New NAS/Plex Server Build - Feedback Welcomed

[SFN_Alpha]

Budget (including currency): ~$2,000 USD

Country: USA

Programs or workloads that it will be used for: Shared Network Storage & Plex Server, more than 20TB with 2-drive failure data redundancy 

 

Hello All,

 

I'm building myself a new "home server" that will be used as shared network storage on the network for backing up the "User Documents" folder on a couple of PCs, some family pictures and other relevant docs w/ snapshots (which will also be backed-up on a cloud-based solution), and of course the family Plex server where I keep my Movie, TV Show, and Music Library.  This new server is replacing my (very) aging Windows desktop tower which has an AMD FX-8350, nVidia GTX 960, 32GB of RAM, a couple of Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SATA SSD's (one of which is a boot drive), and a 4TB Raid 5 array (5x 1TB hard drives with a Highpoint RocketRAID controller).  Additionally, I'm also using an external 4TB "WD My Cloud" (yes I'm aware its an unsupported security mess so it's blocked from internet access) as network-attached storage for the Plex Server app I have running in the background, and another WD 4TB USB3 External hard drive (mainly for document snapshots).  It's a tangled web/mess, and I'm looking forward to all of it getting replaced with the new system:

 

 

 

• CPU: Ryzen 7 3800x, stock AMD Wraith Prism cooler (~$150) (I upgraded my gaming PC to a 5900x so I already had the CPU, but included price est. for completeness)
• Motherboard: MSI Pro B550-VC Wifi, Micro-ATX ($109.99)
• Graphics: MSI RTX 3050 6GB ($179.99)
• RAM: 64GB (4x 16GB Sticks) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600MHz CL18 ($139.98)
• Boot Drive:  Samsung 980 Pro 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD ($99.99) Western Digital OEM 256GB M.2 NVME drive ($19.99)
• NAS Drives: 6x WD Red Plus 6TB ($839.94) 4x WD Red Plus 12TB ($919.96)
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 P5, 80 Plus Platinum 650W, Fully Modular ($119.99)
• Case: Silverstone CS382 NAS Case ($249.99)
• Peripheral Cooling: case includes 2x 92mm fans for cooling NAS drives, and a 120mm fan at the back.  Also add 2x 140mm Noctua NF-P14s redux PWM fans ($33.90)

System Total (w/o array drives): $1,003.83

System Total (w/ drives): $1,923.79

 

One key goal for me was to have around 8 drive bays for the NAS drives, so I could load up an array that allowed for a RAID-Z2 array (allows two drive failures without data loss).  I was also looking for a case that wasn't huge because I'm wedging this in the laundry room next to the router/switch (Ubiquiti Dream Machine SE).  After much digging I found the Silverstone CS382 case which I like because it is a mid-tower kind of size with 8 hot-swap SATA sleds supporting a micro-atx motherboard and full-size ATX power supply.  It might be a <bit> bigger than I was originally aiming, but the build won't be too much trouble, and the case includes filters and a sweet backplane for power and data to the drive array.

 

Next struggle for me was choosing the drive array configuration, and I think I did choose well but you could get a lot more storage in this thing with 20TB drives, but my budget limited me (for now).  I went so far as to look at different configurations of different single-failure tolerant arrays (RAIDZ1  in table below) and double-failure tolerant arrays (RAIDZ2 in table below).  Trying to keep the total cost of the drives below $1,000 (I just went with prices on Amazon for simplicity, WD Red Plus), and knowing I preferred a double-tolerant array, I went with 6x 6TB 4x 12TB drives giving me a total storage of around 24TB (36TB if I went with single-failure tolerant array).  This also gives me future expansion space for four more drives in the remaining sleds, which can then bump the system up to 72TB (which still allow up to 2 drive failures).

 

Drive	HDD Capacity (TB)	Price	Raid Z2, 4 drives	Total Cost	Cost Per TB	Raid Z2, 6 Drives	Total Cost	Cost Per TB	Raid Z2, 8 drives	Total Cost	Cost Per TB
WD Red Plus	4	99.79	8	399.16	$49.90	16	598.74	$37.42	24	798.32	$33.26
WD Red Plus	6	151.22	12	604.88	$50.41	24	907.32	$37.81	36	1209.76	$33.60
WD Red Plus	8	172.99	16	691.96	$43.25	32	1037.94	$32.44	48	1383.92	$28.83
WD Red Plus	10	199.99	20	799.96	$40.00	40	1199.94	$30.00	60	1599.92	$26.67
WD Red Plus	12	229.99	24	919.96	$38.33	48	1379.94	$28.75	72	1839.92	$25.55

 

Some other thoughts on hardware:

• Given I was already locked in on CPU, I found the MSI Pro B550M-VC Wifi which has 8x SATA connections (perfect for 8 drive bays), dual M.2, and 4x PCIEx16 slots for expansion.  This was kind of my best choice for Ryzen platform mATX with plenty of SATA and PCIE slots.  Unfortunately no ECC RAM though... should I be concerned?
• I went with a 650W Platinum full modular power supply, aiming for reliability and longevity, pretty sure 650W will be enough
• Graphics: RTX 3050 is kind of a spicy choice for a NAS, but I was planning on using it with Plex for video transcoding (I do have some 4K content and don't want stuttering with multiple streams).  Might be overkill.
• RAM: I went with 64GB (4x16GB sticks) thinking that will be more than enough for a large cache, but it's probably too much considering I only have 24TB right now.  Let's call it future-proofing since RAM is cheap.  No option for ECC with this hardware combo unfortunately.
• OS: Planning on trying my hand at TrueNAS Scale, I expect it will be a pretty smooth setup.
• Boot drive: I was thinking I'd use a 1TB Samsung M.2 drive for boot drive, but everything I read seems to indicate it will be way overkill and better repurposed as the overflow cache; I could use a SATA SSD drive for my boot drive but will be using all 8 SATA ports on the mobo for the 8 hot-swap sleds.  Instead I chose to get a smaller cheap M.2 NVME drive (like 256GB) and have one spare M.2 slot if I want to put a drive in there in the future.

What do you think, how did I do?

[SFN_Alpha]

Well I second-guessed myself and actually decided to return the 6TB drives and will instead utilize 4x 12TB drives.  The cost is essentially the same, but the 12TB drives at a start will only use up 4 of the bays which means I will be able to add 4 more drives in the future (48TB if I stick with 12 TB drives).  This also means the 64GB RAM might make more sense, if the "1GB RAM per TB storage" rule of thumb holds true...

 

I also returned the Samsung 1TB M.2 drive and got a cheapo 256gb OEM M.2 module for the boot drive.

[SFN_Alpha]

Update: I spent about 2 hours assembling key components of the system this morning, everything went smoothly for the most part, but I found that the system fan headers on the motherboard are too far away to plug into the top exhaust fans. I've ordered a couple of extensions that should help.

 

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the fit of the components and cable routing. The RTX 3050 is pretty compact (for a 2-slot card), and doesn't require obnoxious power connections. Most important of all, I was able to finally find a use for the stacks of red SATA cables I've been hoarding over the years!

 

 

I also put in three Corsair 'Quiet Edition' fans (one AF120 and two AF140) I had sitting in a box instead of the Noctuas, so a 120mm in the back of the case replacing the included fan with the case and two 140mm fans up top. I'll decide based on the noise whether I want to replace them with PWM units. 

[SFN_Alpha]

I completed assembly and fired up the system this morning, other than a tediously long POST for the first startup everything seems to be working as intended which is great!

 

I created a bootable install USB for installing TrueNAS Scale on the WD 256GB M.2 drive, I ran into a "Bad Shim Signature" error at first that a quick Google search showed was due to secure boot so I disabled it in the UEFI which fixed the problem. The install took less than 5 minutes and sort of surprised me because at the end after reboot the interface is a very simple command line that just says "web service active" with the IP address.  It gives some numerical menu options but nothing there to really do so I disconnected the monitor and keyboard and this thing is truly a server now.

 

Next, I logged into the web interface by typing the server's network IP address in Firefox from a different computer and I really appreciate the polished management interface. Went through a pretty logical step-by-step following the quick-start guide; all of the 12TB drives were detected right away and easily set up in a pool.  I walked through the typical options based on a quick start guide and everything "just works" which is great.  I was also able to quickly install the Plex app and during install one of the config drop downs for graphics was already populated with the RTX 3050 card so I assume that means we're in good shape from a stream transcoding standpoint.  Now begins the process of migrating all data over to the new server, plus setting up some port forwarding and network shares for various access needs.

 

One other finding, I need to replace the two 92mm fans that cool the hard drive sleds, they are way louder than I want and sort of high-pitched.  The chassis fans I put in are completely silent so I'm happy with them and won't bother trying to implement any kind of PWM fans.