Hi all,

 

I finally got frustrated enough with my Synology to consider replacing it with Unraid setup. As such, I'd like to get some advice from the community on choosing hardware. 

 

It will host 6-8 HDDs with media library, Plex (at most 1-2 1080p transcodes at a time, no real need in GPU here), a dozen or so docker containers, Windows VM for gaming and photo/video editing with passthrough GPU and maybe one more VM for surveillance (BlueIris). 

 

For HDDs, I now have 2x8TB IronWolves and 2x8TB SMR Barracudas. Predictably, this combination works horribly in one raid array. I plan to use IronWolves for 2 parity drives, add 1 or 2 more IronWolves for write-heavy loads (backups, etc.) and leave Barracudas for media library and add some M.2 SSDs for cache and as VM drives.

 

The machine will be located in the office, which is directly adjacent to the bedroom, so main requirement for it is to be near silent at rest. I could tolerate some level of fan noise while gaming. 

 

My current plan is this:

• Ryzen 3700X
• 2x16GB DDR4 ECC 2666MHz RAM
• B550 of X570 Full ATX MB with enough M2 and SATA ports 
• Tower case with acoustic dampening supporting 8-10 HDDs (no real need in hot swap)
• 2070-level GPU (will wait for new GPUs from NVidia and AMD and decide then)

 

Need some advice on:

1. Case: need one that will be able to insulate both head positioning sounds (acoustic dampening/padding?) and low-freq vibrations (insulated/dampened HDD trays?). Don't really care about design, but prefer not to have glass or RGB. Ability to hold 8-10 HDDs goes without saying.
2. Motherboard: need one with ECC support, decent VRM, ability to install 2 GPUs (just in case) and as many M.2 and SATA ports as possible.
3. What's the expected power draw at rest? Any particular advice on hardware selection to reduce it?
4. Any other advice on hardware selection for first-time Unraider?

 

Thanks in advance

Edited August 26, 20205 yr by pfa

You probably would want more RAM.

5 hours ago, Energen said:

You probably would want more RAM.

I'd prefer to have 64GB myself, but ECC memory isn't cheap. My plan for now is 16GB for gaming VM and 16GB for the rest. I know for a fact that 6GB is plenty for all my dockers, so it leaves plenty of RAM for everything else. And I'll have 2 more slots for expansion anyways, so could always add memory should the need arise.