Building my first NAS...looking for guidance.


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So this will be my first NAS build and I am struggling spec'ing it out a bit. I have experience building multiple PC's, so I don't have an issue with that. I am looking at a system that I can use to host my personal media as well as being a data backup for my PC's. Expandability for the future is a design consideration. My biggest hangup at the moment is selecting a good motherboard (Micro-ATX / Mini-ITX) and CPU that will be efficient, reliable and as fast as would be needed. I figure I will start with 4-6 4TB WD Red HDD and probably a Samsung SSD cache drive. It will run either a Sea Sonic or Corsair PSU. I "think" I will just run on-board graphics so that I don't take up unnecessary space in the case and save power consumption. I plan on tossing it in a Fractal Design Node 804 case so expansion isn't an issue in the future. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

 

Brew

Edited by Brew_WY
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I am running an older AMD FX chip with no issues, unRaid seems to run fine on older hardware, not sure if you have a server room or if you're looking for something that is quiet. if you have a server room just pickup a supermicro server off ebay (24-36 bay) they usually come with everything and people see to have no issue with them. Otherwise get what's in your price range. I have seen many running a AMD Ryzen processor. on an micro atx board.

 

It all comes down to your needs and what you might want to do in the future with it. Been using unraid now for a bit over a month with my actual build running for about 2 weeks now. 

 

Do you plan on using it for anything else? (Dockers like Plex, VM's, ect..) If just a backup file server you need very minimal specs.

 

Here is a link you my setup if you want an idea of what I use. and it runs great. The bigest overkill is the GUP i have in there, but its what I had on hand. I just used my old gaming computer I had sitting around and not using. (Mostly PS4 now).

 

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Yeah, I am just starting to learn about the dockers programs. By media I meant being able to host my personal collection through something like Plex, along with my music collection, photos, etc. I have a dedicated room that my PC's occupy and I plan on this NAS to occupy that same space, so I don't want a 737 sitting in the corner. For aesthetic reasons I want to be in a self contained case and not something rack mounted. I guess I am just having a hard time finding what specs I need to have a reliable system that is efficient, but has the power to handle what I can throw at it also. I have a bad habit of overbuilding systems beyond what is needed to accomplish a given goal. Not as big of issue with gaming PC's, but it just seems like a waste of cash on something like this. I appreciate everyone's patience with newb-like questions. This is all very new to me.

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I was in the same boat a few months ago. Always was a windows guy and moved from a qnap to unraid. Reminds me of home server 2011

 

If your not going to run vm's and I was you I would go with an AMD ryzen 5 proccesor. Or if you ha e money to spend. A 7. Then a motherboard with 2 m.2.spota for the cache array and they would automatically be configure to a raid fir fault tolerance

 

Then make sure it has enough pcie slots for your needs now and the future. 

 

If you want plex and need things transcode get a quattro p200. Best bang for the buck. 

 

If you dont want to worry about sata  ports get an LSI card with an HP card for connecting drives. (See my post for links what I purchased) There are a few things to be aware of but if you use the links i posted that are what you need. The two card would be enought for you to use for some time. (I am using 17 drives in mine. With 2 as a parity setup. And have spare posts for expanding to another case if needed. 

 

The LSI card can handle up to 256 drives. The hp is an expansion card that hooks to the LSI card. If you do not have mini sas connection on a back plane and just sata connections they make breakout cables for that. 

 

Each card would need a pcie slot. The video card would also need one

 

Ram 32gb more if you can afford it. But 32 seem to work great for me. 

 

Then drives and fans. Fans I would go with noctua quiet versions. Have them in mine and is more quiet than my work PC. (Odd for a server but it works)

 

Fell free to hit me back up here for more question. Just about to go to bed. I will check back tomorrow. 

 

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I will look in to your recommendations tomorrow. I haven't ever ran an AMD processor, but I know the new Ryzen are suppose to offer good bang for the buck. I have been running Noctua fans for years and definitely plan on filling my case with them. I will do some research on some of the rest of what you mentioned above. Thanks!

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So looking at what you suggested. I don't believe I will need the LSI or HP at this time, but I should have room to add them if I need them in the future. After looking at AMD processors, it looked like running a Threadripper 1900X would be great cost wise. But to get a form factor MB that fit this case it tripled the cost of the MB compared to Intel. Not entirely a deal breaker. So in my normal fashion I have built myself in to $2000+ build and I am not confident that it is really the best system. So I apologize in advance if this isn't the correct fashion for listing build components, but here it goes:

 

Case: Fractal Design Node 804 Black Window Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX  Cube Computer Case

MB: ASRock X399M TAICHI sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X 8-Core / 16 Threads 3.8 GHz Socket sTR4 180W YD190XA8AEWOF Desktop Processor

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C18D-32GVK

GPU: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 - Graphics card - Quadro P2000 - 5 GB GDDR5 - PCIe 3.0 x16 - 4 x DisplayPort

SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 500GB PCIe Gen3. X4, NVMe 1.3 V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V7E500BW (X2)

HDD: WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EFRX (X6)

PSU: Seasonic FOCUS GX-650, 650W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan Compact 140mm Size Power Supply, SSR-650FX

FD: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model SDCZ33-016G-B35 (To host OS)

AIO (for CPU): Fractal Design Celsius S24 Blackout 240mm Silent High Performance Slim Expandable All-In-One CPU Liquid / Water Cooler 

 

My biggest concern I have seen is that ASRock only lists Win 10 as a supported OS, so I don't know if it will actually support UNRAID.

 

Feel free to critique and inform me of where I have made mistakes. Or if I should be looking at a completely different system in the price range. This totals up at newegg for about $2200. I haven't bargain hunted anything yet. I doubt this price will change more than 5-10% with a little bit of shopping. Thanks again for all the help.

 

Cheers, 

 

Brew

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10 hours ago, Brew_WY said:

So looking at what you suggested. I don't believe I will need the LSI or HP at this time, but I should have room to add them if I need them in the future. After looking at AMD processors, it looked like running a Threadripper 1900X would be great cost wise. But to get a form factor MB that fit this case it tripled the cost of the MB compared to Intel. Not entirely a deal breaker. So in my normal fashion I have built myself in to $2000+ build and I am not confident that it is really the best system. So I apologize in advance if this isn't the correct fashion for listing build components, but here it goes:

 

Case: Fractal Design Node 804 Black Window Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX  Cube Computer Case

MB: ASRock X399M TAICHI sTR4 AMD X399 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X 8-Core / 16 Threads 3.8 GHz Socket sTR4 180W YD190XA8AEWOF Desktop Processor

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C18D-32GVK

GPU: NVIDIA Quadro P2000 - Graphics card - Quadro P2000 - 5 GB GDDR5 - PCIe 3.0 x16 - 4 x DisplayPort

SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 500GB PCIe Gen3. X4, NVMe 1.3 V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V7E500BW (X2)

HDD: WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD40EFRX (X6)

PSU: Seasonic FOCUS GX-650, 650W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan Compact 140mm Size Power Supply, SSR-650FX

FD: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model SDCZ33-016G-B35 (To host OS)

AIO (for CPU): Fractal Design Celsius S24 Blackout 240mm Silent High Performance Slim Expandable All-In-One CPU Liquid / Water Cooler 

 

My biggest concern I have seen is that ASRock only lists Win 10 as a supported OS, so I don't know if it will actually support UNRAID.

 

Feel free to critique and inform me of where I have made mistakes. Or if I should be looking at a completely different system in the price range. This totals up at newegg for about $2200. I haven't bargain hunted anything yet. I doubt this price will change more than 5-10% with a little bit of shopping. Thanks again for all the help.

 

Cheers, 

 

Brew

Ok so for the SSD i would not go with the evo, go with the pro version. - longer life span, and warranty (And faster speeds)

as for the drives, spend just a bit more ($116 vs $150) and get 8tb versions (https://www.amazon.com/Book-Desktop-External-Drive-WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN/dp/B01LQQHLGC) just shuck the drive from the case (Easy to do and they are reds w/ white label), and just start out with 4 drives, 1 parry drive and 3 for the aray (you would end up saving money while getting more space)

Power supply, go with a bigger one, better to have extra than keep a lower powered one running maxed out alot. (say 800+ so you have room to grow) 

Everything else looks good.

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4 hours ago, almulder said:

Ok so for the SSD i would not go with the evo, go with the pro version. - longer life span, and warranty (And faster speeds)

I shall disagree with this.

  • For Unraid typical uses, you will hardly (if ever) see any performance diff between the 970 Evo and 970 Pro.
  • Both Evo and Pro have 5-year warranty
  • Just for a bit more than the 970 Pro 512GB, you can get the Evo 1TB. That is equivalent of having 30% more cells to wear out!
  • Even comparing similar size, the relatively lower endurance of the Evo can be mitigated with good practice.
  • SSD rarely fails catastrophically like HDD. It's not like you writes 300TB to your 970 Evo and it suddenly stops working (unlike Intel SSD). It will continue to work until all the cells die, which is a long time.

 

 

 

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55 minutes ago, testdasi said:

I shall disagree with this.

  • For Unraid typical uses, you will hardly (if ever) see any performance diff between the 970 Evo and 970 Pro.
  • Both Evo and Pro have 5-year warranty
  • Just for a bit more than the 970 Pro 512GB, you can get the Evo 1TB. That is equivalent of having 30% more cells to wear out!
  • Even comparing similar size, the relatively lower endurance of the Evo can be mitigated with good practice.
  • SSD rarely fails catastrophically like HDD. It's not like you writes 300TB to your 970 Evo and it suddenly stops working (unlike Intel SSD). It will continue to work until all the cells die, which is a long time.

 

 

 

I knew there would not be noticeable performance if any, but I guess they have changed the warranty as my original evo's only came with a 3 year and the pro's were 5 year, so I got pros. (Or a typo on the site) but they were for my gaming pc at the time so it was worth it. (old gaming pc is now my unraid) good to know. 

 

thanks for giving feedback on it.

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I appreciate all the help and input. I selected EVO's due to when I built my gaming rig a two years ago, the side x side testing I had seen showed that the EVO were faster for file transfer than the PRO's numerically (Tech Deals on youtube I believe). I used a PRO in that build, due to at the time, a longer warranty and another reason that escapes me two years later. I do believe I will bump up another tier or two for my PSU, it won't cost much and give plenty of headroom. I was just going off of Sea Sonics power recommendations. But for $40-60 at this price point it really doesn't matter. I will also step up to 8TB HDD also. Looking at the numbers and space it would create in the case it makes way more sense. Again I appreciate all the advice, and if anyone else has any input I would love to hear it. This build is more than I wanted to spend, but not more than I am willing. I am working overtime for the next 4-5 weeks, so I think I will just start trying to find good deals on the hardware and start getting things coming in. I won't have much time to start populating the drives until December anyway.

 

Cheers, 

 

Brew

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