Building a NAS, need CPU

[Chriz6097]

What cpu would be best if I was to build a nas. I don't want to spend a fortune on components and I was able to scavenge a 8 port sas from an old server I had lying in my garage. I was hoping for a budget around $300-400 USD (maybe $500 if it is better for the money) w/o drives, speaking of which I am going with WD red 3tb's. Also to note, its going to be in the Lianli pcq25 which is M-itx.

[dragosudeki]

Pretty sure anything with integrated graphics should work?

[Chriz6097]

Pretty sure anything with integrated graphics should work?

I'm just thinking that a crappy cpu would end up bottlenecking the whole thing since it has a pretty good raid card.

[Vitalius]

If you can find used Server parts on Ebay that are M-ITX (I don't believe those exist), I would use those. 

Be sure to get something strong in single threading (i.e. no FX CPUs), because Samba shares are single threaded, so your CPU can be the bottleneck if it is particularly weak. 

Just for reference, I bought this off Ebay for my NAS for $175:



8 cores, 16GB of RAM, and that motherboard for $175 is pretty great. Obviously this won't fit in your M-ITX case, but I just want to point out what's possible for little money.

[MrImnotMLG]

i5 with a gigabyte or asus board

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MrImnotMLG/saved/3YCy

[MuffinTopMike]

An i3 would great for just file sharing and backups.

[Chriz6097]

If you can find used Server parts on Ebay that are M-ITX (I don't believe those exist), I would use those. 

Be sure to get something strong in single threading (i.e. no FX CPUs), because Samba shares are single threaded, so your CPU can be the bottleneck if it is particularly weak. 

Just for reference, I bought this off Ebay for my NAS for $175:

8 cores, 16GB of RAM, and that motherboard for $175 is pretty great. Obviously this won't fit in your M-ITX case, but I just want to point out what's possible for little money.

My local microcenter has a haswell based pentium 3.0GHz for $50, would that be enough or should I go double and get an i3?

[d33g33]

A NAS needs nothing really processing wise. Best bang for buck i3 would more than suffice. 

[Vitalius]

My local microcenter has a haswell based pentium 3.0GHz for $50, would that be enough or should I go double and get an i3?

 

That should be fine. Dual core or quad core? I would only get a quad core if you intend to do encoding on the fly (for media streaming with Plex or some other program). Dual Core is fine for shares and backups.

A NAS needs nothing really processing wise. Best bang for buck i3 would more than suffice. 

 

I disagree. Video encoding on the fly is very CPU intensive. Compression can be very CPU intensive (such as what Name Taken said below). 

Unless he decides to use real time compression.

[d33g33]

That should be fine. Dual core or quad core? I would only get a quad core if you intend to do encoding on the fly (for media streaming with Plex or some other program). Dual Core is fine for shares and backups.

I disagree. Video encoding on the fly is very CPU intensive. Compression can be very CPU intensive (such as what Name Taken said below).

Compression as in PLEX? Or something else?

All I can say is I only have a Atom dual core 1.8 and have no dramas with PLEX. I can't see an i3 being worse. If there is something else though that is CPU demanding then of course a better CPU would be nice. If you have a auto extract watcher and the NAS did that a better CPU would be good.

[Vitalius]

Compression as in PLEX? Or something else?

All I can say is I only have a Atom dual core 1.8 and have no dramas with PLEX. I can't see an i3 being worse. If there is something else though that is CPU demanding then of course a better CPU would be nice. If you have a auto extract watcher and the NAS did that a better CPU would be good.

Huh?

Plex Media Server. For streaming media. Not compression. 

FreeNAS is different, and if the resolution of your videos is 1080p, then you need a decent CPU to encode it as it plays. Plex will be in a Jail (AKA Virtual Machine) and other things will be running alongside it. 

[d33g33]

Huh?

Plex Media Server. For streaming media. Not compression.

FreeNAS is different, and if the resolution of your videos is 1080p, then you need a decent CPU to encode it as it plays. Plex will be in a Jail (AKA Virtual Machine) and other things will be running alongside it.

Fair enough.

I thought PLEX does most of the video encoding and then the client basically just receives the stream but the server client does most if the work. I could be very well wrong.

It depends on what he actually wants it for I guess. Most people just want a big data share and not much else.

Sounds like your much more knowledgeable in the area than me.

[Vitalius]

Fair enough.

I thought PLEX doses most of the video encoding and then the client basically just receives the stream but the server client does most if the work. I could be very well wrong.

It depends on what he actually wants it for I guess. Most people just want a big data share and not much else.

Sounds like your much more knowledgable in the area than me.

Well, Plex does all of the transcoding, which means the CPU in the NAS is going to be doing all the work. The client (Chromecast in this case) just receives the video. So you aren't wrong, although I have no idea what you mean by "server client". I assume you meant "Server".

Yeah, basically. A big data share is fine with a dual core at around 2.0GHz, but that means encoding all your videos to the right format for your media (i.e. MP4 for iPhones, whatever Chromecast takes, and having MKV for lossless storage). It's actually more efficient, storage-wise, to just have the videos in 1080p MKV (lossless) and have Plex transcode them to whatever the device needs (MP4, or whatever). 

I'm not that knowledgable. I just know that Plex does the transcoding (meaning the NAS CPU has to be beefy if you plan to use 1080p and do multiple streams), and that Samba shares are single threaded. Meaning that a "big data share"s write/read speed is limited by the CPU in weaker builds. That won't matter for a single user, but multiple users transferring files gets slow real fast (pun intended). 

[d33g33]

Gotcha, gotcha,

 

I can only relay my experience. My NAS has a 1.8 atom dual core and does all those thing fine. It's not often it does, but it can deliver to 3 devices at a time doing different tasks.