March 2, 20179 yr Hello. I'm trying to put together a Nas/Backup/Media solution. I want the backup side of the system to be really reliable so that I can safely store important project files and family photos and videos. The ability to also have a media server for movies, shows, photos etc to watch on tv or other devices is really nice. In addition, on the VM stuff, I would like that possibility. My preference is for a very quiet system that lives in a very small case. Also I'm planning to start with two or three WD Red nas drives, 4Gb each, for the storage, and later add more drives. On the subject of cache drives I must say that if all that provides is faster copying times then I will skip it. I guess now you understand I don't know much on the NAS/UNRAID/SERVER subject. The case I have in mind is the Lian Li PC-Q25. I hope it will be good enough for the build. The motherboard I have in mind is the Asrock Z270M-ITX/ac. Do you think is good enough for a reliable system? For cpu I would like an I5 quad core guessing that it would be more than enough for the system. Which one though? Is there something I should be aware of? For the ram I think I should go for 8Gb, do I need more? About the PSU I want one that is reliable, quiet rround the 600W. I would really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions to help me avoid mistakes that cost money and time. Thanks in advance!
March 2, 20179 yr Hi Camilla, welcome to the unRAID forums. >If you want to go with VM's then your board and CPU should support VT-x technologies! I couldn't find anything related to that on the Asrock site. Read the wiki for VM requirements. >Have a look at the new Pentium G4560 also - it's a pretty budget CPU with similar performance as the I5. >When running VM's you will also want an SSD to run them on. That leaves you with max. 5 SATA slots for unraid. >If you don't run a dedicated PCIe graphics card you don't need such a powerful supply just for that couple of drives. >RAM depends on your VM's. Populate 1 slot so you have room for expansion if necessary. Edited March 2, 20179 yr by Fireball3
March 2, 20179 yr Author Fireball3 thank you very much for the reply! Truth is I don't need the virtualization capability right now. It can be something for the future. Though I will need of course to purchase capable hardware from the beginning. I can then skip the SSD disk for now but find the right motherboard and cpu. Am I right to think that the ssd can be added later? Also does this apply for cache? Can I add cache drives later, after the unraid server is already setup and working, or I would have to set it from the beginning? >For the cpu I think I would like to have at least 4 cores for the virtualization in the future. Also it must have integrated graphics. So my options are these two: 1)Intel Core i5-6600 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 1151 65W 2)Intel Core i5-6500 6MB Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W They are quite expensive, 213 and 243 Euro, respectively. Are there more options? >For the motherboard I still can't find something better than the Asrock Z270M-ITX/ac. Concerning virtualization I think that this ability depends on the CPU, right? Also I thought that I could later add a PCIe raid card to add more SATA 3 Drives and further expand the array. I'm I right on that? >About the HDDs Is there a cheaper but reliable solution other than the WD RED 4TB? >PSU I think I will go with Seasonic G Series 450W. Do these seem like a good choice? Any mistakes in the build, what do you think? Thanks
March 2, 20179 yr 2 hours ago, Camilla said: I can then skip the SSD disk for now but find the right motherboard and cpu. Am I right to think that the ssd can be added later? Also does this apply for cache? A cache drive can be added later, in SSD (preferred) or HDD form. SSDs are generally not appropriate for the data array or parity drive. 2 hours ago, Camilla said: For the cpu I think I would like to have at least 4 cores for the virtualization in the future. That's actually a little light. An i7 (or a Xeon) with 4 cores and hyper-threading is more appropriate for virtualization as a starting point unless you just plan to play with it. 2 hours ago, Camilla said: Concerning virtualization I think that this ability depends on the CPU, right? Virtualization requires support by both the motherboard and CPU. 2 hours ago, Camilla said: Also I thought that I could later add a PCIe raid card to add more SATA 3 Drives and further expand the array. I'm I right on that? That's correct. 2 hours ago, Camilla said: >About the HDDs Is there a cheaper but reliable solution other than the WD RED 4TB? The WD Reds are a great choice for unRAID but I'm not sure what alternatives you have, you mentioned euros... 2 hours ago, Camilla said: >PSU I think I will go with Seasonic G Series 450W You definitely want an SFF PSU in the PC-Q25b, it's smaller and that makes a huge difference in a small case. Silverstone and Corsair make one.
March 2, 20179 yr Author Thank you very much! Still, I am puzzled about the motherboard as I can't understand how to check the motherboards virtualization capabilities. Can someone you please elaborate on that? Thanks
March 3, 20179 yr The easiest way is probably to download the user manual and look for things like virtualization, IOMMU, VT-x and VT-d in the BIOS settings. Many motherboards support VT-x for basic virtualization and a smaller but increasing number support VT-d for virtualization with hardware pass-through. I mentioned Intel terminology since those are the CPUs you are interested in, but there are similar concepts on the AMD side.
March 3, 20179 yr 13 hours ago, Camilla said: o my options are these two: 1)Intel Core i5-6600 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.3 GHz LGA 1151 65W 2)Intel Core i5-6500 6MB Skylake Quad-Core 3.2 GHz LGA 1151 65W They are quite expensive, 213 and 243 Euro, respectively. Are there more options? As already mentioned, the new Pentium G4560 3,5GHz LGA1151 54W is a very good alternative imo. Will cost around 60€, and offers 2 cores with hyperthreading = 4 cores. I guess it will do for one or two VM's. If you need more later on, you can still swap that CPU for something more powerful. I opened the manual of the Asrock Z270M-ITX/ac. On page 58 you can see a pic that shows the BIOS option to enable VT-d. This means you're good with that board.
March 3, 20179 yr Just built a system for my folks , MSI B250m-Pro-VH Pentium G4560 16GB Corsair Vengence 2400. Fractal Arc r2. That came to £300. (+hdd's, ssd, psu, gt730 had previous htpc) The cpu isnt good enough for vm (librelec), honestly 1core+thread is just a waste of time. Its extremely choppy and slow . Using just sonarr, radarr, plex, plex connect as dockers and its pinned to the floor screaming. Ive tried this hardware on Ubuntu and currently testing on win7 and i've had msg's from my folks reporting the playback isnt smooth. Looks like i will end up putting Unraid back in and using it as a fileserver/nas untill 6700's drop right down in price . Closing notes, get a quadcore with HT unless you want to just hold off, use a cheap cpu and cheap media player (AFTV,ROKU etc) untill you can afford it. wish i never built this one for them its caused more work than was ever needed.
March 3, 20179 yr Thanks for that feedback Akio! For a dumb fileserver I tend to recommend one of those HP ProLiant N54L microservers. They can hold 6 drives with some dedication and are very affordable. For the price of the Lian Li PC-Q25 case you can have a used microserver (without drives). Not worth the effort trying to beat that with an own build.
March 3, 20179 yr The g4560 does support ecc ! so you can choose between that and a I3-6100T which is almost double the price for same performance. Just incase there was a lga1151 board with ecc suppport that came to mind. PCpartpicker is what you need cam
March 3, 20179 yr Author Thanks all for the replies! Here is what I have put together. https://pcpartpicker.com/user/camilla/saved/NQ3dCJ I am not sure for the PSU as I think it will be not quiet enough.
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