QNAP TVS 671 to unRAID

[ChrisDC5]

Hi all, I currently have the QNAP device in the title with 16GB RAM, two 512GB SSDs as caching devices and 4* 6TB WD reds as main storage. I was wanting to upgrade the i3-4150 to an i7-4790s as I've had some CPU bottleneck issues during transcoding, downloading etc however I've had some issues with the new CPU and have had to revert back to the i3. 

 

I have been tempted with unRAID for some time and with having some recent issues with QNAP I've started to look at options.

 

I've got my eye on the Gen 8 Microserver, 16GB RAM, a XEON E3-1230V2 and one SSD drive for cache.

 

Am I likely to notice any performance differences? I use Plex, NZBGet, Sonarr and Radarr mainly.

 

Any other hardware worth looking at? I don't mind getting my hands dirty, I do IT for a living.

 

 

[ashman70]

What are you future plans for growth? How many streams are you running on plex? The i7 actually has a slightly higher passmark then the Xeon. There are many options available to you, however it really depends on where you see yourself growing with unRAID. The Microservers are nice, but limiting in terms of physical drive space, however if you want to maintain that kind of footprint, they are excellent.

[ChrisDC5]

7 hours ago, ashman70 said:

What are you future plans for growth? How many streams are you running on plex? The i7 actually has a slightly higher passmark then the Xeon. There are many options available to you, however it really depends on where you see yourself growing with unRAID. The Microservers are nice, but limiting in terms of physical drive space, however if you want to maintain that kind of footprint, they are excellent.

Thanks for your reply. Typically there would be one stream to a FireTV or RasPlex, then sometimes one more to my iPad. What I found was that if NZBGet (ran in a container) was unpacking or verifying then the streams would stop eventually leading to no playback. So I capped the CPU usage to 15% and then 25%, but the unpacking would then take forever.

 

I'm currently at 10TB used out of ~16TB, but I do plan on getting a 4K TV and having some 4K content, so storage usage would go up as would CPU requirements.

 

My friend has a Dell T320 he doesn't use and has said I can buy for cheap. It has a Xeon E5-2420 (6C with HT) and 64GB RAM but the clockspeed is lower, plus with increased power consumption over my QNAP I wasn't sure if it would be a viable option. Then again I could return my QNAP and have a significant amount of money left over to cover the electricity.

 

I guess I would be happy with the QNAP with a working i7-4790s.

 

Current uses:

Plex server

NZBGet (container)

Sonarr (container)

Radarr (container)

TimeMachine backup

Music backup

Music and config sync to OneDrive

 

I occasionally throw up a VM lab, in fact I'm doing some consultancy coming up in a few months and may require the ability to run 4-6 2012 R2/2016 VMs.

[ashman70]

Then I think you want to be looking at a server to replace the Qnap. A T320 is ok ( I have two of them, I also do IT) but not great. I would look for something with more expandability such as Supermicro chassis with dual CPU's. Not sure if you have room for a rack, or the tolerance for noise as they can be pretty loud but IMO they are the better choice. I have a 36 bay Supermicro chassis with an pair of six core older socket 1366 xeon's but it's more then enough for me, I also have 30 drives in it for a total of 116TB but that's just one of my four unRAID servers. I would consider returning the Qnap and putting the money towards something that has more CPU power and storage options. You can do the T320, you'll have to get it with a Perc H310 or something similar, and flash it to IT mode, but you'll be limited to 8 drives, maybe that will be enough for you. See if your buddy can throw in the caddies, and I wouldn't even consider it if it's not a dual CPU board.