Replacing 10 Year Old Junker With New Hotness


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I'm finally taking the plunge. I've been running unRAID on a hand-me-down PC that is about 10 years old at this point. It is time for something new. I'm using it mostly for the following things:

 

  • Time Machine backups for several Macs in my home
  • Plex Media Server and storage (my current set up is way too underpowered for HD video in Plex)
  • Minecraft server (for 5 people max at a time)
  • Archive and long-term storage of everything digital

 

I've got my eye on a few other dockers - something to manage eBooks and a MakeMKV/Handbrake combo to do my blu-ray ripping and encoding using the server instead of my iMac (which is also ancient).

 

I have never done anything so ambitious as building a new computer from scratch, so I've spent a fair amount of time on Newegg trying to figure out what works for my needs while not spending an arm and a leg. Here's what I've come up with:

 

 

I plan on just using my 4TB drives I'm currently using (1 parity + 3 data, no SSD). My drives aren't full yet, but I'll need to either add a new one (not an option with the current system) or upgrade to larger sizes in about another year. Plus I have a very low-end graphics card that is only needed if I have to hook a monitor up and troubleshoot from the startup command line, but I haven't used it in probably 18+ months.

 

Is there anything else that I should be adding that I'm not? Do you see any incompatibilities that I've missed because of my inexperience? Is there something that would give me more bang for my buck? Thanks in advance for any help y'all can offer!

 

Edited by Doberbane
Finalized components
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The LN4F has onboard graphics (VGA) so you shouldn't need your graphic card. Even better it has IPMI which allows you to manage the computer BIOS over the network. I have this board, and it is a nice board, but if I had to do it over again I would have saved a little money and got a motherboard with fewer ethernet ports. The rest looks good, but if you start adding drives your power supply may need to be upgraded. I would go with a minimum of 450-500W to ensure expected system growth. 

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I would really, really recommend an SFF power supply in the Q25B.  That CPU has 9,708 Passmarks.  I assume you are going to use Handbrake in the off hours to encode media into a friendly format so that minimal transcoding is needed when watching videos.  I always rip in Windows, will you do that in a VM?

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Both of you mention the PSU, so how about this - FSP Dagger 500W Mini ITX? It is smaller and has a higher wattage, but isn't fanless and only gold certified instead of platinum. But if it fits better and won't need to be replaced when I add another HD then it'll work.

 

As far as the LN4F Mobo goes, how well does unRAID bond multiple ethernet ports? I've noticed it is a new feature and figured I could combine two of the four and dedicate them to just Plex. Then bond the other two and use them for everything else. Then Time Machine backups wouldn't slow down any movie watching. But maybe it's all overkill and the geek in me just wants 4 gigabit connections to my server. :P 9_9 I'll take a look around and see if there is a cheaper model that still covers everything else I need.

 

For Handbrake and MakeMKV I was going the docker route over VM using these two:

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33 minutes ago, Doberbane said:

Both of you mention the PSU, so how about this - FSP Dagger 500W Mini ITX? It is smaller and has a higher wattage, but isn't fanless and only gold certified instead of platinum. But if it fits better and won't need to be replaced when I add another HD then it'll work.

It's SFX, which is what you want.  I have no experience with that particular unit.  I've used Silverstone and others have recently been using the Corsair SFX units.

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Bonding has been fickle for me, I would do some research as some modes require hardware (router/switch) to support while others do not. I have not noticed any difference, but you will be splitting them and I haven't tried that. At least for me, if I had to do it over I would have gotten a different board although this board has worked great with Unraid.

 

As for the power supply I also haven't had any experience with that brand, but most reviews are from 2015 and before. They are an OEM and provide units to companies such as Antec, EVGA, and Be Quiet.

 

I would do some research here, 

as I wouldn't want to test my server with a power supply I wasn't confident in.

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3 hours ago, burtjr said:

Bonding has been fickle for me, I would do some research as some modes require hardware (router/switch) to support while others do not. I have not noticed any difference, but you will be splitting them and I haven't tried that. At least for me, if I had to do it over I would have gotten a different board although this board has worked great with Unraid.

 

As for the power supply I also haven't had any experience with that brand, but most reviews are from 2015 and before. They are an OEM and provide units to companies such as Antec, EVGA, and Be Quiet.

 

I would do some research here, 

as I wouldn't want to test my server with a power supply I wasn't confident in.

 

Ya, this definitely isn't a testbed system. After reading through that thread and scouring some more Newegg, I've found the CORSAIR SF Series SF450 450W that has good reviews and should cover my needs. I calculate from the PSU thread that the 7 HD's my case can hold * 36 watts each = 252; add in another 60 for the Mobo and I'm at 312. Leaving me with a good 125W+ of leeway. And that's after I max out the case, which probably won't happen for several years.

 

Since the case I've picked takes standard ATX sized PSU's (but fit very tight), I also threw in an adapter to make sure the SF450 fits.

 

I also dropped down to the 2 ethernet port model of the Motherboard. Bonding I guess sounds cooler in theory than it works in reality. But I really like that Mobo.

 

Will I need something like Arctic Silver for the CPU? And is there anything else I will need to build a system? Assume I have nothing but a screwdriver.

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On 5/10/2017 at 10:36 AM, tdallen said:

If you get a retail boxed CPU with an included stock cooler, it will have thermal paste applied.  But if your packaging doesn't have a cooler you'll need one.  Some coolers come with thermal paste (Noctua), some don't.

 

Sweet. The package says it comes with a heatsink and a fan. So I should be good there.

 

And it looks like I'll be ordering everything in the morning. Thanks everyone!

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Everything arrived and I started to put it together. But the case and the motherboard do not mix. The CPU/heatsink and the RAM collide with the HD tray. And by a lot. There is no way that I can figure out how to get these to fit. So any good recommendations for a case?

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Everything arrived and I started to put it together. But the case and the motherboard do not mix. The CPU/heatsink and the RAM collide with the HD tray. And by a lot. There is no way that I can figure out how to get these to fit. So any good recommendations for a case?


Plug in the parts to pcpartpicker if possible. That might help but I wish they'd improve for having more server options.
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10 hours ago, Doberbane said:

Everything arrived and I started to put it together. But the case and the motherboard do not mix. The CPU/heatsink and the RAM collide with the HD tray. And by a lot. There is no way that I can figure out how to get these to fit. So any good recommendations for a case?

 

I used this Lian Li case, love it. >>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112524

 

Here is the build list if you want to see>>> https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Qtrmeg/saved/dYJFf7

Edited by Qtrmeg
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I wish I'd known about pcpartpicker.com before! At this point I think I'm going with the Fractal Design Define R5 Titanium. I learned that the motherboard I picked is "Micro ATX" and the case I had originally ordered was "Mini ITX". I missed that in my design and those are two different sizes. So that was my mistake. Once my refund goes through I'll order the new case - whichever one I decide on by then.

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I'm loving my new server! It is fast and the unRAID transitions from one computer to the next so well. I just had to connect all the components and turn the computer on. The mobo has simple VGA capabilities, so I didn't need to use my old GPU. I've repurposed that for a Windows VM (a big shoutout to @gridrunner for his great tutorial). The GPU gave me few fits, but once I changed the BIOS settings on the card and the mobo to EFI everything works pretty well. The only problem with my old GeForce 8400 is that after I shut down the VM, I have to restart the whole server to get the GPU to work again. I'm assuming that a newer card won't have the problem.

I also followed this tutorial and got a USB card passed to my Windows VM and it works great. Now with all this VM goodness I can have my server hooked up to my theater room and play some great games on the big screen! And it'll be even better once I save up and get a new GPU. I'm thinking a GTX 1050 Ti would be the best bang for the buck since I'll be maxing out at 1080p with the projector I have in my theater room.

 

As far as specs go, I've watched the electrical load on my UPS (which now works over USB with my server - previously I couldn't get the two to talk to each other) before and after the changes. I have my whole network (Unifi USG, AP, and switch, cable modem, unRAID) on the UPS and so I don't have exact numbers for just the server, but I think it idles around 24-28 watts (The total of everything idle is 84 watts). And everything is so much faster. The 960 Pro is amazing and I'm loving having a cache drive - copying files to the server is lightning fast now.

 

Also, here are some pics of the process as I transferred drives and built the new box, and what it all looks like now. There is plenty of expansion room with this setup. My next upgrade is to get a 2nd parity drive.

 

Thanks again everybody and I hope this post helps someone else building something similar.

 

IMG_0233.thumb.jpg.3c90b5d335ac13b9cf140d098ce7e677.jpgIMG_0469.thumb.jpg.9b2b1b890006cc16f71e2973880709db.jpgIMG_0490.thumb.jpg.062a0bffa5fa09f5292d9dd08e367295.jpg

 

Edited by Doberbane
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