johnt

Looks simple enough. Is there a reason you have two switches?

I think all you need to do is add uid and gid after the username and password. Enter id in the CLI to get your uid and gid. If they both come back as 1000, then just add this to your code: sudo mount -t cifs //<ip-address>/<share-name> /mnt/<mountpoint> -o user=<username>,password=<password>,uid=1000,gid=1000

Is your current 7700T lacking? Are you married to the idea of Hex OS? I have so many questions to point you in the right direction. Honestly owning a Windows based NAS is a miserable experience. I would not direct you toward another paid OS until you have a better understanding of your own needs. Hex OS is a beta product at this point. See what I highlighted below from hexos's website. Honestly the biggest issues from your list are Plex (or Jellyfin) and running a Windows VM, or VMs in general. Plex and Jellyfin are weird when it comes to transcoding videos. Intel Quicksync is still considered superior for transcoding videos compared to anything from AMD. If you plan to watch videos locally and you are going to limit yourself to low bitrate, 1080p content, then you are likely to be in the direct play zone and transcoding is not a big deal. Your Plex server acts like a file server at this point. But if you plan to watch videos outside your house, transcoding will become essential. If you plan to watch 4k HDR rips or even 1080p remux, your streaming device is going to be a bottleneck and your system will be forced to transcode. My understanding is that AMD is a weaker CPU when it comes to transcoding. It brute forces everything and uses a lot more power than Intel products. On Linux devices, Plex can also transcode HDR tone mapping. I don't believe the AMD (yes even the 5800X!) will be able to keep up. Don't even get me started if your streaming device/client can't direct play the audio or subtitles and your server has to do everything. The 7700T is a bit older now, but I think you will be surprised. Also, transcoding is now a paid feature of Plex smh. Either a low monthly subscription (for now) or $750 for a lifetime membership starting July. Be careful before getting in bed with Plex at this point. VMs love RAM. ZFS loves ram. You can easily run a VM with 16 GB total memory, but I am not sure you will have a great experience, especially doing something like media ripping. Everything else you want to do is straightforward.

This is pretty easy to do. I would not focus on most of these numbers or spec sheets. Just make sure you get the right size fan and correct voltage for your replacement. 1) Learn the pin out. Look for a standard 12v pwm fan header pin out. While this fan header is not using the standard pin out that computers do, they are using the same color wires. Black = ground, yellow = voltage, green = RPM speed, blue = PWM signal. 2) You just need to take note of the order on this header connector, get these wires out. It is best to draw a schematic, noting which side those two guides are facing (make them face you and make the wires come from your left side, and you should be good). 3) Get the noctua fan, extract the wires from the header it came with, and push those wires/conductors into this header connector (from your photo) in the correct order. The colors of the wires from Noctua match this one, just not the same order. Just remember when you slide in the new wires, that the pin sticking out of the conductor has to face the plastic clip. It will go in smooth and catch, and that's it. If you push the conductor in the wrong way, sometimes it won't even let you push it all the way, and the wire will just fall out when you do a quick tug test. Most of the time, these header are small. On the other side of this connector, you should be able to see some silver metal. That is a pin sticking out from the conductor that is catching on the plastic clip of the connector so the wire stays in place and doesn't slip out. I typically use a clean blade and just ever so gently bend the plastic clip up so that the conductor pin can just slide right under. It's weird when it happens and the wires are so small that you feel like you are going to break them, but they are actually pretty resilient for how small they are. It is delicate work overall, but you can do it. Just go slow, take your time, understand the steps, and it's easy. You will feel super accomplished when it's done.

You can always start with your CPU, test it under 4k transcoding, and see how it goes. I mean are you and your dad using the same network? If so, direct play might be an option depending on your streaming device (that is a whole other can of worms.) The 3080 is definitely overkill, but it is the only GPU you have if the iGPU doesn't work out. Heh ubuntu server is CLI only. An ubuntu based server is definitely a great place to begin. The latest desktop 26.04 LTS has proven to be a very reliable and compatible OS in my testing. (I have HDR and audio passthrough in my theater using Ubuntu desktop.... this is truly a different world!) I tried really hard to make Windows 11 work as a server just bc it was easier, but the updates killed me. Sit down to watch a movie after a long day and nothing works... Windows restarted and Plex isn't a service. You have to log in first smh Yeah I don't recommend Windows at all these days. Definitely go for it! You can do pretty much everything you are looking for with apps in TrueNAS, so that's what I would start with. First try: 7700, 32 GB memory, 3x4TB drives Second try: Add the 3080 and see where it gets you. You shouldn't have drivers/compatibility support for a 3000 series card.

This GPU does not support decoding H265.

It really depends on your media for jellyfin. If you are planning on housing 1080p media, the i7 7700 should be sufficient. From what I can see, it has a decoder for H265 and H264, which is just about everything you will find/use for 1080p. That CPU does not have a decoder for AV1, but that shouldn't be a huge issue. However those media codecs are becoming more common, but they are still a very small minority at this time. If you are planning to run 4k, you need a newer CPU or a dedicated GPU to do the transcoding. If you are running everything on the same network using direct play, then it should be able to handle 4k streams pending on bitrate and subtitles. The 3080 is your only option for a good transcoding experience when you eventually have it working properly (which can be a bit of a nightmare depending on your OS). There are really a lot of variables. If you are planning to transcode two or more 1080p streams and handle a moderate MC server at the same time, then you are going to be at the limit of a 7700/16GB memory. I would agree that TrueNAS is a good option if you have a minimum of two large capacity drives (8TB or so) and at least 32GB of memory. Otherwise, personally, I am a bigger fan of using Proxmox as the host OS and then branching my needs into VMs or containers, especially if you don't have several hard drives for ZFS. But Proxmox is a very steep learning curve.

Yup. I had to leave the series with FH5. It is truly the same formula and while it was fun in FH3 and FH4, I just got tired of it. I will probably skip FH6 entirely because of its overall repetition. It still seems like a great game if you've never played the series. But it's pretty clear from the videos that not a whole lot about the formula has changed, which is not a bad thing if you are new to the series. But I'm over it.

I haven't been disappointed in anything I've purchased from Ubiquiti, unfortunately. It's expensive as hellllllllllll but near 100% uptime since I bought it. Any issues I've had have been related to my electrical company and ISP. I can also vouch for the ad blocking. It is magical.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. I have a second and third gen Apple 4k TV and they both struggle playing high bitrate content in the plex app. The third generation does marginally better, but it does stutter from what is apparently overheating. The second generation just falls apart. I'm jaded because I bought the Apple TV because I thought it could essentially replace a UHD player. My growing pains included stuttering playback, AV sync was bad and seemed very random, playback stopping, and the absolute worst parts: no bit streaming support, and neutering every ounce of bass from remux files. I'm not sure what you are suggesting about not needing the infuse app to play remux files. I don't know what content you have given it, but anything outside of a 35 Mbps video and AC3 or E-AC3 audio and you are toast in my experience. TrueHD lossless and DTS audio codecs are not natively supported. Your plex server can either transcode to a lower overall bitrate with audio conversion, and that can sustain a very smooth experience, but direct play is obviously preferred for local viewing on a television/projector.

This is a cute table, thank you for sharing. Your definition of "without any issue" doesn't jive with mine. Apple TV has a ton of issues depending on your use case. If you are using streaming services only with a simple sound bar/homepod or equivalent small speaker, then yeah you are never going to have any problems. If you are using an Apple TV in a home theater environment using the Plex app to watch high bitrate remux files and expect bit streaming to your receiver? Forget about it. Forget about all of it.

This is correct, but I've only experienced this with 7,200 rpm drives. I cannot vouch for 5,400 rpm.

One thing at a time. Don't scare him just yet.

I didn't realize you were already doing all this. Yes you can use a Proxmox VM to host UNRAID or TrueNAS. The issue becomes the electrical power usage and if you have a need to keep the hard drives up and running the whole time. Of course you will also need a case that can support more drives and enough SATA ports or an HBA to add more hard drives. Avoid the cheapo SATA expansion cards on Amazon/ebay. Look for an LSI HBA card on eBay if you need more ports for SATA. There's usually several available for a great price direct from Silicon Valley. I have a small pancake HP with an i5 6500, 16 GB memory, and a 512 GB storage. I use it to run my docker containers within a single LXC and that seems to run very efficiently. While VMs do work on a small device like this, honestly only a single VM is ideal at a time since the CPU is only 4 core. The CPU is definitely the limiting factor. Even in Windows VM, running more than 2 to 3 active tabs is a chore. But luckily the LXC is a great way to run my services without any VMs at all for me. I know it is unavoidable at times. If you plan to run multiple VMs and with that many containers, you are probably in the territory of a 6 or 8 core processor. I wouldn't go much older than a 10th gen CPU from Intel. Sorry I don't know the AMD equivalents. UNRAID/TrueNAS would benefit from 16 GB just by themselves, so I would say you are in 24/32+ GB territory.

Can you tell us more what you will be doing with the containers and VMs? It would also be good to know which VMs you will be running, and how many. A full blown Windows VM vs an Ubuntu Server have very different requirements. I’m unsure why you need a two servers for this, especially if you plan to do file sharing with each one. I don’t want to discourage from doing any of this. I just think you need to plan it out first, and maybe start with a single machine first before expanding. Proxmox is GREAT, but it can create its own issues, and while simple to install and begin using, it is very hard to master and the urge/desire to start from scratch might happen a couple times. It can be overwhelming just to get Proxmox to where you want it to be. I am not sure compounding it with UNRAID or TrueNAS is a great way to begin your journey. You can install UNRAID and TrueNAS on a Proxmox VM if you want to learn. There is very little reason you need to install these OSes on bare metal if you are exploring.