Hey all. Microsoft's upcoming lack of support for i7 processors in Win11 has me building a new NAS solution from scratch. As this will likely be the last full build I do for a while, I don't mind spending a little extra money on it...But I'm also just a low-level hobbyist, so I don't want to make it a full commercial-grade solution. I'll likely start with what I've got, which is 4 SATA ports and an NVMe port...but the NVMe port shuts down one of the 4 SATA ports.

As I'm reading, I'm not finding any build guides for the ideal machine layout...I see some mentions of having 2 parity drives and a mirrored NVMe ZFS pool...but I can't seem to find a build guide with recent hardware supporting ECC RAM and intel iGPUs.

Could anyone recommend a build guide that has links to new consumer/prosumer hardware with warranties? I'll handle the drive array sizing based on the number of SATA ports on the motherboard.

Thanks for your feedback.

You are not limited to the number of SATA ports on your MB. The are plugin cards to provide additional ports as well as controllers that will plug into the NVME slot. See this thread for more information:

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/102010-recommended-controllers-for-unraid

You have not really stated what else you want this server to do. Do you want any Docker containers or VM's?

ECC RAM is normally not an option with most consumer MB. The amount of RAM need depends on what your answer was to the previous question. Unraid running as strictly a NAS can easily run in 4GB but I think 8GB is a more reasonable choice for the long haul.

Having a Video Out is desirable but the Unraid itself does not require a high-power GPU. The onboard Video solution that is available on many MB is adequate for anything that Unraid OS requires. (I have monitors and keyboards on both of my systems. It has been close to year since I last touched either keyboard! You might need it for troubleshooting when you can't get to the WebGUI!) )

Hi @Frank1940 , thanks for the feedback

I intend to use this machine as my home NAS, share files externally with myself and a few others. I’ll end up hosting a few containers like HA and Immrich. I don’t intend fto use the machine to rip and converts files, it’s I’ll likely stream one occasion. I’ll also likely install a windows VM just to have it available, and I’ll occasionally install other VMs, buy only to play with, nothing mission critical.

I’m can start with a breakout card, but i only have one slot on the existing mobo, which then i won’t later beable to use a 10GB nic.

ECC…I think I’m changing my mind…but as it’s becoming an option for consumer level DDR5, I’m thinking why not explore it for a system ill run the next 10 years

Not really interested in buying a gpu…but i play with Blue Iris, so the intel integrated Quicksync is a requirement.