Storage Server for streaming.

[Kyle Kahn]

I'm thinking about building a storage server (10 drives, 15 TB each) for my plex library. Is there any storage cases I should look at, and any soecific raid cards. Also for streaming using plex should I go threadripper, i9, or xeon?

[Electronics Wizardy]

where are you getting these 15tb drives?

 

Do you need diy? Id get a used server, and get a sas expansion box.

[SupaKomputa]

threadripper and xeons supports ECC memory where i9 doesn't.

There are plenty of 10 port sata add in cards on the market, go check it.

Use OS like Freenas with 8-16gb of memory, and it recommends ECC memory.

You want a cheaper solution?

Build a x79 motherboard with a Xeon 2670 (8core - 16threads), it should cost under $300 for the whole kit.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/HNan-motherboard-CPU-combos-Intel-X79-LGA-2011-motherboard-with-CPU-Xeon-E5-2670-C2-16G

[noodle with crab]

First you are using Plex so it's just streaming. Is this for private use only? If private use only then you don't need anything more than Pentium... Even Pentium have built-in hardware 4k decoder.

If you are only doing some private streaming I recommend any i3-8xxx platform (since they have QuickSync), with 8 or 16G mem , WD Purple survillance hdds for storage (or any other NAS or survillance drive - as long as they are not SMR - which is important because SMR driver's continues writing speed is just terrible), an ASRock 10 or 8SATA port motherboard (Yes I have one of these for my NAS server - it's called Z170 Extreme 7+ but it's only for gen6 cpus so you may need to search for another one), and a NZXT H440 case (which have 11 internal 3.5 bays). DO NOT BUY XEON since most of them don't have QuickSync and you have to use much much more powerful CPU to decode the video.

[mikat]

2 hours ago, noodle with crab said:

First you are using Plex so it's just streaming. Is this for private use only? If private use only then you don't need anything more than Pentium... Even Pentium have built-in hardware 4k decoder.

If you are only doing some private streaming I recommend any i3-8xxx platform (since they have QuickSync), with 8 or 16G mem , WD Purple survillance hdds for storage (or any other NAS or survillance drive - as long as they are not SMR - which is important because SMR driver's continues writing speed is just terrible), an ASRock 10 or 8SATA port motherboard (Yes I have one of these for my NAS server - it's called Z170 Extreme 7+ but it's only for gen6 cpus so you may need to search for another one), and a NZXT H440 case (which have 11 internal 3.5 bays). DO NOT BUY XEON since most of them don't have QuickSync and you have to use much much more powerful CPU to decode the video.

Yup, but with such a large amount of storage I'd get 32 GB of ram for freenas (freenas with ZFS likes ram) with plex installed on top of freenas.

The i3-8xxx is a good choice but if you're looking for more CPU horses while retaining quicksync and ECC support I'd look at the new Xeon E-2100 series.

2146g: 6c/12t $311

2144g: 4c/8t $272

2126g: 6c/6t $255

2124g: 4c/4t $213

Keep in mind that C246 (Xeon E) motherboards are more expensive than i3-8xxx motherboards

[dalekphalm]

On 1/16/2019 at 12:52 AM, Kyle Kahn said:

I'm thinking about building a storage server (10 drives, 15 TB each) for my plex library. Is there any storage cases I should look at, and any soecific raid cards. Also for streaming using plex should I go threadripper, i9, or xeon?

Okay - first, let's break down your hardware selection - it seems rather overkill.

 

What exactly are you using the server for? Primarily Plex?

 

If so, how many movies/tv show files will you be storing? Approximate size of each file?

 

How many clients in total will be using Plex? How many at a single time? What resolutions will the clients be using?

 

Why 10x 15 TB drives? That's 120 or 135 GB of usable space (Depending on RAID5/RAIDZ1 vs RAID6/RAIDZ2), which is massively massively massively overkill for all but the most massive Plex Library.

On 1/16/2019 at 6:23 AM, mikat said:

Yup, but with such a large amount of storage I'd get 32 GB of ram for freenas (freenas with ZFS likes ram) with plex installed on top of freenas.

The i3-8xxx is a good choice but if you're looking for more CPU horses while retaining quicksync and ECC support I'd look at the new Xeon E-2100 series.

2146g: 6c/12t $311

2144g: 4c/8t $272

2126g: 6c/6t $255

2124g: 4c/4t $213

Keep in mind that C246 (Xeon E) motherboards are more expensive than i3-8xxx motherboards

Keep in mind that FreeNAS does not need that much RAM. 8GB is plenty for a large array. 16GB if you feel like overkill.

 

Yes FreeNAS will use unused RAM as a cache, but the cache has minimal returns past a certain point.

 

As we all know, the 1GB of RAM per 1TB of Storage is a made up false myth (Only applies to Dedupe, which basically no one uses on ZFS).

[GMart84]

I am currently using FreeNAS and Plex on Pentium G5400 with only 8GB of RAM and it seems to do just fine for our household.  While at most we have two devices streaming from it at a time it still does that with ease.  I have a total of 12TB of Hard drives in there and it has been good for us.  Currently we are about 500 or so movies into the well over 1000 disc collection converting them to MKV format and then encoding them using handbrake from there.  I am currently using only 2.2 TB of the capacity of the system using this method.

 

I must say I am jealous of the space you are aiming for as it would allow me to keep the movies at full size without conversion!