Heey im brand new to this stuff and need some (alot) of help with figuring out what i should get.. after running jellyfin on my gaming pc for a few years now my storage is getting full..
so im looking into building my first NAS and i think unraid is what im looking for after watching and reading up on stuff...

But i dont know what to do next..

what i want is

-for it to last long
-able to expand if needed
-2.5 gbe or able to install network card for upgrade later

i already ordered Jonsbo N5.. but im down to swap if that not what best for me..

my budget is 1000 USD will buy the drives seperate.. so budget only for cpu/mobo/ram etc not the hard drives.. can go a bit higher but prefer not..

planning for 8 hdd but want roam to expand to 10+

been looking into supermicro cards.. since a coworker of mine has some stuff his not using that his willing to sell but i dont know if it would be good for my use case its:

Supermicro X10DRi lga 2011 v3

CPU: Xeon E5 2667 v4 × 2st.

RAM: REG ECC RDIMM ddr4 8Gb × 4st.

2Rank8Bank 2400Mhz
 

 

i mostly gonna use it as a media center but would like to also have roam to expand for more.. maybe run some servers to play with my friends etc

and with my ADHD i have a hard time finding out what i need and want so im here for your guys guidance lol..

i live kinda remote so would love like a list aka top 5.. and i see what i can get nearby.. any help will be very appreciated.. sorry for my broken english..

Quote

i live kinda remote

this is the hardest part.. a country helps us pinpoint your best options. i'm guessing german language because you wrote "st." for quantity.

$1000 USD is more than enough, without drives included.
The biggest factor is whether you want all new components or if you are ok with used/refurbished. In North America and Europe, a large amount of people go with used enterprise hardware.

Here's a basic summary within your $1000 budget:
-New hardware would mostly be consumer grade CPU and Motherboard.
Good news, they are very energy efficient at low idle usage and are easy to purchase.
Bad news, they are not as flexible when it comes to expansions, because all consumer CPU have a very limited amount of PCIE lanes/slots. 

-Used Enterprise hardware is either datacenter items or professional workstations.
Good news, they are very stable, meant to run 24/7, normally have cool features like IPMI, HUGE amount of PCIE lies/slots, wide range of products and solutions.
Bad news, lots of options to choose from, less efficient idle power consumption, integrated graphics is not common. (gpu in the cpu) built to last much longer than consumer. (my setup is 11 years old)

The supermicro setup that your friend has is awesome and a great start! but at what price?
Good news, unraid will have no problem with that hardware, it has lots of pcie expansion options, motherboard can be used with 1x CPU to save power (30watts) by disabling some of the PCIE slots, it has ipmi, V4 is the latest CPU generation for that board. USED RAM for this is relatively cheap. LOTS of CPU cores to divide the work and create VMS. 
Bad news, that setup is like the "finale" for that CPU generation, (the next cpu is "LGA 3647" and needs new motherboards). ALL PCIE is 3.0, which is fine for most people since you have a separate gaming computer. Expect a good amount of heat from that setup. no integrated graphics, so you should consider a cheap used nvidia gt 710 for quick access, diagnostics or VM machines. no modern m.2/u.2 connections, so you'll need to use PCIE adapter cards.

Edited January 19, 20251 yr by nasforthemass
formatting

i live in norway so kinda pricy to buy outside VAT and all that fancy stuff..

he wants 750usd for those parts. i think i would prefer Enterprise hardware for expansion options and longterm use i also want ECC.

i probably have some old GPU laying around i can use and just get a 1660 or something cheap second hand...

 

i dont mind getting some second hand stuff at all so thats not a problem..

 

yeah i was planning to run two m.2 as cache but maybe i can just swap em to normal SSD

 

Do you have similar or other good options for me?.. thank you so much for this long and detail answer! @nasforthemass

 

So do you recommend me getting those parts or should i look for newer version or other stuff?

 

 

Edited January 19, 20251 yr by ElectricHalt
just updating

hei!
Norwegian electricity costs are fairly modest. so power efficiency is not as dramatic. (Also, you did not have one comment regarding electricity)

In the US, his $750 price would be CRAZY expensive, but I cannot compare it to your local options. what I do know, is that the next generation of CPU and sockets (lga3647) would still be half the price and the RAM is very cheap for DDR4 ECC. examples:
Motherboard and 2x CPU included - https://www.ebay.com/itm/195740136904
RAM - https://www.ebay.com/p/21033795743

^^ This setup with 4x 32GB RAM would cost $450 (without shipping).
Here is the specs for the motherboard - https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/x11dph-t
Important notes:  2x M.2,  2x 10Gbe,  10x native Sata ports, E-ATX size is big, but should fit in the Jonesboro N5..
The nice part is that the LGA 3647 CPUs are 1st generation, so you could buy different ones that have a faster MHz (clock speed) or wait and buy the 2nd generation when they become cheaper on eBay. You want XEON  Silver, Gold, Platinum... not bronze
Comparison of your friends setup with this sample - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2830vs3095vs2830.2vs3095.2/
1st generation of LGA 3647 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)#Skylake-SP_(14_nm)_Scalable_Performance
2nd generation of LGA 3647 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Lake#Cascade_Lake-SP_(Scalable_Performance)

Edited January 19, 20251 yr by nasforthemass
links

heihei!
everything i wrote in the previous message is for enterprise components. if you want to stick to something smaller and more simple, you can use the consumer LGA 1700 CPU.
Pros - It can do ECC, it is very power efficient, you can buy the items easily with European warranty, option for INTEGRATED GRAPHICS, high clock speed Mhz, modern and simple.
Cons - very limited PCIE lanes, not many ECC motherboards available, ddr5 ecc is expensive.

EXAMPLE:
Pick any CPU you like, i recommend a "K" version, so that you have integrated graphics and unlocked Mhz.
Motherboards - There are 3 main competitors in this space: see which one you like and is priced fairly for norway.
Supermicro X13SAE (no ipmi) - https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/x13sae
Supermicro X13SAE-F (with ipmi) - https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/x13sae-f
Asus Pro WS W680-ACE (different versions available with ipmi) - https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-w680-ace/