January 24, 20179 yr Firstly apologies to garycase as i must have started 2 of these threads previously!!! My goal is to create a unraid build that will mainly host plex to probably a maximum of 3 concurrent HEVC streams. It will also be used for network file storage. I may create the odd VM but probably only for testing. I may think about a gaming VM - but i have a dedicated PC for this anyway. The case has to be the Fractal Node 304 as I am space limited. This is my preferred build but i think the costs are probably a little out of reach. I will be reusing my current 4 x WD Red 3TB and 1 x 256GB Samsung Evo 840 Motherboard - ASRock E3C236D2I CPU - Xeon E3-1245v5 RAM - Total of 32GB ECC RAM PSU - SilverStone ST45SF CPU Fan - Noctua NH-L9i Node 304 Case, Cruiser Fit USB, and SATA splitters. However this is coming in at close to £750, so I am now thinking of this: CPU - Intel i5-6600 Motherboard - ASRock Z270M-ITX RAM - Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR4 I would use the same case, USB and CPU cooler. Is anything wrong with this second build that I maybe haven't thought of?! Many thanks.
January 24, 20179 yr The i5 CPU you have chosen doesn't support hyper threading so that is going to be a disadvantage considering you want to be able to support three concurrent plex streams. I would instead, suggest you look at a quad core i7 CPU that does support hyper threading giving you more virtual cores to use, I think a Xeon with ECC may be overkill.
January 24, 20179 yr It depends on your media and your media players. Assuming that your players can direct play the HEVC streams and you're just using Plex for the pretty UI, the new setup should be fine. Assuming that you have 1080p media and your media players will need Plex to do some transcoding for them, you should be Ok but the new setup won't give you much headroom. Assuming that you want Plex to transcode 4k media for you, I think you're in big trouble. 16GB of RAM is fine for what you want to do. ECC is very nice in an always-on server, but not strictly essential. Either motherboard should be fine. It's the CPU that's the wildcard, depending on how much work you want it to do. The Core i7 that ashman recommends or the original Xeon will give you more headroom. But the strict NAS plus 3 streams of 1080p transcoding (2,000 Passmarks per stream plus some CPU for unRAID) should be Ok on the Core i5-6600 if that's the extent of the workload you have planned for it (you could get away with a few more lightweight Dockers).
January 26, 20179 yr My current setup is very similar to your first proposal. See my signature. I went from a Haswell i5 4590 to the Xeon E3-1245 V5. It looks like you are debating between two similar setups. Obviously, the Xeon (>10k passmark) is going to give you more Plex transcoding power and headroom than the i5. As Ashman mentioned, you should look at at least a 4 core i7 with hyperthreading. The key is to be realistic about what you really need to do with Plex and allow sufficient headroom for a few dockers or a VM or two if you plan that. The worst thing you can do is spend the money to upgrade and find that your needs quickly surpass your CPU power and find yourself looking to do it all over again within a year. For me, the Xeon E3-1245 V5, ASRock server MB, 32 GB ECC RAM was my attempt to "over-provision" my server according to current needs and to allow for future growth without constant hardware upgrade cycles. I chose to spend more upfront than my current needs demanded so I could grow into future needs without further hardware upgrades. Some prefer a different strategy.
January 26, 20179 yr Author My current setup is very similar to your first proposal. See my signature. I went from a Haswell i5 4590 to the Xeon E3-1245 V5. It looks like you are debating between two similar setups. Obviously, the Xeon (>10k passmark) is going to give you more Plex transcoding power and headroom than the i5. As Ashman mentioned, you should look at at least a 4 core i7 with hyperthreading. The key is to be realistic about what you really need to do with Plex and allow sufficient headroom for a few dockers or a VM or two if you plan that. The worst thing you can do is spend the money to upgrade and find that your needs quickly surpass your CPU power and find yourself looking to do it all over again within a year. For me, the Xeon E3-1245 V5, ASRock server MB, 32 GB ECC RAM was my attempt to "over-provision" my server according to current needs and to allow for future growth without constant hardware upgrade cycles. I chose to spend more upfront than my current needs demanded so I could grow into future needs without further hardware upgrades. Some prefer a different strategy. Very true. I may find i dont have the horsepower after i start playing with it!! Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
January 26, 20179 yr By the way, if you do end up going with the ASRock motherboard and Xeon processor you mentioned in your first post, the RAM you have indicated *will not* work with that motherboard. That board and the ASRock C236 WSI which I have require unbuffered (non-registered) ECC DDR4 RAM. The correct model number (assuming you want to stick with Kingston) for the RAM you need is KVR21E15D8/16. I went with 2 16GB sticks of Crucial CT16G4WFD8213 which also work in those motherboards. Unfortunately DDR4 unbuffered ECC RAM has recently become quite expensive. I got mine for US$89 each in November and the cheapest I can find now is around US$120 per stick.
January 26, 20179 yr Here is what you want: Kingston DDR4 Unbuffered ECC RAM It is actually cheaper than the registered ECC RAM you had listed.
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