Starting Home Server - What drives

[FeaR418]

Hi,

 

I am starting my first home server for Plex/general file storage, and maybe a small game server (Valheim/minecraft etc for me + a few friends if it can handle it). I am planning on running Unraid. Specs below:

I5 - 4670k @3.4, 16gb Ram @3400mhz, Nvidia 770

Current Drives - two 250gb Samsung EVO SSDs

 

I am wondering, what hard drives should I use? I am looking at 4 4 or 6 TB hard drives but I am looking for what is the best bang for buck, or if I should consider something else. This would allow for the two ssds to act as cache, 3 storage HDs and 1 for parity. 

 

I was looking into the WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf, does it make a big difference for the 5400rpm/7200rpm?

 

Budget is sub 1k, more looking for thoughts. Also my case is the Antec 900 (I know, its an oldie - but its what I have laying around), does anyone know how I get more drive cages for these in 2023? I have room for the four drives but not a way to attach to the case since it was gutted.

 

I haven't done any of this before so please let me know of any recommendations.

 

Thanks

 

Edit ** 250gb not 512gb SSD**

[Sheperad306]

18 minutes ago, FeaR418 said:

Hi,

 

I am starting my first home server for Plex/general file storage, and maybe a small game server (Valheim/minecraft etc for me + a few friends if it can handle it). I am planning on running Unraid. Specs below:

I5 - 4670k @3.4, 16gb Ram @3400mhz, Nvidia 770

Current Drives - two 512gb Samsung EVO SSDs

 

I am wondering, what hard drives should I use? I am looking at 4 4 or 6 TB hard drives but I am looking for what is the best bang for buck, or if I should consider something else. This would allow for the two ssds to act as cache, 3 storage HDs and 1 for parity. 

 

I was looking into the WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf, does it make a big difference for the 5400rpm/7200rpm?

 

Budget is sub 1k, more looking for thoughts. Also my case is the Antec 900 (I know, its an oldie - but its what I have laying around), does anyone know how I get more drive cages for these in 2023? I have room for the four drives but not a way to attach to the case since it was gutted.

 

I haven't done any of this before so please let me know of any recommendations.

 

Thanks

If your looking for decent HDD for price to TB the Seagate compute drives are good (No rated for NAS/Server use but for me I do and there perfectly fine)

There is a big difference between 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm but most modern drive run at 7200 already

The Seagate ironwolf drives are good with decent warrenty

The rest Idk much about, but running a minecraft server should be fine on the hardware.

------------
As a heads up check about many sata port you'll need and if you need more you can maybe more or less any Pcie card for more on amazon

[manikyath]

first things first, i'd start with TrueNAS, saving on the license cost for unraid gets you a tad more budget for the rest of the bits.

 

past that, the ideal HDD size sort of depends on how much storage you plan on needing.

 

i'm still on 3TB drives because i honestly dont even need that much, but on a pure price per GB aspect going 4TB drives makes more sense.

 

as for the RPM.. tbh it makes more sense to ignore that and just rely on SSD's for the stuff that actually needs fast I/O.

[FeaR418]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

first things first, i'd start with TrueNAS, saving on the license cost for unraid gets you a tad more budget for the rest of the bits.

 

past that, the ideal HDD size sort of depends on how much storage you plan on needing.

 

i'm still on 3TB drives because i honestly dont even need that much, but on a pure price per GB aspect going 4TB drives makes more sense.

 

as for the RPM.. tbh it makes more sense to ignore that and just rely on SSD's for the stuff that actually needs fast I/O.

Will the 250gb cache handle that then? or are you talking about seperate SSDs.

 

Also the one time cost for unraid is insignificant and can be counted outside the budget. More looking for advice on which specific drives to get. 4 or 6tb will work - my needs are not specific and can always expand in future.

[LIGISTX]

1 minute ago, FeaR418 said:

Also the one time cost for unraid is insignificant and can be counted outside the budget

This is a good way to look at it. Unraid is very flexible with drives since you can chuck anything in at any time and it’ll be happy. Truenas and ZFS are not like this. ZFS is amazing, but it has its downsides, this is one of them. 
 

Harddrive speed doesn’t matter for a NAS… gigabit networking is only 125 MB/s. Even a 5400 rpm drive can saturate that with sequential read speeds. So I wouldn’t even worry about rpm of drives. An SSD cache in unraid, I believe is only a write cache, but that may be helpful depending on use case. I am a truenas user so I am not as well versed in unraid as ZFS, but for your application it may be a good bet. 
 

Get larger drives… they are more GB/$. Look at 12, 14 or 16, and just do a simple GB/price. Also, less drives = less electricity. 

[FeaR418]

Currently the 16TB Exo Seagate drives are on Sale.. https://www.newegg.ca/seagate-exos-x16-st16000nm001g-16tb/p/1Z4-002P-015K6?Item=1Z4-002P-015K6

 

Thoughts?

 

Also I am looking at replacing my case, I dont want it any larger than the Antec 900 but more drive bays would be good (currently I dont have any way to mount them, so I only have room for two currently). the Meshify Looks reasonable for drive and airflow... thoughts?

[MG2R]

Literally “any” drive if you’re willing to replace them as necessary. As long as they’re not shingled, pretty much any drive would saturate a gigabit connection while streaming. 
 

especially if you’re going with Unraid. Just chuck drives in there as you go, adding capacity as needed. 
 

one tip: think twice before buying all your drives in one lot. Chances are high you’ll get drives from the same manufacturing batch, increasing your chance of simultaneous failures