Building a server for a friend - will this cut it?

[Hoopster]

I have some parts laying around from my first unRAID build and from prior upgrades.  I have a friend who was blown away by what unRAID can do and I told him I could put together a server for him fairly inexpensively with some "old" but very serviceable parts.  Basically, he just wants media file storage and NAS functions, backup capabilities, a couple of simultaneous Plex streams and some occasional music streaming. A few dockers are anticipated but no VMs.

 

I think the following should be able to do that with ease:

 

Biostar TH61-ITX MB

Intel i5-3340 (6000 passmark) CPU

4 GB RAM - may need to upgrade to 8GB

1 3TB WD Green HDD

1 3TB WD Red HDD

(need a parity drive)

1 Intel 520 240 GB SSD for cache and Dockers

Corsair CX430 PSU

Bitfenix Prodigy Mini-ITX case

 

I am trying to keep it fairly inexpensive by using what I already have to get him started.  Any concerns with the above given his needs?

 

 

[BillClinton]

My system is very similar. It works great with up to 4 Plex streams. I have 9 dockers with a total of 6GB of ram. Check out my sig. I wish I had at least 8GB of ram though as my Plex just chews it up after about a month. (Might have an issue with some of my media files and Plex not letting go of ram properly) but that's my problem. Hope this helps.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[garycase]

Looks fine.  I'm not a fan of ATX power supplies in mini-ITX cases, but if it fits, so be it.

 

As for "need a parity drive" => you could simply assign the 3TB Red as parity and the 3TB green as a data drive and the system would be fully functional with parity protection.    Your friend could add additional 3TB data drives as needed.

 

r.e. memory => 4TB is plenty as a NAS;  whether it's enough once you add a couple Dockers is questionable.  Certainly wouldn't hurt to bump it to 8GB, but it's probably not necessary to get started.

 

[Hoopster]

Looks fine.  I'm not a fan of ATX power supplies in mini-ITX cases, but if it fits, so be it.

The CX430 will fit fine.  In the Bitfenix Prodigy case the PSU has a separate compartment under the MB tray which horizontally mounts the MB.  It can accommodate PSUs up to 160mm in length; the CX430 is just 140mm.  The are no ariflow issues with PSU placement in this case; just size restrictions.

 

 

As for "need a parity drive" => you could simply assign the 3TB Red as parity and the 3TB green as a data drive and the system would be fully functional with parity protection.    Your friend could add additional 3TB data drives as needed.

He will buy a third drive and I just stated it as intended for parity, but, it can be parity or storage.

 

As always, thanks for the input.

[tdallen]

Without knowing which Dockers he plans to use, I'd bump it to 8GB of RAM.  I've seen > 4GB in use on my system, typically when SabNzbd or CrashPlan gets hungry.

[garycase]

While I'd probably just build it with the 4GB you already have; if you DO decide to upgrade the memory, I'd just go directly to 16GB.  That's the max that board supports -- and if he needs more than 4GB it likely won't be long until he decides he also needs more than 8