Is this a good build for a home NAS?

[TomWaterz]

Looking to upgrade from my QNAP 251+. I mainly use it for plex and homeassistant. Would like to be able to transcode one 4k video as all my movies are 4k and I sometimes watch them remotely.

This is what I came up with. I already have the HDD so don't need those. I would probably use UNRAID if that means anything determining hardware.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.98 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S redux 70.75 CFM CPU Cooler  ($49.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z590M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($156.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($75.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($64.98 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($124.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA GD (2019) 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $702.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-12-09 17:28 EST-0500

[RONOTHAN##]

Pretty decent, though there are a few things that I would change.

 

1.) Ditch the cooler, for a home server the stock cooler would be more than fine. If you really want a better cooler, the be quiet! Pure Rock Slim 2 would be half the price, similar volume, and still more than enough performance for a non-overclockable cooler.

2.) Change the RAM out. You can get very similar speeds for $20 less with something from Silicon Power or TeamGroup.

3.) The SSD. It's not gonna make a difference if you use it as a cache disk, and if you're gonna use if for storing VMs, you should probably spend the extra money on a 1TB drive. 

4.) The motherboard. You're not gonna overclock on a server (or with that CPU), and B560 has all the features you'll need for this. 

5.) That PSU. It's not that great, and for a NAS, it's usually a good idea to get a modular unit so you can get new cables and add more drives in the future. 

 

All that said, I'd look online and see if you can buy a decommissioned server. You can find Dual Socket 2011 systems for super cheap if you know where to look, and with them you'd get a ton of cores (great for running VMs) and a ton of expansion options. I personally got a dual E5-2630 V1 system with 64GB of ECC RAM for $125, and then you get the benefits of server hardware like redundant everything (hot swap PSUs, hot swap HDDs), IPMI, and optimizations for 24/7 runtime. 

[Ubuntu is love]

8 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

E5-2630 V1 system with 64GB of ECC RAM

Rip your power bill 0.0 no idea where you live but with the power that pools you could build a new server every year

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Ubuntu is love said:

Rip your power bill 0.0 no idea where you live but with the power that pools you could build a new server every year

Doing quick math, it costs about $300 a year. It's not cheap, but a lot cheaper than buying brand new components for a server, especially if I want features like IPMI or redundant PSUs. Plus, since I do need a lot of cores (I've got a number of VMs currently running), getting a server with that amount of cores would be very expensive.

 

That said, I have been looking out for a deal on something newer, containing the letters E, P, C, and Y, not necessarily in that order. Haven't seen anything up to my standards of cheapness yet though.

[Ubuntu is love]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Doing quick math, it costs about $300 a year. It's not cheap, but a lot cheaper than buying brand new components for a server, especially if I want features like IPMI or redundant PSUs. Plus, since I do need a lot of cores (I've got a number of VMs currently running), getting a server with that amount of cores would be very expensive.

 

That said, I have been looking out for a deal on something newer, containing the letters E, P, C, and Y, not necessarily in that order. Haven't seen anything up to my standards of cheapness yet though.

I see, in my country it would be close to 1000 dollars a year for power. 300 dollar is not that bad. 

[RONOTHAN##]

5 minutes ago, Ubuntu is love said:

I see, in my country it would be close to 1000 dollars a year for power. 300 dollar is not that bad. 

Granted, I also don't run it at full tilt all the time, so its average power consumption is closer to 150w rather than 400+ that it can draw at 80%+ load. 

 

For reference, I pay on average 19c/kWh. It's more expensive than the average for the US, but far from the most expensive.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the most I've ever had it reach was just under 300w of power draw, so I'd still be paying less than $500 even if it was running at that load all the time.

 

IPMI is great.

Edited December 10, 2021 by RONOTHAN##

[Ubuntu is love]

28 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

19c/kWh

I calculated with around 40c/kWh and with 200/250 watt load (Because you where talking about the cores and lot's of expansion slots, implying you would use those  ) and ofc for 24/7 with 52 weeks a year. But like I said, 300 dollars a year or even less because you don't run it year around is not bad at all. But for the OP it's something to look out for. Because even with enterprice stuff "Cheap is expencive".

[TomWaterz]

The reason I'm looking at the intel 11 series is for the IGPU which will do my plex transcoding for me. Otherwise I would have to get a GPU,

[Founders]

19 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

IPMI

If OP prefers to stick with consumer level hardware for the sake of efficiency but still needs remote access on the lowest level a PiKVM is a good way to fill that gap. 

[TomWaterz]

On 12/10/2021 at 2:25 AM, comander said:

Do you really NEED to live transcode 4K content?

 

You'll probably have a happier life if you're not doing it live. It takes a bit more drive space but you can make up for that by spending less on the CPU, board and electricity. 

 

To me it seems way easier just to spend an extra $200 on a better setup than to have to manage 2 different versions of plex and download thousands of movies and tv shows twice. And that isn't including all the extra storage space I would need as well. Unless I'm missing something it seems like the new Intel 11 Series is capable of 1-2 4k live transcoding.