LIGISTX

HBA: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133485835643?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=OwHu05S9RzG&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=B1xTkXm_Qfe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY It comes with SAS to SATA adapters, and it’ll do 8 drives out of the box. If you ever need more, you can just buy a SAS expander. How many drives are you planning on needing?

This. I forgot to put that in my reply… Don’t even consider using a “cache” device with ZFS… there is no need for this in a home NAS unless you know exactly why you need it and have a good understand of ZFS to explain why. If you don’t, you don’t need it and it will just make things 1) cost more 2) potentially more susceptible to data loss. I suggest doing more homework on the truenas forums, read all of their posts which explain all of this in detail, then ask questions. They have so much literature on these topics you can spend days reading and learning, then you will have a much better idea what your talking about (ZFS doesn’t really have “cache drives”, you’d either be referring to L2ARC or a SLOG, neither of which you need, trust me).

For backing up iPhone, the sad but true reality is… just pay for iCloud. It’s the only solution that really works, besides back it up to a pc/mac and then backing up that machine. The only seamless way to backup an iPhone is via iCloud, which is one of the reasons Apple is getting sued right now by the US. As far as checksumming, yes. ZFS scrubs are what will check for and correct and big flips, and it’s easy to set up in truenas. I have mine run every 2 weeks, Wednesday night at like 1am. You should also schedule SMART checks, I think I do smart checks once or twice a week.

I suggest you take a step back and actually try to understand what the community is trying to explain to you in all of their posts. I understand you are young and just trying to learn, that is a really good thing! But you need to take a step back and internalize what folks are telling you... since they are all correct. Speedtest is not "lying", the numbers it is giving you are correct; speedtest.net is, without a doubt, able to give you 100mbps results. But the question is why, and that question has been answered by 3 or 4 people... There are really only 2 possible explinations, neither of which you will easily be able to determine, with a potential but unnlikely 3rd option. Option 1: your ISP is seeing you are trying to hit a speedtest.net server, and they are artificually lifting the 50mbps limit on your connection to that server, and that server only. This is not difficult for them to do... but they will almost certainly never admit to doing it. They do this to try and make people beleive they are getting more then they pay for, but in reality, they are only lifiting limits to certain speed testing sites. Option 2: your ISP hosts a speedtest.net server on its own infrastrucutre. Your ISP may be able to route your traffic within its own network at 100 mbps even if you are paying for a slower speed, but once you exit the ISP's network that is where it puts the brakes on and slows things down. Potential option 3, but not very likely - the burst idea. In certain bursts, if the network isn't overloaded, they may provide a little more than you are paying for. I pay for 500/25, and I almost always get 600/25. They don't guarantee 600, but I typically do get 600-625 ish. I am sure if I try and download something when everyone else is trying to download something (I have cable, so it is impacted by how everyone else in your local area is hitting the network) it will likley struggle to keep me at 500, but itll certainly try to (and usually does, I rarely see anything under 500). These are really your only options. And if you are paying for 48... you have no leg to stand on, and have almost 0 chance of making any other connection exceed 50mbps, its being limited by your ISP... they own the pipes, and they get to put speed limits on them based on what tier of service you pay for.

I run my homelab on a pair of 980 (non pro’s) and it has been fine. Looking up benchmarks helped me prove to myself this was a fine plan prior to purchase as I had the same questions.

Without reading this thread, I’ll just say, SSD’s last an obscenely long time. I wouldn’t even worry about this at all. I have never had an SSD die from old age, and I still have some SSD’s from 2014…. I really wouldn’t worry about this too much. Windows enables TRIM by default on SSD’s, that plus internal wear leveling will keep the drive healthy for a very long time. Your PC will be obsolete before your SSD dies in any normal use case.

Backblaze B2 user here - highly recomend. And its built into truenas so it works seemlessly.

I know game servers typically like a lot of GHz, but it also really depends on the game. FWIW, I run a e5 2660 v4 and it idles at about 2% usage... I have VM''s consisting of: pfsense truenas multiple ubuntu server home assistant windows over a dozen docker contaienrs unfi controller probably a few things I am missing, and even when doing some plex transcoding I never see it over 10%. I actually recently turned some of the cores off in a likely vein attmept to save a few watts of power and heat, but I just don't need all these threads... I only went Xeon on socket 2011 for the RAM and PCIe, that was the main reason I upgraded from my i3 6100 I previously had for my homelab. I can't speak to the game servers though, those may hit the server harder, but I still don't imagine you need all of that power for a home server.

What are you intending to actually do on the machine..? What will the VM's be doing?

If you need to transcode down from 4k to 1080p, the best option is a GPU. But... I bet a current gen i3 would be sufficient to transcode 4k to 1080p. I can do it on 6 threads of my Xeon which is way, way, WAY slower than a current gen intel chip (I only give my plex VM 6 cores of the 28 my server actually has, but those 28 are very slow compared to what modern chips can do).

I mean.... sure. But I ran my homelab on an i3 6100 for years without any issues at all. Granted, my homelab doesn't "do all that much", but I have a truenas VM, multiple ubuntu VM's, a dozen docker containers, windows VM, some LXC's for stuff like unifi controller, home assistant etc. The only reason I upgraded was for more RAM as well. That i3 machine could only do up to 32 GB of ECC, and I just needed more, but the 4 threads (2 core + HT) was honestly enver an issue... and I would imagine I do more than the vast majority of people building random unraid boxes (I run proxmox, but, same idea). There are plenty of folks who certainly need the pretty crazy homelab builds, but most probabaly don't and can get away with much less than they think they need.

This. Don't do this. Build a low power unraid box, and then build a gaming PC. Are you streaming 4k content to 4k capable devices..? If so, it takes 0 CPU power, its just moving data from a harddrive over a network connection to a client device, at a relatively low speed when condiering a normal network is gigabit and has been the standard for about 20 years. A full bluray 4k HDR movie is about 80mbps, thats is not even 1/10th the speed of gigabit which is 1000 mbps... and if the client device is playing the content in 4k, you dont need to transcode anything, so the plex server is not doing anything except simply serving data up over a network connection. Don't virutalize a gaming PC, it will just cause endless headaches. Build 2 machines.

It is extreme overkill for a NAS... but as a desktop, yea thats a solid build. I would consider a cheaper mobo if the only reason you got that was for potential later expansion. You can get 10 gig PCIe NIC's for relatively cheap and can add them in later. If you don't want to deal with that, sure, this is a fine solution.

You don't need an M.2, you just need a boot device. Any random SSD or harddrive you have laying around will work fine. Or technically so would a flash drive, but its not really recomended. But if you don't have those, and you really are only using 1 drive anyways, mayeb truenas isn't really for you - its more intended for large arrays of disks.

Sorry, read the post wrong, didn’t notice the SATA SSD would be for boot and what you are caching. I still doubt it’s worth it for the same reasons I identified. But you can give it a try I suppose.