Unraid Build Advice

[ECEE]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am new to using Unraid and not too sure what build to use.  My goal is to consolidate my old NAS (Thecus and Synology) into 1 machine.  Should I go for a used server (HP or Dell LFF) or build a new computer?  My budget is around $1000.  A used server can get me 12C/24T with 64GB in that budget compared to a 8C/16T with 32GB for new computer. I am planning to run a domain controller, plex server, and another VM to do sandboxing on this new system.  Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.

 

 

Thanks,

 

ECEE

[Electronics Wizardy]

How many plex streams do you need? do you need tanscoding?

 

Do you care about powerconsumption or noise? The used sersers aren't great in those regards.

 

Id probably get a new desktop with something like a i3 10100, 32gb of ram, and that should be plenty for your uses. 

[ECEE]

6 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How many plex streams do you need? do you need tanscoding?

 

Do you care about powerconsumption or noise? The used sersers aren't great in those regards.

 

Id probably get a new desktop with something like a i3 10100, 32gb of ram, and that should be plenty for your uses. 

Sound and power isn't a concern as it would be tucked away in a mechanical room of the house.  For plex streams, I am looking at 4-5 streams max at any given time.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, ECEE said:

Sound and power isn't a concern as it would be tucked away in a mechanical room of the house.  For plex streams, I am looking at 4-5 streams max at any given time.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

If you don't mind used and noise, id get something like a dell r720. Make sure to put the 3.5in version. And then put a hba in it so unraid.

[ECEE]

Thanks for the help

[Jarsky]

Personally, if you only want a small NAS, I would go with more consumer grade parts than a massive R720. 

 

Even though they may have less cores, newer chips are far more efficient with better IPC (Instructions Per Clock) performance. So you can more easily over-provision your cores. 

If you have Plex Pass, then if you use an Intel chipset you can offload all the transcoding duties to that. The better IPC of a newer chip will also help with the single threaded performance of if you're trying to do things like detect intros in Plex. 

 

Depending what you're doing in sandbox, if you offload to GPU, you could easily get away with a 4C/8T CPU if you look around for a 7th-8th gen i7 system.

With your budget you could even build new with an Intel i5 10400....it has the latest Intel UHD 630 chipset so handles all the latest video codecs (h265, hevc 10bit, vp9 10bit, etc...), being a 10th gen it has 6C/12T, and its only $160 for the CPU. 

[Salacious B Crum]

On 12/30/2020 at 4:40 PM, Jarsky said:

Personally, if you only want a small NAS, I would go with more consumer grade parts than a massive R720. 

 

Even though they may have less cores, newer chips are far more efficient with better IPC (Instructions Per Clock) performance. So you can more easily over-provision your cores. 

If you have Plex Pass, then if you use an Intel chipset you can offload all the transcoding duties to that. The better IPC of a newer chip will also help with the single threaded performance of if you're trying to do things like detect intros in Plex. 

 

Depending what you're doing in sandbox, if you offload to GPU, you could easily get away with a 4C/8T CPU if you look around for a 7th-8th gen i7 system.

With your budget you could even build new with an Intel i5 10400....it has the latest Intel UHD 630 chipset so handles all the latest video codecs (h265, hevc 10bit, vp9 10bit, etc...), being a 10th gen it has 6C/12T, and its only $160 for the CPU. 

X2 I agree with the above I would build a rig from scratch over a used enterprise system there can be a lot of headaches configuring enterprise gear for home use such as what your wanting to do you can build a nice unit for the budget you have, My unRAID server is built off of an I7 6700 and it works quite well