need help upgrading my server


maxse

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

I’ve had V5 for 5 years without issues. I just upgraded to V6, having some issues now but you guys are helping me sort through it ina different thread. Anyway...

 

I have an old Athlon X2 server that I need to upgrade. I want a super stable machine  that will work well with plex HW transcoding.  Probably 5-6 transcoded streams worst case. Also will be suing Sab, sonar, radar, some backup dockers. 

I would like to use as many pets that I have currently so I think I just need CPU, Mobo, RAM.  

 

You guys helped me build a seamless machine before so I’m hoping you could help me make sure all the components play nice and are compatible with each other in unraid. 

 

Im thinking of going with the i5-8400 or i3-8100 for its hw transcoding abilities. Will the i3 be enough? Also if I do plex DVR or skein kind of IPTV docker in the future. Will the i3 be enough for that too?

 

Here’s what I have:

 

PSU:  Antec Neo Eco 620c 620W RT

Controllers: 

-IBM M1015 (flashed to IT mode)

-RAID CARD ROSEWILL RC-209-EX PCI 2.3, 32bit(2 Sata ports)

Case: Nexus Prominent 9 with (3) 5in 3 cages with capacity for 15 drives (current mobo is an Asrock micro atx)

 

I would like like to also add a 1tb SSD so that plex can be quick in loading cover art.

So the motherboard needs to have 6 sata at least. For a total of 16. I plan to mount the SSD somewhere inside the case not attached to the drive cages so as not to waste a slot. 

 

Let me me know what you guys think/recommend I get for Mobo, CPU, RAM, and if my controllers will work well and be compatible with unraid and the Mobo. I've been using an ASrock AMD microatx board which has been rock stable. Would be great if there's one that's compatible and you guys can recommend with the appropriate PSU and my controllers

 

BTW, It seems i may need to forward ports on my router to my plex server because of the new router I got from my ISP. Isn't this an issue to forward a port to the unraid server (I currently have plex on a mac mini)? TIA

Edited by maxse
Link to comment

The jdm_waaat anniversary build components are very cost effective and would work great for your requirements. Possibly overkill, but you never know what you're going to do with the server in future.

 

Used parts can be even easier on the wallet, especially motherboard, cpu's, and memory.

 

You didn't mention your chassis model; motherboard choice depends a lot on what form factor your chassis will accommodate.

Link to comment

Alright, so no one was able to help me and I went ahead and ordered some part haha. Hopefully you guys approve and it will work with my current controllers, and unraid without any issues?

 

Mobo: ASRock H370M Pro4

CPU: i3-8100

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB)

SSD: SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 1TB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC 

 

I don't understand what the M.2 stuff means. It's a type of connection for an SSD I presume? I got a regular Sata III SSD is that okay, or is the M.2 type better?

 

Also, for tmy M1015 controller, are those still considered top notch and work with this motherboard? And how about the Rosewill Raid Card that I've been using just as an extender for the Sata ports. Any issues with that or any of the componenets?

 

Also, I'm not really familiar wit TRIM, how it works or why it's important for SSDs. But I plan to use this SSD as the cache drive. It will keep plex, sabnzbd, and also be used to transcode... Is this something that's automatically done by unraid, or will I have to configure something to be able to use the SSD effectively?

 

Lastly, if I decide to transcode to RAM at some point. Is the 16 gigs of RAM that I'll have enough? I'm also assuming I got the compatible RAM for my board, I used PCpartchecker, there are so many different version it was making my head spin.

 

*oh yeah, my current cache drive, and all of my drives are getting encrypted. Any issues of encryption for an SSD cache?

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by maxse
Link to comment
12 hours ago, maxse said:

I don't understand what the M.2 stuff means. It's a type of connection for an SSD I presume? I got a regular Sata III SSD is that okay, or is the M.2 type better?

Indeed it is, if you look your mother board supports it, you have an m2 port just under the CPU. 

It's faster then Sata3, I used it just to gain a sata port.

 

For TRIM just install the "Dynamix SSD TRIM" Plugin. 

 

Edited by oliverde8
Link to comment

Oh buy, okay. I guess I can cancel the amazon Samsung that I ordered, but I will need to use the additional 2-sata port card that I have anyway. Could I just leave things the way they are and use the Samsung that I ordered? Or will the speed be significant.

 

I need 16 drives connected (15 array drives in the cages and 1 cache drive somewhere inside the case. Maybe velcro'd to the bottom of the case if that's okay?)  8 using the m1015, 6 onboard, and 2 with the card. 

 

-Any issues with encryption on the SSDs?

 

-Those of you that transcode to RAM for plex, will I be able to do that with 16 gigs that I will have?

 

any comments/suggestions appreciated

Link to comment

I was thinking I should probably use the PCIe M.2 SSD like Hoopster said, instead of just having the Samsun Evo 760 SSD laying inside the floor case, and I'll save a drive slot too :)

 

Any issues with reliability, and XFS encryption and constantly writing of plex database and transcoding, and Sabznbd stuff? 

-Can you guys link me to exactly which one I need to get so I don't mess this up?  I need 1TB please.

-I will still be able to use my M1015, and the 2-port SATA connector that I currently have in the available slots with this motherboard right? For a total of 16 drives including this cache drive?

Link to comment

Any one?

Is it just me or is this board starting to die out? 5 years ago I remember I didn't have any issues with anyone replying and helping out with some suggestions for hardware that would be compatible. Now it seems like it's getting difficult to get some recommendations on hardware? Or is it the time of the year? I just got the samsung SSD and ready to send it back but want to confirm all my questions with you guys first but. Doesn't seem to be as easy to get hardware help any more. Is it just this sub forum is slow?

Edited by maxse
Link to comment

Maybe folks are tired of answering hardware recommendation threads....

 

Maybe there are millions more options now than there was 5 years ago...

 

Maybe you should just get the highest/best/fastest of everything and call it a day.....

 

Maybe you just need your hand held all the way through the process....

 

Maybe you should search the forums....

 

Maybe she’s born with it....

 

Maybe I’m done with this reply....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Maybe it’s Maybelline....) 

Link to comment

In fact, you have too much question.

 

I notice you buy a mainbiard ASRock H370M Pro4, but this haven't PCI slot for your RAID card, nowadays, most board also no PCI slot. This can fix by buy a cheap Asmedia 1061 2 port SATA adpapter.

 

For Intel M2 share SATA issue, my understanding was even it is PCIe,  one SATA port would disable, pls further confirm as I haven't such platform.

 

For SSD SATA or M2, your application won't reach neither interface bandwidth celling, but I would doubt Samsung 860evo can fullfill provide consistent throughput for all disk I/O request. Recently, I need an I/O, it is about 4 stream each 40MB/s write in and then read out to 1 stream at same time (Unraid diak array), this need for several hrs, I use my M2 Plextor m8peg to act this buffer.

 

Edited by Benson
Link to comment
On 12/14/2018 at 7:10 PM, 1812 said:

Maybe folks are tired of answering hardware recommendation threads....

 

Maybe there are millions more options now than there was 5 years ago...

 

Maybe you should just get the highest/best/fastest of everything and call it a day.....

 

Maybe you just need your hand held all the way through the process....

 

Maybe you should search the forums....

 

Maybe she’s born with it....

 

Maybe I’m done with this reply....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Maybe it’s Maybelline....) 

Thank you, that was very helpful. That's part of the reason why I made the post because it seems so much has changed in terms of cards and controllers. I was just planning to upgrade to v6 and then had some kind of error that people on the general forum helped me with. Then someone posted that I should just use this oppertunity basically to roll my mac mini and file server into one using dockers. So I have spent the past few days learning dockers, setting up and backing up to a separate unraid server, while waiting for all of the parities to finish...

 

So I was hoping to get some help to see if I could re-use some parts since I wasn't prepared for all this financially. Is the IBM M1015 controller that I had flashed to IT mode still considered good? Not sure if I should get rid of it and just get an LSI brand card. They have come down in price significantly since 5 years ago, but if my m1015 is still considered good, I would like to use it obviously...

Link to comment
33 minutes ago, maxse said:

Thank you, that was very helpful. That's part of the reason why I made the post because it seems so much has changed in terms of cards and controllers. I was just planning to upgrade to v6 and then had some kind of error that people on the general forum helped me with. Then someone posted that I should just use this oppertunity basically to roll my mac mini and file server into one using dockers. So I have spent the past few days learning dockers, setting up and backing up to a separate unraid server, while waiting for all of the parities to finish...

 

So I was hoping to get some help to see if I could re-use some parts since I wasn't prepared for all this financially. Is the IBM M1015 controller that I had flashed to IT mode still considered good? Not sure if I should get rid of it and just get an LSI brand card. They have come down in price significantly since 5 years ago, but if my m1015 is still considered good, I would like to use it obviously...

I (and many people) use lsi based controllers and are quite happy with them. “Good” is a relative term. Price vs performance is the question, and you are the only one with the answer. It appears to have specs similar to 50-100 dollar lsi cards. So if it working for you, keep it. If you’re not saturating your pcie lanes with data, keep it. 

Link to comment

Thank you! That's what I was thinking too but your reply made it seem like everything I was using was too old to consider using so I wasn't sure if I would be killing my performance by keeping the cards as it's pretty much the only thing I would be moving anyway. It's amazing how inexpensive these things have gotten compared to 5 years ago!

 

Do you think you could help me with the SSD situation? I have the Samsung Evo 860 1tB SSD sitting here now (pretty much the only thing that came in, everything else should be here Monday), but I'm not sure if I should change it to M.2, or if by doing that it's gonna disable a SATA port anyway in which case I might as well keep it? Is it safe to just velcro it to the bottom of the case? I understand that it's best to connect it to the onboard SATA so got that covered...

 

I'm very excited about this! I actually decided to get the i5 8400 instead and will send back the i3. I watched some videos with all the things can be done now, such as creating a virtual VPN Router in a VM, etc.. so want to make sure i future proof .

Link to comment
9 hours ago, maxse said:

I'm not sure if I should change it to M.2, or if by doing that it's gonna disable a SATA port anyway in which case I might as well keep it? Is it safe to just velcro it to the bottom of the case? I understand that it's best to connect it to the onboard SATA so got that covered...

 

It depends on how much speed you need and what is being stored on it. I run a cache pool with ssd's and they work fine. I would upgrade to m.2 on my server because i'm a speed freak, but I don't have an available slot. 

 

You can just velcro the ssd to the case, just make sure it's in an area that will get at least a little air flow, otherwise it could run hot under heavy load. connect via onboard sata is fine. it's how mine are connected and I have an hba in the system too.

Link to comment

Thank you 1812 :)

 

I'm going to be using it for plex, and sab. Speed wise the only thing that's important to me is how quickly plex's cover art can load, which I think will be improved by an SSD over the hard drive that I'm using now. I'm not too concerned about speed of writing to the array.

 

Also, any advice on what card to use to create 2 more SATA ports to allow for 16 drives total? 

 

Thank you again so much for helping me, I really appreciate it!

Link to comment
On 12/17/2018 at 10:58 PM, tuxfania said:

I use encryption on all of my drives...data and cache and have had no issues whatsoever...

I've read a post on here that mentioned something about TRIM not supported on encrypted SSD? Could have been an older post, I'm on the latest unraid just waiting for all the parts to come in. I was going to use the TRIM docker in one of spaceinvader one's videos.. Will that not work?

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.