Hello, I have technical skills and knowledge with building a PC but apparently things are a bit different in NAS (Mini ITX) world. I want to build myself a NAS, right now I have no archive, no data, no backup, so I will start from scratch. And I have Plex lifetime subscription.
I have 2 reasons to build a NAS 1-) Keeping my data safe (Raid is not backup of course) 2-) Using it as downloader / plex server / and other for other self hosted things like Pihole, vaultwarden etc.
My initial idea was having 4 disks to build a Raid, use 5th disk as plex archive (and download stuff on it as Plex doesn’t have to be part of raid) and use NVM/SSD disk for running containers (Or kubernetes instances on TrueNas). So I thought I can buy 8 bay case and fill 5 of it. And use it freely. Then I met with limitations of mini ITX boards and learnt about not having enough Sata ports and having to use converters to gain more SATA ports etc. etc. So my questions are
1-) Is it good idea to give up on 4 disk Raid idea and switch to 3 disk Raid array?
2-) I was planning to use AMD cpu but I learnt about transcoding hardware limitations. But I don’t know if I ever used transcoding. But I don’t want to miss out transcoding feature as I have lifetime Plex subscription.
3-) Is there a way to make it with having 5 disks? If I use Pci-E port for extra GPU then I believe I will have to use one of the NVme ports with a converter so I can add more Sata ports? Then does it mean I can only connect 1 NVMe? I am not sure if I need to have SSD also for OS boot.
4-) Or is it easier to use Intel CPU (thus leaving PCI-E port free from GPU) and use a converter on PCI-E port for gaining more SATA?
I am a bit lost with building a NAS but stubborn to not buy ready made system like Synology etc.
As of Electric Eel (24.10), k3s is no longer a thing.
Storage questions:
How much “essential” data (now and expected)?
What kind of redundancy/resilency is expected?
Why put Plex movies in a separate pool? (How much of this “less essential data”?)
Then we can discuss options and evaluate the number of drives.
At 3, you’re dumping raidz2 and forced into raidz1. Or 3-way mirror if 2 is the sought level of resiliency.
There are mini-ITX motherboards with 8 SATA ports, or even more. Where you’re cornering yourself is by throwing in transcoding, hence either a dGPU (Arc 310?) or an Intel iGPU.
So: Why mini-ITX?
Are there requirements or decisions (e.g. already bought hardware), you have not yet described?
This really is a major limitation. There are lots of great NAS/server motherboards. There are lots of great Mini-ITX motherboards. But there are few that are both–that form factor just doesn’t have the real estate to support that mission well. You can definitely build a NAS with a Mini-ITX board, but there will be trade-offs.
FWIW, the best (on paper; I haven’t used it) Mini-ITX board I’ve seen was mentioned by @Constantin in this thread (which has a bit of discussion of other options for a small-form-factor build): the ASRock X570D4I-2T.
Now, maybe it’s like few GBs? It’s mostly files like PDF. I could throw in some photos and make it a 1 TB at most.
About redundancy / resiliency, my “ideal” scenario is, keeping it in my PC (most risky), in a RAID and online in a cloud (encrypted).
My opinion was like, there is no reason to use RAID for plex movies or tv shows. If they are erased, wiped etc. I can simply redownload them. Getting them in array would be waste of space / time for mirroring.
My original plan was, buying 4x 12 TB WD Red Plus (they are expensive) and fill it over time. If I buy 8 TB disks today, and if I run out of space, then I will have to buy 4 new 12 TB disks to replace them and this will cost me extra money. Also on specs, 12 TB helium disks looked better than 8TB air filled disks (less noise, less heat etc.)
Just for size reasons, mini-ITX looked small and efficient. Classic PC cases are too big. I think the in between solution would be mini-ATX cases?
I only bought 14 TB HC530 manufacturer renewed drive, my plan was using it for Plex storage inside the NAS. But I can use it somewhere else (in my PC) for storage so it’s not a problem.
Apart from that, I didn’t buy anything.
So is it just better to build micro-ATX case to have more options?
“Better” is always a balancing act. You’ll definitely have more options for suitable motherboards, probably at lower cost, in micro-ATX than in mini-ITX. But if a very compact NAS is really important to you, that might outweigh the other factors.
Good point. I just need all in one solution (NAS, HTPC, self local hosted stuff). I will just throw the case (mini ITX or micro ATX) under the stairs so it won’t be around really. I am okay to go bit of overkill (like having 4x12 TB disks without having that much data) but money doesn’t grow on the tree either
1 TB by stretching it??? You can have this on SSD without breaking the bank; no need for 4*12 TB drives. That changes the calculation: You could have 2*2 TB SSDs (SATA or NVMe) for essential data and app pool, and a HDD pool for the movies. That’s potentially less ports, or different ports, and you could consider 3-4-wide raidz1 for the HDDs to still have some redundancy on the movies. (Downloading one movie anew is feasible, but the whole library would be a pain, wouldn’t it?)
Fill these drives with what, then? I understand that the movie collection fits in a single 14 TB drive, and the essential part is a rounding error on this.
There are much more options with micro-ATX if you want to go socketed. Mini-ITX server boards are mostly embedded: Soldered down low-power CPU, and no iGPU.
But mini-ITX looks feasible. Take a typical X10SDV board. One M.2, six SATA.
Cheap M.2 to boot. Two SATA SSDs for essential and Plex app. 3-4 HDDs for movies (+ extra copy of essential, even if a copy in the same case is maybe half a backup). And still the x16 slot for an Arc 310 to transcode. Should fit in a Jonsbo N1 (or whatever case you fancy).
Or a x8x4x4 riser to hold two more M.2 NVMe SSDs, all six SATA ports for HDDs and a half-height Arc 310 in a full-height slot. Perfect in a Fractal Design Node 304.
Thank you very much for some suggestions, I will take a look at them. And maybe I should be more realistic with what data I have vs how much storage I need.
Is the choice of X10SDV board, due to amount of SATA port options? As I will be buying Arc310, isn’t it an option to buy a similar board with AMD socket? (I checked some parts via pcpartpicker but that’s it)
Edit: I checked the pcpartpicker website and apparently anything that has 4+ SATA port is highty limited and no AMD support.
So probably I will either have to live with Intel CPU, or switch to ATX or find another way.
These are popular (though old) low power boards which make great NAS, and they have a x16 PCIe slot for your transcoding dGPU.
If you want the AMD equivalent, that would be a M11SDV. 4 SATA ports, though that might be enough, but also much more rare (and expensive) on the second-hand market, despite their lack of on-board 10G, which is common with the X10SDV.
If you want it socketed, you’re in trouble with mini-ITX; go micro-ATX.
