10 Gbps Home NAS using modern Desktop PC?

[Chiyawa]

Hi,

 

I'm thinking of building my personal home NAS + Media Server + Print Server. I wonder if this set up is any good:

 

- AMD Ryzen 3200G

- Gigabyte X570 UD or Gigabyte X570 Gaming X

- 2x 4GB 2400MHz RAM (or 1x 8GB 2400MHz RAM)

- a 10 Gb Ethernet Card

- 6x 4TB SATA HDD (RAID 10), Having 12 TB usable space with backup redundancy

- 1x Corsair MP510 240GB or Kingston A2000 250GB as boot drive

- Cooler Master MWE Gold 550W

- Very cheap casing, or self mod from old casing (I don't include the cost because I can modify some old computer case, but I might consider ThermalTake Core W200 which cost USD 499.99)

 

So, what do you all think? This system will likely to stay in a room, and any interaction will be made through RDP. I'm actually wanted to go for Sysnology, but with the price, this setup actually more ideal. The above system cost me USD 1164.68 without the case, USD 624.74 without HDD and case. Sysnology DS1618+ 6 bay powered by Atom processor without HDD and 10Gbit Ethernet cost me about USD820 without HDD and SSD.

 

This PC also serve as Game library which can be stream to devices, and probably a game server in the future.

[Letgomyleghoe]

make sure you get dual channel or you will be cutting your memorys bandwidth in half

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

AMD Ryzen 3200G

Depending on your choice of OS this may or may not cause problems. Sometimes some Linux distros don't have the best support for the latest sockets (but I'll let someone validate that for you so don't immediately take my word for it.) Also I'm a bit of an advocate for advising people to look for 4C/8T CPUs as a minimum today as it can make a difference if you ever decide to host some VMs or other server related functions all at once.

 

10 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

2x 4GB 2400MHz RAM (or 1x 8GB 2400MHz RAM)

If you decide you want to stick with AMD I'd look into ECC RAM (not 100% necessary but it is nice to have). I'll have to check if your motherboard supports it though. If you don't plan on ever needing VMs then 2x4GB will yield better performance for the host.

 

12 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

a 10 Gb Ethernet Card

What 10Gbit NIC?

 

12 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

6x 4TB SATA HDD (RAID 10), Having 12 TB usable space with backup redundancy

What drives?

 

13 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

1x Corsair MP510 240GB or Kingston A2000 250GB as boot drive

Depending on your choice of OS a lot can be ran from a thumb drive.

[Chiyawa]

2 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Depending on your choice of OS this may or may not cause problems. Sometimes some Linux distros don't have the best support for the latest sockets (but I'll let someone validate that for you so don't immediately take my word for it.) Also I'm a bit of an advocate for advising people to look for 4C/8T CPUs as a minimum today as it can make a difference if you ever decide to host some VMs or other server related functions all at once.

Oops, I have forgotten to include Windows 10 Pro into the list. Sorry, my bad.

 

3 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

What 10Gbit NIC?

Probably Asus XG-C100C. By the way, what does NIC stands for?

 

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

What drives?

Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD 5400RPM with 256 MB Cache

 

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Depending on your choice of OS a lot can be ran from a thumb drive.

Yeah, actually I don't really need a lot for OS and application (128GB should be enough). But since the mobo has M2 slots that could run NVMe, I think it's okay.

 

15 minutes ago, scuff gang said:

make sure you get dual channel or you will be cutting your memorys bandwidth in half

Yes, I'll try to aim for dual 4GB RAM. They cost a little higher, though. But with that said, If I buy 1 8GB RAM now, the next time when I want to upgrade, I can just buy another 8GB.

[Letgomyleghoe]

1 minute ago, Chiyawa said:

 

Yes, I'll try to aim for dual 4GB RAM. They cost a little higher, though. But with that said, If I buy 1 8GB RAM now, the next time when I want to upgrade, I can just buy another 8GB.

true, ddr4 is dirt cheao rn i would take advantage 

[Chiyawa]

14 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Also I'm a bit of an advocate for advising people to look for 4C/8T CPUs as a minimum today as it can make a difference if you ever decide to host some VMs or other server related functions all at once.

Ah, I don't think of running a VM currently.

[FloRolf]

37 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

(RAID 10), Having 12 TB usable space with backup redundancy

Please keep in mind that RAID is NOT a backup. 

 

[Windows7ge]

23 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Oops, I have forgotten to include Windows 10 Pro into the list. Sorry, my bad.

 

RYZEN 3XXX should be fine then.

 

24 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Probably Asus XG-C100C. By the way, what does NIC stands for?

Network Interface Card

 

Do understand that you'll need two of these (and a Cat6 or higher cable). One in your Server & Desktop. You may or may not also need to setup Static IP addresses on the network and may or may not see a performance bump if you enable Jombo Packets but I'd say it is worth a shot to see if it yields anything additional.

 

28 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD 5400RPM with 256 MB Cache

Personally I'd opt for their NAS series for 24/7 operation but those should do fine as well. Haven't heard anything wrong about them.

 

29 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Yeah, actually I don't really need a lot for OS and application (128GB should be enough). But since the mobo has M2 slots that could run NVMe, I think it's okay.

If you're going with Windows you may as well use a SATA or NVMe SSD. The NAND flash is higher quality so you'd be less likely to have issues with the drive as it ages.

 

28 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Ah, I don't think of running a VM currently.

If you don't think you'll ever have use for them then the 3200G will be fine but if you ever think you would I'd use something with more cores/threads.

[AbydosOne]

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD 5400RPM with 256 MB Cache

I might suggest avoiding those drives. Backblaze's hard drive report gives the Seagate 4TB drives as one of their worst failure rates, for what that's worth.

 

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

If you don't think you'll ever have use for them then the 3200G will be fine but if you ever think you would I'd use something with more cores/threads.

With Ryzen, you at least have quite a bit of flexibility to add more cores (admittedly, with a GPU in addition, outside of the APU range) at a later date, should you find you need them.

 

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

Probably Asus XG-C100C.

If you're just doing point-to-point networking, look into cast-off server grade NICs, like the Mellanox ConnectX-2 cards I have between my (Free)NAS and desktop. Between the two cards and the direct-attach copper cable, I probably paid only $60. Driver support for both Windows and FreeBSD (FreeNAS) is good, too.

[Windows7ge]

3 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

With Ryzen, you at least have quite a bit of flexibility to add more cores (admittedly, with a GPU in addition, outside of the APU range) at a later date, should you find you need them.

At a later date is why I'm bringing it up. Save yourself the later date cost but if he really doesn't plan to have it to too much multi-tasking or any virtualization then yeah the 3200G will be fine.

 

5 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

If you're just doing point-to-point networking, look into cast-off server grade NICs, like the Mellanox ConnectX-2 cards I have between my (Free)NAS and desktop. Between the two cards and the direct-attach copper cable, I probably paid only $60. Driver support for both Windows and FreeBSD (FreeNAS) is good, too.

I was thinking about mentioning this but decided to bite my tongue (particularly the Mellanox Connect X-2's). Personally I'd go the SFP+/fiber-optic route. Cheaper, longer cable runs, the NICs don't get as hot, widely supported with pre-included drivers, overall better.

[Chiyawa]

9 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Do understand that you'll need two of these (and a Cat6 or higher cable). One in your Server & Desktop. You may or may not also need to setup Static IP addresses on the network and may or may not see a performance bump if you enable Jombo Packets but I'd say it is worth a shot to see if it yields anything additional.

8 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

If you're just doing point-to-point networking, look into cast-off server grade NICs, like the Mellanox ConnectX-2 cards I have between my (Free)NAS and desktop. Between the two cards and the direct-attach copper cable, I probably paid only $60. Driver support for both Windows and FreeBSD (FreeNAS) is good, too.

 

Well, I'm getting a 10Gigabit ethernet switch soon, that's why I'm opting for 10Gigabit NIC.

 

And by the way, thanks for the information about NIC, @Windows7ge.

 

10 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

If you're going with Windows you may as well use a SATA or NVMe SSD. The NAND flash is higher quality so you'd be less likely to have issues with the drive as it ages.

10 hours ago, FloRolf said:

Please keep in mind that RAID is NOT a backup. 

 

I think I have used up all SATA ports available. I'm planning to install 6 SATA drives, and the board only has 6 SATA ports. I can buy more SATA IO PCIe cards, however, but maybe I'm getting SAS card instead. I have an old LTO5 Tape drive lying around, so I can use it as a backup medium (Sorry, @FloRolf, I was meant as redundancy, not as backup).

 

8 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

I might suggest avoiding those drives. Backblaze's hard drive report gives the Seagate 4TB drives as one of their worst failure rates, for what that's worth.

I see. Do you think WD Blue is alright?

 

10 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Personally I'd opt for their NAS series for 24/7 operation but those should do fine as well. Haven't heard anything wrong about them.

Oh, this server will be put to sleep when no activity is needed, so I'm not going to operate it 24/7. Now the tricky part is setting the magic packet, the Windows setting (still learning, though). Don't worry, I don't plan to turn this into Cloud server as of yet, only as an internal local server.

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

Well, I'm getting a 10Gigabit ethernet switch soon, that's why I'm opting for 10Gigabit NIC.

Which switch?

 

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

And by the way, thanks for the information about NIC, @Windows7ge.

You're welcome.

 

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

I think I have used up all SATA ports available. I'm planning to install 6 SATA drives, and the board only has 6 SATA ports. I can buy more SATA IO PCIe cards, however, but maybe I'm getting SAS card instead. I have an old LTO5 Tape drive lying around, so I can use it as a backup medium (Sorry, @FloRolf, I was meant as redundancy, not as backup).

If you want to expand your SATA ports (assuming you're using software RAID like Windows Storage Spaces) I can recommend the LSI 9207-8i. Not super expensive. Gives you 8 SASII/SATAIII ports. Then all you need is a couple of SFF-8087 to SATA Forward breakout cables.

 

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

Oh, this server will be put to sleep when no activity is needed, so I'm not going to operate it 24/7. Now the tricky part is setting the magic packet, the Windows setting (still learning, though). Don't worry, I don't plan to turn this into Cloud server as of yet, only as an internal local server.

If that's what you want to do. I've always had issues leaving desktop Windows running for too many days anyways. Starts to misbehave in strange ways after 13+ days of continuous run time (in my experience).

[Chiyawa]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

Which switch?

Dang, now when I look closely, it's just a gigabit switch. I thought there was something wrong with the price. Oh well. But maybe by the end of 2020, 10Gigabit Ethernet for home are more common.

[Windows7ge]

8 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

Dang, now when I look closely, it's just a gigabit switch. I thought there was something wrong with the price. Oh well. But maybe by the end of 2020, 10Gigabit Ethernet for home are more common.

There are some relatively inexpensive 10Gbit switches. They come with 2 or 3 ports and have a few extra 1Gbit ports. I'll have to look-up some names again. LMG has reviewed one or two.

[Chiyawa]

22 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

There are some relatively inexpensive 10Gbit switches. They come with 2 or 3 ports and have a few extra 1Gbit ports. I'll have to look-up some names again. LMG has reviewed one or two.

I think I spotted those, using SFF ports, which is interchangeable between Ethernet jack and Optical port. Oh well, I spotted a 8 ports full 10Gbit switch at about USD 600. I can start saving for those. In the mean time, guess I have to go 1Gbit.

 

With that said, I wonder if AX WiFi is a better temporary solution than Gbit ethernet?

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

I think I spotted those, using SFF ports, which is interchangeable between Ethernet jack and Optical port. Oh well, I spotted a 8 ports full 10Gbit switch at about USD 600. I can start saving for those. In the mean time, guess I have to go 1Gbit.

You're close. It's SFP+ (Small Form-factor Pluggable) . And yes. There's a switch that has (I believe) four ports and it's only ~$100-150

 

If you've got money to blow I can recommend the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 16-XG. Managed from a WebUI. Has a lot of little features. VLANs, Trunking, individual port control, STP, Jumbo Packets, Port Aggregation, etc.

 

1 hour ago, Chiyawa said:

With that said, I wonder if AX WiFi is a better temporary solution than Gbit ethernet?

I don't know how good 802.11ax's ability is at penetrating walls. If it's anything like 802.11ad then it'd be a catastrophe. You'd basically need line of sight to the router for it to be worth it. The cost to buy a compatible router & wireless NICs you could have easily picked up a pair of old Mellanox 10Gbit NICs, transceivers, and a fiber cable for a fraction of the cost and setup a P2P connection.

[Chiyawa]

23 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

I don't know how good 802.11ax's ability is at penetrating walls. If it's anything like 802.11ad then it'd be a catastrophe. You'd basically need line of sight to the router for it to be worth it. The cost to buy a compatible router & wireless NICs you could have easily picked up a pair of old Mellanox 10Gbit NICs, transceivers, and a fiber cable for a fraction of the cost and setup a P2P connection.

Yeah, I think I heard how AX perform, but seriously, to optimised the speed beyond 1000Mbps threshold, you really need a good AP in every room, and you need a good switch to handle those AP (I don't like to use repeater, latency too high). Gives you flexible connectivity, but not ideal as the bandwidth has to be share. Anyway, I was going to upgrade my house wireless network too, so maybe I put this into my to-do list. I'm still using Wireless-N setup.

 

23 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

You're close. It's SFP+ (Small Form-factor Pluggable) . And yes. There's a switch that has (I believe) four ports and it's only ~$100-150

 

If you've got money to blow I can recommend the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 16-XG. Managed from a WebUI. Has a lot of little features. VLANs, Trunking, individual port control, STP, Jumbo Packets, Port Aggregation, etc.

Oh, I see. So it is SFP (Small Form-factor pluggable). Hmm, I know they are small form factor something.

 

Anyway, Thanks for your suggestion. I'll be looking into it. Currently, though, I'm not sure if any of my devices use 10Gbit Ethernet. But oh well, my existing device is pretty old, most only at Gigabit Ethernet.

 

Anyway, there's a crazy idea. I wonder if I can find a program so the data could be compressed from the server before sending to client's machine? That way, maybe I can send more than 1 gigabit of data per second.

 

Well, I guess first thing first, to get the server. Upgrade the existing networking can be deal later.

[Windows7ge]

5 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

Anyway, Thanks for your suggestion. I'll be looking into it. Currently, though, I'm not sure if any of my devices use 10Gbit Ethernet. But oh well, my existing device is pretty old, most only at Gigabit Ethernet.

Most likely not. You would already know that you have 10G Ethernet. It only comes on very high-end motherboards. Chances are you'll be connecting AIC's in your machines so they have 10G networking.

 

5 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

Anyway, there's a crazy idea. I wonder if I can find a program so the data could be compressed from the server before sending to client's machine? That way, maybe I can send more than 1 gigabit of data per second.

If I'm not mistaken as it is over a Windows SMB share the data is already compressed. With that the limiting factor would become the CPU's ability to compress & decompress on each end but I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[Salacious B Crum]

6 hours ago, Chiyawa said:

Yeah, I think I heard how AX perform, but seriously, to optimised the speed beyond 1000Mbps threshold, you really need a good AP in every room, and you need a good switch to handle those AP (I don't like to use repeater, latency too high). Gives you flexible connectivity, but not ideal as the bandwidth has to be share. Anyway, I was going to upgrade my house wireless network too, so maybe I put this into my to-do list. I'm still using Wireless-N setup.

 

Oh, I see. So it is SFP (Small Form-factor pluggable). Hmm, I know they are small form factor something.

 

Anyway, Thanks for your suggestion. I'll be looking into it. Currently, though, I'm not sure if any of my devices use 10Gbit Ethernet. But oh well, my existing device is pretty old, most only at Gigabit Ethernet.

 

Anyway, there's a crazy idea. I wonder if I can find a program so the data could be compressed from the server before sending to client's machine? That way, maybe I can send more than 1 gigabit of data per second.

 

Well, I guess first thing first, to get the server. Upgrade the existing networking can be deal later.

microtik has a 4 port 10Gig switch on the cheap well a hell of a lot cheaper than enterprise gear out there

[mtz_federico]

here is the microtik 4 SFP+ switch on amazon. You could use SFP+ to RJ45 transceiver modules if you don't want to use SFP cables