Ideas for NextCloud+Plex/Kodi server

[YamiYukiSenpai]

So here's the parts list I was thinking of using.  The older parts that don't have prices on them are the ones I bought from my brother after he upgraded his PC.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - FX-9590 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard	Asus - M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$84.50 @ Vuugo
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Canada Computers
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Canada Computers
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon R9 290X 8 GB Vapor-X Video Card
Case	Thermaltake - Core X31 TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$149.99 @ Newegg Canada
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$109.99 @ Canada Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$604.46
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-24 18:53 EDT-0400

I got couple of questions:

• Do I need a RAID card if I were to use ZFS on the HDDs?
• What else can be changed to lower the price (though I prefer to stick to a WD Red or some other NAS drive)?

[PeterPorker3]

1 minute ago, YamiYukiSenpai said:

So here's the parts list I was thinking of using.  The older parts that don't have prices on them are the ones I bought from my brother after he upgraded his PC.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - FX-9590 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard	Asus - M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$84.50 @ Vuugo
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Canada Computers
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Canada Computers
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon R9 290X 8 GB Vapor-X Video Card
Case	Thermaltake - Core X31 TG ATX Mid Tower Case	$149.99 @ Newegg Canada
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$109.99 @ Canada Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$604.46
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-24 18:53 EDT-0400

I got couple of questions:

• Do I need a RAID card if I were to use ZFS on the HDDs?
• What else can be changed to lower the price (though I prefer to stick to a WD Red or some other NAS drive)?

To answer your first question, no. RAID cards have their own proprietary way of doing RAID, ZFS handles that for you. In fact, having no RAID card is a much better soulution because some RAID cards do not allow you to pass through individual drives.

 

To answer the first question, in my opinion, I would buy a used server off ebay, but I understand not everyone is comfortable or able to do that, and I see you have old parts laying around. What I would change with this setup is the case. If this is just a server sitting in a closet or under a desk, it doesn't need to look pretty. My personal target would be in the $50 range (one without a glass side panel and lots of hdd spots and good cooling). Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember seeing cheaper 650w PSUs from name brands, idk for sure though.

[YamiYukiSenpai]

11 minutes ago, MineParker101 said:

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember seeing cheaper 650w PSUs from name brands, idk for sure though.

I wanted to go fully modular, and I guess I could always go for  80+ Bronze.

 

What about future expansion?  I'm thinking of going go for mirrored VDev, but if I were to get more storage, I was thinking of switching to RAIDZ.  Is that possible? would it be possible to add more drives to the existing logical volume?

[Slayer3032]

That's gonna be pretty power hungry, I'd at least consider switching to a lower power graphics card or removing it if you can. Plex also doesn't support AMD GPU transcoding, and Geforce cards only allow one decode and one encode session. You'll need a Plex Pass to use that anyways. You might want to consider underclocking and undervolting it but that's going to need some serious babysitting and tweaking to make sure it's stable enough for the job.

 

I wouldn't bother spending money on a high end sata SSD, just get a Kingston A400 or whatever's on sale. Amazon just had a 1TB AData SU800 for $79 for example at that price range.

 

If you're planning on using any VM's, you're going to want some more memory too. DDR3 is cheap though and whatever you can find for as cheap as possible would help. ECC Unbuffered should work well on your AMD platform and can often be found for next to nothing, just make sure it's not ECC Registered. If it ends in U or E and not R, like PC3-12800R, it should work fine.

 

I'd definitely go with a modular PSU just for the sake of being modular, most modular psus are also generally higher end. I tried finding something 80+ Gold and non-modular for my FreeNAS X58 build but I just settled on a Seasonic Focus+ Gold 550W. I'm 9 weeks into waiting for the damn $25 rebate and $25 steam gift card on that though with no end in sight.

 

Canada is kinda rough, those are decent prices for 4TB drives but for $129.99 in the US when they go on sale a couple times a month you can get the WD Elements 8TB externals which you can just shuck, tape off the 3.3v if they don't power on with your PSU and enjoy 8TB drives for half the price. I wanted to give helium drives a try and at just $20 more than a 4TB it was well worth it.

[YamiYukiSenpai]

14 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

That's gonna be pretty power hungry, I'd at least consider switching to a lower power graphics card or removing it if you can. Plex also doesn't support AMD GPU transcoding, and Geforce cards only allow one decode and one encode session. You'll need a Plex Pass to use that anyways.

I should be fine if I use a Kodi server, right?

14 hours ago, Slayer3032 said:

I'd definitely go with a modular PSU just for the sake of being modular, most modular psus are also generally higher end. I tried finding something 80+ Gold and non-modular for my FreeNAS X58 build but I just settled on a Seasonic Focus+ Gold 550W. I'm 9 weeks into waiting for the damn $25 rebate and $25 steam gift card on that though with no end in sight.

Changed it as you suggested.  My brother was using a 750W semi-modular 80+ Bronze when he owned it.  Better safe than sorry.
And I'm definitely gonna underclock this.  Don't want all that heat LOL

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - FX-9590 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard	Asus - M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$59.88 @ Amazon Canada
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Memory Express
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Memory Express
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon R9 290X 8 GB Vapor-X Video Card
Case	Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$71.23 @ Newegg Canada
Power Supply	Cooler Master - MWE Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.30 @ Amazon Canada
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$510.39
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-25 02:28 EDT-0400

Also, ECC doesn't work with the MOBO.  And I know that I don't have a cooler yet.  Gonna ask him when he wakes up.

Edit: it was Hyper 212 Evo

[Slayer3032]

12 hours ago, YamiYukiSenpai said:

I should be fine if I use a Kodi server, right?

Changed it as you suggested.  My brother was using a 750W semi-modular 80+ Bronze when he owned it.  Better safe than sorry.
And I'm definitely gonna underclock this.  Don't want all that heat LOL

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - FX-9590 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor
Motherboard	Asus - M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws X Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$59.88 @ Amazon Canada
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Memory Express
Storage	Western Digital - Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive	$129.99 @ Memory Express
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon R9 290X 8 GB Vapor-X Video Card
Case	Corsair - 200R ATX Mid Tower Case	$71.23 @ Newegg Canada
Power Supply	Cooler Master - MWE Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$119.30 @ Amazon Canada
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$510.39
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-25 02:28 EDT-0400

Also, ECC doesn't work with the MOBO.  And I know that I don't have a cooler yet.  Gonna ask him when he wakes up.

Edit: it was Hyper 212 Evo

ECC does work with your motherboard, you can use Unbuffered ECC UDIMMS. I use them on AM3 boards since 2GB sticks are like $5. https://www.servethehome.com/asus-m5a99fx-pro-r2-review/

 

I don't think the 290X supports H265, I really wouldn't bother using it. Kodi might use it but the cpu should be just fine since it has AVX. I'd sell it and get something newer and either from this next AMD generation which will actually support VP9 too. Otherwise, a used 10 series card would be a good substitute but they're generally stupid expensive.

https://kodi.wiki/view/Supported_hardware