After many months of procrastinating, Im ready to order some bits and bobs to start building my first server.

 

Server will be for unraid, with plex, torrent, and radarr dockers.

 

I dont have a big budget....and Ill probably end up building it over 6 or 7 weeks. the part Im stuck on is the motherboard.  A few requirements;

 

Must fit in a Fractal Design Node 804 case.

Must support a CPU that can do the transcoding for Plex

Must have at least 6 on-board SATAs

 

Id prefer to buy cheap second-hand on ebay, but I guess for what Im looking for I mighty have to go brand new.

 

If anyone can offer some advice in terms of a motherboard it would be appreciated.

 

Cheers

Hmm many options for this.
to start might be good to know how much your looking to spend.
Also how much storage are you planning for. And do you have the Storage drives already?

Me I'm always reusing old parts from server builds at work. So the new hardware I buy is small.
I don't suggest getting many spin drives from Ebay. Most there are recycled used ones and have the smart data cleared and re-flashed. Even if it says is new refreshed from factory. (that's a BS all the time)
If you want a CPU with GPU for Transcode I suggest to go Intel but you will be limited on Sata ports in most motherboards. In those cases I would suggest adding a Cheap HBA card a LSI 9211 or something would do fine for any Sata Spinner drives. And get the break out cables that are red. not those thin blue or white wires if you go the HBA route.

You might find a better deal some where but these with the extra jacket on the cable have less issues with Fan noise effecting crc count errors on drives. I just wish they made these for all the other interfaces. Because unless I get my cables running a certian way fan noise gets my drives to throw CRC errors. so thats another important thing to note.
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-50cm-SFF-8087-4x-SATA/dp/B008KF73CA/ref=sr_1_15?crid=1KLKCVSCBH791&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Xmgx8R_iNahmri2EmOLTly0o9ekHNAKVpeT8_6Ee0YmpUaZeNCyYyzPaHRD1UVfOuH2JW4nmn4eMyfz0mjHzU-RbzxiT_tuSRpIcRp2M16CeR0YCHkokMLUQ09ZlyGrbeZKq2Nu8O4OCeAUrZKefpnbe5v1SBg8UUxveYdm8H6Pk2ozUVMry-SIn77cdk43Jc8ug68HFRJeC2T4GgxKvnOcj2qfY2nULljrR9knMNihIKQEh2_qiRMCSdpUEwJORQT_FBZZuwnr_nG28H16ezw5yoqsjLPqu_x-_NlXkhjs.xNxbsiphUzF1sNAL95Kg3rze1qSiG0HHpEeuf_f0TMI&dib_tag=se&keywords=sff-8087+to+sata&qid=1726336175&s=electronics&sprefix=SFF+8087%2Celectronics%2C142&sr=1-15

a LSI card like this should be fine.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155689357752?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D271354%26meid%3Df4c26ec6e87647b68bfcc69afe0de097%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D294651809984%26itm%3D155689357752%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV2bAndUBSourceDemotionWithUltimatelyBoughtOfCoviewV1%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2332490.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A155689357752f4c26ec6e87647b68bfcc69afe0de097|enc%3AAQAJAAABQJh9BGsXvPG03pKg78mUhLLErCJ%2BXOEYDkzTGJ85B4rSRXG6DGHfiL9UFpXuaOk%2FmuXW6x51j8YJMfy7doeYuyk9WZaRPkl%2FLlHN84X3%2FeYgVG3iucUQjkVp9Lf5uEN8ToMZsxMjTVrbSlo43NvMdo8FrAGxTUF6ODBix3HhVfXWBm5osY6yOvvEyxN1ylIosNq0Tm6W%2Fk%2FNi9rDZXnD6eiH5WIl3CjvOA%2BpUa%2BTulBEOyb8DXekb8uYBBJegtdefXmqdV5iJWUCkWROwYkw0%2FCf8b7PS3gtsRu%2FbT7ZK5hMDfCHQworU3LR3iqWGbwQnVjS1FH%2BxzE1CJRJH8GPpayW5UVT%2BU5Neg8S0W5XYdt4MSOFcVvyG1gM65Ud%2Bj%2FwIunNK%2FSA4huZjLsv6nN3tsFt81%2FClZsVB6d2HUndQaL%2F|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01J7RVQNF50W4G6TWD7JD9WWB4

you can get newer LSI chip sets but your not going to get a lot of drives and cooling in there to benefit from a newer chipset.

 

I think sense you cant use more than a MicroATX board. Your going to not find many intel micro motherboards to have 6 Sata. Your most likely going to need a sata expansion or HBA card.

You might find something for AMD. But AMD Transcoding in plex is still new only last 6 or 7 months. I don't think there is much data on the transcoding for me to suggest anything there. As for CPU try to get a CPU with a good base clock speed. Intel 10th gen i5 should work.  I haven't see anything yet that actually tells unraid dockers to go past the base clock. I don't see the CPU speed go past that in any of the boxes I made.

I wonder today what that means for those new efficiency cores the new tech ideas are great but if the OS doesn't have anything added to use it. Its going to run at the lowest clock rate detected. And that doesn't sound too good to me.

I really think unraid for me has run better on AMD. But its required me to add a GPU for transcoding for a perfect world. for that Node 804 case your going to want to avoid that mess. the HBA card will be fine but adding GPU just because of CPU differences its not worth all the cooling challenges your going to have.