Can anyone spec me a server/NAS setup??

[StevieP]

I'm thinking of replacing my Synology with a server to run either Xpenology, unRaid, OMV (or similar) to act as my NAS and also a Plex server and possibly some VM's (although I'm going to have to do some research on this side of things first!)

I've been looking for a 2nd hand Microserver but from what I've read the stock CPU isn't up to much in terms of streaming through Plex and the ones with an upgraded CPU seem quite expensive!

Is there a better/cheaper way to build a capable server that can handle my requirements??

Thanks for any tips....

 

[Sparky__H]

I Currently have a 216J + 2 x 4TB REDs

I'm looking to move to the following before Christmass:

HP Microserver (HPE sku) - £123
i3-3240t - £50
4GB Ram - £30-40

So that's around £200 for:

CPU 2.9GHz (2c4t)
8GB Ram
Duel GB NIC
4-5 Drive capacity.

Note: 3240t does not support vt-d so no hardware pass through but meh.. If you start getting heavy into virtualisation you can get a better CPU later.

 

[StevieP]

So you'd say it's best to start with the Microserver and upgrade the CPU/RAM as opposed to building a rig from scratch?

 

[Sparky__H]

So you'd say it's best to start with the Microserver and upgrade the CPU/RAM as opposed to building a rig from scratch?

Nope! Spec each and decide what's best for you.

My decision was based on the cost of buying: MITX Board (If you can find one), PSU, CPU, RAM, Case (MITX that can hold 4 drives?) for < £200. Also the 3240t is a 35w cpu.

 

[HungryHippos]

What makes you want to leave the Synology?

I have one, and would definitely have to think long and hard about changing to something else.

I don't think I would touch Xpenology personally, updating would cause headaches, and with the Synology everything just works.

For Plex play back most things should support Direct Play, which means the CPU power isn't all that important. It won't transcode well but it shouldn't really need to.

If you need more power for transcoding, you could look at throwing something like a NUC in front of the Synology as a Plex server, keep the Synology for the storage/background apps?

 

[StevieP]

Don't get me wrong, the Synology ticks most of the boxes for me - but I just wanted something a bit zippier and that I could use for other things!

The problem is that Plex is simply not supported on my Synology at all anymore (unless there is a way to get it installed through DSM somehow??) - when I try to install it, it tells me it's not compatible!
That's why I am leaning towards Xpenpology, the same DSM UI without the drawbacks that my NAS presents me with!

I've got a NUC that I use for Kodi (OpenElec) but I'd rather leave that well enough alone to be honest as I've got it set up and looking exactly how I want it!

 

[HungryHippos]

You could look at Docker for Plex on the Synology, assuming your model supports Docker?

I have Sonarr/Radarr/Sab running in Dockers at the moment.

Is there much point using Kodi/Openelec over a good centralised Plex instance? you can run the clients on lower powered things like Raspberry Pi's reasonably cheaply, the CPU on the NUC if it's any good would be better for the Plex server potentially.

 

[StevieP]

Never thought of even checking to see if Docker would run on my NAS.........aaaaannnnddd it won't! (from what I've read you need an Intel CPU whereas I think the DS213 has an "ARM" CPU)

I realise I could re-task the NUC to serve as the Plex server - although its only an i3-3217U which gives a benchmark score of 2298 - which I believe would only suffice for a single 1080 stream??? Either way I like OpenElec/Kodi for my main media needs around the house - Plex appeals mostly for the remote access to be honest!

 

[Avalon]

Never thought of even checking to see if Docker would run on my NAS.........aaaaannnnddd it won't! (from what I've read you need an Intel CPU whereas I think the DS213 has an "ARM" CPU)

I realise I could re-task the NUC to serve as the Plex server - although its only an i3-3217U which gives a benchmark score of 2298 - which I believe would only suffice for a single 1080 stream??? Either way I like OpenElec/Kodi for my main media needs around the house - Plex appeals mostly for the remote access to be honest!

You need to work out if your clients need a full AV transcode, an audio remux, or direct play. That NUC could easily handle several clients using direct play, probably as many as your NAS can stream, it'll also handle several using direct play for video but requiring audio remuxing and one fully transcoded audio/video stream. Basically if your clients can use direct play, your NUC will be fine, if you genuinely need to do full transcodes and especially to multiple clients at the same time, then use something else. I ran Plex on a NUC in front of my unraid boxes for the same reason.

 

[HungryHippos]

Most clients should support direct play for most things, exception apparently being my LG TV only does direct stream at the moment for some reason.

My Raspberry PI and Xbox One S both seem to Direct Play just fine though.

Unless you're using additional functionality on OpenElec/KODI then Plex should work just as well, and coming from KODI at least I preferred Plex as it seemed to be better at remembering where I was up to when I was watching stuff.

Remote access will probably always have to Transcode though, so CPU power may be more relevant there. I know people who share their Plex libraries with other people, but it seems to just mean hassle in my books, and wastes your upload bandwidth/internet a bit.

 

[Avalon]

*Hypothetically* if your clients support direct play and you have sufficient bandwidth and disk IO, then you can support hundreds of clients, 3mbit for a remote stream goes a long way and invariably those selling Plex as a service tend to run them from multiple VPS' or better yet dedicated colo, that's a very different kind of set-up to your average user doing a re-share to friends/family.

 

[neodude]

I replaced my Synology NAS about a year ago with an UnRaid rig. It does everything I need and more. Not the cheapest but it was totally worth the initial outlay, not sure if they're still available but you can get a matched pair of Xeon E5-2670s on the bay for a fraction of their RRP, and you don't need to go quite as extravagant as I did.

 

[Avalon]

I replaced my Synology NAS about a year ago with an UnRaid rig. It does everything I need and more. Not the cheapest but it was totally worth the initial outlay, not sure if they're still available but you can get a matched pair of Xeon E5-2670s on the bay for a fraction of their RRP, and you don't need to go quite as extravagant as I did.

True, but this is one of my pet hates with unraid builds, they tend to suffer major spec creep. What starts out as a NAS and needs a low end efficient CPU can easily turn into a 6c/12t dual Xeon that guzzles power, heats a house and sounds like a jet engine for no reason other than the up-front cost was low and someone decides they may want to transcode on Plex and it's easier to store content in inappropriate formats than actually deal with the real issue of media being in a suitable format for the client. Or perhaps it's just the type of people i know

I type this looking at a 'cheap' R1700 (a mere 8c/16t at 4Ghz) that's already run to four figures and plans to spend more that will be my 5th Unraid box - it'll replace at least 3 of the others, hopefully all 4. Think carefully about what you want/need before going Unraid and remember power/heat will be your biggest ongoing cost over a systems lifetime, old Xeon's are not efficient in this respect and 24/7 it can make more sense to go with a more modern set-up over a longer period.

That said I'd take Unraid every single day over DSM.

 

[SoundsGood]

Dell PowerEdge T30 Intel Xeon E3-1225v5 3.3GHz 8GB 1TB DVD-RW Tower Server 30-0265

£310 after cashback

 

[crgnclsn]

Sorry if this is hijacking but I'm basically in the same position as StevieP and Sparky H. I've been doing some reading and I'm probably going to go for a setup something like Sparky's:

CPU 2.9GHz (2c4t)
8GB Ram
Duel GB NIC
4-5 Drive capacity.

However, on the FreeNAS website it recommends a baseline of 4GB RAM and then 1GB more for every terabyte of storage due to the file system's requirements. Is this something I should be paying heed to? I have an 8TB and a 6TB drive at the moment so splashing for 16GB or 24GB of RAM is a big cost increase for me if it's unnecessary!

 

[Sparky__H]

I thought the 1GB=1TB rule is only business grade use? loads of users shoving in 4x4TB disks with 16GB ram on the Gen8.

I don't use ZFS but I think RAM requirements depends on disk r/w events right?

 

[AmateurExpert]

However, on the FreeNAS website it recommends a baseline of 4GB RAM and then 1GB more for every terabyte of storage due to the file system's requirements. Is this something I should be paying heed to? I have an 8TB and a 6TB drive at the moment so splashing for 16GB or 24GB of RAM is a big cost increase for me if it's unnecessary!

You don't have to; it's just a rough rule of thumb for sizing the ARC (cache) for ZFS and should be tailored to your specific use case(s). If you are just using it at home and don't expect to have many concurrent users/applications, or you don't have any applications that are particularly sensitive to throughput, then you will get enough performance without a large RAM cache. I'd say 8GB should be fine unless you want to run other memory-hungry applications on the server. I've used 8GB system RAM before for my home ZFS server without performance problems.

 

[hyperseven]

what about a used enterprise Dell R710 off the bay, dual Xeon, oodles of RAM, quad nic, idrac, 6 bay SAS/SATA, redundant PSUs

might not be that loud out of a chassis environment.

 

[AmateurExpert]

I don't use ZFS but I think RAM requirements depends on disk r/w events right?

RAM is used for the ARC which is a cache for reads, and of course you'll need more in order to get better performance for higher loads.

The write cache or SLOG is on-disk, but this is highly unlikely to be a bottleneck outside of enterprise scenarios, where it can be located on SSDs.