fractal focus g mini Medium spec gamestream server/NAS

[niculw]

Hey

 

So after building my brother a computer and later rebuilding it in a new case with upgraded hardware, we have alot of hardware laying around. I’ve decided to use it for a small server/NAS to access from my macbook at my dorm. 

 

What i have:

i5 6600 (with stock cooler)

GTX970 (dont know if it works yet)

A salvaged Cooler Master GX550

2x4GB (i think) HyperX Fury DDR4

 

What im buying:

Fractal focus G mini

Gigabyte GA-H270N-WIFI mobo

Corsair force MP500 120GB (boot drive)

1x 2TB WD red (planning to add more with time)

Oh.. and some NT-H1 thermal paste

 

As of now im thinking of running two (maybe three) partitions. Windows Edu, FreeNAS and possibly a linux distro.

 

Ideally i wanted to run a hypervisor like vmware ESXi, but i wont have enough ram or cores to deal with multiple VM’s, but i want it to run headless. So i need a way to switch between partitions without having direct control of the computer. If anyone have a solution, you are welcome to comment

 

Components should be shipped at the beginning of June.

 

I will update with build progress and pictures.

[Electronics Wizardy]

25 minutes ago, niculw said:

As of now im thinking of running two (maybe three) partitions.

Id just use vms here, you can do some with 8gb, and get 16gb of ram soon. You don't need cores for vms, you can share cores and thats enough cpu power.

 

Id just run server 2016/windows 10 here.

 

26 minutes ago, niculw said:

Corsair force MP500 120GB

Id get a 250gb mx500 or other sata ssd insted. No need for nvme here.

 

26 minutes ago, niculw said:

So i need a way to switch between partitions without having direct control of the computer.

Unless you have vpro or impi you can't. Just run windows 2016 and vms, or do it all in windows.

 

27 minutes ago, niculw said:

TB WD red

WHy? Id go with bigger drives to save power and space, and reds really won't help here, id just get desktop drives.

[jj9987]

36 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

WHy? Id go with bigger drives to save power and space, and reds really won't help here, id just get desktop drives.

Red drives are designed for 24/7 operation in NAS environments, they are more reliable and more resistant to vibration.

 

To OP: Did you consider any kind of disk redundancy for scenarios where a drive might die?

[Electronics Wizardy]

18 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

Red drives are designed for 24/7 operation in NAS environments, they are more reliable and more resistant to vibration.

 

To OP: Did you consider any kind of disk redundancy for scenarios where a drive might die?

the relability thing doesn't seem to  be un proven. blackblaze number that are running them in dense 24/7 use and there not any better than desktop drives

 

the big feature with  red drives is tler that is very use full on hardware raid, but op isn't running hardware raid here.

[niculw]

48 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get a 250gb mx500 or other sata ssd insted. No need for nvme here.

Im doing it to save an installation slot so i later can add more storage.

7 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

To OP: Did you consider any kind of disk redundancy for scenarios where a drive might die?

I did/am, but the data i will put on it at this point isnt THAT important to have redundancy. In the future i would get more and run a redundant raid.

 

51 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id just use vms here, you can do some with 8gb, and get 16gb of ram soon. You don't need cores for vms, you can share cores and thats enough cpu power.

I will get more when the prices calm down, i think i will use vSphere, due to me already being invested in vmware, and the less windows shenanigans the better. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

20 minutes ago, niculw said:

Im doing it to save an installation slot so i later can add more storage.

I did/am, but the data i will put on it at this point isnt THAT important to have redundancy. In the future i would get more and run a redundant raid.

 

I will get more when the prices calm down, i think i will use vSphere, due to me already being invested in vmware, and the less windows shenanigans the better. 

WIth esxi id install the os on a usb stick, it likes that .

 

Also esxi want a raid card for storage as it has no hardware raid. It also can be picky about network cards, so you may want a pcie nic if you don't want to add drivers to the isnstall image.

 

You may want to go matx or atx no itx here for the slots

[niculw]

3 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

WIth esxi id install the os on a usb stick, it likes that .

 

Also esxi want a raid card for storage as it has no hardware raid. It also can be picky about network cards, so you may want a pcie nic if you don't want to add drivers to the isnstall image.

 

You may want to go matx or atx no itx here for the slots

I think ill try to inject drivers and hope it works. If it doesnt then i will either do windows server 2016 and hyper-v or make it a full on windows gaming rig with network storage (and ditch freeNAS)

 

What is most important for me is just to be able to access my documents and computer from anywhere and to get some more fps than my laptop  adding more os’s would be a bonus tho. So i guess it is just a matter of figuring out how.