I'm planning my upgrade and wondering if the Ugreen DXP8800 Plus or Terramaster T9-500 Pro (maybe T12-500 Pro too) are worthy options to consider. I'm coming from a SM826 12 Bay chassis with a 4790(Non-K) and Asus Z87-Pro w/ 32Gb DDR3 ram. The Z87-Pro has died on me and I figure now is a good time to upgrade, but there are so many options to pick from. Ideally, I like something that produces less heat and uses less power compared to the hog I was running. But I'm being indecisive on what to upgrade to as I prefer SFF systems over large systems. My main PC is in a FormD T1 V2.1 for reference. While I do like a good PC build, I honestly thinking of forgoing a high end build and get something that can just go out of the box. I know I can build for much cheaper, get more bang for money, and be able to expand. I honesty want to keep my unRAID simple and not over complicate it with HBAs, add-on cards, or even GPUs. I did toy with he idea of adding my RTX 3060 12G into my unRAID server so I can play with Ollama and Sable Diffusion, but I think I'll be better off running that in Windows vs messing with Docker as I'm fairly inexperience with Docker, and can't do much without following a guide and how to video when I get stuck or something doesn't work. I love to here some opinions/criticism on my choices and ideas.

 

Current list of apps uning on my unRAID are Plex/Jellyfin, *arrs, Deluge, MakeMKV, Handbrake, and GluetunVPN.

VM are WIn98 and MacOS from Space Invader, I play with these from time to time.

I don't see much value proposition in the off-the-shelf options unless "simple first" is your primary focus. You end up with a solution that requires full replacement when you reach it's current limits. I was able to piece-meal replace my system continuously for about 10 years - never having to shell out for a complete replacement until every component reached it's true end-of-life and replacements were now more expensive than a complete upgrade. Like all opinions, it's worth the gold-leaf embossed velum it's printed on - or not.

Edited January 20, 20251 yr by whipdancer