Hi Y'all, 

 

This is my first build and I want to know if there's anything I can change to be more cost-efficient.  Will this consume a lot of power?  What would be the best drive combination if I wanted to have around 10TB of storage?  Budget is around $1500.  Less is better though.  I'm not planning to run any add-ons.   

PCPartPicker part list 

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($87.93 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - H270 PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($61.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($162.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($189.79 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($189.79 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($189.79 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Rosewill Server Chassis/Server Case/Rackmount Case, 4U Metal Rack Mount Server Chassis with 15 bays  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1151.24

 

Thanks.
 

Edited January 13, 20188 yr by McBuilder

Welcome.

 

1. I'm not a CPU expert, but I think you can get a more powerful CPU with more cores for less money e.g. an AMD FX-6300 with six cores
2. If you are just storing data, no addons i.e. plex, nzbget etc then you probably could get away with less Ram - without knowing what you are using the server for I can't really comment.
3. I'd look into getting the 8TB ST8000AS0002 as it's cheaper per GB and there are some great deals on external enclosures that have these drives in, which you can remove e.g. $149.99 last month. 
4. Do you need a rackmount case for so few drives, or are you planning on adding a lot of drives in the future?  (If so, another reason to start with 8TB IMHO)

FX-6300 is from around 2012, why suggest that cpu?

G4560 is an excellent choice, great value.

12 minutes ago, _jonte said:

G4560 is an excellent choice, great value.

It may be a great value but why invest in something that has no upgrade path (passmark score is 4916) without upgrading to a new CPU when its realized i.e. what's stated you will have trouble running plex, vm's and any other cpu intensive tasks as one core is a minimum for the NAS, especially since the OP is buying new and not utilizing pre-existing hardware the more cores the better but yes if it's just storage then save on the ram and go with 8GB and up the CPU everybody says "I won't be doing anything else" when they first build their box but more times than not that idea evolves

25 minutes ago, _jonte said:

FX-6300 is from around 2012, why suggest that cpu?

G4560 is an excellent choice, great value.

Like I said, I'm not a CPU expert but 6373 V4916 passmark and 6 cores Vs 2 cores.  TDP not great at 95W vs 54W.

23 minutes ago, mrbilky said:

It may be a great value but why invest in something that has no upgrade path (passmark score is 4916) without upgrading to a new CPU when its realized i.e. what's stated you will have trouble running plex, vm's and any other cpu intensive tasks as one core is a minimum for the NAS, especially since the OP is buying new and not utilizing pre-existing hardware the more cores the better but yes if it's just storage then save on the ram and go with 8GB and up the CPU everybody says "I won't be doing anything else" when they first build their box but more times than not that idea evolves

I'm not sure I understand what you mean exactly..? But since the OP is asking for advice, why not give him your recommendations?

The Pentium G4560 is a great choice for unRAID.  It is modern and power efficient.  It is appropriate for basic NAS duties and some light weight Docker usage.  It is not appropriate for heavy duty transcoding or VM work but the OP says they aren't planning on running any add-ons.  The rest of the build looks good, though I've never heard of the memory.  Is it on the MSI compatibility list?  I assume PCPartPicker said it was compatible.  Also, that's a large rack mount case if you're only planning on 10TB, but if you're definitely doing a rack then you have to start somewhere... 

53 minutes ago, _jonte said:

why not give him your recommendations?

 

1 hour ago, mrbilky said:

 but yes if it's just storage then save on the ram and go with 8GB and up the CPU

 

Thanks, Guys.

 

The rackmount case is just to future proof since I'm just starting with 10TB and planning on more.  I might end up using an 8 bay instead of a 15 bay though.  As for memory, if I'm thinking of using plex, after all, would 8gb still be a good number?  The only reason I went with the Pentium over the Fx 6300 (which I have in my personal rig) is that it uses a lot less power.  As for storage, I'm not sure I want to shuck drives, are there any risks involved?  I'm pretty new to this stuff.  Finally, for the CPU, what would be a good one that uses 1) little power (under 70W tdp) and 2) under $100 (Ryzen 3 1200?)? 

 

Thanks!  

Edited January 14, 20188 yr by McBuilder

You could easily get away with 8GB for a NAS only build.  You can run Plex and a couple of other Dockers with 8GB as well.  Plex doesn’t use a lot of RAM - but if you begin transcoding it will use a lot of CPU.  That’s the key, transcoding.  The Pentium G is a great choice for basic NAS but probably would struggle to support more than one transcoded stream.

Would this be a good UPS?  Also, for the ram, 1 dim or 2 dims to make 8gb.

Edited January 14, 20188 yr by McBuilder

I don’t think that UPS could keep a rack mount setup running long enough to shut it down - look for something more robust, IMO.

 

I’d put in 2 DIMMs for the slight performance improvement of a dual channel configuration unless you plan to add more memory later in which case start with just one.

Any recommendations?  How catastrophic would it be if there was a power outage without a UPS?  

If you have a power outage without a UPS, unRAID could suffer file corruption.  It's rare on the array, more common on the cache drive and sometimes a problem on the flash drive.  unRAID will mark the array with an unclean shutdown and start a parity check when the server comes back up.  Personally I use a Cyberpower CP1000PFCLCD UPS with AVR and Pure Sine Wave.  I use it for my server, cable modem, router, and main switch.

 

On UPS selection there's an active thread worth reading:

 

Will a Pentium G4400 suffice?  Or will a G4560 be a better idea?

The G4560 has 4 threads instead of 2 with the G4400 that would be my choice that socket supports a wide range of cpu's in the event that you want to upgrade without having to upgrade your mobo TDP is the same for both so no loss there

3 hours ago, McBuilder said:

Will a Pentium G4400 suffice?  Or will a G4560 be a better idea?

A G4400 will suffice for a basic NAS build but I agree with @mrbilky that the G4560 gives you a lot more to work with.

Here's my final parts list.  Is it unraid approved?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($92.39 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Motherboard: Biostar - B250GT5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($76.81 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Patriot - Signature Line 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($99.86 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($208.29 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($208.29 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($208.29 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($45.83 @ Newegg) 
UPS: CyberPower - CP1000PFCLCDTAA UPS  ($149.46 @ Amazon) 
Other: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 16GB USB 2.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive- SDCZ33-016G-B35  ($7.67 @ Amazon) 
Other: Rosewill Server Chassis/Server Case/Rackmount Case, 4U Metal Rack Mount Server Chassis with 8 Bays E-ATX  ($104.25 @ Amazon) 
Other: UnRAID Basic ($59.00)
Total: $1260.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-01-17 14:34 EST-0500

The RAM you have picked is not ECC memory I would find some RAM that is ECC. 

Edited January 17, 20188 yr by witalit

10 minutes ago, witalit said:

The RAM you have picked is not ECC memory I would find some RAM that is ECC. 

 I'm not sure that motherboard even supports ecc, i looked at the product page and its doesn't say it does anywhere. 

Benefits of ECC?  What could go wrong?

This is a VERY basic explanation and might be wrong in some parts just to simply describe how it works or what might happen  

with data that is accessed often it moves a lot, and when it goes through different media,(hard drive to ram and back) it starts moving at different speeds and can get get jittered (jitter is measuring time difference in packet inter-arrival time) this can cause corruption in your data eventually making the data unable to be read, which is the exact opposite of what we want our file server to do. So ecc ram will check and fix the data and make sure it leaves in correct order before it sends it to its destination. in basic terms ecc memory is like insurance. just an extra step to maintain data integrity.

Theres an on-going argument wether or not ECC RAM is worth it. For me I don't want to risk data corruption of my array, it caused problems with trying to find the right hardware for my new build. Price wise it wasn't hugely different but I have peace of mind that I have that extra step of checking by the RAM. Depends how precious your data is really but as this NAS is my primary backup device I thought it was worth buying.

 

Your CPU supports ECC you just need to find another LGA1151 board that supports ECC. Look at SuperMicro or ASRock boards, price will increase for build but if you want ECC its your best bet.

For gaming ECC isn't worth it, since a bit corruption affects short-term data.

For a storage server, ECC can be quite important because a bit corruption can affect the persistent storage pool.

And for a computation farm, ECC can be quite important since there is lots invested in the quality of the computations.

 

It all comes down to trust - how much need to the user have to be able to trust the correctness of computations or the data of a storage pool.

 

Most people say they have never seen a need for ECC - but without ECC, they will never know if the game crashed because of a bit error in the memory or because of a software bug. And most people consider all strange things with computers as unexplainable magic and just shrugs it off.

I have the PC-MATE H270 motherboard as my main system, its a great mobo if you just want a mobo to work.

For a basic NAS the G4560 is plenty powerful.

Cut the RAM to 2GB, use the stock cooler to save $$

4 drives? I would suggest 400W power supply.

 

I have a Sempron 140 on my NAS - its rarely maxed (and even then its for the gui rendering) and it never exceeds 1GB of RAM usage (1.5GB used for unraid upgrades).

My system uses 90W idle, 115W parity check with 6 5600rpm drives.

 

Edited January 25, 20188 yr by rilles