Monster Unraid build, probably overkill, but hear me out

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Alitech

Member
Feb 14, 2020
30
1
8
Current setup
I have a very competent over-specced PC being seriously underused.

Ryzen 9 3950X
ROG-Strix X570 F-Gaming mobo
64GB DDR4
Asus NVidia 1080Ti
2TB PCI gen 4 NVME
Custom water block etc etc with 3 radiators sitting inside PHANTEKS PH-ES518XTG_DBK01
1200w Revolt X Platinum PSU

Within the same case, a second i5 PC with 8GB RAM, currently unused.

I use this for every day work including running my business, video file edits and production, photo editing, emails, instant messaging etc etc etc, i use it all day long, but mostly for menial tasks. I game now and then but its rare.

Unraid:
I am currently maxing out my D1541 Asrock mobo with all the stuff running below. This is not ideal and the temps are not great. It is always uncomfortably over 80C and Ram usage in the 70% mark. Obvs, I have some heavy use of VMs in there. Specifically the Blue Iris box which requires speed and grunt but is struggline because of the clock speeds.

Hardware:
ASRock D1541D4U-2T8R
32GB DDR4 non ecc
46TB Array + 8TB parity
1TB cache NVME
256GB secondary NVME of OS passthrough
4TB surveillance HDD
Spare 6TB unmounted
QUADRO P600 which is just inside doing nothing as I dont know how to use it properly yet for plex
Intel Quad 1GBe Nic card to pass through dedicated lan for the 3 VMs
650w PSU

Running:
1 VM for Blue Iris
1 VM for Torrents
1 VM for backing up stuff to Google drive and Amazon drive
1 Plex Docker always on
1 CrashplanPro docker always on
All other backups home videos and photos and software and work files etc

Additionally, I have a 2bay synology that is just mostly used for the automatic photo backup from mobile phones and a secondary copy of photos and videos

Another i5 mini itx for PFsense

Current everyday rig and unraid connected with 10GB SFP+ with a 48 Port POE Brocade switch

I digress, let me get to my questions.

I am thinking of using all my current hardware from my main rig (apart from the 1080 Ti) for Unraid and getting rid of all the hardware that Unraid currently uses (keep the Quadro P600 and HDDS)

Question 1:

Any recommendations for cases I could use to make use of the full ATX and the watercooling components along with 10 HDDs? I saw the Silverstone CS380 case that could fit the bill, but I need to use it in horizontal position as I dont have space for a stand up tower. Any other suggestions? I understand I am trying to cram in quite a lot in a case, but I have all of this stuff already I just need to make it work. Watercooling should deal with the notorious heating issues of the 3950x

I will need to buy an additional HBA card to connect all the disks in there, apart from that, all the disks, USB stick and Quadro will move into this new case.

The following items will then become redundant from the old Unraid box

ASRock D1541D4U-2T8R
32GB DDR4 non ecc
Fractal Node 804 case
650w PSU


Question 2:

I will create a new SFF PC for everyday use. Thinking about going for a 3700x on a Mini ITX mobo with 2 NVME slots and then plonk in the 1080Ti in there along with the 2TB NVME and the 32GB from the unraid box. I would like to go the NCASE M1. The only problem I have is trying to get a 10GB SFP+ nic in there as I wont have a space PCI slot.

I am not good at PCI lanes and I need to brush up on that knowledge, but I think there is something we can do about the 2nd NVME drive bifurcation thing so that we can use that for the 10GB SFP+ nic. Question is, what Mobo is out there that would be best for the 3700x along for this requirement.

I know this is a long post so please forgive, I just thought I should put my thoughts in writing to see if it made sense to you experts.
 

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