March 12, 20206 yr Hello!, Currently I have a lab server running with dual E5-2670 processors + 128GB RAM, it's built on an Intel tower chassis + 8 SATA disks for a NAS (8 port HBA passthrough to a VM). Usually requires 24x7 air conditioning so the fans don't scream announcing the end of the world (home environment). I'm looking to replace it with UnRAID, got as a starting point: - 1 x spare tower chassis - 3 x CSE-M35TQB (I think I even have silent fans to replace the stock ones) - 1 x GTX-1050Ti - 3 x Dell H310 - 1000w PSU (don't remember the model, bought & never used) I'm looking to add 4 or 6 slots for 2.5" disks to the mix, so I'll need 19 to 21 SATA ports. No rush there, can wait for the 15 days it takes to arrive to PY. Now, on the MB/CPU side I'm clueless about which way to go, I was hoping to go with with a i3-9100F or AMD equivalent, but the MB cost breaks the "cost effective" spirit. It will be mainly used as NAS + Emby transcoding + light virtualization (jumphost/toy VMs, home firewall, etc). Since I don't want to wait , these are the prices I get😞: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master --> us$ 355.3 (inc. taxes) Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master --> us$ 429 (inc. taxes) Gigabyte X399 Aorus Pro --> us$ 329 (inc. taxes) Gigabyte X399 Designare Ex --> us$ 485 (inc. taxes) 2 x PCIe x8 + 1 x PCIe x16 combo seems hard to find in the inexpensive options. Low noise/heat/power consumption is required, ECC memory is nice to have. Suggestions? Edited March 12, 20206 yr by cyruspy
March 12, 20206 yr I'd look at the Xeon E-2100 series with iGPU and compatible C246 motherboards. Should give you ECC and the iGPU will really help with transcoding. It would avoid the need for a GPU especially if you have IPMI PCI-E slots can be an issue, but 8 spinning disks are fine with 4x electrical, or you can look at a 16i card. Cheap version would be to quiet down your existing server, I have a E5-2660V3 with a 120mm tower cooler that is very quiet with modest temps. Though that elimiates the iGPU encoding so I have a GPU, GTX 1050 gives you a couple of stream (software limit).
March 15, 20206 yr Author The idea is to reach 19-21 SATA drives (dual Dell H310 8-port + onboard SATA). Would the E-2100 iGPU transcoding be any better than using the GTX-1050Ti?
March 15, 20206 yr All Nvidia cards are locked to 2 streams unless you patch the driver's which may be tricky to maintain if patch is overwritten with every docker update. The iGPU is unrestricted and can cope with a more transcodes. Any modern intel iGPU will transcode well, even the entry level Pentium G5400 as the functionality is a quick sync path. The main benefit other than more streams is a keeping a precious PCI-E slot free. If you go 4k then keep keep 4k and 1080p duplicate files so you don't have to transcode anything from 4k on the fly.
March 16, 20206 yr Author Well, having some remote users mean even going to 720p and having 3 copies of the full library doesn't sound attractive. But I'll think about it. AM4 options with 128GB of RAM sound attractive, too bad Quick-Sync is an Intel only thing. Any downside going with an "el cheapo" Gigabyte X570 UD (dual H310 and an 10GbE NIC, skipping GPU altogether)? Edited March 16, 20206 yr by cyruspy
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