Hi everyone, long-time lurker, first-time poster... I've been trying to read a lot and learn what might be a good build for me. I'm coming from a Synology DS920 NAS and Lenovo ThinkCentre M910q Tiny running Debian, and want to upgrade to a single unit using more enterprise-level hardware. Does anyone have thoughts on my proposed build? I have 1Gbps fiber internet and am looking to upgrade my internal 1Gbps Ethernet build an internal 10Gbps network to improve speed between my daily driver Mac Studio and the NAS (unfortunately the DS920 doesn't support upgrading to 10Gbps).

 

My proposed application is to run UnRAIDwith a TrueNAS VM (still looking into this since it seems to be not recommended) and another Linux VM for my Docker containers. Currently using things like Actual, Home Assistant, Immich, Jellyfin, Joplin, Shiori, Vikunja, Stirling PDF, Paperless... I plan to stream media to a 4K TV from Jellyfin and edit videos on the Mac with DaVinci Resolve with video stored on the server. I know the hardware is probably overkill, but I want to use it to learn and expand for the future. Most of what I'm looking at is used on eBay, with a few Newegg/Amazon components (Mobo, RAM, SSD)

 

Thanks!

 

• CPU: AMD EPYC 7302P
• Motherboard: Asrock Rack ROMED8-2
• RAM: Atech 128 GB ECC kit
• CPU cooler: SuperMicro SNK-P0063AP4

• Case: SuperMicro CSE-826BE1C-R920LPB with 2x 920W PSU and BPN-SAS3-826EL1 Backplane

• HBA: LSI 9311-8i

• USB stick: Samsung MUF-256AB/AM FIT Plus 256GB

• SSD: HP EX900 1TB

• NIC: X710-DA2

• Hard Drives: 4x 16TB Seagate Exos Enterprise X18 to start with and expand with time (a big reason I'm choosing UnRAID over Proxmox on bare metal)

Edited February 18, 20242 yr by skatrek

You don't need an hba with that board if the drives are SATAunless I'm missing something I'm a quick glance at the specs.

I thought there was a version without onboard 10gbe unless you plan to use all the ports... But a 4 port SFP+ and DAC to the switch would get my pick over Ethernet...
not at all clear why you want a vm for docker rather than just running them direct in unraid. Not sure what your plans are with truenas here either though.

 

For video editing I'm not sure a spinning array will get you the performance you want, but that can certainly be built up for it. I can't quite saturate 10gb network with a raid 10 SATA SSD cache pool. Can with nvme.

 

Hardware seems way overkill at the moment. Certainly capable.

 

Only use two of the containers you mention myself (HA, Jellyfin... And I'm streaming 4k and no compression or anything and no video card either) on a much more simple system... X570d4u, 5600x, 32GB ram, 5x16gb hgst, 4x2gb SATA SSD, 1x1gb nvme, x710-DA2... If I'm testing in a Windows VM I can only do one at a time, but that's plenty.

As today there is no Truenas VM necessary, Unraid does it all with Plugins, if you want truenas go baremetal with it. 
 

I do own an epyc System BUT would strongly advice not to use it as an „NAS or Backup or Plex“ Basis but if you insist of course i can help too.

 

myne is an AI and NVME Storage Server 

 

 

i would go for an Intel 12/13/14 th gen Build that IGPU is Amazing good at 

 

Splitting Into VMs with sriov

Plex and de/en/transcoding in general 

 

with some clever pcie lane Management you can go to 28gbe LAN 

 

 

Thank you so much for this advice! I'll do some more reading and looking into some of your suggestions... you've given me lots to think about!

On 2/19/2024 at 10:10 PM, _cjd_ said:

You don't need an hba with that board if the drives are SATAunless I'm missing something I'm a quick glance at the specs.

I thought there was a version without onboard 10gbe unless you plan to use all the ports... But a 4 port SFP+ and DAC to the switch would get my pick over Ethernet...
not at all clear why you want a vm for docker rather than just running them direct in unraid. Not sure what your plans are with truenas here either though.

 

Good point, I was initially thinking I'd do SAS3 drives, but I probably don't actually need that (just to build "enterprise" street cred ;). And I agree with the SFP+/DAC approach, I probably will go that route, swapping out for a Mellanox ConnectX-4.

 

On 2/20/2024 at 9:42 AM, domrockt said:

As today there is no Truenas VM necessary, Unraid does it all with Plugins, if you want truenas go baremetal with it. 
 

I do own an epyc System BUT would strongly advice not to use it as an „NAS or Backup or Plex“ Basis but if you insist of course i can help too.

 

Seems fair, I will probably end up running TrueNAS on bare metal then since the VM part is more of a for-fun approach, so I can try other OSes and play around. The NAS functionality will be the main functionality so I can serve media to my main computer and TVs.

 

Based on more reading & suggestions about Intel for QuickSync, I'm now looking at a Xeon E-2324G and Supermicro X12STH-F combination. That also brings the cost down a few hundred $$$.

 

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you recommend not using Epyc for NAS/Backup/Plex?

 

Do you know or have any thoughts about the Seagate self-encrypting drives? That seems to be the difference between ST16000NM001G and ST16000NM003G, for example.

Edited February 23, 20242 yr by skatrek

On 2/23/2024 at 3:27 AM, skatrek said:

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you recommend not using Epyc for NAS/Backup/Plex?

 

 

epyc has no IGPU that transcodes well, epyc is an powerhog, i have an 8core Epyc and it juggs 50watt on idle, you will need an extra GPU for your Media needs, possibly two.

 

If you dont need the pcie lanes, avoid epyc.

 

 

my NAS/Backup/Plex/console Emulator Streaming Server/ Game dedicated Server is my Intel 13700k Unraid Server in my Signature.

 

any 12/13/14th gen will do that much better 

 

Edited February 25, 20242 yr by domrockt