Hi everyone. I’m on the verge of building a new NAS/Media server, and wanted to check here to see if any of you could provide some recommendations based on my goals (below) or your current builds. I currently have a Raspberry Pi 4 running some basic services (Portainer, Home Assistant, Plex, sonarr/radarr/prowlarr, sabnzbd, etc.), but would like to expand my options and capabilities as my interests in the hobby grow.

My goals:

  • Ability to have 4+ 1080p streams on Plex. Right now my Pi works surprisingly well at home with one 1080 stream, but basically shits its pants doing much more. Would like to give my parents and a friend or two access.

  • Document storage/backup. Interested in Nextcloud, but it seems people have mixed experiences here.

  • Photo storage/backup.

  • Hosting the services mentioned above, plus some extra headroom for others. I’ll probably move back to Home Assistant OS on my Pi, unless you think I should utilize it for something else.

  • OS - unRaid. Not opposed to others, but this does seem to be a great option with a lot of how-guides and videos available.

  • Storage/Drives - I honestly don’t know how much I want or need. As it stands, my partner and I probably have less than 1TB of files and photos between the two of us (being very generous with that figure). Would like to expand the media server capabilities as mentioned above.

  • Budget - $1000 max including drives.

While the details above are what I would like to achieve with this, you can also consider me an empty canvas. Open to all ideas and suggestions. Let me know if there are other details I can provide that would be helpful. Lastly, thank you all for creating such a great community here.

  • thejevansEnglish
    1•11 months ago

    I put it all under a spoiler tag because it’s a lot. Let me know if you’re interested!

    inventory/specs

    UPS

    Eaton 5SC 1000 full sine-wave inverter

    Rack

    13U enclosed rack w/casters and magnetic front door

    Networking

    TP-Link EAP225 Wifi AP

    Aruba Networks S2500-24P-US Switch

    • 24 Port Gigabit Switch
    • PoE
    • 4x SFP+ 10Gbit ports

    Servers

    Dell R720xd

    Components

    • 2x Intel Xeon E5-2667 v2 @ 3.3GHz (8-core CPUs)
    • 14x 8GB Samsung ECC 2Rx4 Dual Rank DDR3 10600R 1333MHz RAM (112 GB)
    • Intel 4P X520 NIC (2x SFP+ 10Gbit, 2x 1Gbit)
    • 2x 750W PSU
    • IDSDM 6YFN5 dual SD module
      • 2x Sandisk 16GB UHS-1 Extreme SDHC SD cards
    • PERC H710P Mini Host Bus Adapter
    • PERC H310 Host Bus Adapter
    • Dual 2.5" Hotswap Drive Backplane 0JDG3
      • 2x Crucial MX500 500GB SSD
      • 2x 2.5" Dell Hotswap Drive Caddies/Trays
    • Front Hotswap HDD Backplane
      • 12x HGST Ultrastar KP06 6TB 7200RPM HDDs
      • 12x 3.5" Dell Hotswap Drive Caddies/Trays
    • Rack Rails (They hold the server in place, but they’re missing some bearings. If the server is pulled out on the rails it may not go back. Replacing these should be less than $50)
    • Locking front panel
    • iDRAC Module

    Notes

    • Runs ~235W at idle
    • Can handle many VMs and multiple simultaneous 4k Plex transcodes
    • This is basically the best set of parts for the xx20 series Dell servers and is more capable than a lot of the xx30 units

    Dell R710

    Components

    • Rack Rails
    • Locking front panel
    • CD Drive to 2.5" Drive Adapter
      • Samsung 860 Evo 250GB SSD
    • Front Hotswap HDD Backplane
      • 6x 3.5" Dell Hotswap Drive Caddies/Trays
    • 2x 870W PSU
    • PERC H216 Host Bus Adapter
    • 2x Intel Xeon L5640 @2.26GHz (6-core CPUs)
    • 18x 4GB Samsung ECC 2Rx8 Dual Rank DDR3 10600R 1333MHz RAM (72GB)
    • Dell 0KJYDB 2xSFP+ 10Gbit NIC

    Notes

    • Set up to be an ideal backup server
    • Just add hard drives and it will be ready to go
    • iDRAC modules are available on eBay if you would like out of band management