Staring at my build on newegg but afraid could is not strong enough

[Joshewing02]

Hello community, I figured who else should I ask these questions to then the users themselves.  Currently I am am looking at building the following system that can be used for.

 

-15tb plex media server streaming two 2-3 systems at the same time tops

-2tb for Windows automatic Windows files and photo backups

-2tb auto Mac backup time machine for docs apps and photos

-1 parity drive for file protection possibly 2 in the future.

And I really would like it to also be

-1 Windows 10 VM very light use no encoding no gaming.

 

I know my components are strong enough for everything individually I just am unsure about them all running at once.  The main reason I want to build this is for plex and just want to make sure I'm good before I invest all this money.

I am looking at buying the following

 

-(4) 6tb Wd red nas drives

-(1) 6tb Wd red parity drive

-(1) 480gb ssd for cache pool

-(1) 3tb hard drive from current PC

-(1) 250gb ssd from current PC

-16gb ddr3l 1600 ram

-Intel quad core i7 4790K 4.0ghz

-asrock z97 extreme motherboard

-rosewell 4u server chassis

-thermaltake 550w power supply

 

Will this be able to run a Windows 10vm no gaming at the same time while say streaming 3 1080p mkv's to 3 separate Apple tV's in my house at the same time?  What are your thoughts.  Is the system even capable of doing the items on my want list?  I have never seen an h raid system so just trying to figure it out before I dive in and regret it.

 

 

 

 

[Bjonness406]

What about going with something like this instead, if it fits in you case?

http://www.natex.us/product-p/intel-s2600cp2j-128gb.htm

[Joshewing02]

I am deffenetly not opposed to that at all if it will perform better then the other build.  I have only run i7 in the past on most my builds for pc's and don't know much about xeons.  Can they handle all that?  How many cores would I dedicate to the vm?  Can plex utilize 2 processors or will it only use 1?

[Frank1940]

I would suggest either a case with quick change HD slots (that is, a case where your power  and SATA connections are automatically made with the drive as you insert or remove a drive,  OR a case where you can mount quick change (or hot plug) drive cages which allow the same thing. 

 

The reason is that, without this feature, when a new drive is added or an old drive exchanged, it just too easy to 'loosen' either the power connector or the SATA connector on another drive.  This will then cause problems when you attempt to restart the server.  It will cost a bit more initially but in the future, you will be very glad that you did it! 

 

I also hope you have carefully thought out why you are looking at a rack mount case when you are also considering a Windows VM.  This could make for some very long video, and UBS cables to get to a desktop for the monitor, keyboard and mouse. 

[Joshewing02]

Yea for the case I was not sold yet.  I was looking at a rack mount and mounting it under my desk in my office using a vertical mount.  I have a few cases in mind with Hot swap capabilities for that exact reason.  My biggest issue is committing to a Processor and or Motherboard.  I just want to make sure I'm covered.

 

I looked at Dual Xeon's originally but I don't know enough about them to know if they will outperform an i7 for Plex while also using a VM.

[garycase]

You don't need dual Xeons, but I WOULD use a Xeon-based system so you can use ECC RAM.  You're building a fault-tolerant server ... it's certainly nice if the RAM is also fault tolerant 

 

An E3 Xeon with a Cxxx class chipset board will let you use unbuffered ECC RAM ... not as good as the registered modules an E5 system would use, but at least it provides error correction.    If you limit an unbuffered board to 2 modules, the bus loading is reasonable, so it's not an issue.

 

You could use something like these and have essentially the same performance as the i7 you were looking at (which is, by the way, plenty of CPU "horsepower" for what you want to do):

 

Motherboard:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183013

 

CPU:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117617

 

Memory:  Buy 2 of these 8GB modules:  https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Kingston-ValueRAM-Server-Premier-DDR4-8-GB-DIMM-288-pin/3977474.aspx

 

It's likely slightly less expensive to use a Haswell based Xeon, but for a new system I'd be tempted to use a Skylake setup as I listed above.

 

 

[Joshewing02]

I like these options as well.  How many cores of the Xeon would I dedicate to Windows 10 vm?  Then would the remainder cores be able to process 4 transcodes from plex? 

[garycase]

That CPU can easily handle 4 transcodes and a VM.

 

[Joshewing02]

I ended up changing processors and found a Xeon 8 Core E5 2670 2.6Ghz for a good price.  I am pretty excited about it.  I think this will work out well.  How many cores should I allocate to a VM?

[garycase]

There's a whole thread detailing the good deals on the older E5-2670's that have been replaced at some major data centers recently (notably Facebook):  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46077.0

 

They do indeed provide excellent performance at a very good price -- the only downside is they use a lot of power, but considering the price savings that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

You can allocate whatever you want to the VM -- you'll have 8 cores (with 16 threads) to assign, so you've got far more power than you need for what you want to do.  You'll also have registered RAM modules, which will provide you a VERY reliable memory subsystem.

 

[Joshewing02]

If I dedicate 4 cores is that a descent VM system to run my Lulzbot 3d printer etc.  If I leave 4 cores for the Plex server is that enough to do 4 streams at the same time?  Or should I only use 3 cores or 2 cores?

[garycase]

One or two cores is plenty for the VM.    One core/stream is plenty for Plex.