NAS will only be used for storage (no PLEX, no apps or VMs)
TUF GAMING B560M-PLUS WIFI｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global
I'd rather pay a bit more and get the ASUS rather than the below (which is the cheapest):
H510M DS2V (rev. 1.0/1.2/1.5) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global
Some of the cost difference is because the Asus board has a "mainstream" chipset and more features (better sound, more USB ports, etc.) while the Gigabyte is meant to be an "economy" model. For your purposes though, some of those extra features that add cost (like higher quality sound, extra/faster USB ports, etc.) aren't going to be of use to you. So long as the build quality is acceptable, an economy model will probably work fine for your needs.
haven't bought any parts yet. Still researching for now.
Will use SSD m.2 or NVME for cache. And 4 x 8GB SATA HDDs for storage.
4 core CPU probably more than enough for my use case
1 x 8GB ram also probably more than enough?
Strongly prefer buying new parts rather than used.
If you're running a cache, SSDs are a place you won't want to skimp. Even with Unraid, there will be a lot of writing on the cache, so make sure you get something with good endurance. For RAM, 8GB will work. Unraid's file system doesn't use RAM in the same way as file systems like ZFS do, so quantity isn't as critical.
Prices of motherboards with ECC on pcpartpicker (Australia) are very expensive. Seems like overkill for my use case. ECC seems like enterprise grade parts for proper servers. I would only be using my NAS to store videos.
Yeah, new ECC capable gear, especially unbuffered ECC itself, is expensive. There's folks here, me included, that make use of used enterprise, hence (hopefully!) durable, gear that uses Registered ECC (RDIMMs), which are relatively inexpensive when used. ECC adds an extra measure of data security, but Unraid is designed for a more consumer less enterprise focus, so you won't have an issue running it on a system without it.
FWIW only I will be using my NAS for storage. No one else is on the network.
Also, I intend to keep it powered down when not in use, which is most of the time (over 20 hours per day I intend to keep it turned off)
When in use, I would be moving files from my desktop PC to the NAS build.
If your system is going to be off/idle for a lot of time, Unraid paired with SATA storage is actually a really good choice. Its supports drive spindown gracefully and you can even suspend/sleep with a little configuration (with a lot of hardware at least). LGA1200 systems draw almost no power when suspended. So, assuming your hardware combination supports it, you could set your NAS to auto-suspend after a period of inactivity and then wake when needed.
