Ok ive Picked a couple CPUs that look interesting let me know what you think:
Xeon E3-1245 v3
Xeon E3-1246 v3
Xeon E3-1275 V3
Xeon E3-1245 v3
Xeon E3-1246 v3
Xeon E3-1275 V3
NAS and Plex server build help
- Thread starter Marcus Karozis
- Start date
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- Tags
- build build help diy nas plex transcoding
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You *can* absolutely run freenas in a VM, run emby/plex in a VM and then your other VMs... My current AIO is absolutely doing that with HBA and NVME pass through to freenas and GPU pass through to emby.
However given the questions you're asking I'd recommend against freenas in a VM and plex in a VM - unless part of this project is as much about learning as the end result... I mean no offense by that. If the end result is what you are about and then learning about things - unraid is probably a good choice with containers and such.
Personally I view the NAS and plex/emby as production at home so yeah I'd say spring for the ECC.
You seem settled on new hardware... Are you? I think you can find the droids you are looking for a relatively reasonable priced new to you hardware if you considered used hardware. SuperMicro X9, or even X10, but X9 with DDR3 ECC is at a really good price point.
Please don't buy cheap SATA cards. please don't. LSI HBA's are so plentiful and cheap on ebay and especially for spinning disks SATA or SAS they work so well and OS support is so well baked in.
However given the questions you're asking I'd recommend against freenas in a VM and plex in a VM - unless part of this project is as much about learning as the end result... I mean no offense by that. If the end result is what you are about and then learning about things - unraid is probably a good choice with containers and such.
Personally I view the NAS and plex/emby as production at home so yeah I'd say spring for the ECC.
You seem settled on new hardware... Are you? I think you can find the droids you are looking for a relatively reasonable priced new to you hardware if you considered used hardware. SuperMicro X9, or even X10, but X9 with DDR3 ECC is at a really good price point.
Please don't buy cheap SATA cards. please don't. LSI HBA's are so plentiful and cheap on ebay and especially for spinning disks SATA or SAS they work so well and OS support is so well baked in.
Yea after reading all these replies im leaning towwards unraid, i only chose it to start out because it was free, but if unraid is a better option and getting a licence is that expencive ill probs get it.
im pretty settled on this case so buying prebuilt used on ebay is not really an option unless it is already in this case and considering im in australia the used market is thaaat great here. that being said im looking at a couple used parts individually on ebay that are looking pretty promising so im not locked into new parts.
the raid controller i have been looking at if i do decide to go hardware raid is MagaRaid SAS 9260-4i which looks like a pretty good option
open to feedback
pros
fast clock speed
max power < 100w
can be had used
cons
low thread count, 4 cores, 8 threads,
low memory at 32GB
Am pretty sure its also unbuffered memory only so for ECC expect to pay a premium. Maybe $100-$120 for 32GB?
low number of pcie lanes @ 16
if looking used, take a gander at E5-2650v2 on the intel side (someone else can chime in on used AMD)
8c, 16T or an E5-2670v2 though it peaks over 100W, either way, more 40 pcie lanes, 256GB+ memory (depending on motherboard), dual proc boards available (lower core count but 2 cpus = more effective threads and even more lanes) ECC Registered - expect to pay $20 per 16GB ECC so 64GB = $80.00.
You can also look at E5-26xxV3 but that will most likely put you in the realm of DDR4 unless you can find an E5-26xxV3 server motherboard that accepts DDR3 (and they are out there). DDR4 seems to be running not quite 2X price of DDR3 though it is coming down in price.
more memory makes virtualization and "running more stuff" much happier
more effective threads makes virtualization and running more stuff much happier
if you decide to toss a GPU in the box then more lanes is a happier thing, 'cause you'll eventually want all the toys: nvme drives (cache and/or VM's), a good HBA, GPU or two if you do Plex *and* desktop VM etc. etc.
give yourself some room to grow into your new server, the more you learn the more you'll want to fire up new things... headroom is a good thing!
If you care about your data yes. If jts easily replaceable than its just a preference. RDIMMs tend to be cheaper than UDIMMs anyway.
Thanks for all this info it has really been helpful ill look into those E5 v2 cpus
E5 v2 is a great value but no iGPU so youd have to use an Nvidia GPU. If you are going to pick an E3 I'd go for a more recent one so younger a recent iGPU. The older ones dont support HEVC.
im looking at a SUPERMICRO X9DRI-F paired up with a couple E5V2s but i cant find that motherboard in australia, are there any similar ones that are more commonly found?
also is there any specific ecc memory worth looking at or will anything do
also is there any specific ecc memory worth looking at or will anything do
How do I get more than 2 1080p transcodes on my GTX1050? My plex server is currently a ubuntu docker, and the files are serve as an NFS share on a Napp It server. I have a spare gtx1050 and hoping to use that to help transcode 1080 streams
Just for posterity I thought I'd post the part list that I ended up going with, thanks again for everyones advice 
System Builder
This build leave room for me to buy a graphics card and/or other expansion cards in the future.
System Builder
This build leave room for me to buy a graphics card and/or other expansion cards in the future.
Did you buy all of your components new or some used?Just for posterity I thought I'd post the part list that I ended up going with, thanks again for everyones advice
System Builder
This build leave room for me to buy a graphics card and/or other expansion cards in the future.
Motherboard, CPUs ram and psu were bought used off ebay... The links are included in the part list
Should work on any system. Definitely will work on any linux OS. I also run Plex in a docker on Linux.