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Beginner's Home Server Build

dmk0
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Go to solution Solved by Dr. Will0hlep,

I built my NAS in a Fractal Design Node 804. It's a slightly difficult build as there isn't much gap between the hard drives and the PSU. Luckily the cages slide in and out which helps alot. It should be noted that the 2.5" bays in the front are only suitable for thiner drives and the 2 3.5" drive mounts on the motherboard side require right angle SATA data and power cables. Another issue is it becomes very heavy on one side of the case (cause PSU and HDDs) which can make it annoying to transport. However, It does have storage for 10 3.5" drives and almost no other mATX case will manage that.

Another note: Using SSDs for Cache in home NASs like this isn't worth it, you just won't notice any difference. I just got a 250GB or 500GB NVMe for OS and left it at that.

 

I''m pretty sure we can find you a motherboard that will mean you don't need an SLI card and unless you want 10G networking we should be able to avoid needing a NIC too.

If you are going to be doing lots of docker stuff I think you'll want more than 4 cores.

Avoid single sticks of RAM, you always want to run dual channel (2x16GB kit).

 

For MB I'd recommend MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/t9PQzy/msi-mag-b660m-mortar-ddr4-micro-atx-lga1700-motherboard-mag-b660m-mortar-ddr4
It has 6 SATA ports, 2 m.2 slots, 2.5G ethernet, should be perfect.

If you've got any other questions let me know 🙂 

Posted

Hey all,

I am very much new to the landscape of servers and networking, I only have 2 little prebuilt WD NAS (WD My Cloud Home with 6TB and Expert EX2 Ultra with 12TB) which I am currently using exclusively as media storage - the EX2 Ultra is in Raid 0, no comment 😐. I've recently started freelancing and that's how I have the money and time to start some overdue projects that I always wanted to dabble in. Sadly, I am totally over-stimulated by all the different opinions and reviews on the internet regarding NAS/server hardware. There are many projects that I've always wanted to start learning with, so I am a noob in regards to most of the stuff that I want to accomplish with this project. My use cases for the DIY nas/home server build:

  • Working with Docker
    • as of yet, I still don't understand all the capabilities of this mysterious thing; that's why I want to learn how to utilise this 🙂
  • Hosting my own website
    • I've also started to learn a bit of basic web dev (frontend and backend - I don't really want to call it fullstack, as I am a total noob)
  • Self-hosting Vaultwarden (or Bitwarden) for all my devices
    • e.g. my phone when I'm on the move
  • Media storage
  • Sonarr and other stuff 🙂
  • Transcoding - I'm an avid anime watcher which means unusual codecs being used
    • I got an Apple 4K TV with Infuse Pro as media library/player for my TV
    • I also have many handheld devices that I want to stream onto

A way to stream on the go from my home may also be a future usecase, so setting up VPN and all that needs to be done for this.

 

Sadly, I don't live in a house or big appartment - this also won't change in the coming years - I am not looking for a server rack or something big. The best format would be Mini ITX, but as the hardware costs for that stuff are so high, mATX would also be awesome.

 

In regards to the hardware...well, that is the biggest problem I'm having, as I only know how to build gaming rigs. For now I am thinking of this setup:

  • CPU: i3-12100
  • MOBO: ASRock B660M-HDV
  • RAM: Kingston FURY Beast 32GB DDR4-3200
  • PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 11 550W
  • Case: ?
  • HDD Storage: 6x Toshiba MG09 18TB
  • SDD: ?

PCpartpicker link: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/nXqxwc

 

I am absolutely drawing a blank for the case. I love the idea of having hot-swappable drives (e.g. CS or DS380), but for the ones mentioned I read reviews mentioning the bad thermals and the price for the CS380 is also a bit hefty - not impossible, but hefty. Currently, I am kind of leaning towards the Fractal Design Node 804.

 

In regards to the SDD, I have read about caching, but I don't know which SDDs I need to utilise this - I was thinking about something along the lines of 2TB cache and one 500~GB as boot drive.

 

I would be trying myself with either unraid or truenas. I've read some stuff about proxmox but I think that would be a bit too much for a beginner like me and my usecases. So, I am currently leaning towards unraid. I would like to run the HDDs in RAID6, I know that 6x 18TB are a bit much for the beginning, but hey... why not 😄.

 

There is also the issue regarding NIC and LSI. Is this needed, especially the NIC? I suppose, LSI will definitely be needed for the aforementioned MOBO, but I have absolutely no idea for both of those topics, what stuff is good, what stuff is bad. 😕

 

So, here I am now, asking for either a sanity check or for hardware/setup suggestions or both 🙂

 

Thanks in advance!

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I built my NAS in a Fractal Design Node 804. It's a slightly difficult build as there isn't much gap between the hard drives and the PSU. Luckily the cages slide in and out which helps alot. It should be noted that the 2.5" bays in the front are only suitable for thiner drives and the 2 3.5" drive mounts on the motherboard side require right angle SATA data and power cables. Another issue is it becomes very heavy on one side of the case (cause PSU and HDDs) which can make it annoying to transport. However, It does have storage for 10 3.5" drives and almost no other mATX case will manage that.

Another note: Using SSDs for Cache in home NASs like this isn't worth it, you just won't notice any difference. I just got a 250GB or 500GB NVMe for OS and left it at that.

 

I''m pretty sure we can find you a motherboard that will mean you don't need an SLI card and unless you want 10G networking we should be able to avoid needing a NIC too.

If you are going to be doing lots of docker stuff I think you'll want more than 4 cores.

Avoid single sticks of RAM, you always want to run dual channel (2x16GB kit).

 

For MB I'd recommend MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/t9PQzy/msi-mag-b660m-mortar-ddr4-micro-atx-lga1700-motherboard-mag-b660m-mortar-ddr4
It has 6 SATA ports, 2 m.2 slots, 2.5G ethernet, should be perfect.

If you've got any other questions let me know 🙂 

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

Useful Websites:

https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

Bio:

He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

Fun Facts

1) When I was 3 years old my favourite toy was a scientific calculator. 2) My father is a British Champion ploughman in the Vintage Hydraulic Class. 3) On Speedrun.com, I'm the world record holder for the Dream Bobsleigh event on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

 

My Favourite Games: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii, Balatro

 

My Computers: Primary: My main gaming rig - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C Second: Hosts Discord bots as well as a Minecraft and Ark server, and also serves as a reinforcement learning sand box - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P NAS: TrueNAS Scale NAS hosting SMB shares, DDNS updater, pi-hole, and a Jellyfin server - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C Foldatron: My folding@home and BOINC rig (partially donated to me by Folding Team Leader GOTSpectrum) - Mobile: Mini-ITX gaming rig for when I'm away from home -

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@will0hlep thanks for the explanation! The Node 804 sounds more and more like the case to be deployed, tbh. Do you have any others in mind? Maybe also hot-swappable?

 

Could you elaborate on the Cache usecase not being worth for NAS, i.e., how little is the difference that we are talking about?

 

10G networking is indeed not a topic that I want to get into...yet 😄 Thanks for the MSI, looks perfect for my usecase indeed.

 

Which CPU would you suggest to be used in my build (cost/performance basis should be good)?

 

Regarding the RAM, I suppose it is the same as in a gaming rig to run a dual channel, so how about these bad boys? https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/cFZFf7/gskill-aegis-32gb-2-x-16gb-ddr4-2400-memory-f4-2400c17d-32gis

 

Thank you very much for your help, much appreciated! 🙂

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27 minutes ago, dmk0 said:

@will0hlep thanks for the explanation! The Node 804 sounds more and more like the case to be deployed, tbh. Do you have any others in mind? Maybe also hot-swappable?

 

Could you elaborate on the Cache usecase not being worth for NAS, i.e., how little is the difference that we are talking about?

 

10G networking is indeed not a topic that I want to get into...yet 😄 Thanks for the MSI, looks perfect for my usecase indeed.

 

Which CPU would you suggest to be used in my build (cost/performance basis should be good)?

 

Regarding the RAM, I suppose it is the same as in a gaming rig to run a dual channel, so how about these bad boys? https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/cFZFf7/gskill-aegis-32gb-2-x-16gb-ddr4-2400-memory-f4-2400c17d-32gis

 

Thank you very much for your help, much appreciated! 🙂

Cache: most people think the limiting factor of a NAS is the drives but actually it's the network connection. When you raid HDDs their read speeds get knda added up (it's a little different for write speeds but were talking about cache here so write isn't what we are interested in). So when 1 HDD has read speeds of 160MB/s, 6 SATA 3 HDDs in Raid 2 will hit read speeds of up to 640MB/s. 2.5Gb (8Gb (Gigabits) = 1GB (GigaBytes)) networking gives you speeds up to 320MB/s. If you add some cache it will be just as limited by the network connection as the HDDs are, at best you'll reduce first word latency that you weren't gonna notice anyway.

RAM: this might be a better pick: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/8BLwrH/gskill-aegis-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-32gis cause you still get the 3200mhz transfer rate and low latency.

CPU: maybe you should consider a AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, would get you 6 cores instead of 4 for not much more outlay. It would mean swapping the mobo for this https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/nFhmP6/asrock-b550m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-steel-legend but that is cheaper so you'd actually be saving money and still getting the same features.

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

Useful Websites:

https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

Bio:

He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

Fun Facts

1) When I was 3 years old my favourite toy was a scientific calculator. 2) My father is a British Champion ploughman in the Vintage Hydraulic Class. 3) On Speedrun.com, I'm the world record holder for the Dream Bobsleigh event on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

 

My Favourite Games: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii, Balatro

 

My Computers: Primary: My main gaming rig - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C Second: Hosts Discord bots as well as a Minecraft and Ark server, and also serves as a reinforcement learning sand box - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P NAS: TrueNAS Scale NAS hosting SMB shares, DDNS updater, pi-hole, and a Jellyfin server - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C Foldatron: My folding@home and BOINC rig (partially donated to me by Folding Team Leader GOTSpectrum) - Mobile: Mini-ITX gaming rig for when I'm away from home -

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44 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Cache: most people think the limiting factor of a NAS is the drives but actually it's the network connection. When you raid HDDs their read speeds get knda added up (it's a little different for write speeds but were talking about cache here so write isn't what we are interested in). So when 1 HDD has read speeds of 160MB/s, 6 SATA 3 HDDs in Raid 2 will hit read speeds of up to 640MB/s. 2.5Gb (8Gb (Gigabits) = 1GB (GigaBytes)) networking gives you speeds up to 320MB/s. If you add some cache it will be just as limited by the network connection as the HDDs are, at best you'll reduce first word latency that you weren't gonna notice anyway.

RAM: this might be a better pick: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/8BLwrH/gskill-aegis-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-32gis cause you still get the 3200mhz transfer rate and low latency.

CPU: maybe you should consider a AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, would get you 6 cores instead of 4 for not much more outlay. It would mean swapping the mobo for this https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/nFhmP6/asrock-b550m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-steel-legend but that is cheaper so you'd actually be saving money and still getting the same features.

Ah, I see! That makes total sense with network speeds being the limitin factors.

 

Regarding the CPU: In all the stuff I read I understood that in an Intel system the CPU (even pretty old generations) can be used for hardware transcoding because of QSV and that an additional GPU would be needed in AMD systems to get those transcoding possibilities. Would it make sense to go even one generation older for an i5-11400? Would also mean swapping the mobo again 😄

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43 minutes ago, dmk0 said:

Ah, I see! That makes total sense with network speeds being the limitin factors.

 

Regarding the CPU: In all the stuff I read I understood that in an Intel system the CPU (even pretty old generations) can be used for hardware transcoding because of QSV and that an additional GPU would be needed in AMD systems to get those transcoding possibilities. Would it make sense to go even one generation older for an i5-11400? Would also mean swapping the mobo again 😄

I think 11400 is worse value than 12100 or 12400 tbh.

I'm debating how important losing hardware encoding support will be if you were to go with 5600G. I think software encoding should be fine but I'm not confident enough to say for certain. The consensus I’m find on reddit is that it will be good enough. I'm thinking about starting another thread to ask the community.

I might be experienced, but I'm human and I do make mistakes. Trust but Verify! I edit my messages after sending them alot, please refresh before posting your reply. Please try to be clear and specific, you'll get a better answer. Please remember to mark solutions once you have the information you need. Expand this signature for common PC building advice, a short bio and a list of my components.

 

Common build advice:

1) Buy the cheapest (well reviewed) motherboard that has the features you need. Paying more typically only gets you features you won’t use. 2) only get as much RAM as you need, getting more won’t (typically) make your PC faster. 3) While I recommend getting an NVMe drive, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive drive with DRam cache, DRamless drives are fine for gamers. 4) paying for looks is fine, just don’t break the bank. 5) Tower coolers are usually good enough, unless you go top tier Intel or plan on OCing. 6) OCing is a dead meme, you probably shouldn’t bother. 7) "Bottlenecks" rarely matter and "Future-proofing" is a myth. 8) AIOs don't noticeably improve performance past 240mm and don't improve at all past 360mm. 9) RTFM.

 

Useful Websites:

https://www.productchart.com - helps compare monitors, https://uk.pcpartpicker.com - makes designing a PC easier.

 

Bio:

He/Him - I'm a PhD student working in the fields of reinforcement learning and traffic control. PCs are one of my hobbies and I've built many PCs and performed upgrades on a few laptops (for myself, friends and family). My personal computers include 4 windows (10/11) machines and a TrueNAS server (and I'm looking to move to dual booting Linux Mint on my main machine in future). Aside from computers, I also dabble in modding/homebrew retro consoles, support Southampton FC, and enjoy Scuba Diving and Skiing.

Fun Facts

1) When I was 3 years old my favourite toy was a scientific calculator. 2) My father is a British Champion ploughman in the Vintage Hydraulic Class. 3) On Speedrun.com, I'm the world record holder for the Dream Bobsleigh event on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

 

My Favourite Games: World of Tanks, Runescape, Subnautica, Metroid (Fusion and Dread), Spyro: Year of the Dragon (Original and Reignited Trilogy), Crash Bash, Mario Kart Wii, Balatro

 

My Computers: Primary: My main gaming rig - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/NByp3C Second: Hosts Discord bots as well as a Minecraft and Ark server, and also serves as a reinforcement learning sand box - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/cc9K7P NAS: TrueNAS Scale NAS hosting SMB shares, DDNS updater, pi-hole, and a Jellyfin server - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/will0hlep/saved/m37w3C Foldatron: My folding@home and BOINC rig (partially donated to me by Folding Team Leader GOTSpectrum) - Mobile: Mini-ITX gaming rig for when I'm away from home -

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18 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

I think 11400 is worse value than 12100 or 12400 tbh.

I'm debating how important losing hardware encoding support will be if you were to go with 5600G. I think software encoding should be fine but I'm not confident enough to say for certain. I'm thinking about starting another thread to ask the community.

I already thought so that the value is worse than 12th gen... Thanks!

 

Yeah, would be nice to know! Will look out for that thread. I've read quite a few times that QSV is the preferred way to go, because it makes having a dedicated GPU obsolete - not so with AMD CPUs.

 

Quick question for Docker: how limiting can a quad core CPU be? I am not so well versed with Docker - as stated in the original post - so I have no clue what the effect would be.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Quick update for this post:

I've decided to go with the i5-13500 for the newest generation + more cores -> essentially completely future proof as even 6th and 7th gen Intel's are currently being used in new server builds for transcoding and other things.

 

Final Part List:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor  (€257.37 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€154.32 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€71.90 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung 980 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€63.90 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung 980 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€63.90 @ Alza)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (€111.10 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 11 550 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€125.08 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Custom: 6x 18TB Toshiba MG09 (€1620.00)
Total: €2467.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-02 11:01 CEST+0200

 

Thanks for all the help and input @will0hlep!

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