DIY router

[MetalGravity]

So people, I need your input.

I currently have a 100/100 Mbit internet connection through a Netgear Nighthawk R700 and I'm running Private Interenss Access as my VPN of choice on my devices. But I'm having some issues. 

1) my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 won't play nice with my smart home devices and my Google Chromecast when I run my VPN on it. 
2) I reasently bought a laptop with a Ryzen 2300 CPU and a dedikated vega 5 graphic card - I thought this would be more then enought power to run photoshop, lightroom and adope premiere (1080P and 4K photages) - but wow I was wrong, there is great latency that I cant deal with. So my plan is to use my VPN to be able to connect my laptop to my much faster stationair PC at home. 
3) I want to be able to run higher protection on my connection, without losing to much power (AES 256 / SHA256 + handshake RSA-4096). 

It seems that my older NightHawk, is not up for that task, so I'm thinking of making my own router / NAS server. 

Now this is very new to me, but I kniow that I need enought power to be able to run my encryptions and to do in real time transcoding of videos for plex in 1080P. This while trying to keep power consumption and heat to a minumum, while also keeping it cheap.

So I'm currently looking at a second hand parts and thinking of going with a dell precision T1700 xeon e3-1246V3 with:
CPU: - Intel Xeon E3 - 1225V3 @ 3.20GHz 
RAM: 8 GB DDR 4
HDD 1TB (gonna upgrate with 2 X wd red 2 tb in raid zero. 

Software: linux with freenas, plex and PIA installed. 

Do you think it will be a great setup that can handle, and will fit my needs? I've build PCs before but never a server. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, XshulderX said:

1) my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 won't play nice with my smart home devices and my Google Chromecast when I run my VPN on it. 

check to see if its blocking lan traffic

 

10 minutes ago, XshulderX said:

It seems that my older NightHawk, is not up for that task, so I'm thinking of making my own router / NAS server. 

ID make them different systems if you can, otherwise run a hypervisor on it. Easier to work with, more reliable, and moresecure.

 

10 minutes ago, XshulderX said:

Software: linux with freenas, plex and PIA installed. 

Id run proxmox as the os here.

 

I wouldn't run freenas in a vm, just do zfs on the hypervisor.

 

11 minutes ago, XshulderX said:

So I'm currently looking at a second hand parts and thinking of going with a dell precision T1700 xeon e3-1246V3 with:

How much you getting that system for? Id personally get something else but depends on price.

 

12 minutes ago, XshulderX said:

HDD 1TB (gonna upgrate with 2 X wd red 2 tb in raid zero.

Why raid 0 of two drives, just get a single bigger one. ANd make sure you have good backups.

[MetalGravity]

9 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

check to see if its blocking lan traffic

 

ID make them different systems if you can, otherwise run a hypervisor on it. Easier to work with, more reliable, and moresecure.

 

Id run proxmox as the os here.

 

I wouldn't run freenas in a vm, just do zfs on the hypervisor.

 

How much you getting that system for? Id personally get something else but depends on price.

 

Why raid 0 of two drives, just get a single bigger one. ANd make sure you have good backups.

Wow thanks for your answer.

 

I don't know what hypervisor is or proxmos.

 

How so I ID make them, and what will the benefits be?

 

 

I can pick up the second hand PC for around 230$, but if you have a better suggestion for specs I would love to hear it, and also show I get a GPU for hardware acceleration in regards to the transcoding?

 

 

I can understand why the Raid 0 confused you, that is because I was a fool... I of cause ment a raid 1 config for redondency.

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, XshulderX said:

can understand why the Raid 0 confused you, that is because I was a fool... I of cause ment a raid 1 config for redondency.

id still go bigger drives if you can, 2tbs are a bad value. Look at remove the drives from external hdds aswell.

 

8 hours ago, XshulderX said:

I can pick up the second hand PC for around 230$, but if you have a better suggestion for specs I would love to hear it, and also show I get a GPU for hardware acceleration in regards to the transcoding?

You can, but why. The cpu should be fine for what most people need. What all do you need to transcode?

 

 

[MetalGravity]

I just need to transcode movies from my Plex server 4K content. 

 

Ok I'll think about going with a 2 X 4 TB option then. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

11 hours ago, XshulderX said:

I just need to transcode movies from my Plex server 4K content. 

 

Ok I'll think about going with a 2 X 4 TB option then. 

If you have 4k movies 4tb is gonna fill fast, id be tempted to go 2x8tb. Those 8tb externals are like $140 now.

 

Transcoding 4k is a pain on cpu, id go something like a used r720 if  you can.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Personally I'd want to keep Plex off the router box, even if using a VM.  You really don't want a particularly hard transcode to cause latency on the router OS.

 

I'd be tempted to keep the existing router but move Plex and the VPN (I'm assuming you mean a VPN server here, its a little confusing as you only mention PIA) onto the new PC.  That way at least Plex can only starve the VPN, not the whole router.

Personally I have Plex on my NAS, and a different dedicated with pfSense on it for the router.  That runs several VPN clients and a VPN server without breaking a sweat, but of course it works out a lot more expensive than your plans.  Its a lot more secure IMO though, and much easier to administer.  I just don't like the idea of running the router on top of another OS where things can go wrong or even be compromised.