New Ryzen build for NAS+HTPC


xavi

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Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum but I've been reading for some time now, thanks to all of u guys for all the info you provide, very very helpful.

 

Currently I use a 213J Synology NAS, It has served his purpose, but it's really slow for what I want it for. I am planning to switch to an unraid system to do the following:

 

  • What is your budget?  600€-1000€
  • How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
  • At least 6 drive bays , but since I'm going ATX factor, 8bays would be nice to have. As capacity goes, I'm currently at 5TB and I'm coming up really short. I was aiming for 20TB to future proof this thing. As I already own HDDs, I could use those and switch later on.
  • Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?
  • Expandability is important, I want it to future proof it in terms of capacity and the possibility to run 1-2VMs for software development or similar (not there yet though).
  • Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons?
  • I'm planning to use the typical Sonarr, Radarr, Torrent, PLEX Server, iTunes Server, Git Repo, VPN Server and a sync/backup system for my 4 Pcs at home (any suggestions are appreciated, I'm currently using HyperBackUp from Synology and...meh).
  • Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives
  • I want it to be as power efficient as it can get, I have some WD reds, so I'm guessing low power drives should do, I'm guessing I wont have problems transcoding 1 4K stream and 1-2 more 1080p strems, right?
  • Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build?  
  • I currently have:
  • Drives: 2x 1TB WD Reds, 1x 4TB Seagate NAS, 2x 1TB Black
  • GPU: Nvidia GTX 960 Strix
  • Cooler: Kraken x41 and Scythe MUGEN Max

 

So, one thing I still have doubts about is to either use this machine strictly as a NAS, or take advantage of the power and use it as an HTPC for my projector set up that I use just once a week. I dont know if the extra management-cost etc that comes with a VMs just for an occasional use is worth it. (which would be the simplest way to set up an HTPC VM?) 

 

  • If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up.
  • As I have been reading that most of the Ryzen problems with UnRaid are solved so, I've been looking at this parts:
    • GPU: I'll use my 960 Strix as I dont need gaming performance
    • Cooler: either the Kraken or the Scythe work great, so I'm covered there. Also have some Noctua Fans laying around.
    • Ryzen 7 1700 or Ryzen 1600 ("low TDP for many cores)
    • Asus X370 PRO or MSI Pro Carbon x370
    • 2x 250GB Samsung EVO 960 Nvme, or just one in case of the Asus board as a cache drive. Question: do I need more than 250GB? How much cache do I need?
    • Fractal define R5 for the case, open to cheaper/better suggestions though.
    • 3x 8TB Wd Reds (and use one as parity) + the seagate 4TB and 2x 1TB Wd Reds that I already own. Do you suggest any better storage configs or HD models? I'm new to UnRaid so I'm still figuring out things.
    • 2x 16GB of 2133 or 2400 RAM that is in the QVL list of the board I pick, dont know which one, but I'm guessing speed is not much of an issue here

 

Well, sorry for my english, I'm from Spain so doing my best here and sorry for it being a long post! Thanks everyone for the feedback. Cheers.

Edited by xavi
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Hi -

 

I'll try to comment on the build later but I wanted to answer your question on cache.  How much do you need?  It depends on what you use it for.

 

The most important thing the cache drive does these days is act as the defacto "application" drive for Dockers.  Unless you have a huge Plex library or seed lots of torrents, 250GB is a good size for your cache drive (you'll probably use less).  The traditional use of the cache drive is to cache writes to the array for performance.  This is a feature, though - it isn't required.  I find that writes to the array are quite fast these days with modern hardware and I like the idea that my writes are immediately protected by parity, so I don't do any write-caching.  If you do, though, then you want the cache drive to be large enough to hold all the files between runs of "mover" - typically daily.

 

P.S. - Your English is great!

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Hi!

Thanks for your response. As I understand, if I am only using the cache drive for my "appplications" and, may be, the HTPC VM (still don't know if it's worth), with 250GB I'll be fine. Could I share the 250GB for the VM and the apps? Or i'll make more sense to just put another 120GB or 250GB pcie ssd for the VM?

 

Any feedback on the hardware would be great, thanks!

 

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9 hours ago, xavi said:

Could I share the 250GB for the VM and the apps? Or i'll make more sense to just put another 120GB or 250GB pcie ssd for the VM?

You can do it either way.  It's fine to locate the VM image on the cache drive but some folks move it to an unassigned device for better performance.

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May be I go for dual NVme 960 Evo in a PCi M.2 extender. Are there any compatibility issues with Unraid and assigning each M.2 to a VM?

 

Btw, are IronWolf drives better or worse than WD Reds? 8TB vs 2x4TB, is there a "better" option?

 

I've found a device (IR Trans) that can send a WakeOnLan message through the LAN (being triggered by an IR command) to start the VM acting as an HTPC, I'll give that a shot see how it works.

Thanks for the help

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