Hi all,

I was originally an unRAID user back in 2009 or so until I succumbed and bought a QNAP, which was eventually joined by a second QNAP. I've finally grown tired of the power consumption (not inconsiderable from two 8 bay QNAPs - an 859 and 869) and being locked to same-size drives so I'm looking to come back, but I don't think my circa 2009 unRAID hardware is going to cut it!

I'm mostly just hoarding data with a small side of Plex transcoding, but I would also like to roll-in my current virtualisation solution (another similarly old 7th gen i7 powered Dell) for some home-lab fun.

My requirements are:

• 8 bays (3.5" drives)

• 2x cache (ideally NVMe but SSD would probably be enough) for the VM/dockers & speed of writes

• 2.5Gbit NIC is ideal, 10Gbit would be even better but overkill

• Cheap(ish!)

I've been looking at various 8 bay cases which all take ATX or mATX (and, technically, I have a perfectly fine LianLi in the loft which is also ATX) and then I got stuck..

I was originally looking at Intel (Core i5 13th gen) but a little put off by the possibility of CPU failure so started watching more videos where I happened upon an excellent build video using a Gigabyte MC12-LE0 motherboard which looks great, 6x SATA, lights-out management etc, but is now nearly £300 from China and only has one M.2 slot, and I'm stuck on the fence between:

• The MC12-LE0 w/ a Ryzen 4650G, Intel Arc A310, LSI 9207-8i or M.2 to SATA adapter and SSDs for cache and live with 1Gb networking

• An MSI Pro B650-A w/ Ryzen 7600, Intel Arc A310, LSI 9207-8i and 2x NVMe for cache w/ 2.5Gbit networking and lose the BMC

• Go Intel i5 13500 or similar on a board supporting Intel AMT, I could probably lose the Arc A310 and there are no-name boards with all the other features (6-8x SATA, 2-3x M.2, 2.5Gb NICs etc)

I really like the idea of remote management of a headless system so the MC12's BMC or Intel AMT appeals, going Intel does mean I can shrink the other component cost down and likely power consumption (HBAs seem costly in terms of draw and I've seen reports of them eliminating higher C-states) but there's that 13/14th gen 'curse' to think about..

Writing it all out it does feel like the best compromise, at the expense of cost, is probably something like the CWWK W680 NAS motherboard NasCompares covered recently - though C-state capability and power consumption is a bit unknown.

Thoughts appreciated! I think I've been stuck in analysis paralysis so long I was originally looking at Jonsbo cases and Intel N300 solutions so I could really do with breaking this internal deadlock soon ;)

11 minutes ago, aaronjb said:

Thoughts appreciated!

I'll give you a couple of thoughts without making a specific motherboard or CPU recommendation.

I have remote management on all three of my Unraid servers. Two have IPMI on the motherboard. One does not have IPMI; however, you can do the same thing with a PiKVM. I use this internal PiKVM which uses a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. The advantage to this solution is that you are not tied to a particular motherboard with IPMI (or another built-in remote management solution) and it can be used with any future motherboard upgrades.

All of my servers have Intel CPUs and motherboards primarily for Quicksync transcoding in Plex. It eliminates the need for a discrete PCIe GPU. If you plan to run VMs and want to do GPU passthrough, that is a different story. Can you do APU transcoding in Plex/Jellyfin with AMD? Some have got it to work but it is just easier with Intel/Quicksync.

Yes, the Intel 13th and 14th generation CPUs had some issues and you are right to be cautious. I can't tell you how good the current 15th generation CPUs are as my newest CPU in an Unraid server is 11th generation.

In general, when it comes to Unraid, I decide what I want/need (number of SATA ports, PCIe, M.2 slots, transcoding, RAM needs, etc.) and then I go looking for the motherboard/CPU combo that best supports that and the best case to house what I need. I usually over-design for current needs as Unraid is so customizable and flexible that you always find ways to use the extra oomph. I have not upgraded hardware in many years on my servers because they continue to meet or exceed my demands.

Have fun. There are many different ways you can go with your build, as you have discovered. Check forum members signatures for hardware ideas. Many include server specs in their sigs.