Hi everyone,

I’m planning a quiet Unraid NAS for my home office and would appreciate feedback before purchasing the parts. The system will initially start with 4-6 drives, but the goal is to eventually grow the array to 18 drives, so expandability and long-term reliability are important.

The NAS will sit in a very quiet office, so noise matters a lot. That’s why I chose mostly Noctua cooling components and plan to spin down all drives when not in use.

The main workload will be Jellyfin (mostly Direct Play) and file storage.

 

Planned Hardware

Component	Item	Link
CPU	Intel Core i3-14100T	https://www.reichelt.de/de/de/shop/produkt/intel_core_i3-14100t_2_70-4_40ghz_tray_1700-413106
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-L9i-17xx	https://www.alternate.de/Noctua/NH-L9i-17xx-CPU-K%C3%BChler/html/product/1797350
Motherboard	ASRock H610M-HVS/M.2 R2.0 OR Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4	https://www.alternate.de/ASRock/H610M-HVS-M-2-R2-0-Mainboard/html/product/1863969
RAM	16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200	https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/16GB-Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-schwarz-DDR4-3200-DIMM-CL16-Dual-Kit_1384683.html
Cache SSD	Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB NVMe	https://www.alternate.de/Samsung/990-PRO-1-TB-SSD/html/product/1864239
HDDs (initial)	4 × Seagate Exos 28 TB (recertified)	https://datablocks.dev/products/seagate-exos-28-tb-sata-recertified-hard-drive-st28000nm001c
HBA	Broadcom LSI 9306-24i (IT mode)	https://www.haehnlein-it.com/Kit-Broadcom-LSI-9306-24i-SATA-SAS-HBA-Controller-RAID-12Gbps-PCIe-x8-Avago-IT-FW-Kopie-3-Kabel/REF-9306-24I-CBL
HBA Fan Bracket	Akasa PCI slot fan bracket	https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08W5255HL
HBA Fans	2 × Noctua NF-A8 PWM	https://www.alternate.de/Noctua/NF-A8-PWM-Geh%C3%A4usel%C3%BCfter/html/product/1159049
Case	Fractal Design Define 7 XL	https://www.alternate.de/Fractal-Design/Define-7-XL-Black-Solid-Big-Tower-Geh%C3%A4use/html/product/1576641
Additional HDD trays	Fractal Design HDD Tray Kit Type-B	https://www.computeruniverse.net/de/p/2D06-07K
Front Case Fans	4 × Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM	https://www.alternate.de/Noctua/NF-A14x25-G2-PWM-Geh%C3%A4usel%C3%BCfter/html/product/100080789
Rear Case Fan	Noctua NF-A14x25 G2 PWM	https://www.alternate.de/Noctua/NF-A14x25-G2-PWM-Geh%C3%A4usel%C3%BCfter/html/product/100080789
PSU	Seasonic PRIME TX-1600 Noctua Edition	https://www.alternate.de/Seasonic/PRIME-TX-1600-Noctua-Edition-PC-Netzteil/html/product/100098867
Boot Device	ATP Electronics industrial USB drive	https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/ATP-Electronics/AF8GUFNDNCI-AABXX?qs=iLbezkQI%252BsgcAungTHo1dw%3D%3D
USB Header Splitter	USB 2.0 header → 2× USB	https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Bolwins-Adapter-Cable-Header-Female-black/dp/B09C2F2YZY

 

Notes on Some Choices

PSU

I am aware that the TX-1600 Noctua PSU is massive overkill for the build. I chose it intentionally for the following reasons:

• excellent build quality

• extremely quiet fan profile. I have used it in another build and it is effectively inaudible

• I dislike fanless PSUs because long-term heat can degrade components

• A total of 6 SATA power connectors

The Seasonic cables have 3 SATA connectors each, so with 6 SATA power connectors I can power 18 drives safely without questionable power splitters. I want to use only the original Seasonic cables.

 

Design Goals for the Motherboard

I am still not fully happy with my motherboard selection.

Ideally the board should have:

• Socket 1700 for i3-14100T

• DDR4

• 2.5 or 5 Gbit LAN

• 1× PCIe x16 slot (for HBA)

• 1 additional PCIe slot for future expansion with enough space between it an the 16x port so that I can place 2x 80mm Fans in a PCI-slot bracket in between them to cool the HBA.

• internal USB 2.0 header for the Unraid USB

• HDMI and/or DisplayPort

• No on-board GPU (there is already an iGPU in the i3-14100T)

• ASPM settings in BIOS

• good Linux compatibility

• minimal extra controllers / RGB

Basically: as few gimmicks as possible.

Questions

1. Realtek LAN concerns

Both candidate boards use Realtek network controllers.

I have read that Realtek NICs can sometimes disable ASPM which prevents deep CPU package C-states thus increasing idle power. Has anyone experienced this on these boards with Unraid? Would an Intel NIC board be significantly safer for low idle power?

 

2. HDDs

• Are there quieter enterprise drives above ~24 TB that you would recommend? Optimally with published Benchmarks that you can link to?

• Due to write speed I want to avoid SMR and instead go for CMR or HAMR. Thus Seagate Exos 30 TB would be the largest Exos I consider, due to 32 TB and larger being SMR.

• Are Exos drives acceptable in a large 18 drive array in terms of vibration? For some WD Red drives I found entries how many drives can be used in the same case, due to vibrations of the other drives being an issue. Is there any information out there regarding this for the 28 TB Exos? I did not find it.

• Can enterprise drives be shut down or should they run 24/7? I wanted to wake the NAS by LAN when starting my main PC and put it to sleep either when shutting the main PC down or via a command from a tablet within the local network (the one used to watch Jellyfin content when not sitting at the PC).

• I am also open to other drives. The reason I am so focused on the recertified 28 TB Exos is their "low" price. The current HDD market is nuts.

 

3. HBA compatibility

I plan to connect all drives through the LSI 9306-24i to avoid mixed controller issues.

• Is the 9306-24i known to cause issues with Unraid? As far I see it the HBA is already flashed in IT mode from the manufacturer, thus this should not be an issue.

• Does it prevent deep C-states or low idle power with certain mainboards? Can you recommend some mainboards and/or HBAs that fit my build and don't have this issue?

 

4. USB header → single USB port

I could only find USB header splitters (1 → 2 ports). Does anyone know a high-quality adapter that converts a USB 2.0 header to a single USB port? Looks cleaner in the end.

 

5. Fan hub

Since the system will use multiple case fans and mainboards with few controllers tend to have few fan connectors, I still need a good fan hub. Recommendations for a reliable PWM fan hub would be appreciated. How to pull HBA heat information and inform the fans with it would be even more appreciated.

 

Any feedback is welcome. I’d like to get the platform right before committing to the hardware.

Thanks!

Edited March 8Mar 8 by Azrael1000
readbility, refined text, removal of repetitive information

18 hours ago, Azrael1000 said:

The Seasonic cables have 3 SATA connectors each, so with 6 SATA power connectors I can power 18 drives safely without questionable power splitters. I want to use only the original Seasonic cables.

Seems original have 5 cable, but still have 18 plug.

True, this means I can power up to 24 drives, as I still have all SATA cables from my first Noctua/Seasonic PSU. Great! Thanks!

9 minutes ago, Azrael1000 said:

True, this means I can power up to 24 drives, as I still have all SATA cables from my first Noctua/Seasonic PSU. Great! Thanks!

Great !!

Is there a reason why I can not find the company https://datablocks.dev in any thread? They seem to sell their drives at good prices, although the spec sheets are containing some wrong information. Is it a reputable company? Can you people recommend a good company to get high quality drives that are not insanely expensive?