First Server Build

[newtothis01]

Hi all-

 

Building my first home server... I plan to use Proxmox and spin up around 4 VMs

 

-Jellyfin with some transcoding (2-3 streams)

-Home assistant

-Some computer vision stuff (currently working on a project that uses openCV to watch cameras around the house and record/notify me of cars/people)

-File storage or maybe a game server

 

Are there any glaring issues with what I have picked out below? Hope to use the iGPU for transcoding.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2ZwvH2

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2ZwvH2

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($203.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  ($44.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory  ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($38.85 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.98 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Gigabyte UD750GM 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
UPS: CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD UPS  ($164.95 @ Adorama)
Total: $1057.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 09:48 EDT-0400

 

Thank you!

[Wardus]

Looks good at first glance, but I don't have mucn experience with Jellyfin, only Unraid. Does jellyfin use a parity system like unraid? If so you may need a drive for that purpose.

[jaslion]

Yes

 

The 12600k is a inefficient cpu and will rack up the power bill

 

Computer vision stuff requires a ai accelerator to be even remotely efficient so you'll want a rtx card in there.

 

2 4tb drives in raid 1 is basically no storage

[CWALD]

This build out is more like a gaming PC that has storage instead of a GPU, it would work and if this was your old machine when you upgrade then it would be great since you already have it and it is free/cheap.

 

If you are trying to buy hardware to build a server from scratch I would look for a motherboard with duel NICs or add a network expansion card. I would also look for a board that has support for ECC memory and then get ECC memory to go with it. There is also no reason to get an unlocked chipset or CPU, for servers you typically want more cores over clock speed, old xeons work well as do ryzen and threadripper.

 

All that being said, you can save a tone of money by grabbing old enterprise gear off Ebay. even an old workstation would be bot cheaper and better performing as a first server.

[Blue4130]

12 minutes ago, Wardus said:

Looks good at first glance, but I don't have mucn experience with Jellyfin, only Unraid. Does jellyfin use a parity system like unraid? If so you may need a drive for that purpose.

Jellyfin is a media manager/player akin to plex, not an operating system.

[LIGISTX]

45 minutes ago, newtothis01 said:

Hi all-

 

Building my first home server... I plan to use Proxmox and spin up around 4 VMs

 

-Jellyfin with some transcoding (2-3 streams)

-Home assistant

-Some computer vision stuff (currently working on a project that uses openCV to watch cameras around the house and record/notify me of cars/people)

-File storage or maybe a game server

 

Are there any glaring issues with what I have picked out below? Hope to use the iGPU for transcoding.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2ZwvH2

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2ZwvH2

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($203.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  ($44.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory  ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($38.85 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.98 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Gigabyte UD750GM 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
UPS: CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD UPS  ($164.95 @ Adorama)
Total: $1057.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 09:48 EDT-0400

 

Thank you!

Spending to much on mobo, get the cheapest (but still theoretically reliable) board you can.

 

I agree with others, that isn’t much storage for a NAS. But if it’s unraid you can always add more as you go. 
 

CPU is questionable. It’s not a bad pick… but is it actually what you need? If it is, then no issue at all. 
 

18 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The 12600k is a inefficient cpu and will rack up the power bill

It’ll be plenty efficient at idle. At max load it isn’t super efficient compared to AMD options, but assuming it’s usually idle, it’ll be totally fine.

[Wardus]

12 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Jellyfin is a media manager/player akin to plex, not an operating system.

Yeah, that's my bad. In that case you may be a little low on storage to do all those things and use if for file storage. 

[SkylarHasMail]

Is there a reason for using all new parts? 
I would highly recommend finding used hardware for 300$ and spend the rest on a lot of high quality storage. If power consumption is a issue look for a 65w cpu with 4c/8t and a GT 1030 if u need a gpu. 

Or Upgrade your main rig assuming your a gamer, use the leftover parts on ur nas and buy some drives and expand later. 

[newtothis01]

32 minutes ago, CWALD said:

This build out is more like a gaming PC that has storage instead of a GPU, it would work and if this was your old machine when you upgrade then it would be great since you already have it and it is free/cheap.

 

If you are trying to buy hardware to build a server from scratch I would look for a motherboard with duel NICs or add a network expansion card. I would also look for a board that has support for ECC memory and then get ECC memory to go with it. There is also no reason to get an unlocked chipset or CPU, for servers you typically want more cores over clock speed, old xeons work well as do ryzen and threadripper.

 

All that being said, you can save a tone of money by grabbing old enterprise gear off Ebay. even an old workstation would be bot cheaper and better performing as a first server.

Alright this is all new buy so it really sounds like its back to the drawing board...

 

I was looking into AMD but it seemed to not play as nicely with hardware transcoding for Jellyfin when installed on Ubuntu - maybe this is not the case...

 

Can you drop an example of some old gear on ebay that would be good for the use case I lined out?

 

Do not really care about form factor and only went with the full tower to allow for a graphics card down the road to offload transcoding to.

 

As far as storage the 2X4TB was just to get me off the ground and I would upgrade as funds become available.

[newtothis01]

10 minutes ago, SkylarHasMail said:

Is there a reason for using all new parts? 
I would highly recommend finding used hardware for 300$ and spend the rest on a lot of high quality storage. If power consumption is a issue look for a 65w cpu with 4c/8t and a GT 1030 if u need a gpu. 

Or Upgrade your main rig assuming your a gamer, use the leftover parts on ur nas and buy some drives and expand later. 

Only reason for new parts is I was trying to follow the buildouts of a few other posts on here... no old gear here that I can give up / would be useful.

 

Jumping into the used hardware for servers was quite daunting as I have zero knowledge of xenons or really any of it.

[SkylarHasMail]

4 minutes ago, newtothis01 said:

Only reason for new parts is I was trying to follow the buildouts of a few other posts on here... no old gear here that I can give up / would be useful.

 

Jumping into the used hardware for servers was quite daunting as I have zero knowledge of xenons or really any of it.

It doesn't need to be used server hardware just 1-3yo consumer grade chips are very efficient and fast in the mid-semi-low tier skews.
which is why a 4c/4t 65w cpu is kinda the sweet spot.  

[CWALD]

20 minutes ago, newtothis01 said:

Alright this is all new buy so it really sounds like its back to the drawing board...

 

I was looking into AMD but it seemed to not play as nicely with hardware transcoding for Jellyfin when installed on Ubuntu - maybe this is not the case...

 

Can you drop an example of some old gear on ebay that would be good for the use case I lined out?

 

Do not really care about form factor and only went with the full tower to allow for a graphics card down the road to offload transcoding to.

 

As far as storage the 2X4TB was just to get me off the ground and I would upgrade as funds become available.

How big you want to go really depends on how many users will be using it. For example Jellyfin requirements are a lot different for 1 user watching 720p vs. 5 users watching 4k. this is why a lot of people are able to experiment with PIs but enterprises need 6 or 7 figure data centers.

 

Here is an example of a good first server to play with. Yes it is old but you should be able to run everything for a single user and it has a GPU for transcoding. Just need to throw in some storage and your off to the races.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175755088225?hash=item28ebd1d161:g:GUIAAOSwXLJkejSH