Comment upcoming new build for Unraid server


Punisher

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Hello everyone,

 

I am going to create my first Unraid server and i would appreciate your advice to let me know if this is a good rig. I will be using the server as a NAS, plex Server and several VMs:

 

CPU : I7 4790K

RAM : 32 Go Kingston DDR3 1600Mhz

GPU : GTX Titan X (Maxwell architecture from 2015)

PSU : Corsair RM750

HDD : 5 HDD of 4 TB

SSD : 1 Samsung 850 Pro 250 Gb for boot

SSD : 2 Samsung 970 Evo plus M.2 NVME 500 GB for cache

Motherboard : ASUS ROG Maximus Ranger VII

 

Also could you please let me know which is best between Seagate Ironwolf or Western Digital Caviar Red for HDD ?

 

Many thanks   

 

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5 hours ago, Punisher said:

SSD : 1 Samsung 850 Pro 250 Gb for boot

Unraid boots from the USB flash drive. It installs itself fresh from the archives on flash into RAM and runs completely in RAM. Think of it as firmware but easier to work with. The GUID of the flash drive is required for Unraid licensing, there is no other way to install. Speed of flash is unimportant, and 4GB is more than enough capacity.

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From experience, an i7 4790k doesn't leave alot of room for running several VMs. I ran one for a short time, but ultimately had to upgrade the system and get more cores to do all the things I "needed".

 

It all depends though, if these are parts you already have on hand then I would say dive in and see how things go. Changing the system components later is pretty easy.

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thank you for you response.

I don't intend to create a lot of vms. just one in Windows 10 for gaming and another one in ubuntu. Maybe more in the future.

 

Seagate Ironwolf or WD caviar Red ?

Indeed another one of my questions would be are there any issues when you want to upgrade your hardware ? is there some you need to do in Unraid in particular ?

What would you recommend doing first ? upgrading my motherboard, CPU and RAM and then buy hdd later and create the the Unraid server ?

 

Thanks

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17 minutes ago, Punisher said:

upgrade your hardware

I have upgraded everything several times at different times in different order. As long as you have the config folder from your flash drive (and a good backup of that folder), it is very easy to just let things evolve. Unraid figures out what hardware it is running on when it boots, applies settings from your config folder including disk assignments, and it just keeps on working. The only thing that might cause issues is if you try to use RAID controllers, or if you passthru hardware to VMs they might need some tweaking for hardware changes.

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3 hours ago, Punisher said:

Seagate Ironwolf or WD caviar Red ?

There are plenty of happy users of both in unRAID.

 

I personally used WD Red NAS drives (or WD Whites drives shucked from external enclosures).  unRAID is not picky about storage and there are plenty of users in these forums who will tell you that even "NAS" drives are not needed and you can use consumer/desktop drives. 

 

Due to the nature of unRAID with every drive having its own filesystem and no data striping, it really does not matter too much which drives you use.  Personally, I would be more focused on capacity vs. brand.  Fewer larger capacity HDDs (I would only consider 8TB or higher) is a better situation than more lower-capacity drives.  It eliminates potential points of failure.

 

Some focus more on price than brand.  Drives shucked from external enclosures are usually a lot cheaper for the same drive than the retail bare drive version.

 

As I said, I have WD reds and Whites (same specs as Red) in my main server all shucked from external enclosures. 

 

Ironwolfs are also great drives.  Either would be fine and the distinctions, if any, are minor.

 

The biggest concern should be CMR vs SMR (shingled) technology.  There can be problems with the SMR drives (lots of discussion in these and other forums about it).  I avoid that problem by going with 8TB or higher Red/White drives as WD uses only CMR technology in these drives.  The 6TB and lower are likely to have SMR technology.

 

I don't know what Seagate models have SMR, but, many do.

Edited by Hoopster
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7 minutes ago, Punisher said:

 

What would you recommend doing first ? upgrading my motherboard, CPU and RAM and then buy hdd later and create the the Unraid server ?

Personally, I would get started with the hardware you have so you can get a feel for how unRAID works and get it all configured how you like.  It's a very simple process to swap MB/CPU/RAM in an existing system (I have done it four times with the same licensed unRAID USB flash drive I have had since late 2011).

 

Once you get a feel for everything unRAID can do and how you might use it, then you can decide what hardware you may need in a future upgrade to meet your needs.

 

Turn on signatures (Click on User name --> Account Settings --> Signature) to see what hardware others are using.  unRAID supports just about any hardware but you want to make sure it meets your needs now and in the near future.

 

Like many, after discovering all unRAID can do, I get the urge to upgrade hardware to utilize even more of the system capabilities.  I've done it four times since 2011. 😁

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This set seems to work well with not many issues
unRAID Plex Server Parts Used.
unRAID -> unraid.net/pricing
Intel 4790k -> ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/80807/intel-core-i7-4790k-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz.html
Asus z97 Pro Gamer - > www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/Z97PRO_GAMER/ 
Corsair Vengenance LP -> 
www.corsair.com/uk/en/Categories/Products/Memory/High-Performance-Memory/Vengeance%C2%AE-Low-Profile-%E2%80%94-8GB-Dual-Channel-DDR3-Memory-Kit/p/CML8GX3M2A1600C9 
Logic Case SC-4550MG-2 -> www.logic-case.com/products/rackmount-chassis/4u/4u-gpu-enhanced-standard-chassis-4x-35-hdd-+-6x-525-bays---8x-full-height-slots-for-4x-double-width-gpu-sc-4550mg-2/ 
Crucial MX500 (Cache/program drive) -> uk.crucial.com/products/ssd/crucial-mx500-ssd 
Rivo PCIe SATA Card -> www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0828FY1B2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
SilverStone FS305-12G -> www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=885&area=en 
EVGA 600 W1 600W PSU -> www.evga.com/products/specs/psu.aspx?pn=94de5174-74e7-4aac-876b-62db540ec176 
PNY P2000 -> www.pny.com/nvidia-quadro-p2000 
APC Bacu-UPS 1400VA -> www.apc.com/shop/my/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-1400VA-230V-AVR-Universal-and-IEC-Sockets/P-BX1400U-MS 
Mellanox MCX312B-XCCT -> store.mellanox.com/products/mellanox-mcx312b-xcct-connectx-3-pro-en-network-interface-card-10gbe-dual-port-sfp-pcie3-0-x8-8gt-s-rohs-r6.html 
WD4002FFWX 4TB -> www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Pro-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B01CL6R7QU
MG05ACA800E -> toshiba.semicon-storage.com/eu/storage/product/data-center-enterprise/enterprise-capacity/articles/mg05aca800x.html
WD60EZAZ -> shop.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-desktop-sata-hdd#WD60EZAZ 
HGST 7K4000 -> www.scan.co.uk/products/4tb-hgst-0s03356-deskstar-7k4000-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-retail

This build is mainly parts from my old gaming PC and NAS so it really did not cost that much to build.  
The new parts were essential to the build were:- PSU, CASE, HD cadies, GPU and SATA card. 
With these new parts the unRaid OS allows for a single drive with the data/movie and the cache/program SSD to be running to watch plex at approx. 84 Watts but when all drives spin-up 280 Watts and settles at 189 Watts so using an 600 Watt PSU will handle with the initial spin-up load and the PSU fan turns off when not needed.

server upgrades2.png

Unraid Server.png

Edited by PixieDust1975
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thank you for taking the time to respond.

I would like to run unraid as NAS, plex server and VMs. for future proofing i will need 8 Tb of storage.

I will use an M.2 NVME SSD for cache, but what kind of HDD or SSD would you recommend ? WD Red / saeagate ironwolf ? but those are only for NAS and run at approximately 5400 rpm. or should i get HDD drives that run at 7200 rpm ?

 

many thanks

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So personally with parity drives i would firmly stick with NON-SMR and the rest I am guessing can be anything else with the only constraint being your budget.
If you want to look at what the best drives are I tend to look at Back Blaze stats https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-hard-drive-stats-q2-2020/ because they work with many venders in there data centres and it is a good indicator of what is good and what is bad but you will need to look a previous ones due to when the put drive into production and when they have been running a while.
The only thing I can personally suggest is if you can, use enterprise drives as much as possible.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Enterprise-6Gbit-7200RPM-MG05ACA800E/dp/B074LK3XHJ/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=toshiba+8Tb&qid=1600526529&sr=8-2
And as for M.2 drives maybe stick with Samsung for Intel systems (PCIe v3) 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CGGP7SV/ref=twister_B08FZ1G5QL?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
And for PCIe v4 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Internal-Maximum-Performance-SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-500/dp/B07XFGPFZK/ref=sr_1_25?crid=3HF304H73GBSL&dchild=1&keywords=m.2%2Bssd%2Bnvme&qid=1600526777&sprefix=m.2%2Bssd%2Caps%2C735&sr=8-25&th=1
   

 

Chart-Q2-2020-MFR-Count-1024x484.thumb.jpg.088e9f36967bc5353f81d9ab332b9a3d.jpg

Edited by PixieDust1975
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So this question is for an advanced user.
Every month I do a parity check on 4TB x11 AND 6TB x1 (SMR) 8TB x2 (parity).
It say it will take upto 2 days ish, then ends up taking approx. 1 day and 9 hours and as soon as it gets past the 6TB mark it wizzes by, is it because there is no other parity to check on the last 2TB's ? ? ?

Edited by PixieDust1975
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43 minutes ago, PixieDust1975 said:

So this question is for an advanced user.
Every month I do a parity check on 4TB x11 AND 6TB x1 (SMR) 8TB x2 (parity).
It say it will take upto 2 days ish, then ends up taking approx. 1 day and 9 hours and as soon as it gets past the 6TB mark it wizzes by, is it because there is no other parity to check on the last 2TB's ? ? ?

Yep. All it needs to do is read the parity drives and verify they are all zero past the 6TB mark.

  • Thanks 1
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4 hours ago, Punisher said:

i have an i9 9900kf and i just learned that it doesn't have integrated graphics. for a unraid server do i need integrated graphics in the CPU or is my GTX Titan Z enough.

I have seen videos showing that you need to do the config via the hdmi port on your motherboard.

 

thanks for your replies

You can use the titan, anything with a monitor output is sufficient. I have a few GT710 from $12-15 off ebay to fall back on.

The use a lot less power than other cards if you only need screen.

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