First unraid build - 3930k NAS/mining/Plex

[BgThree]

Hi, new to the forums, been interested in Unraid for a while (watching LTT)

 

Intro

I'm looking to upgrade my current Synology setup (4x4TB - RAID5) to provide extra storage (99% full), remove my overkill Plex/HTPC (dual x5650) server, and do some VM mining. My old pc recently gave up (found out my 1500w PSU is KIA), bought a second hand x299 setup as a daily driver. So I have my old pc for to repurpose.

 

Been looking at Unraid for a couple of years now, and finally want to pull the trigger.

Going to move too a brand new house in a couple of months, CAT6a wiring for some 10gb action, solar panels so power consumption isn't a worry.

I just want to run a sanity check on my proposed setup by you guys.

 

I want to store all my movies, personal data. Run Plex server. Mine with the overhead. Have a bit of fun while doing it.

HTPC would be nice.

 

Hardware setup

CPU: 3930k (C2 stepping, VT-d enabled) 6 cores, 12 theads, passmark 12000

Cooler: Corsair H100

Motherboard: MSI Big Bang Xpower II (10x onboard SATA, 7 PCIe slots, dual lan)

RAM: 16GB (4x4) Corsair Vengaence Pro 2133mhz

Case: Haf X (6 5.25" bays )

Drive Cage(s): Icy Dock FlexCage MB975SP-BCY DOCK MB455SPF-B (for the data/parity drives)

Power Supply: Cooler Master MasterWatt 1500W

Fans: Mix and match > upgrade where needed

 

Drive setup

Parity Drive: 1x 10/12TB (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf) > not bought yet, want to add a second parity after a while

Data Drives: 2-4x 4/8/10/12TB (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf) > not bought yet (looking at some nearly new drives) Want to get about 16-20TB of usable storage.

Cache Drive: 2x 500GB (sata) SSD > have 1, need to buy 1 more

 

PCI setup

PCIe1: P2000 (Plex VM, Linux or Windows) (3.0 x16) > going to test with a GTX680 (sourcing a P2000 as we speak)

PCIe3: RX580 (Mining VM, Linux) (3.0 x8) > remove when upgrading to a X550-T2 or similar

PCIe5: RX580 (Mining VM, Linux) (3.0 x8)

PCIe7: RX580 (Mining VM, Linux) (3.0 x8)

 

Sata setup

SATA 1 & 2: 2x500GB SSD cache (SATA III, X79 chipset)

SATA 3-6: HDD drives data & parity (SATA II, X79 chipset)

SATA 7-9: Future HDD drives (SATA II, AsMedia 1061)

SATA 10: Bluray reader (HTPC purpose)

 

VM setup

VM 1: Linux to run Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, Filebot backup service to cloud for mission critical data (2 cores + P2000)

Why not run Plex through Docker? I want it to hassle free, reliable, especially with the P2000 HW accel.)

VM 2: Windows/Linux VM: Mining + HTPC (4 cores, 3x RX580)

 

The plan

I'm going to split my build up in 2 stages:

Stage 1: Build and test my proposed setup, see if it fits my expectations. Setup the VM's, see if everything sorta works. Dummy spare drives.

Stage 2: Clean install. Add data drives, migrate data from Synology, add parity, add cache. Finetune...

Stage 3: Deploy!

Stage 4: Sell my Synology & dual X5650 setup.

 

 

My questions to you guys

- Will my data migration work? Start of with 2 data drives, add the parity, add the cache. My logic is that I will still have my Synology as backup while adding & running parity (about 10TB of data). Want to run XFS, not having ECC ram and the easy of upgradability seems nice. I realize the performance hit, but the cache drive should offset this, no?

- Should I pull Radarr Sonarr, Filebot (have a license) from the VM too a docker? I want to run the VM anyways for Plex, I figure it's easier...

- Which HDD drives: I'm looking to source my data/parity drives, should I go 7200 rpm Seagate Ironwolf, or 5400 rpm WD Red. Is it worth it? I'll be upgrading my network as I go along to 10GbE. Even the 5400rpm WD's get 180-200mb/s, is that realistic?

- If I add drives in the future, will the AsMedia controller give problems when mixing with the Intel controller. Or does Unraid really don't mind?

- Is not going with a HBA card better because I have plenty of SATA connectors good/bad/doesn't matter?

 

P.s. Why am I not using my dual X5650 setup (12 cores, 24 threads): power consumption, noise, lack of Sata on the motherboard (So HBA's,...)

 

 

Thanks for any input you guys have! I'll be sure to update this topic as my build goes further.