Advice needed for HTPC/Plex-Server sub 1500€ if possible

[Laurensvdg]

Hi people!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor	$209.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-D9L 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler	$51.84 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Asus - ROG Strix B450-I Gaming Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	$131.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$144.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$84.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card	$165.89 @ OutletPC
Case	BitFenix - Portal (White) Mini ITX Tower Case	$136.98 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply	Corsair - SF 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply	$85.43 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1521.68
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$1491.68
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-16 08:07 EDT-0400

This is what I thought might be a very capable HTPC on which i could store all my Blurays and stuff and could also do some light gaming on. 

I am planning to buy most of the parts next month when black friday sales HOPEFULLY lower that price to a more adequate level

Most of the Parts are still subject to change since i don't know if i will be able to get any good deals on them (for example the cpu - the ryzen 5 2600 seems more reasonable right now, but last year they sold both the 1600 and the 1600x for 143€ on mindfactory...)

 

What I'm really unsure about is the gpu (are all 1050 tis created equal and i just chose the cheapest?) and the harddrives. I tried to find an answer, but most people who talk about NAS harddrives probably do more than watch 2-3 movies a week. I don't know if I really need my harddrives to be helium-filled and i highly doubt that they are going to be under any stress if i just want to store 150 blurays and occasionally watch one of them, so a reality check would be highly appreciated.

 

Btw. : I have a Strix 1070 ti in my main pc and want to swap it over to the HTPC once there is a better upgrade option than the rtx 2080. Will the 450 watt PSU be enough? I used the BeQuiet PSU calculator  which said something like 380 Watts onder load with a light overclock, but the outervision calculator told me to get a 1000 Watt PSU  

 

I hope you guys can help me a little with the part selection. Thank you in advance

[paddy-stone]

Just changed a couple of things...

 

This build if want an RGB tech showcase type thing, to display 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor	$209.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - MasterLiquid Lite 240 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$59.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$93.13 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$154.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$84.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	MSI - Radeon RX 580 8GB ARMOR OC Video Card	$238.00 @ B&H
Case	Thermaltake - View 31 TG RGB ATX Mid Tower Case	$94.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$79.89 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1555.55
	Mail-in rebates	-$60.00
	Total	$1495.55
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-16 08:50 EDT-0400

 

 

 

 

Or, this build for an out of the way, tucked in a  nook build 

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor	$209.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - MasterLiquid Lite 240 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$59.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$69.61 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$139.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$84.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - IronWolf 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$239.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	MSI - Radeon RX 580 8GB ARMOR OC Video Card	$238.00 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design - Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case	$103.80 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$79.89 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
Case Fan	NoiseBlocker - NB-ELoop B12-P 77.9 CFM 120mm Fan
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1515.84
	Mail-in rebates	-$50.00
	Total	$1465.84
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-16 08:47 EDT-0400

 

 

Just my personal preference if building a system right now.

 

[epic_ziver_D]

I don't think an Ironwolf would be needed for 2 drives but it really depends on how much time a day do you want them to be spinning. (for 24hr operation you probably want Ironwolf/Reds and if its just "When I turn on my TV" or whenever you want to use it that a Barracuda/Blue would work well). Now, will you get Plex Pass for GPU transcoding and how many devices do you want to stream to? and what devices/files (Would a lot of transcoding be necessary)? 

 

EDIT: I would recommend a higher wattage PSU (550/650+) generally you can find not much more expensive ones, I would recommend going SF600 or if you can go the normal size PSU route then, RM650x (2018), that is if you choose to switch case.

[paddy-stone]

If you don't like the cases by all means change it to something you Do like... with the cooling too, I have that cooler and it's a very good cooler for the price, but if you don't want an AIO water cooled one, just pick a decent air cooler..

 

If you're not gonna OC, or if only doing a mild-ish OC then you can stick with the one that comes with the CPU as it's fine for that usage. The fractal design node 802 is perfect IMO for a NAS build with the amount of bays it has, and is easy enough to work in, plus leaves tons of room for expansion down the years as your collection grows. You could just add a SATA pci-e card, or a LSI i8 card for cheap-ish expansion if needed.

[epic_ziver_D]

Also can agree with @paddy-stone about Fractal Node series (Although I think he means Node 804), all 3 (804, 304, 202) are good and depend if you end up going with Mini ITX or Micro ATX, and if you want full size ATX PSU. I would compare the specs to what you end up getting and getting the smallest one (Altho with 202 you might have many many cooling issues). It is harder to build with the smaller ones but trust me if it fits with specs (And check every single thing you buy) then do it (Also 202 will have some GPU limitations).

If you want to keep it simple just go with 804 like recommended above.

[Laurensvdg]

3 minutes ago, epic_ziver_D said:

I don't think an Ironwolf would be needed for 2 drives but it really depends on how much time a day do you want them to be spinning. (for 24hr operation you probably want Ironwolf/Reds and if its just "When I turn on my TV" or whenever you want to use it that a Barracuda/Blue would work well). Now, will you get Plex Pass for GPU transcoding and how many devices do you want to stream to? and what devices/files (Would a lot of transcoding be necessary)? 

The main idea was to just leave it on all the time... It wont stream to many devices; Only my pc and probably my brothers stuff, so... maybe 3 devices at the same time atmost. I don't expect more than 10 gigs of read per day. It would mostly be straight to a pc; in some very weird events it might be to an ipad or TV (but not regularly). I thought the 2600x would be plenty to handle the transcoding and never thought of GPU transcoding before to be honest...

[Laurensvdg]

15 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

If you don't like the cases by all means change it to something you Do like... with the cooling too, I have that cooler and it's a very good cooler for the price, but if you don't want an AIO water cooled one, just pick a decent air cooler..

 

If you're not gonna OC, or if only doing a mild-ish OC then you can stick with the one that comes with the CPU as it's fine for that usage. The fractal design node 802 is perfect IMO for a NAS build with the amount of bays it has, and is easy enough to work in, plus leaves tons of room for expansion down the years as your collection grows. You could just add a SATA pci-e card, or a LSI i8 card for cheap-ish expansion if needed.

Thanks a lot  I really like the look of the portal chassis, but i will definitly give the fractal cases some consideration! Since the pc is going to be in the living room i just wanted to go with something "special" with no windows and no cube-pc look, but the drawbacks of that round shape seem to be pretty bad...

[epic_ziver_D]

14 minutes ago, Laurensvdg said:

The main idea was to just leave it on all the time... It wont stream to many devices; Only my pc and probably my brothers stuff, so... maybe 3 devices at the same time atmost. I don't expect more than 10 gigs of read per day. It would mostly be straight to a pc; in some very weird events it might be to an ipad or TV (but not regularly). I thought the 2600x would be plenty to handle the transcoding and never thought of GPU transcoding before to be honest...

If you want to leave it on then id stick with the HDDs because the biggest difference with NAS HDDs is the number of drives that can be put in 1 case (How much the drive vibrates) and better 24/7 operation. If you plan to use it daily / a lot, I would recommend Plex Pass for the mobile device compatibility and the Hardware Acceleration for Transcoding (Especially if you have a good GPU like in you're the case)

Also if you plan to do some gaming on it I would be careful as gaming while Plex is transcoding will be annoying.

Also what OS do you plan to use?

[Laurensvdg]

7 minutes ago, epic_ziver_D said:

If you want to leave it on then id stick with the HDDs because the biggest difference with NAS HDDs is the number of drives that can be put in 1 case (How much the drive vibrates) and better 24/7 operation. If you plan to use it daily / a lot, I would recommend Plex Pass for the mobile device compatibility and the Hardware Acceleration for Transcoding (Especially if you have a good GPU like in you're the case)

Also if you plan to do some gaming on it I would be careful as gaming while Plex is transcoding will be annoying.

Also what OS do you plan to use?

Thx for the advice

 

I was thinking about a 20 bucks windows 10 pro key. Linux is still a bit scary

[epic_ziver_D]

24 minutes ago, Laurensvdg said:

Thx for the advice

 

I was thinking about a 20 bucks windows 10 pro key. Linux is still a bit scary

If you want the light gaming that might be the best choice if you don't want to mess with Linux, but if you want I would look into FreeNAS options and having a VM for gaming (Would be better with a future upgrade to 8c+ CPU). Because FreeNAS does network shares much much easier and has a Plex plugin. Windows still would work for just about anything (altho Home will probably be enough). Just a tip if you can avoid gaming with Plex open because in my experience it greatly increases ping and packet loss (Forgot to mention that earlier).

[paddy-stone]

8 hours ago, epic_ziver_D said:

Also can agree with @paddy-stone about Fractal Node series (Although I think he means Node 804), all 3 (804, 304, 202) are good and depend if you end up going with Mini ITX or Micro ATX, and if you want full size ATX PSU. I would compare the specs to what you end up getting and getting the smallest one (Altho with 202 you might have many many cooling issues). It is harder to build with the smaller ones but trust me if it fits with specs (And check every single thing you buy) then do it (Also 202 will have some GPU limitations).

If you want to keep it simple just go with 804 like recommended above.

Hahaha. yes I did indeed mean the 804, sorry haven't slept in over 36 hours. I actually have an 804 myself for my main rig now, I did use it just for a NAS build before but now have consolidated into the one machine... so it's doing many duties right now as my main rig, also for plex and NAS use, and VMs and other assorted goodness... I am glad I have the Ryzen 1700 in there for sure   - For the NAS side of it I am using an LSI HBA SAS 2011-i8 IIRC, but given the tiredness might have said the wrong model, but anyways gives me another 8 SATA ports via the breakoutcables, which are also very handy in making a nice neat transition instead of having 8 SATA cables.