First Home Server Build

[tmayne786]

This is my first home server build. I am doing this for a friend so if anyone can please advise me on the parts I've chosen and how I would go about setting it up be appreciated. His uses will be as follows:

- File sharing among 2 computers, 2 tablets, 5 smart phones, over gigabit Ethernet LAN and WiFi AC mixed network. Possible scenario: 5 users reading/writing multi GB files to/from data array
- Media streaming to HTPC and possibly all other devices, possibly 3 direct streams 1080p and possibly 1 - 2 simultaneous 1080p streams (most probably won't have any transcoding, but nice to know in case ever need be)
- Would like either the ability to stream 4K content, or have the upgrade ability to add the feature
- Remote access to network and files
- Remote backup of files from office / weekly basis
- Headless, or not, but should be easy to maintain by friend without too much tweaking or running command lines
- As power efficient as possible, will be on 24/7



EXAMPLE SCENARIO: All actions done simultaneously

x2 1080p streams: 1 to HTPC connected via Ethernet, and another tablet connected via WiFi
x1 on the fly transcode 1080p to a 720p smartphone
x3 users reading/writing multi GB files to data pool drives
x1 transferring via FTP download torrents from seed box



As far as the data array, my idea was as follows:

Seagate STEB5000100
Quantity: 3
Size: 3.5"
Capacity: 5TB (15TB)
Raid 5
Purpose: Mass storage of all files/media. Serve files to all devices, possibly 5 users. transfer media to HTPC and other devices 1080p streaming, possibly 2 or 3 live transcodes simultaneously

WD Green WD20EZRX
Quantity: 2
Size: 3.5"
Capacity: 2TB (4TB)
Raid 1
Purpose: Store most important documents [which will also be backed up to another off site external hard drive) + Backup all devices 3 - 7 day intervals + Offsite Backup of office files 3 - 7 day interval

Toshiba MQ01ABD100
Quantity: 1
Size: 2.5"
Capacity: 1TB
Purpose: FTP files/media from shared seedbox server for virus scanning and extra storage before being moved to main 15TB storage array for sharing. Will not require heavy reading or writing.

Patriot Blaze SSD PB60GS25SSDR
Quantity: 1
Size: 2.5"
Capacity: 60GB
Purpose: Server OS Drive


Looking at the above usage and drives, I wanted to ask the following:

1. Is the CPU/Motherboard/RAM combo good enough to handle the tasks outlined above? If not, please suggest alternative HW
2. Can the motherboard handle 2 different raid arrays at the capacity listed above? Or should I buy a hardware RAID card?
3. What server OS should I install? FreeNas, Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2012 R2? If none, please suggest alternative OS that
4. What file system should I use? Is ZFS better?
5. Should I add in a APC?
6. What software would I use to backup the office computers + backup home computers + remote access to server from phone or computer?

Any suggestions/advice are appreciated and requested.

The Proposed Build:

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($62.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.90 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Patriot Blaze 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEB5000100) ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEB5000100) ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Expansion 5TB Desktop External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEB5000100) ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($33.30 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $901.49



As a side note here is a comparison I did for my friend who was planning on buying a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140:

 

[ToddW2]

For $900 if you went used you could get much higher end equipment with longer life.

I believe they suggest 2000 pass-mark per-stream w/transcoding, so you'd need 6000 just to stream 3 things at once at 1080p that CPU is only a 5000 passmark scorer. So just doing that 1 task = no CPU left for the rest of what you want to do, even running the OS.

Used E3 Xeons are affordable, and RAM is like desktop prices, you can get new old stock 2TB RE or RE4 for ~85-105$ for a higher reliable drive w/better performance...

Example:
Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz - PassMark: 9200
Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 @ 3.70GHz - PassMark 9500
I mention the E5 because sometimes you can score on the motherboard for an E5, and in that case you can run RDIMM RAM which is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, and v2 = DDR3 = even better on the wallet and power. And I know the E5-1620 is a cheap used CPU. The v3 stuff will be more $$, so I'd look for v2 stuff myself.

 

[tmayne786]

Thanks. As far as streaming 3 1080p content at once, are we talking about just direct streaming from 1080p source to 1080p display, or on-the-fly transcoding of all 3 1080p streams? I was under the impression that streaming without transcoding is not very CPU intensive as say on-the-fly transcoding. At most, there may be 1 stream transcoding, but that probably wont even be the case since all devices he has are 1080p capable.

 

[ToddW2]

I was talking about what you said. Transcoding. I got the # from you.

Thanks. As far as streaming 3 1080p content at once, are we talking about just direct streaming from 1080p source to 1080p display, or on-the-fly transcoding of all 3 1080p streams? I was under the impression that streaming without transcoding is not very CPU intensive as say on-the-fly transcoding. At most, there may be 1 stream transcoding, but that probably wont even be the case since all devices he has are 1080p capable.

Was this supposed to be removed then?

2 or 3 live transcodes simultaneously

That's what you wrote in your thread

From what you said I believe to be true too, streaming is not CPU intensive if you're not transcoding.

 

[tmayne786]

My apologies I messed up the numbering. Here is a possible scenario that would be used on the setup:

x2 1080p streams. 1 to HTPC connected via Ethernet, and another tablet connected via WiFi
x1 on the fly transcode 1080p to a 720p smartphone
x3 users reading/writing multi GB files to data pool drives
x1 transferring via FTP download torrents from seed box

If all of this was done simultaneously, could the CPU handle this without crashing or overheating or completely choking.

 

[ToddW2]

What are your plans for network connectivity for all that going on at once, and all of requiring network access.

Onboard Ethernet
1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps

1 port for all your data needs with multiple users... I think you're CPU is fine As moving big files will zap your network easily, especially multiple users and streaming so you won't be able to max out your CPU before your network is tapped.

 

[tmayne786]

What are your plans for network connectivity for all that going on at once, and all of requiring network access. 1 port for all your data needs with multiple users... I think you're CPU is fine As moving big files will zap your network easily, especially multiple users and streaming so you won't be able to max out your CPU before your network is tapped.

To be quite honest, the scenario I outlined is sort of overkill as I doubt that would happen in my friends house, and even if it does they wont all run simultaneously, especially the backups will happen middle of the night hours.

As for network, I believe he has a gigabit router. The HTPC will be connected to the router, and the Server as well obviously. I believe 1 PC will be connected via gigabit powerline, and the rest of the users will be connected via WiFi AC.

Example of a possible scenario [but most likely just 1 person really will use the network at once, but its nice to know where the limit is]:

x3 1080p direct streams running [x1 gigabit ethernet, x2 WiFi AC]
x3 users reading/writing 2 GB file. [x1 gigabit powerline, x2 WiFi AC]

Will this result in sub 50-75 MB/s read/writes? Will the 1080p streams stutter or become unwatchable? I can always upgrade the CPU later to a XEON if needed, but I really would like to know how much I can push this core i3 to the limit.

Also, I seen some motherboards with Dual Gigabit LAN, is that something I should consider, would that make the throughput higher on traffic?

For $900 if you went used you could get much higher end equipment with longer life.

Used E3 Xeons are affordable, and RAM is like desktop prices, you can get new old stock 2TB RE or RE4 for ~85-105$ for a higher reliable drive w/better performance...

Example:
Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz - PassMark: 9200
Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 @ 3.70GHz - PassMark 9500
I mention the E5 because sometimes you can score on the motherboard for an E5, and in that case you can run RDIMM RAM which is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, and v2 = DDR3 = even better on the wallet and power. And I know the E5-1620 is a cheap used CPU. The v3 stuff will be more $$, so I'd look for v2 stuff myself.

This looks interesting for myself when I make a personal home server. I am currently building my own mini-itx build with a Xeon E3-1246 V3 processor paired with a AsRock H97 motherboard. Are the v2 Xeons considerably less in price, and what motherboard combo would be good for them as a server? Also, RDIMM RAM is different from the RAM im getting with this build? Also is the wattage consumption much greater for the V2 Xeons?

 

[skiddy]

Looking at the above usage and drives, I wanted to ask the following:

1. Is the CPU/Motherboard/RAM combo good enough to handle the tasks outlined above? If not, please suggest alternative HW
2. Can the motherboard handle 2 different raid arrays at the capacity listed above? Or should I buy a hardware RAID card?
3. What server OS should I install? FreeNas, Windows Home Server, Windows Server 2012 R2? If none, please suggest alternative OS that
4. What file system should I use? Is ZFS better?
5. Should I add in a APC?
6. What software would I use to backup the office computers + backup home computers + remote access to server from phone or computer?

Any suggestions/advice are appreciated and requested.

I'll try to answer most of the questions:

1. The CPU should be able to handle what you specified just fine. If you need more than 1 1080p transcode at a time, you will be cutting it close to the CPU's limits. You are correct that Plex direct play uses minimal processing resources.
   
   
2. It depends on the OS. With FreeNAS you would not use hardware RAID, you use ZFS. With a Linux flavor, you're safe using software RAID in most instances as it's fairly reliable and easy to recover in most situations. In Windows, Intel RAID and software RAID have typically been described sub-par in performance/recovery/reliability, but so is a cheap hardware controller. A nice RAID controller will cost you a good chunk of change and is almost always a better option over basic software RAID. In summary, you should be safe with onboard, but always be familiar with the recovery process of the solution you choose.
   I noticed that the board has 6 SATA ports, and you have 7 drives. You can always get a cheap controller to run the 1TB drive, or turn it to USB. I also noticed the 5TB drives are USB, are you planning on pulling them out of the chassis? You obviously want RAID drives on SATA.
   
   
3. Most people wouldn't recommend FreeNAS with the hardware you spec'd. In short, with the way ZFS works, bad non-ECC RAM can corrupt all of your data. If you are hard set on FreeNAS, its strongly recommended to go the ECC route (new processor, motherboard & RAM). You also want ~1GB RAM per 1TB used in ZFS.
   There are plenty of Linux NAS builds out there which are good options as well. I set my secondary server up on OpenMediaVault and have been pleased with it. It uses linux software RAID, has an easy Plex plug-in, and a simple web interface to perform most of your configurations and tasks. UnRAID is another popular one, but it's not free IIRC.
   If you're most comfortable with Windows, it may be the best option for you. I've heard people say they love storage spaces, but I'm not familiar with strengths/weaknesses of it. I recently moved my Plex server from Server 2012 to Ubuntu, and I do miss some aspects of Windows for simplicity and familiarity. Getting comfortable with Linux is nice though, especially with my job.
   
   
4. FreeNAS = ZFS,
   Linux (usually) = ext3/ext4
   Windows = NTFS or ReFS
   
   
5. 5) Always
   
   
6. 6) Not too savvy with this, I back up important stuff manually

Also, I seen some motherboards with Dual Gigabit LAN, is that something I should consider, would that make the throughput higher on traffic?

Most likely, no. You would need a switch that supports link aggregation which is usually not a standard feature.

 

[tmayne786]

I was thinking of replacing the Seagate 5TB HDD with these 4TB Toshiba PH3400U-1I72

Would this be a better drive for the setup? I read that the 5TB seagates are not that reliable and the Toshibas are basically rebranded WD's, which are more reliable right

 

[rhansen5_99]

Personally I have 5x of the WD Red 3TB Drives and have been pretty happy. I would however go with one drive over your mixed drive configuration. For example maybe instead of 3X5gb and 2x2gb, maybe just 4x6tb (wd red's). To get a massive 24TB. Also I have tried a couple of the Seagate 8tb drives, which are good in my opinion but they defiantly cannot be raided.

If you are going windows you could always give one drive for the important stuff and partition out a 1tb chunk for temp movie storage.

Also on the ssd if you plan on running a windows os and your Plex meta data folder on there you will run out of room eventually. Maybe pick up a 256gb ssd drive?

If you have a Microcenter around they have a pretty good deal on an AMD 8320e and mobo for $115 AR, or the Intel 4670k and 40$ off a motherboard.