TruNas/Plex Media Server/MineCraft Server

[TiredDadOf4]

Hello! New to the thread, fan of the channel.  I'm looking to build a system I can fit in a short depth rack mountable server case to full multiple roles.   (1) Whole house NAS and Time Machine backup for all the MACs in the house. (2) Plex media server with hardware encoding (3) Minecraft server for my kids.  I think I'd like to use Proxmox as the hypervisor for all the VMs but I'm at a loss for choosing the hardware.  I'd like a decent upgrade path as well incase I get crazy and want to create some virtual gaming machines as well.  Any Solid advice for hardware would be greatly appreciated.

[Electronics Wizardy]

What is the max depth you can use? Does noise or power consumption matter?

 

DO you have a budget in mind? 

 

HOw many TB of storage do you need?

 

[TiredDadOf4]

@Electronics Wizardy Max depth is 21 inches.  Storage I think I'm looking at initially 20 TB, leaning towards raid 5. Noise is a concern.  Budget... I'd like to come in under $1k with hard drives included.

[Pixel5]

honestly at that budget and storage needs you can go with something as simple as an i3 10100 and just chug in some drives which are going to take up the majority of your budget.

 

3x 10TB drives which you need as the minimum for 20TB useable storage with RAID5 are gonna be 75% of your budget so you gotta go super cheaper with the remaining budget for a case and motherboard etc.

[TiredDadOf4]

I was considering used enterprise drives that I've seed for $50.00 and come with a one year warranty just to get it started.  I could also up the budget up to $1500.  I  was trying to minimize the odd looks from my wife when we go through the back statements together later, lol

[TiredDadOf4]

I like the capability the LTT put into the "Couple's PC" build but I'm not looking to spend that much money right away.  The graphics cards will come later, assuming you can find any.

[Donut417]

53 minutes ago, TiredDadOf4 said:

onsidering used enterprise drives that I've seed for $50.00 and come with a one year warranty just to get it started.

Ebay? Im in the market for some storage for my server and NAS. 

[TiredDadOf4]

These are the cases I'm considering:

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Rackmount-Computer-Pre-Installed-RSV-L4500/dp/B07957B2VF/ref=pd_di_sccai_1?pd_rd_w=omelJ&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=FP7RSZB9RY1QTEC51GMP&pd_rd_r=dcb7acec-a26b-4efb-93e7-74632c8bff66&pd_rd_wg=OEUlC&pd_rd_i=B0091IZ1ZG&th=1

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Rackmount-Computer-Pre-Installed-RSV-L4500/dp/B07957B2VF/ref=pd_di_sccai_1?pd_rd_w=omelJ&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=FP7RSZB9RY1QTEC51GMP&pd_rd_r=dcb7acec-a26b-4efb-93e7-74632c8bff66&pd_rd_wg=OEUlC&pd_rd_i=B0091IZ1ZG&th=1

 

https://www.amazon.com/PLINKUSA-RACKBUY-Micro-ATX-Rackmount-IPC-E450B/dp/B01M1NVCYT/ref=pd_di_sccai_10?pd_rd_w=omelJ&pf_rd_p=c9443270-b914-4430-a90b-72e3e7e784e0&pf_rd_r=FP7RSZB9RY1QTEC51GMP&pd_rd_r=dcb7acec-a26b-4efb-93e7-74632c8bff66&pd_rd_wg=OEUlC&pd_rd_i=B01M1NVCYT&psc=1

 

Although I'm not that sure about the PLINKUSA-RACKBUY, I don't think it would give me the space I need on the inside.

[Jameszy]

you could get away with running all your services inside of TrueNAS as containers/plugins/VM's instead of adding a layer of complexity by using proxmox.. but im unsure how to passthru hardware access (hardware encoding in plex)

[TiredDadOf4]

1 hour ago, Jameszy said:

you could get away with running all your services inside of TrueNAS as containers/plugins/VM's instead of adding a layer of complexity by using proxmox.. but im unsure how to passthru hardware access (hardware encoding in plex)

I don't think you can do passthrough with TruNas.  I know can with ProxMox if your motherboard and processor supports it.  that's where I'm a little lost.  Choosing a motherboard and processor.  I appreciate any and all help, though.

[Nitro2985]

If you have a moderately modern laptop around you can run linux on that and have your plex server there and just mount the network drive from your NAS as a drive to it for the storage device that Plex uses.  That way you can use the encoding hardware of the laptop (and the generally lower TDP of a laptop) to do your transcoding, use existing hardware you have lying around to save on budget, and utilize lower power equipment to save on the electricity bill.

[Jameszy]

On 2/24/2021 at 11:21 AM, Nitro2985 said:

If you have a moderately modern laptop around you can run linux on that and have your plex server there and just mount the network drive from your NAS as a drive to it for the storage device that Plex uses.  That way you can use the encoding hardware of the laptop (and the generally lower TDP of a laptop) to do your transcoding, use existing hardware you have lying around to save on budget, and utilize lower power equipment to save on the electricity bill.

my system is set up similar but my hardware is different..

 

clients -> plex server (Xeon 1660v2)  -[NFS]-> Nas (Atom D2701)

 

the amount of transcoding that goes on is minimal, all my lan clients direct stream.