December 12, 20232 yr I am in the process of building a new server. Current server is an older xeon running windows server 2012 R2, using a hardware raid card. since that is now full on storage i decided it was time to update instead of just throwing more drives in and creating another array. I was going to go truenas scale but leaning towards unraid after watching bunch of youtube vids. Server is primarily for plex and just general storage. have a nice library of about 1200 movies and growing. I plan on transferring all data off old server onto new to remove the raid card and swap with a LSI card to restart that machine as a secondary truenas / unraid machine. the below list is the hardware i am using on new build and my intensions. but need advice on how to set up cache and spare ssd's if needed. CPU - amd 5600x ram - 64gb ecc GPU - nvidia 980 (for transcoding) MB - asus prime 550-plus Storage card - LSi 9300 main storage - 6 x 12tb (going to use ZFS R2) (raid 6) ssd - 1 x 500gb nvme (could buy another if needed) (cache drive) MB has 2x nvm2 slots ssd - 2 x 500gb (2.5 drives just laying around if needed) My question is with the above hardware of if i need to purchase more how should i set up to be as optimal as possible? the cache drive stuff has me confused. again mainly used for plex and home storage.
December 13, 20232 yr Author 1 hour ago, ConnerVT said: The 980 will not support 4K transcoding. really? Will it handle 1080p? What would be a cheap card that can handle 4k ?
December 13, 20232 yr The GTX 980 will handle h.264 (what most 1080p is coded) but from what I understand, only some h.265 coding (virtually all 4K is h.265). A Quadro T400 (current) or a Quadro P400 (previous generation) cards are a good choice for transcoding. Single slot, low power (under 35W). The T400 is just under $200 new and P400 can be found used in the $50-80 range.
December 13, 20232 yr Author 3 hours ago, ConnerVT said: A Quadro T400 (current) or a Quadro P400 (previous generation) cards are a good choice for transcoding. Single slot, low power (under 35W). The T400 is just under $200 new and P400 can be found used in the $50-80 range. ok cool thats not expensive. Ill probably just grab a p400 and toss the 980 in the trash. will i see any real performance difference if i went with the T400 in stead of the P400? Edited December 13, 20232 yr by triten
December 13, 20232 yr On 12/12/2023 at 2:18 PM, triten said: My question is with the above hardware of if i need to purchase more how should i set up to be as optimal as possible? the cache drive stuff has me confused. Ultimately it's your choice. I'd go with a set of brand new hardware and try to build a NAS system that would require no add-on cards. There's absolutely no need for additional complexity and unnecessary power consumption. Which means going with an Intel CPU containing a built-in iGPU that could be utilized for its very efficient transcoding abilities. Also choosing an ATX motherboard with 8 SATA ports and an ATX case. Then you won't need to have a discrete video card and an HBA. Unless if you're absolutely set on having ECC RAM in your system then you can disregard this advice.
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