First time poster here, just wanted to put out my plans for a new build. I am currently on a synology DS918+ using their software for PC backup, my own ‘cloud’ style file storage and Plex.
I am fed up with the DS918+ CPU power for Plex so looking at building my own server when I upgrade my gaming PC by way of selling of my old PC for parts and selling my DS918+ to cover the cost of a new server and after more than a year of YouTube videos and research have settled on TrueNas. I am looking at the following:
Case: IPC Storage 3U-3416 Server Case - 16 bay hot-swap
Mobo: Supermicro H11SSL-i
CPU: AMD EPYC 7282
RAM: 128GB of Samsung 2666MHz ECC
GPU for transcoding: Intel ARC Pro A40
Drives: Existing 4 x 16TB Ironwolf Pro, + 2 or 4 more depending on budget to increase storage for an initial vdev of 6 or 8.
OS drive would be a very cheap 2.5" SSD
Is there anyone out there with a similar setup, or the knowledge, to say how good this will be - more importantly I know from test scores that the base hardware is obviously much better than the Synology rig but is this a good setup for playing around in the future with VM’s and other things? is the Pro A40 good at transcoding?
Cost all in over in the UK including 2 extra drives is around £1,400 ($1,700), and affordability is based on being able to sell my Synology with some old smaller drives in it for a decent amount.
It’s a lovely CPU/Motherboard combo.
The CPU is a bit of a power hog for home use though, but it will do everything you want and more. If I remember correctly, they don’t go under 120w, so I think you have the “cheapest” one to run.
The ARC GPU’s have had good reviews for transcoding in Jellyfin. I haven’t investigated PLEX.
If your plans include lots of VM’s, you might want to load Proxmox, and set TrueNAS up as it’s own VM.
TrueNAS will do VM’s, but not as elegantly as Proxmox.
There are loads of YouTube videos on setting this up.
Thanks, that is useful info to know. I really need to look in to Proxmox and understand it a bit better.
That said, is it a bit overkill?
My current and soon to be old gaming PC is a 8700k and a 1080ti - should I be a bit more sensible, swap those components on to less of a gaming motherboard and just run them? Or even sell the 1080ti and just use the 8700k, at the end of the day it will still outperform the Synology NAS CPU for what I am currently using it for.
I could quite easily get a less gaming orientated board for the 8700K, just get one giant HBA card that could manage all 16 drives of the case I want and forgo the GPU completely and probably save myself some money in the process.
The main reason I had specced the machine above is that I do not have the spare money often to upgrade PC components and tend to do builds that can last several years, hence the EPYC/Arc pro combo suggested above.
