Modernizing Multi-purpose Server

[Nemo128]

I've been bored and I also don't keep up on hardware anymore. Recently a 4TB drive was dying in my RAIDZ2 and I decided to just swap all the drives to 12TBs. I already did 2 from ServerPartDeals not too long ago and did another 6 from GoHardDrive. So now I've got that done and I'm at 8x12TB RAIDZ2. Here's the full build top to bottom.

Antec P101 Silent case
Supermicro X10SL7-F motherboard
Intel Xeon E3-1281 v3 (basically bought the highest single core performance CPU the mobo supported)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 12 heat sink and fan unit (bought specifically to fit the height of my old Supermicro chassis)
32GB DDR3 (bought from another member here and still chugging along!)
eVGA Gold 850W PSU
8x12TB HGST Ultrastar DC HC520

And now we're at this point... when working on the drive swaps, I noticed my CPU cooler's fan was not sounding completely healthy. Originally when I installed it, the back plate on the motherboard wasn't really removable and I thought I would break the board trying. I tested a lot of units and found that this one had bolts which happened to work with the Supermicro back plate. BUT, the bolts were slightly too long. I used tiny washers (a pair on each) to bolt the unit down. It's worked perfectly, no issue with mounting.

Now with the fan dying, I bought a few more units and found that none of them have mounting that works with the back plate. Of course, this led me down the rabbit hole of considering an upgrade for my computing base. I won't change the case or PSU. The case can fit basically any board so size shouldn't be an issue.

Now that I'm considering changing the motherboard/CPU/memory, I've been doing some research but really am not sure what I'd do. A few things I do know:

• It's mainly a Plex server for myself and my family. This is a must have.
• Some of them run old/weak crap that requires server-side transcoding and that's when I know the server hurts. Specifically transcoding 4k. I'm not that concerned about it, but it would be nice if I could transcode 1 or 2 4k streams simultaneously. This is a cost-conscious nice to have.
• It's also a storage server for home files. Basically a share available to a Windows 11 PC. This is a must.
• I would like to have it run a VM for my Windows based design work. I mainly use a work-provided Mac for the last 10 years but I jump on my desktop (now mainly my wife's work PC) to use Photoshop, Illustrator, Unity, Blender, and gaming (my experience trying to game in a VM has always sucked in all but the least demanding games). If I can do this on a VM on the box and I can run it smoothly through my Mac, that would be another cost-conscious nice to have.
• That cost-conscious number isn't set in stone. I'm pretty strictly looking to stay below $1000 all in unless there's some compelling reason to exceed it (for example, I can set up another desktop if I choose to, but if I can replace that fully/well by upgrading this box, I'd keep that in mind).

I currently run TrueNAS Core and have also been considering ditching it entirely. Since I doubt I can cleanly transition file systems (I don't have a storage solution to move existing content to), I plan to stick with ZFS and my RAIDZ2 array. I'm not opposed to changing it though if there's some way to store the content while I migrate file systems.

I'm considering TrueNAS Scale, unRAID, and Ubuntu Linux. I haven't considered Windows at all but some may think this is a good idea given my use cases and I'm open to hearing that if so. I know I'm way out of the loop on things so I'm mainly looking for ideas. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[jeeperforlife]

I'm a pretty big fan of AMD, but for a plex server I can't overstate how well Intel's quick sync works for transcoding. I upgraded my Plex server with a I9-12900K, 32GB DDR5, and a new motherboard for $400. It works so much better for transcoding not breaking a sweat with 5 or more 4K streams transcoding.

I really like unraid. But it has some downsides like a really slow main array. But, if you're on a 1Gb network that won't make much of a difference.

Another option is to pick up a video card and add it to your current server and use that for transcoding. It would take a ton of strain off the CPU.

 

[Tech Junky]

Intel's quick sync works for transcoding.

I added an A380 for that and it's better than the CPU in terms of processing files. Went with the sparkle version as it's low power and no cables.

 

[Nemo128]

I upgraded my Plex server with a I9-12900K, 32GB DDR5, and a new motherboard for $400.

That sounds awesome. I was convinced in the TrueNAS world I had to use ECC RAM, so I went this Supermicro/Xeon route.

 

[Nemo128]

Coming back to this topic, hardware transcoding is no longer supported in FreeBSD so I'm planning to move to Linux (TrueNAS Scale or Ubuntu). That said, I'm thinking picking up a card like the A380 to handle transcoding in Linux and keeping the rest is a fine solution. But I wouldn't mind more computing power.