Hello all, first time unraid user (or will be soon 😉).  I'm looking for any thoughts/advice on the build below for an unraid machine.  I'm migrating from a 8 year old windows 10 machine with Stablebit, a handful of VMs, Docker desktop, plex/*arr etc.  My goals for this new build:

 

• Budget of around $1000
• Main purpose will be to store media and host plex (or emby/jellyfin) and other file server needs (backups)
• Occasional other VMs and docker apps (pi-hole, home assistant, database/python/R testing machines etc.), fairly lightweight uses
• Needs to be able to 4k transcode for plex (focusing on using QuickSync, no dedicated GPU)
• other than the NVME drives which will be for SSD cache pool (and for VMs/Docker), all of the storage drives I will be moving over from the old machine (and consist mostly of a hodgepodge of WD Reds 5400 drives).
• Total number of HDD drives will be around 8:  6-7 data, 1-2 parity.  Plus the 2 cache drives.

 

I usually only build a machine every 5-10 years now b/c I don't game as much anymore, so I don't really follow latest tech.  below is what I came up with on PCpartpicker.

 

I'm guessing this might be slightly over-powered for a simple plex host, but I do want this to last for at least 7-10 years (aside from just adding/replacing drives as media library goes.

 

Note:  I currently have 3 CPU coolers listed b/c I can't decide!  Generally leaning towards the NJ-U9S though

 

Any advice/comments are much appreciated! 

Cheers

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NJPGJn

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($175.02 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S 46.44 CFM CPU Cooler  ($59.95 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D12L 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler  ($89.95 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($219.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($124.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $1177.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-01-04 13:49 EST-0500

Motherboard has 6 SATA connectors.  Where are you going to connect the other 2 HDD?

I was just going to use a SATA expansion board (either PCIe or M2, not sure what is "better"), but PC part picker doesn't seem to have a place where those can be added (?)

 

Something like this:  PCI-E X1 to SATA 3.0 Controller Card, 4-Port SATA III 6Gbps Expansion Cards, Supports PCI-Express (1X 4X 8X 16X) Slot, Support SSD and HDD, for Windows10/7/8/XP/Vista/linux

That will work.  Just didn't want you to have overlooked that.  I would go the PCIe HBA route.  But you will want to pick a different card from the one you linked as Marvel controllers have been known to have issues.  I have JMB585 based cards in both of my servers, and never had any issues.

 

Would be good if you review this thread:

 

Alternatively, here is my current main PC build (5 years old) that I could try and repurpose as the NAS (and the build above would become the main PC)

 

However, I'm not sure if the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700 + nvidia RTX 2070 would be able to transcode in plex?  Currently this machine is my plex server and it will do hardware transcoding when I inspect a stream, but Plex's documentation seems to indicate this might not be possible inside a Docker container as it would if run in Unraid.

 

So, I hate to build an entirely new machine only for this not to work for hardware plex transcoding!

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($176.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($39.37 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA BLACK GAMING GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Amazon)
 

Thanks ConnerVT, noted on the SATA controller and already added to my cart the JMB585.  (Also, initially I may just stick with the 6 onboard ports and do either a 5+1 or 4+2 setup for array:parity drives and just buy bigger drives as I don't have THAT much stuff (yet).  I just wanted to ensure future expandability if needed.

It isn't a question of "Will it work" but rather "Will it work with the load I expect to put on it".

 

Can my car pull a trailer? vs Can my car pull a trailer with a 40' sailboat on it?  My VW sedan can pull a garden trailer with a lawn mower, but I would need a beefy truck to pull a sailboat.

 

My first Unraid server had a 1500X.  It transcoded just fine with a Nvidia Quadro T400 (remember, you will need a video card, as you won't wish to do CPU transcoding).  But it was nearly only serving one user at a time, and mainly within my home network.  If you will have several simultaneous users you then need more powerful hardware.

Great point and I should clarify:  I will almost always be transcoding only 1 stream and always inside my LAN. 

 

So are you saying that Ryzen 7 with the Geoforce 2070 will be able to transcode inside Unraid?  That would be ideal, as I will then use money to just build a new main PC.

 

PS:  This brings up another potentially related issue, my current plex client is my crappy TCL TV!  (mostly as it's wife-friendly) and occasionally now when I play high-res 4k video it will just choke on it, but  I strongly suspect that's due to the bottleneck at the client (TV) and not my server's ability to transcode.  One 'solution' i'm considering for this is to just buy an Nvidia Shield and see how that works (and hope it passes the wife-test)

You should be able to get away from transcoding with a Shield, making things even simpler. I don't run a GPU with a Roku... Or just use the CPU, not GPU. If you did add a GPU to an AMD build, a cheap Quadro might be a better fit but the 2070 will handle it. Though you might want more with HA anyway if you get into ollama for local voice control... Just pay attention to pcie lane availability if you go with the b450.

For the money, it's hard to beat the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120. The Phantom Spirit looks to be the same but one more heat pipe. Hard to justify more for a server likely tucked away.

Thanks cjd, how is the Roku 4+?  Comparing the $25 Roku express 4+ to the $150 Shield I don't see many compelling reasons to get the Shield, considering all I want to do is one stream at a time and don't have any sophisticated audio setup etc.

 

Also, to your's and Connor's point, I'm going to go with the Quadro P400 for the NAS and keep my existing 2070 for a completely new main PC build.

 

THank you both, here are my current builds, total comes out to ~$1200 but that's fine.

 

Thoughts?

 

Existing PC to Unraid.  Bold items are added/swapped,  using existing PC and just adding more mem and swapping video card and new case

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($176.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($39.37 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($39.37 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PNY T-Series T400 4GB 4 GB Video Card  ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($124.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 600 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Amazon)

 

New PC Build.  Bold items are swapped from existing PC

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($174.83 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($219.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($139.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA BLACK GAMING GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: *Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($146.18 @ B&H)
Total: $885.87
 

I have an older Roku ultra. Does 4k just fine and seems to work with Jellyfin well - haven't used it much that way though, and most my collection needs subtitles work so slow going. Plus plenty of streamed content for now. It's not impressive hardware (remote eats batteries for lunch) but it works. I have an ancient grudge with Nvidia and a slightly more recent one with Apple, so I didn't leave myself a lot of choices.

 

P400 or better is something I'd ebay for less than that t400 on your list. And honestly, start with the memory you have and only add if you need it. Save the funds now, or maybe be a little pickier on power supply.

 

Your existing OS license for the PC build should carry over if you do the upgrade right.

 

Have fun with the project.

The Roku should Direct Play (so no transcoding needed) most everything you may have in your media directory if both the server and the Roku are on your home LAN.  (Note, in _cjd_'s comment above, Plex always does CPU transcoding when using subtitles).

 

The P400/T400 is a great little card for a home Plex server (where you don't need the extra horsepower to have many transcodes going at once).  Single PCIe slot and low power usage.  The same transcoding hardware as used in the comparable generation GTX/RTX GPUs, but without the huge number of CUDA cores (which are no use for only transcoding video).

 

The Quadro T400 is going for $100-150 on eBay, what my P400 was when I got it a couple of years ago.  Now the P400 is selling for pennies ($30-50), but I recommend the T400 4GB over the P400.  P400 is based on the Pascal, T400 on Turing architecture which replaced Pascal.  Pascal will likely be losing support at some point so it is best to spend a few extra $$ and go with the T400 4GB card. 

Thanks Conner & cjd

I never realized that plex always CPU transcodes when using subtitles, I almost always have subtitles on, so does that mean having a GPU is pointless than (for plex at least).  I still plan on going T400 for the same reasons you mentioned Conner being a newer arch.

 

@_cjd_ 

Quote

Your existing OS license for the PC build should carry over if you do the upgrade right.

 

Do you have any guides/links or elaborate on how to do this 'right'?  I assume it's some kind of sequencing thing and based on my research basically de-licensing the old machine and then re-licensing the new.  Is it basically:

 

1. Delicense my current Win10 Pro Retail machine (which is eligibale for win11 upgrade as MS reminds me 50x per day...)
2. Build new machine and install Win11 on it
3. Reactivate license on Win 11 machine?

Somehow this too simple and won't work correctly considering it will be on all-new hardware (as IIRC, the license is tied to the mobo id or some such?)

The Unraid license is tied to the USB flash drive it it was associated with.  All that matters is the *.key file is in the flash drive's config folder.  You can plug the flash drive into any machine, and it is good to go (except for needing to configure for new hardware and drives).

17 hours ago, darwinsbeard said:

Do you have any guides/links or elaborate on how to do this 'right'?  I assume it's some kind of sequencing thing and based on my research basically de-licensing the old machine and then re-licensing the new.  Is it basically:

 

1. Delicense my current Win10 Pro Retail machine (which is eligibale for win11 upgrade as MS reminds me 50x per day...)
2. Build new machine and install Win11 on it
3. Reactivate license on Win 11 machine?

Somehow this too simple and won't work correctly considering it will be on all-new hardware (as IIRC, the license is tied to the mobo id or some such?)

 

This is of course for Windows, not Unraid. There isn't a relicense option. If you've never updated hardware, it'll have better odds of working. I would start by just lifting the existing OS drive to the new system and booting. The video card is also staying, right? Go through the license steps, it should activate. And as much as I hate suggesting it, it's far simpler if you have all the latest cloud addicted sign-in stuff.

If you really want the fresh install, start that after. When it gets to activating, you should be able to pick the existing key if you let it phone home. If you don't need the fresh install, you could clone the old OS over to the new drive and then upgrade.

If it doesn't phone home and you only use local accounts, you'll have to try the OS key - if you have it. There are ways to try to extract it.

Thanks @_cjd_

Yes this is for the Windows machine, and your approach sounds interesting, the only downside I can potentially see by moving the existing OS drive to the new machine is that I wanted to install the OS to the new machines m.2 ssd drive (which is much larger than my existing OS SSD) drive rather than moving the old SSD (which I plan to put in the unraid box eventually as a cache pool)

 

I had actually planned to try and use the method below which is basically just de-activating my current license, install a fresh OS on the m.2 drive, then re-activate it.  Of course, not sure if this will actually work and might then be stuck in license limbo.  Hopefully all the cloud/phone-home stuff should alleviate this...

 

 

I've never tried deactivating. I've done the drive swap, and also done fresh installs and connected to an old key. The old drive would only be to establish that hardware signature - after that, upgrade or fresh install to the m.2 as you wish. Twice I've had to jump through hoops on the phone, only once was it a pain. As long as you have the old OS on the drive and old hardware, you could also jump right to new OS/drive and have easy fallback options if it doesn't let the key transfer.