NAS Build Recommendations

[vbailo]

So, lately I've been wanting to create a redundancy in my backup (finally), which currently sits only in Google Drive/Photos. I've seen around my area (Northern Italy) that I can get an I7 7700, 16GB RAM, GTX1650/1070 for around 200€( around 240 freedom dollars). 

 

I want it mainly as a backup and maybe a Plex server (although I'm not sure I would use it, since I use mainly streaming services). I wish I could connect it to the internet, but where I live the internet is very limited (it's 100-150MB/s but it's over 4G and has a data cap of less than 1TB. I'll probably do 

 

Would that hardware be enough for my needs? Is TrueNAS the best option to set it up? Other considerations? 

 

I also do some photo/video editing, nothing crazy, would I be able to locally work in files inside the NAS if I use RAID 4? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Yea that hardware would be more than enough here. I'd take that GPU out to save power.

 

What disk config are you using? TrueNAS is probably a good pick.

 

You probably won't use raid4 as its basically obselete now. I'd use Raid 5/6 here or the ZFS version or raidz1/z2 in TrueNAS>

[vbailo]

No clue on the disks yet, probably some cheap brand new HDD for longevity(from either Seagate or Western Digital that are brands I trust). How many disks would I need for your suggested config?

 

The performance hit would be too big from an SSD? What balances better longevity/price/performance? 

 

Getting out the GPU wouldn't hit the Plex performance? 

[Bersella AI]

6 hours ago, vbailo said:

No clue on the disks yet, probably some cheap brand new HDD for longevity(from either Seagate or Western Digital that are brands I trust). How many disks would I need for your suggested config?

At least 3 drives would be required for a RAID Z1/RAID 5 setup, and at least 4 for RAID 6/Z2.

It should also be noted that the market of affordable hard drives has been flooded with SMR-recorded ones, and it's ideal to pick up Seagate SkyHawk or WD Purple series, both of which guarantee CMR recording with reasonable pricing.

 

6 hours ago, vbailo said:

The performance hit would be too big from an SSD? What balances better longevity/price/performance? 

Performance of SSD-based storage would be limited by way slower Ethernet connections, i.e. 2.5GbE or slower. 10GbE is a good starting point, but would require additional costs.

Grab larger enterprise-grade hard drives, such as Seagate Exos or WD Ultrastar, starting from 8TB, for balanced longevity/price/performance. SSDs are faster and actually more durable than hard drives, but with way higher costs in TB/$ ratio, while smaller hard drives have compromised performance and durability (just compare them through their published datasheets).

 

6 hours ago, vbailo said:

Getting out the GPU wouldn't hit the Plex performance? 

The integrated GPU (HD 630) in Core i7-7700 is efficient enough for 4K transcoding of up to 2 streams in Plex. If there are more than 2 users watching together, consider installing the discrete GPU with the HD 630 iGPU kept enabled in BIOS settings.