Need...a lot of help with a build (first time)

[Idaho121]

Hey all,

 

First timer building an unRaid box, or anything like it. I've built my last 3 gaming PCs, so I'm not a stranger to building, but I have no idea what parts I need for unRaid, and what I specifically want to do. I'm a bit confused by all the advice out there, so I could use some help!

 

Answering the questions from the sticky, with a few added in:

• What do you want to do with this server?
  This is going to be a media server. I have a ton of media (blu-ray rips and Play-On Recordings) that I want to have available throughout my house, remotely, and to give out to a few friends. I'm expecting to have up to 2 local streams (no transcoding - they're going to Shield TVs), and 4 remote 1080p streams simultaneously at peak (these would almost certainly require transcoding). 4K transcoding with a Kaby/Coffee Lake processor would be nice, but most 4K content I'll have doubled as Blu rips, so it's nice but not necessary. Plus locally the Shield TV will play it, so it'll be fine on that front. But, again, nice to have.
   
• What is your budget?
  I don't have an unlimited budget, but I can drop some money on this. If we're at $1500+/-, I'd be happy. If we're higher, I'd probably still be fine (just have to spread it out over the next couple months ).
   
• How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
  This is probably the craziest part of my build. I'm looking for a lot of capacity. I currently have 2 QNAP boxes with 4 drives apiece in them (one filled with 8TB, one filled with 4TB). I also have about 20TB of media on my desktop that needs to get moved over. The goal here, after a while, is to have a box with 20 8TB drives, though I'll be started with 6 8TB reds, 5 4TB reds, and building from there.
   
• Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?
  See above.
   
• Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)?  If so, which ones?  Be specific.
  Plex. Maybe the Sonarr/etc... suite of things.
   
• What do you plan to run for hard drives?
  WD Reds, top to bottom.

 

Current thoughts on build (even the ones where I don't specifically ask for help, I'm happy to be given advice):

Case: I have eBay watches for Antec 1200 and Xigmatek Elysium and Lian Li PC-P80. 

Drive Cages: iStar 5 x 3.5 hotswaps x 4

CPU(s?): Ryzen 2700X

MoBo: Gigabyte Seen Here

GPU (no on-board): Cheapest I could Find

Cache Drive: Samsung 850 EVO 500gb drive

Hard Drives: WD Reds of various sizes (2 8TB parity drives; 4 8TB storage; 5 4 TB storage; grow from there)

PSU: EVGA Fully Modular 750W Platinum P2

Memory: Two sticks of this (ECC)

Expansion Card (more SATA space): 2 of these: SAS9211-8I 

Other: Using the Wraith Prism out of the box.

 

Thanks for reading, and for any help you can give!

 

[JonathanM]

9 hours ago, Idaho121 said:

This is probably the craziest part of my build. I'm looking for a lot of capacity. I currently have 2 QNAP boxes with 4 drives apiece in them (one filled with 8TB, one filled with 4TB). I also have about 20TB of media on my desktop that needs to get moved over. The goal here, after a while, is to have a box with 20 8TB drives, though I'll be started with 6 8TB reds, 5 4TB reds, and building from there.

Unclear from your description, are the drives you are planning to use with unraid currently blank or filled? Unraid will need drives that you don't mind wiping to build the array.

[Tybio]

As you are just going to do standard work loads, I'd look at the Ryzen 2700.  65 TDP processor that can transcode like a beast.  That will also let you use ECC RAM, which RAM is going to depend on your motherboard, so once you pick that just hit to QVL for it.

 

I really like the PC-D6000 with 3 5x3.5, if you are going to have it "in view" it will look much nicer than the 1200.  That said, 5 more drives in the 1200 though consider that drive size is increasing.  I currently have a 64TB array on 8 disks and with 14TB drives coming out this year...I actually down-sized from a 24 bay server to my 15....I'd just rather increase drive size than deal with a rack mount or other huge build.

 

I'm not going to comment on the HBA, my experience is the opposite of the community recommendation.  I went from LSI to SAS2LP due to LSI issues.

[Idaho121]

1 hour ago, jonathanm said:

Unclear from your description, are the drives you are planning to use with unraid currently blank or filled? Unraid will need drives that you don't mind wiping to build the array.

 

I'm going to pick up 2 new 8TB drives - one for parity, one for data - and then migrate stuff over one disk at a time, wiping the old ones after the content is transfered, blanking them, and then adding them to the array. Going to take some time, but time I've got.

[Idaho121]

2 hours ago, Tybio said:

As you are just going to do standard work loads, I'd look at the Ryzen 2700.  65 TDP processor that can transcode like a beast.  That will also let you use ECC RAM, which RAM is going to depend on your motherboard, so once you pick that just hit to QVL for it.

 

I really like the PC-D6000 with 3 5x3.5, if you are going to have it "in view" it will look much nicer than the 1200.  That said, 5 more drives in the 1200 though consider that drive size is increasing.  I currently have a 64TB array on 8 disks and with 14TB drives coming out this year...I actually down-sized from a 24 bay server to my 15....I'd just rather increase drive size than deal with a rack mount or other huge build.

 

 

I heard there were some issues getting Ryzen to work? Also, does the Ryzen allow for 4K transcoding? I thought there was something on the Intel chips that made it more plausible. I'm trying to ease the transition to a non-Windows build since that's the only OS I have experience with, but if there aren't issues, then I'm fine with a Ryzen chip. What MoBo would you throw that into?

 

Also, any reason to go with the PC-D600 over the Antec 900? Both fit the same number of drives. The Antec takes up less space and is almost $200 cheaper.

[Tybio]

The main reason is to get ECC support, and save some money over an Intel setup.  I would not expect 4k transcoding to work well in any processor of this generation...Perhaps I'm just overly cautious, but I'm keeping 4k and 1080p content separated and only letting remote users see the 1080p library.

 

Perhaps someone can jump in here who has done 4k transcoding on the intel procs.

[Idaho121]

6 hours ago, Tybio said:

The main reason is to get ECC support, and save some money over an Intel setup.  I would not expect 4k transcoding to work well in any processor of this generation...Perhaps I'm just overly cautious, but I'm keeping 4k and 1080p content separated and only letting remote users see the 1080p library.

 

Perhaps someone can jump in here who has done 4k transcoding on the intel procs.

 

Cool, looking at it more, I have enough of a client-side solution to that, so no need for it.

 

Is there a good mobo for ECC support? I'm seeing a lot of options for Ryzen combos (on newegg), but I'm not seeing ECC support on the board.

 

 

[Tybio]

I think most all of them do.  I know the ASRock Taichi does for example.  I'd spend some time reading the Ryzen thread before making any final decisions...the problems have been worked out but you will see a lot of talk about hardware etc.

[Idaho121]

Great, thanks!

 

Should I go for 16GB of RAM, or is 8GB enough for what I want to do?

[Jcloud]

On 6/11/2018 at 9:59 AM, Idaho121 said:

Should I go for 16GB of RAM, or is 8GB enough for what I want to do?

Couple of quick searches, on web, suggests Plex isn't that ram intensive, so 8GB probably ok (hazard guess). I'm also of the opinion that RAM is cheap so go for 16GB!  Easy to say when it's not my money.  RAM is also easy to install, so you could just start with 8GB, run it for a while, and drop more ram in later if you need it. 

 

Hello from Idaho.

[SidebandSamurai]

I have 32GB RAM in my server, it allows me to spin up virtual machines at will as well as use Docker.  I don't have to thing to worry about when it comes RAM, I can just do what ever I want to do.  Also I believe Plex will allow you to trans-code to RAM which will be faster than SSD.  Don't quote me on that though as I am a newbie at Plex at this time.

 

I currently have PFSense, Plex, a Linux VM, and other various plugins running on my Unraid.  At the time I bought the RAM it hurt the pocket book but I have never regretted it.  I am running an older super micro mother board, and was going to virtualize  unRAID in Vmware under ESXI, until they started supporting virtualization themselves.  Now I run Unraid bare metal.  I have a small ESXI for lab work.

 

There is a really good series of youtube articles put out by "Space Invader One"  He posts here frequently as well.  You should look to you tube and search for his name.  His videos are the best.  He even has a build video of the system he built under unraid.  Maybe those will give you ideas.