this is my first time building a dedicated home media server + file storage. i want to use it mainly for my jellyfin library at home, but also for friends and family streaming. i do not have 4k content (probably never will) and i’d like my build to support 10 simultaneous streams at least.
Until now i had a single 20tb hdd with all my media inside my work pc. My goal now is to have 60TB of usable storage with 2 parity disks and my budget is around 2500euros (ofcourse the cheaper the better). Here is a list of components i have gathered so far,
PCPartPicker Part List:
CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($215.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i-17xx chromax.black 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME H610I-PLUS D4-CSM Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard ($112.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($177.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 250 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($87.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 14 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($274.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Jonsbo N3 Mini ITX Desktop Case ($161.00 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair SF750 (2018) 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black.swap 60.09 CFM 120 mm Fan ($37.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.black.swap 60.09 CFM 120 mm Fan ($37.95 @ Amazon)
UPS: APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 UPS ($311.99 @ Amazon)
i would appreciate any comments, especially since i cant find the right mobo and psu to support all these hdds
If you are only planning to use 6x HDDs, you can consider N4 as well. It’s usually cheaper than N3 and also supports mATX boards. I didn’t touch N4 in vivo, though.
The CPUs with UHD 770 would be better for transcoding. My 13400 with the same UHD 730 can barely transcode (~1.2x) high bitrate AV1. It is a lot better with HEVC (~4.5x). Depending on your media library format and the number of simultaneous watchers, it can be enough or not.
You do you, but all those seem like an overkill to me (OTOH, you already have the PSU). Especially the fans. I don’t really understand why you even need them. I mean, the CPU has a 65W tdp and can be cooled by almost anything. I personally use cheap tower coolers with 90mm fans for my 13400 and 12400.
Regarding the UPS, if you plan to use it only for the NAS – it’s for sure too powerful (and thus is too expensive).
You don’t need fast memory for a NAS (because your network will always be slower). I assume it can help with transcoding, but not sure about that.
Also, it’s recommended by truenas veterans to not use overclocked memory (as OC may cause additional errors). And if you already ditched the idea of ECC memory, you can consider DDR5 instead (you would need a mobo with DDR5 as well). It has on-die ECC – better than no ECC at all.
very helpful comments! thanks! makes it easier for me to rethink my priorities
i will stick with N3 because of its dimensions, as i want it to fit in a specific spot in my house. Also i will probably use the extra two hdds for backup or future expansion. N4 is on the large side for my needs (although i really like the design).
super useful comment. i will definitely upgrade the cpu.
question : how safe are those aliexpress mobo cpu combos? the specs and prices look great but i dont know if the quality is actually great and also whether you get what you buy. They seem too good to be true is what i’m trying to say.
like this one : ERYING Mini ITX Kit i9 12900HK CPU Motherboard Combo (cant post links here?)
not sure if it supports ecc memory. or if it plays well with truenas. for some reason they mention towards the bottom that they suggest installing windows 11.
can i trust this? 2 birds with one stone would be ideal as it solves my main issues.
PSU and UPS are overkill. completely agree on that. i will downgrade those. But regarding the fans i really want this to be as silent as possible, as it will be sitting in my living room which is a pretty small space next to my tv. (my cats would love a small size heater :P). So apart from the cooler i thought about replacing the existing fans.
yes i read that somewhere, more ram –> better transcoding.
You would be able to post links with a higher trust level. You can browse other topics or complete tutorial from the bot.
I can be wrong, but laptop cpus usually don’t support ECC.
Regarding the trust… getting a warranty is almost non-existent on ali.
Yeah, they are not silent, nor do they do a good job in cooling beefy drives (it’s a fail of the case, though). But your size pick is wrong. They are 92mm, not 120 – Reddit - The heart of the internet.
Where would you install the app(s), e.g. Jellyfin ? You cannot install anything on the boot OS drive. So the 1 TB drive is wasted. Get the smallest and cheapest you can find for the OS.
Installing Jellyfin on the HDD pool, will result in a less than stellar experience. Since Jellyfin (and also apps like immich etc) produce lots of small files.
Stay away from any “PCI to SATA” cards, that are not HBAs. These cheaply made cards often lead to problems, and data loss (!!), because they often use cheap components and port multipliers.
IMO for a 72 TB array, RAIDZ1 is risky business. Rebuilding a 72TB Pool after a drive died, will take a good while and your data will be non-redundant during that long and stressful time.
Combine that with that SATA card you chose, and the risk is very high for another drive to die or for the card to corrupt your pool. Then you have to downl^H^H^H^H^H sorry rip all you movies again !
Personally i would look for a case that takes a micro ATX board
8x SATA for your HDDs
10G ethernet on board !
IPMI/BMC for remote management (thank me later!)
m.2 for boot device
CPU
Xeon E-2246G (iGPU)
HBA for additional 2x SSD for apps, or put the 8x HDDs on this and use 2x SATA from the board.
RAM (bad time now !)
DDR4 ECC UDIMM
There you have a datacenter in a box !
I think 10 streams will be possible with that - but of course NOT 10 transcodes.
oh!! why not? didn’t know this, but i can have a second SSD i guess for all apps? i thought i just install truenas and then apps inside the OS, just like with all other OS.
which RAID type do you recommend for 6 x 16tb hdds - 96tb?
i could switch to n4 or n6. just looking for something small and quiet to have in my living room
6 wide raidz2 should be fine. But remember, raid is not a backup.
Truenas doesnt allow anything installed on the OS drive, and partitioning is not officially supported.
The reasoning behind this is, that the OS and data is always seperate from each other. When the boot drive fails, simply replace it, reinstall, and import the config file and the data pool.
Its literally a matter of minutes.
Skip the shenanigans, A 16 GB Intel Optane m2 drive is enough, 32 or 64 GB are also available, and are very reliable, available, and inexpensive. 1 TB for apps is overkill. I run Plex Media Server and full *arr stack with only 10% space used on a 2x mirror 200 GB SAS SSDs. Apps are tiny, but made up of many small files. Seperating those small files from the main storage pool is very beneficial.
regarding this cpu. how does it compare to the Intel Core i5-13500 | UHD 770 iGPU? a bit skeptical if it can manage all 10+ users streaming 1080p at the same time, while handling cloud storage drives. Although the price along with the mobo is pretty good
I have limited experience with Jellyfin, it does suffice for Plex. Currently the apps pool is at 10% usage for a bit over 20 TB of media, so 60 TB should expand that usage to 30%. I use a 3rd pool/dataset for working directories for sabnzbd and qbittorrent. (download, unpacking, seedbox etc…)
The Xeon E-22XX are basically 9th gen Core CPUs with official ECC support.
The above mentioned board also accepts Core CPUs. Some use a i3-9100 that also can use ECC memory.
Assuming no transcoding, streaming is very light on the CPU.
My lowly Xeon D-1521 streams 2 streams with < 5% CPU usage and has no problem saturating a 10G line.
However I never actually ran any tests with 10 streams on an Xeon E.
Where I see potential problems is lack of IOPS when users start to rewind or seek, thats not the forte of HDDs and RAIDZx.
Transcoding requirements are determined by the target, not the server. If the target device is capable of delivering 1080p content, there is no need for the server to transcode 1080p content to 1080p. It is directly streamed. If the content is 2160p, and the device is only capable of 1080p, then the server will have to transcode to 1080p for the target. Since most devices are capable of 1080p, this is more reliant on network capabilities than that of the GPU/CPU.
For your use case, IMHO, the Core i5 chip would be the more efficient because of the lower TDP, but the Xeon should perform well enough albeit less efficiently.
Edit: Out of curiousity I just fired up 4 streams on my network, the E5-2690 v3 barely registered a blip, and the lowly P400 GPU saw little difference between 1 or 4 streams. GPU memory usage did increase. Network saturation with 4 streams was about 30mbps steady. “Says the guy with the system that idles at 300 watts.”
thank you all for precious comments. so here is the update:
i went for a more server mobo, but wanted to keep the i5.
changed from N3 to Jonsbo N6 to fit mobo.(Still fits in my living room)
regarding the boot drive a feel safer with a 2.5 SSD in the 9th bay (1-6 media hdds, 7-8 cloud storage hdds), also mobo has only one M2 slot so better to use it for the apps i think.
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