New UNRaid homeserver, no idea where to start with hardware

PlanetGong · 14 Jul 2022 at 08:44

Hi

Thanks in advance for any help here, I am feeling a bit lost!

My 10+ year old HP Proliant Microserver has recently given up the ghost, so I am looking to build a new server. I was running Debian on it with docker containers. However, thinking of moving to UnRaid for the new build.

Main functions will be mediaserver (4k HDR videos), potentially with some transcoding and PiHole.

I've recently split with my partner so figured this could be a decent project to keep my mind busy.

I haven't built anything in over 10 years so am completely lost when it comes to hardware. I don't mind buying new rather than scouring 2nd hand, but would say max budget is £750 excluding drives - I need everything else. I'd like it to be as quiet and power efficient as possible. Can anyone spec me a build please?

Avalon · 14 Jul 2022 at 14:22

If you intend to transcode video, intel iGPU (8th gen or newer) is your best bet - either pay for a PlexPass/Emby Premiere or JellyFin, cheap and readily available. If not, then Ryzen gives a lot more bang for the buck, you can also chuck in a Quadro or modified drivers on a 10xx or newer GPU if you feel the need, but if just doing direct play then no big deal. How many drives do you anticipate? The Fractal Design Node 804 and Define R7 XL are nice choices depending on your form factor, a Supermicro rack mount kit is probably overkill, generally I prefer an HBA to add drives with in preference to worrying about SATA ports. Once you know drive count, you can work out form factor etc.

casper_uk · 15 Jul 2022 at 00:03

The 804 case is fantastic. Don't spend big bucks as unraid really doesn't need the latest and greatest. I went second hand for most of my parts. Went with the Ryzen in the end as it offered better value and performance. I direct play 4K remux files and it doesn't miss a beat. It hums away at 1-2% most of the time with a few dockers running in the background and direct playing a file.

Ryzen 7 3700X
B450M MORTAR MAX
32 GB RAM

benjii · 15 Jul 2022 at 12:04

My Unraid server is currently running:

i5-11400
ASrock H570 Phantom Gaming 4
32GB RAM
LSI SAS 9211-8i HBA
Seasonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550w
Fractal Design Define 7

The HBA adds an additional 8 drives and is easily found second hand on the bay. If you contact Seasonic support, they'll put you in touch with Sander Computer, their European supplier, who can ship additional sata power and data cables at a very reasonable cost.

I run Plex, some crypto stuff, torrent client, game servers, filesyncing services, CCTV and a few other random things on it. It runs like a champ.

Something worth noting, make sure you don't skimp on the NVME cache drive, get one with proper flash memory or you'll find when writing large files it'll bottom out when the flash memory fills. I'm using a WD Black SN750 1TB, they're a decent price, good flash and I've never seen it bottleneck. Even under 300-400GB sustained writes.

Street · 15 Jul 2022 at 12:18

benjii said:
My Unraid server is currently running:

i5-11400
ASrock H570 Phantom Gaming 4
32GB RAM
LSI SAS 9211-8i HBA
Seasonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550w
Fractal Design Define 7

That's a very similar set up to mine, just a bit newer!

Mine is:
Intel i5-9500
32GB RAM
WD 1TB Black NVMe
Asus Z390-H Gaming Board
LSI SAS 9207-8i HBA
Fractal Design Define R2 case
Seasonic PSU

Most of mine was bought second hand so didn't cost too much. I went for that board as it offered two NVMe slots while retaining the full 6 SATA ports however I later added the HBA (about £60 on eBay), so that is less critical now. The only new component was the WD SSD. I'd definitely go the Intel route over AMD for Plex and pay for a Plex Pass as having Quick Sync and being able to HW transcode is very handy sometimes.

benjii · 15 Jul 2022 at 12:30

Street said:
That's a very similar set up to mine, just a bit newer!

Mine is:
Intel i5-9500
32GB RAM
WD 1TB Black NVMe
Asus Z390-H Gaming Board
LSI SAS 9207-8i HBA
Fractal Design Define R2 case
Seasonic PSU

Most of mine was bought second hand so didn't cost too much. I went for that board as it offered two NVMe slots while retaining the full 6 SATA ports however I later added the HBA (about £60 on eBay), so that is less critical now. The only new component was the WD SSD. I'd definitely go the Intel route over AMD for Plex and pay for a Plex Pass as having Quick Sync and being able to HW transcode is very handy sometimes.

Yep, I completely agree regarding Quick Sync. As crypto has crashed and people aren't making bank on Chia anymore most of the HBAs are down to £30 odd now!

chroniclard · 15 Jul 2022 at 13:02

I run it and Plex on a Ryzen 2600, 32gb ram, load of random hard drives and 2x 500nvme for cache drive.

I don't think I do any transcoding though.

Also runs a load of other stuff without skipping a beat. Great piece of software.

PlanetGong · 18 Jul 2022 at 11:10

Thanks all for the replies, given me a good starting point!

Avalon · 18 Jul 2022 at 12:14

PlanetGong said:
Thanks all for the replies, given me a good starting point!

Until you establish what you want in terms of drives/chassis/form factor it’s just a bunch of people telling you what works for them. They may not have the same usage criteria you do, so that can be very different to what you actually want/need.

RobTi · 22 Aug 2022 at 20:18

chroniclard said:
I run it and Plex on a Ryzen 2600, 32gb ram, load of random hard drives and 2x 500nvme for cache drive.

I don't think I do any transcoding though.

Also runs a load of other stuff without skipping a beat. Great piece of software.

looking to use my old 2600 in my unraid setup, care to tell what mb you are using and is it ecc ram ?
Thanks

PlanetGong · 11 Sep 2022 at 16:18

Avalon said:
Until you establish what you want in terms of drives/chassis/form factor it’s just a bunch of people telling you what works for them. They may not have the same usage criteria you do, so that can be very different to what you actually want/need.

I'm pretty much setup hardware wise - does anyone have any USB drive recommendations?

I purchased a couple of Samsung Bar Plus 32gb and neither of them work (I actually can't install any OS using them so think they are dodgy)

chroniclard · 11 Sep 2022 at 16:26

RobTi said:
looking to use my old 2600 in my unraid setup, care to tell what mb you are using and is it ecc ram ?Thanks

Ah, missed this question at the time!

MAG X570 TOMAHAWK, bought because it had 2.5g Lan port and boards with 10g were too expensive at the time. Think it was £150.

Normal DDR4 RAM non ecc, think its 3200. Need to be careful with Ryzen + Unraid + ram, I have had issues in the past.

RobTi · 11 Sep 2022 at 17:30

PlanetGong said:
I'm pretty much setup hardware wise - does anyone have any USB drive recommendations?

I purchased a couple of Samsung Bar Plus 32gb and neither of them work (I actually can't install any OS using them so think they are dodgy)

Had loads of problems with trying the creator on many drives in the end i tried to do the manual instal on the usb, but I read that if it pauses with syncing files, leave it alone and rename the usb to “UNRAID” and it completes