New Build - Your opinions sought

[Neptune-1]

Hello all,

 

I just wanted to say hi (my first post) and to pick-your-brains.

 

I'm super new to to all of this and would love to have your opinions on an Unraid project I'm considering.

 

I currently have a Synology DS218+ NAS which I use to store general personal documents, photos, etc. I also use the NAS to access these from outside the home. Oh, and I stream music from it too. Whilst I really enjoy the Synology NAS and all its benefits, I like building PC's and now that I have a little knowledge from setting up my Synology NAS, I would like to build a custom Unraid machine. I want the Unraid machine to do everything I am doing on the Synology NAS I have right now, but with the possibility of using further functions as I gain more knowledge. I would also like to, if possible, use the Unraid machine as my main NAS and place my Synology at another address and use this as a back-up.

 

The proposed hardware for Unraid NAS build;

 

CASE: Fractal Design Node 304

 

PSU: EVGA 550W (Gold) (Fully Modular)

 

CPU: Intel Core i3 10100

 

CPU cooler: (stock or Noctua low profile)

 

Motherboard: Asus STRIX B460-i (M-ITX) 

 

RAM: Corsair LPX 8GB (2x4GB)

 

Cache Drive: WD Blue (1TB) (M.2 Nvme)

 

Storage Drive: 1x 3TB Ironwolf Pro (Parity) 2x 2TB Ironwolf Pro

 

OS Storage: I'm pretty set on a 32GB Sandisk. However, I was considering a thumbnail sized USB stick but I have heard that Sandisk's can run very hot. Therefore, I was thinking of getting a larger (in physical size) USB stick and sitting this in the case using a USB2 adaptor. That way, it's out of sight.

 

I would really love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for your time and consideration

 

Matt

Edited October 22, 2020 by Neptune-1

[Decto]

Hi,

 

A couple of thoughts.

 

Unless you really need the compact form factor, an mAtx build will often be less expensive and have more features / expansion.

Node 804 is a compact option.

 

I don't understand your drive selection, there is no benfit in mutiple drives as each file is stored on a single drive so read speed is limited to individual drive speed. For 4TB of storage, a 4TB parity and single 4TB data would be better. You can then add 4TB drives to your hearts content... or until you exceed your licence / number of SATA ports. Sata ports quickly become limiting so it is recommended to go for the biggest disks (within reason) up front. 

 

No issues on the cache size, but give your 4TB storage it seem a bit large. Usually this would be for VM's or Appdata etc and for any regular transfers, however you don't mention VM's so it may go mostly unused. Perhaps the cash would be better spent on 8TB + 8TB drives and a smaller cache. 

 

Any resonable quality USB 2.0 drive or better with GUID is fine.

 

I use both the 16GB Sandisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 (3 years) and metal 16GB Kingston data traveller USB 2.0 (1 year). 

There is no need for a fast drive, unraid is compact and runs in memory once loaded.

USB 2.0 ports and drives are generally preferred as more robust.

 

The USB 3.1 sandisk Ultra Fit I had didn't seem to have a GUID, I've also had some mixed results with 32GB drives wheras 16GB work fine in all systems.

In reality you'll be using less than 1GB, my flash backup is 400MB so the only thing a large drives gives you is a little better endurance.

 

 

 

 

[Neptune-1]

Hi Decto,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

M-ITX is the way to go for me... but the choice of motherboards is awful! Hopefully, the motherboard should be the only 'added expense' as the case can take an ATX PSU. 

 

Good point on the HDD's. I hadn't thought of that but it makes perfect sense. I'll definitely make an adjustment there. 

 

Just another point on the Cache drive... I expect it would be better to have two as I intend to initially store information on them before transferring over to the HDD in the early morning. To prevent possible data loss I expect Unraid can essentially mirror the data on both Cache drives prior to dumping the data on the HDD? If that is the case then it might be worth buying 2 slightly cheaper SSD's as I don't know of any M-ITX motherboards that support 2x M.2 (Nvme). Sata yes, not Nvme. So, 2x HDD and 2x SSD are maxing out the 4x SATA ports on the motherboard!!

 

Great advice on the USB. I'll stick to a solid Sandisk (2.0) 16GB. 

 

Thanks again for your time.

 

Matt