Build Help - 1st Time Unraider


Sap1ent

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Hi there,

 

I'm new here and just about to start my first foray into an Unraid experience - i'd appreciate your feedback on my proposed build.

 

I've had a WHS 2011 build for a long time which i've only really used as a file server for backups and supporting a couple of Kodi boxes.

 

Just recently it kicked the bucket, and I was about to switch to unraid when the mobo also died. As such i'm more or less starting form scratch.

 

So far i've bought a new case and 2*4TB WD Reds, I also have a leftover 120gb SSD which i'm intending on using as a cache drive. I have about 8*2TB disks which i'd like to utilise until they give up, essentially. At which point i'll replace each one with a better drive.

 

The build I propose is as follows:

image.thumb.png.dd83aec731d365adf6f41c30c2338fcb.png

 

Does anything on there look unreasonable? I don't have any high demands of the server, mainly a fileserver with Plex running in a container (moving away from Kodi), I might add sickbeard etc at a later date, but ultimately i'm just looking for file and media server to begin with. I still have my main workhorse PC for the bulk of stuff. I'll potentially want to run a little webserver from it at some point as well, but i don't want that to influence the build.

 

The only other concern I have is the PSU. I have a very old PSU, which has been alright previously, but think it may prove to be a weak point if I don't upgrade. it's this:

 

https://manualsbrain.com/en/manuals/124310/ - It has succesfully run 10 disks for me previously though.

 

Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated before I hit the 'buy' button.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, Sap1ent said:

The only other concern I have is the PSU. I have a very old PSU, which has been alright previously, but think it may prove to be a weak point if I don't upgrade. it's this:

The power supply can either supply 26A or 28A on its 12V line depending upon whether its a 450 or 520 watt.  Considering that you should budget around 2A per drive spin up current, along with the 12V needs of the CPU, Fans, any add-on video cards, etc and that as PSUs age they cannot supply their rated power, you're really pushing the envelope with 10 drives.

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3 hours ago, Squid said:

The power supply can either supply 26A or 28A on its 12V line depending upon whether its a 450 or 520 watt.  Considering that you should budget around 2A per drive spin up current, along with the 12V needs of the CPU, Fans, any add-on video cards, etc and that as PSUs age they cannot supply their rated power, you're really pushing the envelope with 10 drives.

 

Thanks for coming back, based on that I think i'd better upgrade that too.

 

What about the following model:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GN8VZ7U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2LNOP4UQZJ1&psc=1

 

Or perhaps it's cheaper brother?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CP-9020098-UK-PLUS-Power-Supply/dp/B00PGUSEBG/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1517691808&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+650w

 

Thanks!

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The build looks good for the use cases you mention. But can't help but mention that users are looking for mores power in their servers for VM and transcoding. You might look at a beefier CPU (this one is 2 cores / 4900 passmark) if you see a good chance of wanting to do more with the sever. 4 cores, with passmark closer to 9k or 10k would be more powerful and open up additional options.

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Based on that, I've seen that a Ryzen build would probably provide me more cores for around the same price. I'm aware there were problems with Ryzen and unraid but these have allegedly all been wiped out now? Or anything that exists is around GPU passthrough (I don't know what that means, so don't think I'll need it, haha).

 

Is there a similarly priced combination of CPU and Mobo that would be better suited (around £150 inc cooler)?

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On 2/3/2018 at 9:19 AM, Sap1ent said:

So far i've bought a new case and 2*4TB WD Reds,

Perhaps others would know better, or have benched it, but were you going to run either of those reds as parity? If so, I suspect you might want a 4TB blue or black for that, or at least I thought as much and went in that direction when I first started. For HD's I did about the same kind of idea you're doing. 

 

For PSU recommendations 

to save money:   or same price point better efficiency unit

Full disclosure, I sell this brand at the shop I work at, I could be considered biased.

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36 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

These are the old greens, same performance as reds

I knew the blue, red, and green were 5400rpm (with greens having idle-power down). I thought the blues had a better write over the red; seeing how blues are marketed to consumer desktops and reds to NAS devices. Never had a chance to test hypothesis, or actually go look at two drive specs closely.

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46 minutes ago, Jcloud said:

Perhaps others would know better, or have benched it, but were you going to run either of those reds as parity? If so, I suspect you might want a 4TB blue or black for that, or at least I thought as much and went in that direction when I first started. For HD's I did about the same kind of idea you're doing. 

 

For PSU recommendations 

to save money:   or same price point better efficiency unit

Full disclosure, I sell this brand at the shop I work at, I could be considered biased.

 

Never considered the fact the parity drive is not a 'server drive' in the same sense of normal WD Red - black is waaaaay over budget for me though :(

 

Thanks for the PSU heads up!

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2 minutes ago, Sap1ent said:

WD Red - black is waaaaay over budget for me though :(

Well I've been noted that blue is equivalent to red; I run a 4TB blue. So from experience, it's been working fine for two years, so doubt you'll have a problem with red. Also, parity check will take about 13 hours on that drive, from my experience based on my own setup.

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1 hour ago, Sap1ent said:

This is good news! :)

 

Now, can anybody recommend me a better CPU/Mobo combo with more cores? ;) 

 

SSD has ruffled my feathers a bit, haha.

 

If you want to stick with the same motherboard and not go with a server motherboard like Supermicro or Asrock Rack offerings, the same motherboard can accommodate the i7-7700 CPU which has four cores and eight threads and will transcode 4K 10-bit content since it is the Kaby Lake microarchitecture (as is the G4560).

 

It has a passmark score of 10794 with an outstanding 2348 single core rating.  Passmark scores are important for determining how many Plex transcoded streams a processor can support.  Generally 2000 passmarks per transcoded 1080p stream (no real recommendation yet on 4K) is the rule of thumb with an additional 2000 for unRAID/NAS overhead.  If you get a CPU with an iGPU with Quick Sync Video support (like the i7-7700 and the G4560), you can do hardware decode/encode with Plex which will take load off the CPU.

 

https://ark.intel.com/products/97128/Intel-Core-i7-7700-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

Edited by Hoopster
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7 hours ago, Hoopster said:

 

If you want to stick with the same motherboard and not go with a server motherboard like Supermicro or Asrock Rack offerings, the same motherboard can accommodate the i7-7700 CPU which has four cores and eight threads and will transcode 4K 10-bit content since it is the Kaby Lake microarchitecture (as is the G4560).

 

It has a passmark score of 10794 with an outstanding 2348 single core rating.  Passmark scores are important for determining how many Plex transcoded streams a processor can support.  Generally 2000 passmarks per transcoded 1080p stream (no real recommendation yet on 4K) is the rule of thumb with an additional 2000 for unRAID/NAS overhead.  If you get a CPU with an iGPU with Quick Sync Video support (like the i7-7700 and the G4560), you can do hardware decode/encode with Plex which will take load off the CPU.

 

https://ark.intel.com/products/97128/Intel-Core-i7-7700-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

 

Thanks for this, I'm certainly gaining clarity in my understanding of the architecture and hardware required for Unraid, my only problem is the cost implications as the i7's are another £100 or so on top.

 

With my initial move to Unraid I was hoping to utilise old hardware, which I would've done had I not fried the motherboard. I'm still looking for a PSU, Mobo and Cooler to come in around the £150 mark if possible. I don't want anything groundbreaking, just something that will work relatively well for the next few years.

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7 hours ago, Sap1ent said:

my only problem is the cost implications as the i7's are another £100 or so on top.

 

With my initial move to Unraid I was hoping to utilise old hardware, which I would've done had I not fried the motherboard. I'm still looking for a PSU, Mobo and Cooler to come in around the £150 mark if possible. I don't want anything groundbreaking, just something that will work relatively well for the next few years.

 

Understandable.  I only made my suggestion because you said SSD had "ruffled your feathers."  I took that to mean that you were perhaps considering a more powerful CPU with more cores and a higher passmark score as he had mentioned.

 

Everyone is looking for maximum bang for the buck.  Only you can determine how much "buck" you are willing to part with for how much "bang."  The thing about unRAID is that it has so many potential uses these days that additional CPU capacity can always be utilized for something you didn't think you really "needed." :D

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5 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

That's good value but you need a board with the Z370 chipset, it won't work on series 100/200 chipsets.

 

As johnnie.black mentioned, all Coffee Lake CPUs are going to require a 300 series chipset.  Even though they are socket 1151 processors, they are not the same socket 1151 as the Skylake and Kaby Lake processors.  Coffee Lake CPUs generally add more cores/threads at prices roughly in the ballpark with their Skylake/Kaby Lake predecessors; however, they require different motherboards and chipsets. 

 

Those of us with 200 series chipsets and socket 1151 boards cannot upgrade to Coffee Lake, without buying a new motherboard as well, even though it is, supposedly, the same 1151 socket (it is not identical).  However, when purchasing new, as you are, it is worth considering.  Unfortunately, you are going to find that series 300 socket 1151 motherboards are more expensive than their 100/200 counterparts.  >:(

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Hi everyone, 

 

I've had a few days to dwell on all the responses and to not knee jerk into buying a build, so reconfigured to come up with the following:

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/hzJnTB

 

image.thumb.png.f6374799487c1712275f6bae10ce32ce.png

 

Does this look like a better build? My decision making has mainly factored around reducing the cost on the mobo and ram given those things don't seem quite as important in an unraid world. The motherboard looks sufficient to me, and the ram, whilst a little older and only 8gb, I could add another two sticks to, or even replace if it begins to struggle.

 

Any thoughts? (I really can't stretch to an i7, sadly).

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