April 21, 20251 yr I have an old HTPC that I’m not using anymore and with the help of ChatGPT changed some of the hardware to make it fit for UnRAID (upgraded to 16 GB RAM and added an NVME card and a 2.5 Gbit card). What ChatGPT didn’t tell me but what I saw on the UnRAID docs now is that a quad core CPU should be minimum. So, do I need to upgrade that too? My hope actually was to recycle most of theta I have in my old HTPC. Key applications: - NAS/storage - Nextcloud/Owncloud - Paperless NGX - Immich - ARRs and downloaders (Usenet and maybe BitTorrent) - Jellyfin - Some app to stream music - Maybe other server apps, such as own LAMP stack, RSS reader etc. Not needed: - No virtualization - No heavy encoding (max would be 1 stream at a time at 1080p max which most video files would be in already) Hardware: Core System - Case: Auriga 6-bay dual-chamber NAS case - Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M (mATX, LGA 1155, 4× SATA3) - CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 (2 cores / 4 threads, 3.3 GHz, Ivy Bridge) - CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B low-profile 5-heatpipe cooler - RAM: 2× 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz — 16 GB total - Power Supply: PicoPSU-160-XT with 192W external AC/DC adapter Drives - Parity Drive: 1× 8 TB HDD (e.g., WD Red Plus / Seagate IronWolf) - Data Drive: 1× 8 TB HDD (same as above) - Cache Drive: 1× 1 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD (via PCIe adapter) / Download/Unassigned Drive: 1× 2 TB WD Green 3.5” HDD (reused from HTPC) - Boot Drive: SanDisk MobileMate USB 3.0 microSD Card Reader with Sandisk 16 GB Industrial MLC MicroSD SDHC UHS Additional Hardware - PCIe Adapter: UGREEN M.2 NVMe to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter for cache SSD - Tp-link Lan Card (tx201) 2.5 Gigabit Pci Express Adapter Cooling and Airflow - Top Compartment Intake: 2× 92mm PWM fans (Noctua NF-A9) - Top Rear Exhaust: 1× 80mm PWM exhaust fan ( Noctua NF-A8) - Bottom Compartment Exhaust: 2× 92mm PWM fans at the rear - Fan Accessories: Y-splitters to manage limited motherboard header Storage Wiring and Accessories - Backplanes: 2× SATA backplanes (each with 3× drive slots, 1× Molex power, 3× SATA data) - Power Splitters: Starlink Molex to SATA power splitters - Cables: Starlink SATA III data cables (90° + straight ends, shielded) and Starlink Molex extension cable (for reaching from PicoPSU to bottom backplane) Edited April 22, 20251 yr by Dan de Brunner
April 21, 20251 yr 53 minutes ago, Dan de Brunner said: Boot Drive: SanDisk MobileMate USB 3.0 microSD Card Reader with Sandisk 16 GB Industrial MLC MicroSD SDHC UHS Wonder whether that can be used. Have you tried to install UnRaid on it using the Flash Creator?
April 21, 20251 yr Author 16 minutes ago, trurl said: Wonder whether that can be used. Have you tried to install UnRaid on it using the Flash Creator? I haven’t but it was highly recommended by people on Reddit given the mess with actual USB sticks. People report that this micro SD card reader works like a charm and has its own ID so you can just swap the micro SD card once it fails (which can be prolonged by using one of the industrial use cards like I purchased).
April 21, 20251 yr Will it run? Probably. Unraid will run on nearly any x64 based system. Will you be happy with it running what you listed? I doubt it. A 12 year old 2c/4t Ivy Bridge CPU might be enough to handle basic NAS functions and stream Jellyfin content (direct or simple transcode) to one client on your LAN. But as you start adding a number of other apps, you will find it severely CPU limited. Benchmark scores for the i3-3225 are less than half that of a fairly current N100 and a quarter of a first gen Ryzen 1500X (which I built my first Unraid server 4 years ago). The N100 is about the minimum to go, if the goal is minimum power usage. Something equivalent to 1500X (4c/8t from circa 2017) would handle the list you posted.
April 21, 20251 yr Author 56 minutes ago, ConnerVT said: Something equivalent to 1500X (4c/8t from circa 2017) would handle the list you posted. Does this mean I won’t be able to run those apps? Does it mean it will be slow? Note that most of these apps wouldn’t run in parallel for the most time. I guess a downloader and some of the ARR apps would run 24/7 but the rest would only be used on demand. Not sure whether that helps or not?
April 21, 20251 yr It will run. But tasks like unpacking RAR and assembling NZB files from USENET use a great amount of CPU power. Managing multiple torrents does also. To a lesser extent, Immich and Nextcloud sometimes can be taxing, depending on what task it may be doing. You have 4 threads to work with. At least one will be for Unraid itself, to handle running the OS and all of the other things Unraid manages, such as the Docker system, disk access, network, etc. It would like to have more. Then the rest of your docker apps each will want a slice of the pie. If threads are not available, they will wait until one is. This is fine for most things, as they aren't time sensitive. But a media server needs a constant stream of input, else you get stuttering or worse. You can put a trailer hitch on a Japanese kei car. But you won't be able to pull very much around with it.
April 22, 20251 yr Author What would be a cheap upgrade (CPU and MB) qfrom here that doesn’t break the bank? Would the following combo work (that’s already much more than what I wanted to spend)? Buy new: INTEL CORE I3-12100 3.3 GHz (SOCKET LGA 1700) ASROCK H610M-H2/M.2 (INTEL SOCKET 1700 DDR4 MICRO-ATX) Buy used: Intel i5-8500 / i5-8400 / i5-8500T + B360/H310 Motherboard Intel i5-9400 / i5-9500 / i5-9400T + B360/B365 motherboard ——— I’m not looking for virtualization or tons of hardcore transcoding. I’ll be the single user of this box. (If I can get VM support “for free” because of the added horsepower it’s fine, but it shouldn’t be a factor for driving up the cost). — Micro ATX — iGPU — H.265 hardware transcoding (UHD 630) — AVX2 for Immich — Support for 6 SATA drives — low power consumption/energy efficient — popular enough so that I can find it second hand here in Asia (where not everything is always available—the above combo I would have to buy new) Edited April 22, 20251 yr by Dan de Brunner
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