

For the devices that are not direct-play capable Emby premier will do that on your processor's iGPU.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Lolight