Server build for plex and experiments

[thewhovian89]

Budget (including currency): 1500USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Plex, media download stack

Other details: 

So, I repurposed my old gaming PC to be a media downloader, running docker containers for all the arr programs and a few others to support it. It worked okay, but my hardware was limiting my speed, I want more storage capacity, and I was running it on ubuntu. I want to toy around with unRaid as my foundation. I want to keep my old PC as a gaming rig, potentially rehousing it in a rackmount case to go with the server I want to build, and experiment with hardware passthru later on, creating a "gaming VM" with parsec or similar. My debate is spend money on a prebuilt server I find on labgopher, or use consumer parts something like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7H6nwc

 

With a case like this:

https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rsv-l4412u-black/p/N82E16811147330?RandomID=895791077723411420221003001101

 

My old PC, if curious, is this setup:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D4KwvK

 

With regards to the hardware passthru idea, it was mostly inspired by the LTT video on 2 gamers 1 PC. I would like to try it, but my current hardware runs 99% of what I want it to, so it would likely just be a temporary experiment.

 

Key points for the whole project:

• Lots of storage capacity
• Room for upgrades
• Hot swappable drives
• Fit a full size GPU
• Run arr programs buttery smooth
• SSD cache for unRaid
• Cannot initially scavenge old PC parts. Need to transfer existing media from old server ==> new server before taking old server offline
• Phase out my small 4tb drives for something larger, like 10tb's i.e. flexible file format.
• Parts list is not an inclusive list of everything needed, just examples

 

I'll be unavailable to reply for a couple of weeks, but I'll definitely be following up on what y'all have to say.