OK, to set the scene I've been running unRAID now for about 8 years on a HP Microserver with the following specs:

Intel Xeon E31260L

16GB DDR3 ECC RAM

Inside I've currently got a 250gb SSD for the cache drive and 3 HDD's (2 x 4TB and 1 x 2TB WD Red's)

I use it to host Plex, store photos and videos as well as running various docker containers for game servers mostly.

Anyway, while the server has always been pretty solid I've noticed that if I have a number of docker containers installed (and not even running) then my CPU usage seems to spike from time to time and the "Docker vdisk" usage is quite high and so I am assuming that a faster CPU and more RAM will improve the performance? (happy to be told I'm wrong!)

I've borrowed (see: stolen) a spare PC from my parents and am thinking about re-tasking it as an improved unRAID server - specs as follows:

Asrock B450M Pro4 motherboard

AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics

16GB Corsair DDR4-3200 (1600 MHz)

So my questions are:

1. Could it possibly be as straightforward as plugging the USB stick containing the OS and hard drives into the new PC and setting it to boot to the USB in the BIOS? (I can't imagine it is, but it can't hurt to ask!)

2. I know the server at the moment uses "ECC" RAM but is this necessary or will regular RAM suffice? (assuming I add another 16GB to the mix)

3. I know one of the big benefits of the Microservers was that the power draw was/is pretty low - is there any way to gauge how much more the new server will be in terms of power consumption?

4. What else do I need to be considering?

Sadly, unRAID is a victim of it's own simplicity because while I did loads of research and was fairly conversant when I got it all up and running 8 years ago, because I've barely had to touch it, now I'm an idiot and have remembered nothing!

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

16 hours ago, stevep94 said:

Could it possibly be as straightforward as plugging the USB stick containing the OS and hard drives into the new PC and setting it to boot to the USB in the BIOS? (I can't imagine it is, but it can't hurt to ask!)

It should be.

ECC is never required, though nice to have.