Hi all,

I'm building my first Unraid server and would appreciate some feedback on my planned hardware, drive layout etc, before I start moving data and installing OS etc.

Hardware

    Case: Jonsbo N6

    Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-A WIFI DDR4

    CPU: Intel i5-14400

    RAM: 32GB DDR4

    HBA: Supermicro AOC-S3008L-L8i (IT Mode)

    Cache Drives: 2 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe (mirror)

    OS Drive: Sandisk Mobile mate reader with 32GB High endurance SD

The server will mainly run:

Plex, Sonarr, Radarr etc

Home file storage

Possibly a few lightweight VMs in the future, and maybe add a camera or 2

My current NAS

HP Microserver Gen8 running Windows 10:

Media storage

    2 x 18TB WD NAS drives in RAID1

    Approximately 17TB used

Personal storage and backups

    2 x 6TB drives in RAID1

    Approximately 3TB used

I also have 2 cold drives that I'll use to copy the data off the old setup and onto the new Unraid setup

    1 x 14TB WD NAS drive

    1 x 6TB WD NAS drive

 

My proposed Unraid layout

Main array - XFS

    1 x 18TB Parity

    1 x 18TB Data

    Initially this only gives me 18TB usable, but I will add more later

Backup pool - BTRFS

    2 x 6TB drives

    RAID1 mirror

    Used for: Appdata backups, Important documents/photos

Cache pool – BTRFS mirror

    2 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe

    Used for: Appdata, Dockers, Downloads, Plex metadata, Any future VMs

  

Questions

1. Array layout

Would you:

Option A

Keep the 2 x 6TB drives as a separate mirrored backup pool

or

Option B

Add them to the main array immediately and gain an extra

12TB of storage?

My thinking is that a dedicated backup pool may be more valuable than the additional capacity.

 

2. Cache pool

Are the 2 x 1TB T500s in a BTRFS Mirror a sensible choice for:

Appdata

Docker

Plex metadata

Download cache

Or would you recommend a different setup?

 

3. File Systems

Current plan:

Array - XFS

Cache Pool - BTRFS mirror

Backup Pool - BTRFS mirror

Does that sound reasonable?

4. drive for OS install

I've read that a good idea is to use the Sandisk Mobilemate and a decent SD card to install the OS on to. Also I'll be putting it inside on a USB2.0 header.

 

5. Any first time Unraid mistakes to avoid?

This is my first Unraid system after many years using Windows NAS setups.

Anything you would do differently with this hardware or storage layout before I start building?

Apologies if this is a little long, been trying to read up as much as I can in the last few weeks. I have all the hardware ready to go, i just want to make sure I'm going in the right direction before I copy my data off the HP server and move the drives into the new build. then install Unraid.

Thanks in advance

5 hours ago, Hissey said:

OS Drive: Sandisk Mobile mate reader with 32GB High endurance SD

Not clear how successful you will be with that approach

https://forums.unraid.net/forum/118-boot-devices/

Also FYI, the OS doesn't actually run from the flash device, it just contains archives of the OS which are unpacked into RAM at boot, and the OS runs in RAM.

You could make an internal boot partition on the cache devices.

On 6/14/2026 at 11:25 AM, Hissey said:

4. drive for OS install

I've read that a good idea is to use the Sandisk Mobilemate and a decent SD card to install the OS on to.

Also I'll be putting it inside on a USB2.0 header.

The boot drive on the motherboard header is the right move.

But I'd suggest getting a real industrial USB drive instead of the microSD card/reader combo.

It's a much more durable option.

Get a couple or more. You will not find them at this price again once the current stock is depleted.

P/N: DEUA1-64GI61BW1SC

ebay Item #326046070546