Goal:

  • 16TB mirrored on 2 drives (raid 1)
  • Hardware raid?
  • Immich, Jellyfin and Nextcloud. (All docker)
  • N100, 8+ GB RAM
  • 500gb boot drive ssd
  • 4 HDD bays, start with using 2

Questions:

  • Which os?
    • My though was to use hardware raid, and just set that up for the 2 hdds, then boot off an ssd with Debian (very familiar, and use it for current server which has 30+ docker containers. Basically I like and am good at docker so would like to stick to Debian+docker. But if hardware raid isn’t the best option for HDDs now a days, I’ll learn the better thing)
  • Which drives? Renewed or refurb are half the cost, so should I buy extra used ones, and just be ready to swap when the fail?
  • Which motherboard?
  • Which case?
  • JustEnoughDucksEnglish
    4•5 months ago

    If you want to build it yourself, you have to decide on size.

    Are you trying to keep it as small as possible?

    Do you want a dedicated GPU for multiple jellyfin streams? (Definitely get the Intel A380, cheap and an encoding beast)

    If you don’t want to start a rack and don’t want to go with a prebuilt NUC, there are 2 PC cases I would recommend.

    Node 304 and Node 804.

    Node 304 is mini-ITX (1 PCIe slot, 1 M.2 slot for boot OS, 4 HDDs, SFX-L PSU, and great cooling)

    Node 804 is micro-ATX (2 PCIe slots, 2 M.2 slots, 8-10 HDDs, ATX PSU, and 2 chambers for the HDDs to stay cool)

    Why do you want a N100? Is electricity very expensive where you are that idle power is a big factor? Because desktop CPUs are more powerful and the CPUs can idle down to 10W or so without a GPU and they can have way more RAM.

    Tldr; go with prebuilt NUC or go with a desktop CPU for a custom build.

    • thermal_shockEnglish
      2•5 months ago

      I just rebuilt my truenas in a node 804 and LOVE it. so much hard drive space. wanted to get the 304 for my personal backup server, but got thermal takes corev1 instead. looks uglier, but works well too.