First Full Home Server Build

BushMasterJM · May 25

Hello all, I need advice for building a new home server this summer. Currently I am using an old, slim OptiPlex 3020 with an SSD for the boot drive and an 8tb barracuda drive for media storage. I am wanting the PC to be a smaller size like a mini ITX or micro ATX so similar size to the Optiplex. I would like transcoding ability as I will be running Jellyfin so I am not sure if I can do that easily with just a CPU or if I would need an older GPU. I would like to run with 5 hard drives either 8tb or 12tb in RAID 6 or something similar to that configuration. I will also be using it to run a couple minecraft servers so I would like to go with between 16gb and 32gb of memory. My budget is on the cheaper side so nothing too fancy, I am mainly trying to price out everthing right now. Any advice is welcome, thanks!

Electronics Wizardy · May 25

the iGPU should be plenty for transcoding for most uses.

With 5 drives I'd go raid 5 if it was me. Probably go bigger drives too like 16-24tb drives.

That memory seems right I'd go 32 these days since the price difference is pretty small.

I'd probably go with something like a 12th gen i3 here.

BushMasterJM · May 25

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

the iGPU should be plenty for transcoding for most uses.

With 5 drives I'd go raid 5 if it was me. Probably go bigger drives too like 16-24tb drives.

That memory seems right I'd go 32 these days since the price difference is pretty small.

I'd probably go with something like a 12th gen i3 here.

Why RAID 5 instead of 6, you get 4x read speed but you loose a paridy drive. Seems like it would be better to have that extra paridy drive, maybe just a trade off of preference. Thanks for the CPU advice!

Electronics Wizardy · May 25

3 minutes ago, BushMasterJM said:

Why RAID 5 instead of 6, you get 4x read speed but you loose a paridy drive. Seems like it would be better to have that extra paridy drive, maybe just a trade off of preference. Thanks for the CPU advice!

I don't see the chance of a dual drive failure on 6 disks to be that high. And in the case of a dual drive failure restore from backups instead.