First unRAID build, comments please

[astromd77]

Hi there!

 

I've been hosting my Plex Server at a colocation facility and I'm hitting their barriers for storage. Therefore, I'm looking to move my Mac Mini Server that hosts Plex down to my house and adding a separate NAS for storage. All of the transcoding will still run on the Mac Mini, I just need a place to store the data. I am currently using 6 TB and I'd like room to grow, possible to 20TB, eventually. I'm not planning on doing VM's or Dockers (I don't think--since I have all that working on my Mac Mini). Here's what I have so far:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($113.89 @ OutletPC)

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($44.33 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($64.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.89 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce 8400 GS 1GB Video Card  ($29.49 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Silverstone DS380B Mini ITX Tower Case  ($147.99 @ Directron)

Power Supply: Silverstone 500W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($94.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $712.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 13:18 EST-0500

 

I am trying to stay around 700 for the initial build that provides 12 TB. Thoughts? Are there any components here that are overkill? I'm eyeing the CPU but not sure if I should go with something less powerful. Also, not sure I really need 16 GB memory.

[astromd77]

I put this smaller build together as an alternative, to get me started.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD 3850 1.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($29.95 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Alpine M1 Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($9.99 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: ASRock AM1H-ITX Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard  ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($22.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Green 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($221.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Western Digital Green 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($221.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($79.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Cooler Master 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($55.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $691.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 16:58 EST-0500

[kizer]

Heres a pretty good thread regarding your Silverstone DS380 Case.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31967.0

 

My only real constructive comment right now. Lol

[garycase]

I'd definitely go with the Intel-based system.

 

No need for a video card => the i3-4160 has integrated video.

 

... and I'd go with at least 4GB drives.    I'd also suggest using the WD Reds instead of the Greens.  The small incremental /TB cost gives you a 50% longer warranty and drives that are designed for NAS usage.

 

 

 

[astromd77]

Thanks for the info. I'm beginning to think the Silverstone is too much for me right now. Maybe the Refine R4 or R5. I'll look into it.

[garycase]

The Silverstone is a superb little mini-ITX case.    On the other hand, the Fractal Design R4 and R5 are both very nice cases as well ... they're simply much larger.    The larger cases will let you use full size ATX power supplies and can, of course, hold more drives and larger motherboards.

 

Just depends on what your goal is.    Personally, if 8 drives is enough, I think the Silverstone is a much better choice, as the mini-ITX form factor makes a VERY nice system that can be placed many places where a larger case won't fit.

 

If cost is the factor, I'd just wait until you can save a few extra $$ 

[danioj]

The Silverstone is a superb little mini-ITX case.    On the other hand, the Fractal Design R4 and R5 are both very nice cases as well ... they're simply much larger.    The larger cases will let you use full size ATX power supplies and can, of course, hold more drives and larger motherboards.

 

Just depends on what your goal is.    Personally, if 8 drives is enough, I think the Silverstone is a much better choice, as the mini-ITX form factor makes a VERY nice system that can be placed many places where a larger case won't fit.

 

If cost is the factor, I'd just wait until you can save a few extra $$ 

 

I can only echo the comments for garycase TBH.

 

I do find myself wondering what the difference between the DS380 and the DS380b is though? I can't seem to find an answer with a cursory Google search!?

 

EDIT: It appears that "B" is just a reference to colour!!

[astromd77]

Thank you for the feedback. I think you're right about that case. I'm going to spend a little more. At this point, I wonder how much of a savings this will be compared to a Synology or something similar.

[tdallen]

Your parts list is for a nice little unRAID server, but it is a little mis-matched against your requirements.  Normally I wouldn't mention it, but since you're thinking about Synology I want to give you some feedback to reduce the cost of your unRAID build.

 

You want a pure NAS.  No Dockers, VMs, plugins.  All the application work will be done on your Mac Mini.

• 16 GB is overkill for this server.  It's a great idea to go with 16GB but this is an opportunity to save some money.  8GB or even 4GB will work for this use case.
  
• A Core i3 4160 is overkill for this server.  It is a fantastic idea to go with a Core i3, but you can save some money by going with a Pentium or even a Celeron.
  
• As Gary mentioned, you don't need a video card with a Core i3.
  
• You probably don't need a third party CPU cooler, the stock Core i3 cooler will work.
  
• The case you linked is a very nice case for this application.
  

 

Now, I'd actually like to encourage you to build exactly the system you spec'd out and leave that Mac Mini asleep most of the time - you don't need two machines powered on.  The system you spec'd out would be far more powerful than any Synology and most QNAPs and Asustors. 

 

Even if you take some of my suggestions above, though (less memory, downgraded processor, less expensive case), you will still have a NAS that is much more capable and upgradeable than a Synology.  Synology's are a good basic NAS platform but they are expensive for what you get and only minimally capable of any application work.

 

So, your call.  If you really don't want any application capabilities on your NAS then a lower end build out or a commercial NAS is an option.  Personally, I really like the idea that all my laptops and desktops put themselves to sleep when not in use while my unRAID server searches, downloads, transcodes, stores and serves up data from it's little closet in the basement.

 

[astromd77]

Thanks, tdallen, for your thoughts. I'm not looking at the Synology any more based on your feedback. I am seriously considering building it to replace the Mac Mini. It could be easier to maintain my system if I have all the components on a single device. I'd have to determine if the i3 could handle my transcoding requirements for Plex and for the couple of other services I use (NZBGet and Sonarr). I only have a couple of clients running against my Plex server, so the needs aren't great. If so, I could see not having to use the Mac Mini at all.

 

 

[garycase]

The i3 has adequate "horsepower" to do a couple of simultaneous transcodes with Plex, so you could definitely move towards that once you feel comfortable with UnRAID.      In general, you need at least 2000 PassMarks per transcode ... the the 4160 scores 5028 on that benchmark, so it should be fine for 2 simultaneous streams.

 

Agree the stock i3 cooler is fine -- that's another expense you can save.

 

[astromd77]

Thank you garycase!

 

I've tweaked the list a bit to remove the video card and the cooler. I'm working on the drives now. I have a new part list with three Red 4 TB drives to get me started. I feel like the 6 TB drives (even at the Green level) don't offer any more bang for the buck. As prices go down and the cost per GB goes down I'll add larger drives. Any case for getting the larger drives now?

[JonathanM]

Any case for getting the larger drives now?

Depends on how much space you will realistically use vs. how many physical ports / drive slots you have available. You don't want to get into a situation where you have to get rid of a perfectly functional drive because you ran out of slots and need more capacity.

[tdallen]

I run an older 4,000 Passmark server with 8GB of RAM.  It also runs Plex, SickRage, Sonarr, and Sabnzdb.  It has transcoded everything I've thrown at it so far, including high bit rate native BD rips.  It works really hard transcoding full BD rips, though - all cores are maxed.  It wouldn't be able to transcode more than one full BD rip at the same time.  It could easily handle a couple of 1080p streams if the media is already encoded down to a lower bit rate or H.264, though.  I've never seen it using more than half of its memory, though Sonarr seems to grab a big chunk.

 

It sounds like my use case and your proposed use case are fairly similar.  You're looking at a 5,000 Passmark CPU with the Core i3 4160.  I'd expect it to be able to handle 2 or 3 1080p Plex streams, unless you also tend to store full native BD Rips then you'd be limited to 1 or 2.  8GB would be fine for your planned use.  More CPU and more memory are always great, but you have to decide on the cost tradeoff and what your future needs look like.  Like I implied in my last post, if I were building a new server I'd go with 16GB and a somewhat higher end CPU, but that would be in anticipation of future (undefined) needs, not the basic media server with Plex that is your goal.

 

The drive bays in my server aren't hot swap and aren't that easy to access.  As I went through the process of building my server and reconfiguring it several times before I had everything just right, I promised myself that next time I was getting hot swap bays... Every time you pull or move a drive you mess up the careful cabling job you did and it sure would be nice to have the cables stay in place during a drive change.  That said, hot swap bays are a nice to have, and after you build out your server it could be years before you have to mess with drives.

 

The 6TB drives are a little faster than the 4TB drives due to their higher aureal density, but not enough to justify buying more storage than you will need.  My preference is to manage a small number of large drives over a large number of small drives, FWIW.

 

Hope that helps.

[astromd77]

Thank you, everyone, for your insights. Most of my media is 720p or 1080p H.264 encodes from BluRay sources in MKV or MP4 containers. I think the i3 should be fine. The only other scenario I can think of where I might want more horsepower is to run a Windows VM since we don't have any Windows systems and there are occasions where we might need to have one. Then again, we could just run one locally on our MacBook's when we need to.

 

I'm going to explore the UnRaid feature set and see how others are using theirs before I commit to the i3.

 

On the storage end, I'll mull it over, but I get your point about managing less drives.

[hugenbdd]

Why not keep it hosted and sign up for an Amazon Cloud Drive?  You should be able to mount it from your hosted server.  I couldn't tell if your hosted server is a Mac or not.  Seems a hosted site should have good speeds to Amazon to stream from.

 

Read these blogs about how they do it with linux and the fuse file system.

amc.ovh. 

 

Or are you looking to also get your media local?

 

 

 

[astromd77]

Thanks hugenbdd, my goal is to save money on the fees of hosting data with my current provider. I looked into Amazon Cloud Drive on the Plex forums and the results weren't favorable, especially on the Mac. People reported stuttering and buffering, even with good connections. I used to use Bitcasa many moons ago and had similar issues, even though the latency and throughout between the data center and Bitcasa was excellent.

 

[garycase]

... Any case for getting the larger drives now?

 

One thing that you may want to do is get a larger drive for the parity drive.  Since the parity drive must be >= the largest data drive, doing this will eliminate the hassle of upgrading the parity drive later, when you decide to use larger data drives.    i.e. if you buy a 6TB parity and 4TB data drives, then you'll be able to add 6TB data drives later (when the price has hopefully dropped a bit).    It's not "hard" to upgrade the parity drive, but if you know you'll want to be using the larger drives as you expand the system, it makes sense to simply avoid the need to do that.

 

[astromd77]

Thanks garycase. Great advice.