Hardware upgrade - not sure what to get

[julianhj]

I've been running Unraid on an HP Proliant Microserver (7th gen, N54L) for about 6-7 years. It's got an AMD Turion II Neo CPU, 4GB RAM and it's fairly anaemic. It's used primarily as a file and media server (including Plex). I'd like to update it, as it's pretty slow. I'd also like to move away from the small form factor so that I can add more drives and I'm after a system with low power draw at idle.

I was considering an Intel Core i3-10100 or an i5-10400, or possibly an AMD Ryzen 3 3200G or Ryzen 5 3400G.

Will systems based on the above CPUs draw considerably more power at idle, or is it more of a case of choosing other components carefully to maximise efficiency? I need to consider long-term running costs.

I may be expanding my horizons in the future, such as occasionally running VMs, so that's a factor I'm also considering.

Can anyone advise on a reasonable balance between decent power and high efficiency?

 

[julianhj]

Thanks for your detailed reply Avalon, in terms of your questions:
- I am a PlexPass subscriber and I may be transcoding in the future
- I've been considering the Node 804 case; I currently have an old PC (specs in sig) from which I could take some components if I run a Windows VM on the new system - the Coolermaster 690II would be fine as an alternative if I decide to sell my old CPU/MB/RAM
- I have quite a few 3TB drives at the moment ( I actually have a second N54L which is used as a backup stored at my parents' house); over time I intend to phase these out in favour of 8-14TB drives, depending on what offers best value. I've recently bought a 14TB WD external drive which I'm going to back everything up to (currently around 10TB of data), so I may decide to get rid of both N54Ls.
- I've budgeted for a couple of M.2 drives for cache
- As I'm considering replacing the i5-2500k system, a full VM is preferable. Day to day I use a Macbook Pro, so I don't often need a Windows box, but it's needed periodically for various things. I've run Parallels previously, but I'm expecting to upgrade to the next generation MBP when they're released later this year - I'm not sure whether Parallels will be a decent option on Apple architecture.
- I've found the N54L to be very frustrating recently for file transfer and access. I've gone through a bit of troubleshooting to see if it's a network or configuration issue, but it seems the main stumbling block is the processor, which appears to hit 100% load with any sort of usage.