Rebuilding Plex and NAS setup into single Host

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Vengance_01

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Current Build. All Parts ordered minus case. Less than haft the cost of my previous without case. Old purposed build was a 1000$ with a Ryzen 6 core and Server AM4 Mobo

Intel Xeon E3-1265L V3 109$ has onboard GPU so I will pass this to my windows or Linux VM for hardware encoding
Super Micro X10SLL-F Ebay 74-89$
32GB DDR3 4x8GB sticks ECC Samsung Chips Ordered 65$ on mobo HCL for memory
Samsung 64GB USB 3.1 Flash drive boot disk ESXi/unraid/Proxmon 13$
Inland Pro 480GB SSD ESXi/unraid/Proxmon Datastore 60$(right balance for speed, cost and brand I trust)
Noctua LP Heatsink+Fan Have
Dell H200 8 Port HBA Mini SAS/SATA in IT mode 32$
EVGA BQ 500W Semi Modular ATX PSU 65$
HDDs 5x 4TB 7200RPM ZFS already configured have
Mics Cables 25$

Total Without Case 450$

I bit the bullet and bought the SilverStone Technology 2U Rackmount Server Case with 8 X 3.5 Hot Swap Bays Micro-ATX Support RM21-308.

Quite expensive but has 8 bays, SAS/SATA backplane, and can fit in a 19inch deep network rack. It was impossible to find a decent case that was rack mountable and fit in my small network rack. Uses standard hardware so its a case that will last me many server builds.
 
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What are your goals with the build other than combining everything into one box?
Noise? Expand ability? How many drives do you have currently do you think you'll need more at any point?

IMO that case seems really pricey for what amounts to a 8-bay hot swap ~ be it may it looks really nice and has some cool features. ~note: the SAS card you listed will need a SFF-8087 to SFF-8643 cable.
I'm a big fan of the Fractal Design 7 and 7 XL since they came out, you can fit a crazy amount of drives in those cases.

If you haven't checked it out unRAID is my OS of choice for plex media storage especially around expanding/adding space~ it does VMs/docker containers/gpu pass through etc as well ~ only drawback is, its not free.
 
you will want ECC unREG ram.
will you be passing the HBA through to a VM? it works but updates to either the host proxmox or VM can cause instability in the array. requires some maintenance and monitoring.
GPU passthrough is nice.

you could actually configure ZFS on proxmox and pass storage into a VM and do a file server that way.
OSX can be installed on proxmox with a ryzen based CPU (useless really, but cool)
 
Work has been crazy getting a remote environment up. Stupid covid19 but thanks for the info. Will respond with thought to your guys post when my brain is not mush
 
Well here is my budget build. I have changed course with my new rack mount setup and wanting to cut down on costs. Just need a case. Needs to be under 19 inch depth wise

Intel Xeon E3-1265L V3 109$ has onboard GPU so I will pass this to my windows or Linux VM for hardware encoding
Super Micro X10SLL-F Ebay 74-89$
32GB DDR3 4x8GB sticks ECC Samsung Chips Ordered 65$ on mobo HCL for memory
Samsung 64GB USB 3.1 Flash drive boot disk ESXi/unraid/Proxmon 13$
Inland Pro 480GB SSD ESXi/unraid/Proxmon Datastore 60$
Noctua LP Heatsink+Fan Have
Dell H200 8 Port HBA Mini SAS/SATA in IT mode 32$
EVGA BQ 500W Semi Modular ATX PSU 65$
HDDs 5x 4TB 7200RPM ZFS already configured have
Mics Cables/Fan Replacements 55$

Total Without Case 475$

Here is the top contender but expensive
iStarUSA M-280-MATX
http://www.istarusa.com/en/istarusa/products.php?model=M-280-MATX

Here is one that might fit the bill with an extra 5.25 to 3x3.5 HDD cage
http://www.plinkusa.net/webe239.htm#

They are local so I am going to see if I can do local pickup and save on shipping

Anyone else have ideas on a nice 2-3U case under 19inch depth that is rack mountable with hot-swap bays if possible and can accept standard ATX PSU's
 
I am in a similar boat as you because I am running out of space in my server and having a tough time deciding what to do. Keep everything all in one or separate out the storage.

But everything I have read says that, while its possible to emulate the NAS, it is not recommended. You add a more complexity and an additional point of failure to the setup. I think separate managed storage is the way to go. Easier to setup, every user has their own space and may even create a shared space.

As much as I dont want to spend the money, I feel like im going down the path of a synology NAS and reconfiguring the server with a hypervisor and VM's on the hardware raid. Synology seems spendy, but after pricing out a white box solution, it ends up about 75% of the cost and a bunch more complexity. Granted with way more expansion capability but way more than I need.

The Synology DS1618+ isnt cheap, but it looks so capable and I can see myself basically using it forever.
 
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The Lurker said:
I am in a similar boat as you because I am running out of space in my server and having a tough time deciding what to do. Keep everything all in one or separate out the storage.

But everything I have read says that, while its possible to emulate the NAS, it is not recommended. You add a more complexity and an additional point of failure to the setup. I think separate managed storage is the way to go. Easier to setup, every user has their own space and may even create a shared space.

As much as I dont want to spend the money, I feel like im going down the path of a synology NAS and reconfiguring the server with a hypervisor and VM's on the hardware raid. Synology seems spendy, but after pricing out a white box solution, it ends up about 75% of the cost and a bunch more complexity. Granted with way more expansion capability but way more than I need.

The Synology DS1618+ isnt cheap, but it looks so capable and I can see myself basically using it forever.
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I like to tinker so a prebuilt system is out the window. Need power to do transcoding as I share my Plex server with several family and friends.
 
Vengance_01 said:
I like to tinker so a prebuilt system is out the window. Need power to do transcoding as I share my Plex server with several family and friends.
Click to expand...

That's why transcoding would stay on a separate machine with a beefy processor or a dedicated vm.

Have you considered just building a separate freenas?
 
Vengance_01 said:
I like to tinker so a prebuilt system is out the window. Need power to do transcoding as I share my Plex server with several family and friends.
Click to expand...
If you have the pcie ports available for it you could consider a GPU for hardware transcode so you need a less powerful CPU.
You can get a gpu under $100 that can handle 5-7 streams (at 1080p), or if you have an old spare one it might be able to work too.
 
The Lurker said:
That's why transcoding would stay on a separate machine with a beefy processor or a dedicated vm.

Have you considered just building a separate freenas?
Click to expand...
Well I bought most of the parts. Another reason is to do it within the same VM host is to have my ups software gracefully shutdown the Nas and other critical VMs. Also I would like it to be racked
 
Spartacus09 said:
If you have the pcie ports available for it you could consider a GPU for hardware transcode so you need a less powerful CPU.
You can get a gpu under $100 that can handle 5-7 streams (at 1080p), or if you have an old spare one it might be able to work too.
Click to expand...
Yes that's true. I am going to use the onboard gpu of the Xeon chip I bought and pass it to the windows VM. If not I will have room to add a vid card and that could be passed through to the VM as well.
 
Parts are trickling in. I am going to be waiting a while as my Ram is coming from china and the HBA card :/
 
Here is an update: Server case is in but I looked at the wrong depth numbers. So to make it fit in the rack I will need to do some trickery. Progress on the build.
 

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Hey! Sorry to resurrect this thread, I am building a very similar system (same case, asrock rack x470D4U / 3600 with H310 IT controller). How did this work out for you in the end?
 
ttvd said:
Hey! Sorry to resurrect this thread, I am building a very similar system (same case, asrock rack x470D4U / 3600 with H310 IT controller). How did this work out for you in the end?
Click to expand...
Turned out great. Make sure your PSU is modular as not alot of room. Stock cooling is a bit loud at full tilt. Other than that everything turned out great. Ones of the only cases I found to fit my small rack I used in my garage.
 
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