Building a PC for the first time to replace my current system and hoping for some guidance on the parts I am looking at.
Current System: Synology DS918+
Use Cases: Running all these via docker
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HTPC: Mostly direct playing. Occasionally transcoding for subtitles. Not looking to transcode 4k to 1080p. My current system has been fine.
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Home Automation: Running Home Assistant and various other services related to it.
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Immich - Starting to look into this to use as my library. This can also benefit from iGPU/GPU for ML and transcoding needs.
My Plan:
Case: Jonsbo N5. Itās on itās way and will be delivered soon. I wanted to make sure I had more than enough room to add more HDDs.
Host OS: Debian running on SSD.
ZFS for other disks:
4x 12TB in raidz2: This will be used for media (will be getting mfg rectified drives from server part deals).
4x 4TB in a mirror: This will be used for photo and data storage (Existing drives in my DS918+).
This will be my first go with ZFS. Will be using the host ssd for docker configs as well so that the HDDās are only used when accessing actual content.
Build should support graphics card (future expansion if needed) and a HBA card. Given that the board has 8 SATA portās I am not sure if I should go with HBA card now or wait until I need more? Also not sure how to pick which HBA card I should get.
Here is a build I did. I picked intel CPU with iGPU and went with 12gen to avoid running into issues that the latest generation seems to be having. Is there a board that is a better fit for what I am looking for? Everything else I just picked something that seemed reasonably priced.
PCPartPicker Part List
Welcome to the forum!
I canāt say much about ML stuff, thatās mostly a GPU thing anyway. For HTPC duties and Home Assistant, you can get away with a really small system, probably even the thing I always recommend basically to most people, the odroid h4 (+ or ultra), if only you didnāt need a GPU for ML.
12400 seems overkill. So is the z790 for only this CPU. I think you could get away with a T variant intel and H chipset motherboard. I feel like even recommending the 5600G might be overkill.
Are there any other workloads youād like to do that might justify a better CPU (although donāt just say āI wanna run Xā just to justify spending more)?
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My reasoning for the current board was something that can support both a GPU and HBA card. Given that the CPU i am working with has iGPU the GPU will be a future enhancement if the appās I run end up needing it. I noticed Immich on my Synology NAS use up quite a bit CPU for video transcoding so I thought may be it will in future could benefit from it.
Also I find more apps to run figured this would give me more flexibility.
On the CPU I agree, my thought process was run something recent for the CPU. I did not find many āTā variant chipsets on pc part picker.
I have always run intel chipsets with iGPU so never looked into AMD. Will have to read up more on it to see how Jellyfin/Plex etc work with it.
For either of these, just save yourself some headaches and go intel, for its quicksync.
made a couple of changes. Switched to a CPU with UHD 770 iGPU and a motherboard that does not have WiFi as I do not plan on using that.
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: Intel Core i5-12500 3 GHz 6-Core Processor ($175.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z790 Pro RS ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($128.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sparkle ORC OC Arc A750 8 GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Jonsbo N5 ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: Gigabyte UD750GM 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $779.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-01 14:00 EST-0500
How goes the firmware support for the odroids? Iāve seen them for a long time, especially the H3s does the manufacturer give out regular/security updates for the firmware?
Not as good as Asrock or MSI. The HC4 has received a couple of firmware updates (for petitboot - that runs on ARM). H4 is a new model, but itās seen about 5 releases so far (B1.0 to B1.05, with 1.01 and 1.03 mysteriously missing).
If we are to go by Hardkernelās support for the H3 (the older model), Iād say itās decent. I donāt remember how old the H3 series was, but the first non 1.0 BIOS was 1.02 from Aug 23, 2022 (so at least 2 years old) and the latest update is B1.17 from Sep 26, 2024.
Youāre likely not getting the latest firmware patches (itās AMI BIOS), but youāre getting bug fixes here and there. Iād say thatās better than 90% of other x86 SBC sellers out there (particularly in the mini-pc and handheld market).
The Odroid H2, released in 2018 (also x86, like h3 and h4) saw an update recently, in Sep 21, 2024, fixing some security issue.
https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-h2/hardware/h2_bios_update#bios_release
https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-h3/hardware/h3_bios_update#bios_release
https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-h4/hardware/h4_bios_update#bios_release
Looks like all the latest releases for all these boards (h2, h3, h4) are a security fix for the PKfail vulnerability. Iād celebrate that as a win, firmware support is still there for a 6yo product. But other that that, the only updates were hardware enhancements (memory detection issues and better RAM compatibility).
Even without firmware updates, Iād still recommend the odroids.
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With that kind of firmware support, Iād be more than happy to get Odroids! Thank you for this!