Help Upgrading My Server?

[GFOviedo]

I have not used my UnRaid server for several years now. I mainly used it to stream movies via Plex inside / outside network. Now, I am thinking of installing outdoor cameras and using my UnRaid to store video, and setting up my own cloud.

 

I have dual parity drives, and 1 cache drive. I've got about 31 TB, but I am slowly trying to upgrade my drives from 2TB to 4TB or larger depending on price.

 

I had a Intel NIC Pro 1000 GT, which for some reason or another died, my MB NIC is Realtek RTL8111E, and not very reliable.

 

Current set up:

Mobo: AsRock Z77M

CPU: Intel i5 3570K

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)

Case: AZZA Helios 910 CSAZ-910 Mid-Tower

HDD: Total 31 TB

PSU: Corsair TX750

SAS: AOC-SASLP-MV8

UnRaid Pro License

 

I have spent a few weeks looking at people's set up--some very expensive and others pretty inexpensive. I know I want to stick with Intel since it is what I found to be the most reliable. I can't really decide on what to buy, and I really don't want to spend $$$ and later on find out that I ordered the wrong parts. For example, I am not sure if I will be able to continue using the ACO-SASLP-MV8 or will I have to upgrade this as well.

 

Thanks for any help on this matter!

 

 

[Hoopster]

33 minutes ago, GFOviedo said:

I know I want to stick with Intel since it is what I found to be the most reliable. I can't really decide on what to buy, and I really don't want to spend $$$ and later on find out that I ordered the wrong parts. For example, I am not sure if I will be able to continue using the ACO-SASLP-MV8 or will I have to upgrade this as well.

The AOC-SASLP-MV8 is not recommended these days.  There is a long thread on recommeded controllers to use with Unraid.  I do not know how many total drives you plan to have, but fewer larger drives is generally better than many smaller drives.  Depending on how many drives you plan to have and how many SATA ports your MB has, you may or may not need a PCIe controllers.   I have a Dell H310 controller in IT mode in my Main server.  These days, I consider 8TB the smallest HDD I will purchase.

 

I have three Unraid servers (see my signature for details) with an i5-11600 on the low end to a Xeon E-2288G on the high end.  However, depending on your Plex transcoding needs, an i3 may be sufficient.  Some are even doing fine with Pentium processors.

 

Personally, I would look for a motherboard with a couple of M.2 slots as you can use these for cache/pool drives without requiring a SATA connection.

 

If getting a new PSU, make sure it has a single 12V rail.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hoopster

[GFOviedo]

Someone locally is selling an i9 10900k cpu with MSI Z490 gaming edge MOBO for $300. Would these be a good combo?

[ConnerVT]

I'd buy that.

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, GFOviedo said:

Someone locally is selling an i9 10900k cpu with MSI Z490 gaming edge MOBO for $300. Would these be a good combo?

Yes.  My Xeon E-2288G is essentially an i9-9900K with ECC RAM support.  The i9 10900K would give you a lot of CPU overhead even if you want to run VMs.

[Hoopster]

15 hours ago, GFOviedo said:

i9 10900k

Just be aware that you will need a really good cooling solution with that CPU.  It's got a 125W TDP although you can configure it down to 95 TDP which will limit performance.  My Xeon E-2288G is a 95W TDP CPU and keeping it cool long-term under load proved a challenge at first until I found a CPU cooler that could do the job in a case with a CPU Cooler height restriction of 148mm; the Noctua NH-D12L.

 

It's  a good CPU but you will need to keep it cool.

[Lolight]

20 hours ago, GFOviedo said:

Someone locally is selling an i9 10900k cpu with MSI Z490 gaming edge MOBO for $300. Would these be a good combo?

I think it would be better for your use case and probably cheaper overall to buy brand new parts.

 

The i9 10900 is a good CPU If you really need those cores to use with VMs but it doesn't sound if you plan on doing that.

The MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE motherboard is not an optimal board for a NAS.

Even though it comes with 6 SATA ports and a pair of M.2 slots, you'll only be able to add a single nVME SSD.

If you populate the second M.2 slot with a SSD (either SATA or PCIe) it will disable 2 out of available 6 SATA ports.

 

There are readily available new, relatively cheap ATX motherboards that don't have that limitation, also come with 8 onboard SATA ports.

One of those could be paired with a cheap i3-12100 CPU that should offer more than enough of processing power for your needs.

Try to keep it simple - don't use any of the add-on cards unless absolutely necessary, especially when you can easily reduce the number of required SATA ports by replacing those currently used 2TB HDDs with a single drive of the much higher capacity.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

Edited December 24, 2023 by Lolight

[GFOviedo]

On 12/24/2023 at 12:29 PM, Lolight said:

I think it would be better for your use case and probably cheaper overall to buy brand new parts.

 

The i9 10900 is a good CPU If you really need those cores to use with VMs but it doesn't sound if you plan on doing that.

The MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE motherboard is not an optimal board for a NAS.

Even though it comes with 6 SATA ports and a pair of M.2 slots, you'll only be able to add a single nVME SSD.

If you populate the second M.2 slot with a SSD (either SATA or PCIe) it will disable 2 out of available 6 SATA ports.

 

There are readily available new, relatively cheap ATX motherboards that don't have that limitation, also come with 8 onboard SATA ports.

One of those could be paired with a cheap i3-12100 CPU that should offer more than enough of processing power for your needs.

Try to keep it simple - don't use any of the add-on cards unless absolutely necessary, especially when you can easily reduce the number of required SATA ports by replacing those currently used 2TB HDDs with a single drive of the much higher capacity.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

Thank you. I really appreciate your help on this. I've been Googling for days trying to figure out if that gaming board was  going to work well with unraid. I don't mind spending a little more $$$ just to future proof. However, I will mainly use this server for streaming movies, music, and possibly setting a cloud storage for work / school related files.

[GFOviedo]

On 12/24/2023 at 12:29 PM, Lolight said:

I think it would be better for your use case and probably cheaper overall to buy brand new parts.

 

The i9 10900 is a good CPU If you really need those cores to use with VMs but it doesn't sound if you plan on doing that.

The MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE motherboard is not an optimal board for a NAS.

Even though it comes with 6 SATA ports and a pair of M.2 slots, you'll only be able to add a single nVME SSD.

If you populate the second M.2 slot with a SSD (either SATA or PCIe) it will disable 2 out of available 6 SATA ports.

 

There are readily available new, relatively cheap ATX motherboards that don't have that limitation, also come with 8 onboard SATA ports.

One of those could be paired with a cheap i3-12100 CPU that should offer more than enough of processing power for your needs.

Try to keep it simple - don't use any of the add-on cards unless absolutely necessary, especially when you can easily reduce the number of required SATA ports by replacing those currently used 2TB HDDs with a single drive of the much higher capacity.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

What expansion SAS card would you recommend? I will eventually replace the hard drives for larger one, but at the moment funds are limited.

[Lolight]

2 minutes ago, GFOviedo said:

What expansion SAS card would you recommend? I will eventually replace the hard drives for larger one, but at the moment funds are limited.

 

[GFOviedo]

Ended up ordering the LSI SAS9340-8i ServeRAID M1215 12Gbps SAS HBA P16 IT mode from The Art of Server. Baby steps ordering parts.