I'm currently using a pair of AMD Athlon 5350 ITX systems, one is main fileserver running Open Media Vault, one is Win10 backup server/HTPC. I'm looking to consolidate into one Large unRAID 6 server.

 

I'm looking for hardware recommendations, trying to keep this as low-cost as possible.

 

Uses: Fileserver/1-3 containers (definitely Plex, maybe 2 or 3 other containers), No Virtual machines.

 

What I need recommendations on:

- Motherboard & CPU: Only looking at LGA 1151 mobos. I haven't decided on ITX or MicroATX, but I definitely don't want ATX. I'm trying to keep the build small, but expandable (eventually a max of 12 drives, maybe 16).

> Things I want on the mobo: ECC RAM support 32GB max., IPMI, single-CPU, minimum 6 SATA 3 (more if possible), not opposed to more than 2 GB Ethernet ports but not a requirement, internal USB port for unRAID flash drive.

> CPU - must run Plex perfectly, won't be transcoding more than one movie/TV show at a time. Can I get away with an i3?

- At some point, I'll probably need to add a PCIE SATA controller, minimum 8-port - any recommendations?

- Drives: I'll probably start with 6 4TB 2.5" SATA 3 drives, 5400rpm (good enough to run movies off of? I've only used 7200rpm drives up until now.

- I'll be adding at least 1, maybe 2 SSD for a cache. Is 1 128GB large enough?

- Recommend a good 16GB USB Flash drive supported by unRAID

 

Thanks!

A Core i3 is probably fine if you get a good one, I'd recommend the 6100 at 3.7GHz or 6300 at 3.8GHz.  The clock speed drops way off on the low power varieties and they could struggle with heavy transcoding.  For some reason the current C23x and x170 mITX/mATX/uATX boards don't seem to commonly have IPMI or internal USB?  Not sure why, the boards from Supermicro, ASRock, Asus and Gigabit otherwise look quite nice.  5400 rpm is fine for streaming movies.  Commonly used 8 port cards are the Supermicro AOC-SASLP (x4), AOC-SAS2LP (x8), IBM M1015 (x8) and Dell PERC H310 (x8) (the latter two flashed to IT mode).  I like the Sandisk Cruzer Fit USB sticks.

 

Sizing a cache disk depends on what you'll use it for - do you plan to cache writes to the array or just support Dockers?  Also how large will your Plex library be?  128GB is fine if you don't cache writes and have a moderate sized Plex library.

Actually, the Supermicro C232 and C236 boards usually do have IPMI, NewEgg's search just can't find that fact .

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007629%20601186375%20600009017%20600009028%2050001655

I was planning to cache writes to the array. I'm planning to start with either 4 or 6 4TB HDDs. Plex library is about 450 movies and TV shows also, not sure how many GB. Thanks for your help.

 

A Core i3 is probably fine if you get a good one, I'd recommend the 6100 at 3.7GHz or 6300 at 3.8GHz.  The clock speed drops way off on the low power varieties and they could struggle with heavy transcoding.  For some reason the current C23x and x170 mITX/mATX/uATX boards don't seem to commonly have IPMI or internal USB?  Not sure why, the boards from Supermicro, ASRock, Asus and Gigabit otherwise look quite nice.  5400 rpm is fine for streaming movies.  Commonly used 8 port cards are the Supermicro AOC-SASLP (x4), AOC-SAS2LP (x8), IBM M1015 (x8) and Dell PERC H310 (x8) (the latter two flashed to IT mode).  I like the Sandisk Cruzer Fit USB sticks.

 

Sizing a cache disk depends on what you'll use it for - do you plan to cache writes to the array or just support Dockers?  Also how large will your Plex library be?  128GB is fine if you don't cache writes and have a moderate sized Plex library.

In that case the 128GB SSD for cache sounds small, I'd go with a 240+ since it's a cheap upgrade.

 

Mover typically runs once a day.  So the size of your SSD needs to be a) your docker image + b) the data for your dockers (plex can get big) + c) the maximum amount of data you write to the array in a 24 hour period.  In context, my Docker file is 20GB, Plex can run in the 10s of GB for a large library, and a single BluRay rip can be over 30GB.  So a 128 could get cozy quickly but something larger will give you a lot more breathing room.  There are folks who go 500+ for their cache drive, but they are typically using the cache drive for VM storage or know that they write lots of data to the array in a 24 hour period.

I use a 1TB SSHD laptop drive myself. So far I've noticed zero performance issues and I have a Plex Media Player VM as well on it (although disk access is low for this VM).

 

It's my hope that the hybrid cache is caching all the docker image / appdata stuff and the transcodes go to the regular drive platters, but who the heck knows!