DIY NAS OS not decided.

[Hatchet80]

I have a parts list for a DIY NAS ,and I still haven't decided on an OS yet. The uses have changed since my last NAS post. The NAS will be a media server using Plex, editing and storing photos, security camera recording is no longer a requirement (we got a stand alone solution for surveillance), backup scheduling, we plan on letting visitors peruse photos and do their own photo editing on the server so permission granularity is a must, and will be on 24/7. Here's the hardware I will be using which is from an old gaming PC:

CPU: Intel Core I7 3930K

Mobo: Rampage IV Formula

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid RS-850-SPHA-D3 850W

Video card: Geforce GTX 560 Ti? (To help with transcoding...I hope but may be too old? Would definitely like feedback on this!)

1 SSD for metadata for making perusing media on Plex responsive.

32 GB of non ECC ram (haven't researched if Mobo can take ECC memory yet)

At least 2 SSDs for cache drives in raid 1 to ensure that data is written on spinning rust without data degradation (to help since there's no ECC memory, I know it won't replace ECC memory, but to my understanding will help mitigate damage to data).

Planning on a minimum of 15 TB of Iron Wolf (maybe Pro?) of spinning rust due to size of media library. I chose Iron Wolf to avoid the WD SMR debacle.

 

I want to be able to easily add drives when needs change. I would prefer to use ZFS, since BTRFS is still in its infancy (or so a lot of people claim). I do know that some OSs have plugins that can use that non-natively.

I still haven't been able to make a choice because I only see positives about specific OSs by people who love their OS, but don't discuss drawbacks. Nothing is clear and concise without bias. I would love to know the drawbacks for each OS so I know beforehand what kind of struggles I may be facing. Currently the front runners seem to be TrueNAS, UnRaid, Open Media Vault, and Rockstar.

[WereCatf]

Just now, Hatchet80 said:

Video card: Geforce GTX 560 Ti? (To help with transcoding...I hope but may be too old? Would definitely like feedback on this!)

That GPU doesn't support HEVC-decoding in hardware, so any and all media would have to be in H264, if you wanted to do the transcoding in hardware. Also, those really old NVIDIA GPUs' NVENC produces terrible quality. It's up to you do decide whether those things matter, though.

[Hatchet80]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

That GPU doesn't support HEVC-decoding in hardware, so any and all media would have to be in H264, if you wanted to do the transcoding in hardware. Also, those really old NVIDIA GPUs' NVENC produces terrible quality. It's up to you do decide whether those things matter, though.

Ok, planning on a usual use case of 2 concurrent 4k video streams, maxing out at 4 or 5 concurrent streams. Hopefully that info helps with guidance on whether or not I should invest in an old GPU to help the processor with transcoding. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Hatchet80
Clarification.

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

Ok, planning on a usual use case of 2 concurrent 4k video streams, maxing out at 4 or 5 concurrent streams. Hopefully that info helps with guidance on whether or not I should invest in an old GPU to help the processor with transcoding. 

I re-checked and that GTX 560Ti doesn't even support hardware-encoding at all, so it's entirely unuseable for that. Also, that CPU won't be able to handle 5 concurrent 4K-streams, not even close.

[Hatchet80]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I re-checked and that GTX 560Ti doesn't even support hardware-encoding at all, so it's entirely unuseable for that. Also, that CPU won't be able to handle 5 concurrent 4K-streams, not even close.

Oh, I'm sorry! My clarification wasn't good enough. 2 concurrent 4k streams usual use case. When it maxes out at 4 or 5, it will be 2 at 4k, the others will be mobile devices (phones, tablets, a laptop would have the highest resolution and will not be at 4k, but to my knowledge only one laptop on top of the 2 streams at 4k at max usage)

[Master Disaster]

Plex requires you to have a Plex Pass subscription for GPU transcoding otherwise its CPU only...

[Hatchet80]

I'm willing to invest in an older GPU and Plex Pass if I need to since I'm not sure if my processor will be able to keep up with max use case. I just don't know since I have 0 experience yet. From what I understand, said lappy is at a max of 1080p, but it's feedback from someone who knows less about computers than I do.

[Hatchet80]

So we've established that my old graphics card won't work with transcoding. No input on resolving the OS question nor whether or not I should try to grab a more recent old graphics card, probably gtx 900 series if I have to. I'm particularly interested in how much of a pain it is to just add drives. I know with some OS offerings, it is easier to replace drives with bigger ones, than just to add drives.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 hours ago, Hatchet80 said:

At least 2 SSDs for cache drives in raid 1

What are you using for caching? Normally if your using a read cache, the raid won't matter at all, and the cache can be at any time with no impact.

 

What network speed, cache drives probably won't help if your using 1gbe.

 

5 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

So we've established that my old graphics card won't work with transcoding. No input on resolving the OS question nor whether or not I should try to grab a more recent old graphics card, probably gtx 900 series if I have to.

Id probably try to avoid transcoding 4k if you can, and just direct play, or have a 1080p copy of the media for plex use. 

 

But something like a 960 should be cheap, and ok at transcoding, but check what codec support you need?

[Hatchet80]

3 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What are you using for caching? Normally if your using a read cache, the raid won't matter at all, and the cache can be at any time with no impact.

 

What network speed, cache drives probably won't help if your using 1gbe.

 

Id probably try to avoid transcoding 4k if you can, and just direct play, or have a 1080p copy of the media for plex use. 

 

But something like a 960 should be cheap, and ok at transcoding, but check what codec support you need?

The cache was supposed to help with writing to the disks as far as I know. I'm slowly upgrading my network to be 2.5 Gbe minimum, but that part is requiring more investment than initially anticipated, so might skip to 5 Gbe or higher.

 

As far as transcoding, H264 was suggested so it would work with more devices, but H265 is what I'm eyeing since I'm told it's better for 4k. Truth be told, I have don't have much knowledge about that aspect, and planned to do the research after the NAS is built and configured.

 

The ideal scenario is that we will be able to stream to both 4k TVs simultaneously without issues. That is a major part of my final goal. Hopefully I was able to give the information needed to help me.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

The cache was supposed to help with writing to the disks as far as I know. I'm slowly upgrading my network to be 2.5 Gbe minimum, but that part is requiring more investment than initially anticipated, so might skip to 5 Gbe or higher.

Id just go 10gbe about the same price normally, and very cheap stuff used

 

What os are you using? and hdd array should be plenty speed wise, so id forget the write cache

 

4 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

As far as transcoding, H264 was suggested so it would work with more devices, but H265 is what I'm eyeing since I'm told it's better for 4k. Truth be told, I have don't have much knowledge about that aspect, and planned to do the research after the NAS is built and configured.

 

What codec is the footage you have already?  What codecs can the clients play?

 

6 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

The ideal scenario is that we will be able to stream to both 4k TVs simultaneously without issues. That is a major part of my final goal. Hopefully I was able to give the information needed to help me.

Can they direct play the footage? If you have the hardware id just try it, but you might want a gpu to transcode here.

[Hatchet80]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id just go 10gbe about the same price normally, and very cheap stuff used

 

What os are you using? and hdd array should be plenty speed wise, so id forget the write cache

 

What codec is the footage you have already?  What codecs can the clients play?

 

Can they direct play the footage? If you have the hardware id just try it, but you might want a gpu to transcode here.

This thread is to help with OS decision, I'm hoping to get drawbacks to the OSes. I can find the benefits easily enough. People are happy enough to list benefits, but no one seems to talk about the drawbacks of the OSes they like.

 

I appreciate the cache advice, I was planning on using the SSDs from the gaming rig. I'll be glad to put them to use in my new gaming rig.

 

Right now, the media is still on the Blu-rays and DVDs. After looking into it, if I want 4k content, MP4 or MKV using H265 and MPEG4 codecs. For lower resolutions I can use H264.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

Right now, the media is still on the Blu-rays and DVDs. After looking into it, if I want 4k content, MP4 or MKV using H265 and MPEG4 codecs. For lower resolutions I can use H264.

Im guessing your gonna have to reencode the footage, so id probably go with h264 so its easier to play, but depends on the devices and what they like to play.

 

2 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

This thread is to help with OS decision, I'm hoping to get drawbacks to the OSes. I can find the benefits easily enough. People are happy enough to list benefits, but no one seems to talk about the drawbacks of the OSes they like.

Id probably just go truenas here. Pretty easy to use, good performance. The only big thing its picky about is it wants matched drives, and its a pain to add a single drive

 

But since you have the hardware already, feel free to just  try oses and see what works best for you.

[Hatchet80]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Im guessing your gonna have to reencode the footage, so id probably go with h264 so its easier to play, but depends on the devices and what they like to play.

 

Id probably just go truenas here. Pretty easy to use, good performance. The only big thing its picky about is it wants matched drives, and its a pain to add a single drive

 

But since you have the hardware already, feel free to just  try oses and see what works best for you.

I really appreciate your guidance. I will install TrueNAS since I will be using multiple drives. Is there a problem with adding multiple drives at a later date once the initial storage isn't enough?

 

I didn't know that devices could have issues even though Plex is installed. I will need to do a LOT more research!

[Electronics Wizardy]

23 minutes ago, Hatchet80 said:

I really appreciate your guidance. I will install TrueNAS since I will be using multiple drives. Is there a problem with adding multiple drives at a later date once the initial storage isn't enough?

 

I didn't know that devices could have issues even though Plex is installed. I will need to do a LOT more research!

Yea adding multiple drives will work fine.

 

Plex transocidng is a fun one, you don't want to have to do it, and you system will do 1080p fine, but its really gonna struggle with 4k. Might just wanna test it with your devices.