unRAID mITX Media Server - sanity check please

[riccume]

Hello. My 2010 build* is telling me it wants to retire soon so high time for me to come back to this amazing community. Would you take a look at my plan, as you did last time, before I go ahead with the shopping? Thank you!

 

The background:

- Intended use: NAS where to save my DVDs (stored in DVD format, not ripped) to be watched via the HTPC in the living room (old style I know!) and backups of family PCs/laptops. This NAS doesn't need to do anything fancier than that

- Budget: <£500 excluding HDDs? It will hopefully last for many years so no need to penny-pinch but I don't want to waste money either

- Number of drives / capacity need: I currently have 7 HDDs for a total of 20TB + parity. I'm planning to upgrade to 3 HDDs; 2 x 12TB + parity

 

This is what I have in mind:

- Fractal Design Node 304 (I like the small size and I don't envision ever needing more than 6 HDDs)

- Intel Core i3-9100 (or can I go with something even more basic given the limited requirements of my setup? I would still need iGPU)

- ASRock H370M-ITX/ac (overkill? I like the future-proofing of 6 onboard SATAs but have no use for the WiFi)

- G.Skill Aegis 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 (I just picked one on pcpartpicker)

- Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 SSD for cache (I just picked one on pcpartpicker; should I go with smaller/cheaper?)

- Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450 W (I like the Gold efficiency given that it is on 24/7)

 

Thoughts? Thank you!

 

*This is what has been serving me well, albeit rather slowly, for the last 10 years: Liam Li PC-Q8; Gigabyte GA-D510UD; 1GB RAM; Antec 380W EarthWatts Green

Edited July 7, 2020 by riccume

[SirReal63]

Everything should work as you have it.  If you have been happy with the prior system this will be much better.

 

What you have selected isn't much different than what I started with, though I had 16 gigs of ram.  The I3-9100 is practically the same power as a R3-2200G which is what I started with.  What I noticed is it would peg the CPU at 100% with a movie on Plex.  I noticed no issues with the movie and it played just fine.  By switching to a 6 core 12 thread processor it rarely ever gets above 50% usage with everything else in the system being the same.  A maxed out CPU will run hotter and potentially have it's life reduced compared to one running cooler and at a lesser max usage.  If nothing else, add a better CPU cooler than the stock one.  The stock cooler isn't very robust.

 

If it were me, I would scale back to a 500 gig cache drive and put the extra money into a faster CPU.  Having said that, what you have will work just fine.

[riccume]

4 hours ago, SirReal63 said:

Everything should work as you have it.  If you have been happy with the prior system this will be much better.

 

What you have selected isn't much different than what I started with, though I had 16 gigs of ram.  The I3-9100 is practically the same power as a R3-2200G which is what I started with.  What I noticed is it would peg the CPU at 100% with a movie on Plex.  I noticed no issues with the movie and it played just fine.  By switching to a 6 core 12 thread processor it rarely ever gets above 50% usage with everything else in the system being the same.  A maxed out CPU will run hotter and potentially have it's life reduced compared to one running cooler and at a lesser max usage.  If nothing else, add a better CPU cooler than the stock one.  The stock cooler isn't very robust.

 

If it were me, I would scale back to a 500 gig cache drive and put the extra money into a faster CPU.  Having said that, what you have will work just fine.

Thank you SirReal63, very helpful.

I don't use Plex; I watch my movies using a Windows 7 HTPC and they are saved on the NAS in DVD format. I think this means the CPU of my NAS has an easier life than yours, i.e. no transcoding?

[SirReal63]

Granted, it does, though I only play on the local network and nothing higher than 720p so I don't think I do any transcoding.  I would still budget for a better CPU cooler, the stock one is not very good.

[riccume]

11 hours ago, SirReal63 said:

Granted, it does, though I only play on the local network and nothing higher than 720p so I don't think I do any transcoding.  I would still budget for a better CPU cooler, the stock one is not very good.

Thanks. Any recommendations on cooler? I had a look around the forum and I see be quiet! Pure Rock or Cooler Master Hyper 212, though with both of them I'll have to double-check they fit.

[SirReal63]

I use a Hyper 212 but if the fan on it ever dies I will change to a Noctua.  Make sure whatever cooler you use doesn't interfere with the ram slots.  I know you only plan on using one stick, but if you want to add more in the future it becomes important.  My Hyper 212 blocks a ram slot which prevents me from using all 4 slots.

[Coke84]

Similar to my specs and it just works great. I would go with a WD red (m.2) SSD for cache as it is created for 24/7 and comes with 5yrs guarantee. Same speed (SATA3 6GB/s) by 10-15 EUR more. I also have the 1TB cache, but I've never used more than 300gb so far ("daily use" shares are on my cache prefered, archive has status "yes" for cache usage with daily scheduled mover at midnight). So I'd rather invest the bucks in an additional 8GB RAM stick and go with a 500gb cache.

 

For chilling I use a ArcticFreeze 11 LP topblower (15 EUR). Small and runs by 1100-1300rpm and my CPU has not yet seen a temperature above 50 degree, even when using my Win10VM and playing some games. System overall is absolutely silent, you only can hear the case fans when getting to the Node304 case by 30cm. The ArcticFreeze quite wide, but using the same ASRock H370M-ITX/ac with two RAM sticks and there's still 1mm in between sticks and cooler.

 

@SirReal63running a video with plex / emby / etc. which requires transcoding always pegs the max out of a CPU. With enabling the hardware decoding using iGPU or dedicated GPUs it will reduce CPU power to a minimum. My emby server takes the advantage of the integrated GPU of my i3-8100 an even transcoding two 4k movies in parallel pegs my CPU at not more than 30%. btw. plex / emby also use transcoding when the movie has embedded subtitles and / or your client does not support the audio codec (e.g. DTS or EAC3 with Amazon FireTV Stick).

Edited July 9, 2020 by Coke84

[riccume]

Thanks, so helpful! A couple of questions.

CPU cooler - did you decide to go with ArcticFreeze 11 LP vs. stock cooler because it is quieter or other factors?

RAM - what is the advantage of an extra 8GB  or in other words will the extra 8GB ever get used?

[Coke84]

Yes, even with the cheap ArcticFreeze, the CPU keeps approx 10 degrees cooler (according to tests I've read, never tested by myself) and is more quiet than the stock one. 

 

For RAM, it depends of the usage of your system. I use 8gb RAM for my VM(s) and the other 8gb for unRAID itself (including docker container; unraid + dockers utilize approx. 5gb RAM in my setup). When using unRAID only as typical NAS, 8gb is fair, but once your system has the power to do more, I'm pretty sure you will do more There's always room for more RAM  

 

btw as you mentioned the 6 SATA ports for the H370m-ITX/ac board. When you use the m.2 slot, the first SATA port will be disabled as it uses the same bus. So you are only able to use six internal drives, regardless of 1x m.2 and 5x SATA or no m.2 and 6x SATA. However, this board is the only mITX board which comes with 6 drive ports for a reasonable price - that's why I also chose this one.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Coke84

[Hoopster]

@riccume My backup server is in a Node 304 case with an i5-4590 CPU and the stock Intel cooler.

 

Until recently, I was running BOINC 24x7 on this server and I had it using 3 of the 4 cores at 75% utilization.  Temperatures with the stock cooler under this heavy load were consistently in the low 60C range.  I ran BOINC on it 24x7 for almost 3 months straight.

 

This is normally just a backup server with limited utilization as I backup my main server to it once a week.

 

If it were my main server, I would probably change the cooler.  When I my main server was a Mini-ITX server with an 80W TDP 4c/8t Xeon in the Lian-Li PC-Q25 case, I used the Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU cooler (65mm height) since, in the Lian-Li case with the PSU over the MB, there was a height limit of 80mm on the cooler.

 

The Noctua cooler handled the load very well.  I use Plex and HandBrake and there are transcoding needs from time to time.

 

You do not have this height limit in the Fractal Node 304 case so you can go with a taller cooler if desired, perhaps something like the Noctua NH-U9S (125mm height).  The  max. cooler height in the Node 304 is 165mm so you can fit a really big cooler in there if you need to.

 

Given your stated use case and the CPU you intend to use, I don't think you will need a monster cooler.  The NH-U9S and the NH-L9x65 both fit within the 95mmx95mm CPU socket footprint for not blocking anything on the motherboard.

 

You can see the specs of both of my servers in my signature.

[riccume]

29 minutes ago, Coke84 said:

Yes, even with the cheap ArcticFreeze, the CPU keeps approx 10 degrees cooler (according to tests I've read, never tested by myself) and is more quiet than the stock one. 

 

For RAM, it depends of the usage of your system. I use 8gb RAM for my VM(s) and the other 8gb for unRAID itself (including docker container; unraid + dockers utilize approx. 5gb RAM in my setup). When using unRAID only as typical NAS, 8gb is fair, but once your system has the power to do more, I'm pretty sure you will do more There's always room for more RAM  

 

btw as you mentioned the 6 SATA ports for the H370m-ITX/ac board. When you use the m.2 slot, the first SATA port will be disabled as it uses the same bus. So you are only able to use six internal drives, regardless of 1x m.2 and 5x SATA or no m.2 and 6x SATA. However, this board is the only mITX board which comes with 6 drive ports for a reasonable price - that's why I also chose this one.

Indeed, there is always room for more RAM!

[riccume]

18 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

@riccume My backup server is in a Node 304 case with an i5-4590 CPU and the stock Intel cooler.

 

Until recently, I was running BOINC 24x7 on this server and I had it using 3 of the 4 cores at 75% utilization.  Temperatures with the stock cooler under this heavy load were consistently in the low 60C range.  I ran BOINC on it 24x7 for almost 3 months straight.

 

This is normally just a backup server with limited utilization as I backup my main server to it once a week.

 

If it were my main server, I would probably change the cooler.  When I my main server was a Mini-ITX server with an 80W TDP 4c/8t Xeon in the Lian-Li PC-Q25 case, I used the Noctua NH-L9x65 CPU cooler (65mm height) since, in the Lian-Li case with the PSU over the MB, there was a height limit of 80mm on the cooler.

 

The Noctua cooler handled the load very well.  I use Plex and HandBrake and there are transcoding needs from time to time.

 

You do not have this height limit in the Fractal Node 304 case so you can go with a taller cooler if desired, perhaps something like the Noctua NH-U9S (125mm height).  The  max. cooler height in the Node 304 is 165mm so you can fit a really big cooler in there if you need to.

 

Given your stated use case and the CPU you intend to use, I don't think you will need a monster cooler.  The NH-U9S and the NH-L9x65 both fit within the 95mmx95mm CPU socket footprint for not blocking anything on the motherboard.

 

You can see the specs of both of my servers in my signature.

Thanks. The taller coolers like the NH-U9S look very impressive, though I suspect an overkill given my use. But the message is clear; worth spending some ££ to replace the stock cooler and future-proof the system.

[Hoopster]

On 7/9/2020 at 3:07 PM, riccume said:

Thanks. The taller coolers like the NH-U9S look very impressive, though I suspect an overkill given my use

Perhaps the stock cooler would be OK for your use case.  I stressed my CPU somewhat with the stock cooler and it stayed in the 60-65C temp range.  If you really want to push it or decide to upgrade to a more powerful CPU, you'll probably want something with more cooling overhead.

[riccume]

Hello! Long time no speak. In case it might be helpful to somebody else, this is the part list I ended up with. As a reminder, the server is used for storing media and backups, no VMs or other CPU-intensive stuff.

 

Fractal Design Node 304, £64.94, Amazon Warehouse
SilverStone SST-ST45SF-G v 2.0 - SFX Series, 450W 80 Plus Gold, £67.62, Amazon Warehouse
Intel Core i3-9100, £97.98, Amazon
Noctua NH-L9i, $37.44, Amazon Warehouse (purchased during a trip to the States)
ASUS Prime H310I-PLUS R2.0/CSM Mini ITX, $79.99 + 19% tax, Newegg (purchased during a trip to the States)
G.SKILL Aegis 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666, $27.99 + 19% tax, Newegg (purchased during a trip to the States)
WD Blue SN550 1TB High-Performance M.2 Pcie NVMe SSD, £88.34, Amazon Warehouse
WD 12TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, £179.95, eBay
WD 14TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, £195.99, Amazon Warehouse
WD 14TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive, £187.49, Amazon Warehouse

Total: £1,008.07

 

Very happy with it so far! A couple of considerations:

- Shucking is a no-brainer vs purchasing bare HDDs; so much cheaper! I wish I had known it earlier

- The Fractal case is awesome! Looks great, well organised, very well built. I went with the white one and I am planning to move it to the bookself because it looks good and it is better ventilated

- The SilverStone PSU is also great. Nice tight cables, modular approach

- I was hoping to buy a motherboard with 6 SATA ports to future-proof the built but the ASRock H370M-ITX/ac is no longer in stock and I could not find another one at a reasonable price. Oh well, I can use a PCI SATA adapter if needed in the future

- I think I could have purchased the i3-9100f without GPU and save £30 given that the motherboard has an integrated graphic processor - but this though only came to me a few days ago

- Similarly, I could have gone with a smaller M.2 cache drive but I am pretty sure I have never said the words "I wish I had less memory"  

 

Thanks for all of the help with this built!