Hello!
I’m planning to build my first Unraid server. I’ve had a QNAP TS-251+ for about four years, but now is the time to make the switch to something custom that I can have full control over. I’ve bene looking around for about two weeks researching parts and planning my set up. I initially had planned to use an old i5 4670k but I really want to use the Fractal Design Node 304, and finding a mini ITX board with the LGA1150 turned out hard, and quite expensive when I actually could find something. So I think I’m all set on buying new hardware instead.
Budget is around $500-600 without hard drives. Preferably as little as possible.
Use case:
I’m going to use this mainly as a NAS and to run Nextcloud plus a couple of other small web applications with me as the single user. At the moment I’m not using Plex, but there’s a possibility I will want to do that in the future to stream/transcode to my TV. My TV right now is only 1080p, but it’s got a few years on it’s neck and I will probably get a new one in a year or two so if I can stream 4k that would be sweet. I would like the ability to spin up a temporary VM or two. For example, if I find some kind of software I’m interested in I usually make a VM with Ubuntu server on it to try it out. Most likely I won’t ever need a VM with a GUI for the OS. There’s quite a big possibility that I will find more services to host in the future, so a little overhead in terms of power would be preferable.
List of services/applications that I know right now I want to run :
(i’m guessing this will grow as I get used to and explore the capabilities of Unraid)
- Nextcloud
My current NC instance is running in a VM on my Qnap. I probably want to continue having NC in a separate VM. - Wallabag
- Snapdrop
- Maria DB server
- Organizr
- Quassel Core
The parts that I’ve come up with thus far
-
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
I chose this cause of it size and price, while still being seemingly able to move air through it quite nice -
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
I’m unsure whether this CPU is enough for me, but I chose it cause the price and saw it being used in a couple of other builds when researching. -
M/B: ASRock Fatal1ity B450 Gaming-ITX/ac
The cheapest mini-ITX board I could find with AM4 socket, 4 sata ports, Intel NIC -
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black DDR4 3200MHz 2x8GB (CMK16GX4M2B3200C16)
I think 16GB might be a bit overkill for me but the price difference between 2x4GB and 2x8GB was only about $15 - PSU: Undecided. I currently have an old “be quiet! KRAFT 600W BQ K-600W” that has been lying around I think I’m gonna start with. Though I’m thinking I might wanna get a new fresh one if I’m gonna run a server 24/7. I’d happily take advice on this and/or any suggestions for a stable, silent and budget friendly PSU.
-
Cache storage: Kingston A2000 M.2 250GB
Cheapest M.2 drive I could find. - Array storage: I currently have 2x2TB WD Red that has been used in a RAID 1 array in my QNAP. One of them has power on hours for 4 years, the other one for 2,5 years. I plan on starting with these and getting one or two new 4TB drives in the coming months. Need advice on the most stable and quiet drives.
Couple of points I thought I’d mention:
- Please note that I’m from Sweden so any deals probably won’t apply.
- I’m not sure yet what kind of “add ons”/“plugins” I would like to run
- It’s unlikely I would need more than 6 drives in the near future (at least 4 years)
- For any VM use, it’s highly unlikely I would ever need to run an OS with a GUI. But if possible, always nice to have the opportunity.
- The server will be located in my bedroom, so I need it to be as close to silent as it can get on idle.
- I won’t be running or storing anything critical for the first month or two. I plan on messing around with Unraid and learning as much as I can. In the mean time I will keep all important data on my desktop computer and on an external drive.
Questions:
- Is there any parts you would swap out for something different?
- Would a Ryzen 5 3400G make any difference for my use case? I’m uncertain on the “power” of the Ryzen 3 3200G. The price is 150% (~$100 vs ~$150) for the Ryzen 5 in Sweden compared to the Ryzen 3. Would I be good to go with the Ryzen 3 and make the upgrade when the 5xxx APU’s are available (if needed). As far as I understand, they will be compatible with the B450 boards?
- Is there anywhere I can shell out a few more bucks to make it quieter?
- Is there anywhere I can shave off a few bucks without making it noisier?
- I need advice on the most budget friendly 4TB hard drives which are stable and quiet. If there’s 8TB where I can find a sweet spot for most bang for the buck, I’ll consider that.
- How important is ECC ram? I went with normal ram for now cause of budget, but the M/B supports it if I want to go ECC in the future.
- If I feel the CPU and case fans are too loud, I might consider swapping them out and would gladly take suggestions on what to replace them with
I think I’ve got everything covered, might have missed something, will make a reply to this thread if I come up with anything more.
If you read up to this point, thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any advice!