Thinking of Building a Server or NAS

Octavean

I’ve been considering building a server or NAS for storage as a backup for another NAS. Part of the reason is I already happen to have most of the parts I need to complete the build.

Asus ROG Strix Gaming B550 (new / never used)
G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 3200 16GB (2x8GB)
TeamGroup 1TB NVMe SSD
Antec 900 case + 3x HDD backplanes (supports 12 hot-swap drives)
Thermaltake 650w PSU
GTX 970 (if necessary)

The motherboard was obtained from Newegg with a video card during the video card drought of the pandemic. It was a bundle, I wanted the card and didn’t really care about the motherboard so it went unused.

There is an old server build in the case but the hardware is now obsolete and wasn’t very powerful even when it was first built. So only the case and PSU would be of use.

So I would only need a CPU or APU. I was initially thinking I might buy a RyZen 5 5500 from Microcenter for about ~$79 USD. I was also considering something with a built in GPU around ~$100 as well as something more powerful like the RyZen 5900XT with 16 core and 32 threads.

That’s the new market, not sure what the used market has to offer with respect to CPU.

I’d like to run a few programs, maybe docker and maybe a VM. I have a Windows Server 2022 license. I could use FreeNAS but I hate the interface.

I guess my question is if the RyZen 5 5500 is worth it?

My guess is that hardware prices are going to skyrocket soon. So either it’s make a move or wait it out.

taraf

For just a NAS it's massive overkill. But if you want to use it as a VM and docker host, it'll be fine.

My homelab VM host is a Ryzen 5 5600 w/ 128GB of RAM, on a B550 motherboard (AM4) w/ an arc a310 for hardware video encode. It idles at about 1-2% CPU even though it's hosting one always on VM (jumpbox for lab), a few containers (jellyfin, pihole, passbolt, mariadb, and grav, with the passbolt & grav instance being served up to the world through a cloudflare reverse proxy), and running my in-home FreeIPA domain. For a server that's not going to be hosting a lot of users or constant load, you really don't need a lot of horsepower: I could actually run everything that's on that server which isn't a VM from a raspberry pi and wouldn't notice the performance hit (well except maybe in Jellyfin - it would suffer for losing the hardware av1 encoder)

Octavean

taraf That is encouraging. I thought perhaps the RyZen 5 5500 with 6 cores and 12 threads might be a bit anemic and power hungry given its vintage of early 2022. I was mainly considering it for the price initially. I might be able to buy the chip sometime next week. If I add it to my list of tasks I might be able to pick it up as early as tomorrow.

ElQuintron

I'm going to follow this as I am planning on building a TrueNAS box... so far the only thing I have is an Node 804

nekkidtruth

I used to own a WD PR4100 NAS. When it shit the bed, I decided to build my own NAS server. It cost me around $1000 for the parts. I'm not at home but am happy to post my specs. I took the drives from my WD NAS and put them in my server to get me started. I personally chose Unraid and it was the best decision I ever made.

Edit: Just got home.
Intel® Core™ i5-10600K CPU @ 4.10GHz
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B460M DS3H AC Motherboard
Memory: 64 GiB DDR4
I have +/- 20 Dockers running and 1 VM

Up until this past weekend, the uptime was 296 days. I had a silly power outage though and it lasted longer than my UPS this time.

Octavean

nekkidtruth UnRAID looks like a great product. I’ve been meaning to give it a try. Nice NAS / server specs BTW.

ugly95

I salvaged a computer from an office and just started playing around with TrueNAS.

The only space pair of drives I have lying around are a couple of 500GB. Won't store much, but I'm just playing around with setting up a basic mirror.

Still not sure if I'm going to do anything with it. Maybe just basic backup and I won't even keep it on all the time.

Now I guess it's just going to be a matter of waiting until some refurb drives show up on Ebay from a cloud service cycling them out.

Prevok

Octavean Lots of people like, cannot stand it 😃

I think it's down on your expectation and experience. I have managed proper NAS and SAN at work. On TrueNAS I feel like home. It has a familiar layout, functionality, limitations. On UnRAID, I feel super constrained and hate the UI. The first time I was looking for the drives and didn't realise they were sitting there in front of me 😃

To each their own. If you just want 1 array with little management, I guess it fits the bill. If you want more, better look at TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault (not a fan of it's UI either).

nekkidtruth

Prevok TrueNAS has certainly come a LONG way. Unraid is far superior when it comes to running dockers and the plethora of software/apps though. TrueNAS has much better VM performance though.

Ultimately, you can't go wrong with either of them.

Octavean

Prevok If I am being honest, I might not be giving TrueNAS a fair shake. It's been quite a few years since I've tried it, which, means it was an earlier iteration of the OS. Also, there were some hardware related issues that caused problems and frustrations that may have unduly marred the first impressions of TrueNAS. I thought TrueNAS looked really good too until I tried it. I may have to revisit it.

I still have yet to try UnRAID so any enthusiasm I may have for the product could quickly dissipate after a trial run

I've been Meaning to try ProxMox too. This might be a good project to test things out on. Although, I still have a Server 2022 license going unused.

Anyway, I was going to make a trip to Microcenter when I could find the time but I opted instead to just order the RyZen 5 5500 from Amazon. It should arive sometime tomorrow.

BTW,I was CCNA certified for a time so I had to deal with Cisco IOS. Living in the command line is OK but not necessarily fun. Sometimes you just have to deal with an OS you might not care for,

Prevok

nekkidtruth That's true. I have just taken the habit of running my software in pure command line driven docker. Most containers I run are hosted on my Raspberry Pi4s. If I need a UI I typically use Portainer.

One thing I really like to do in command line with docker is to use ipvlan network type and assign an IP to each container, rather than have to deal with the port mapping. I believe this is something you could do in TrueNAS or Unraid, not sure where though. In command line, it's fairly easy, but you have some ground work to do.

nekkidtruth

Octavean Well this is a perfect opportunity to test each of them 😉 ProxMox has been on my list for a while as well but I never got around to it because I had intended to try Unraid but liked it so much I bought Plus for up to 16 devices and never went any further LOL

Prevok

Octavean I run both TrueNAS and Proxmox, both are good, really depends what you want to do. TrueNAS Scale, runs under Linux, as opposed to FreeNAS/TrueNAS Core. Hardware-wise, your past issues would be gone. The UI has been revamped as well.

In the TrueNAS vs. Proxmox "debate" my view is, TrueNAS is NAS first, apps or VM seconds. Apps are ok, but meh. VMs work fine (KVM hypervisor for both systems) but the UI is lacking and the configuration not so intuitive.

Promox has a UI that is quite familiar to anyone that used VMWare ESX/ESXi. I would say it's an industry-standard UI at this point. Everything is well organised, but it's a VM "only" system. If you want a NAS, or containers (outside of LXC) you have to run that in a VM, which might be better or worst for some.

I personally run my critical stuff on TrueNAS and primarily use Proxmox to try out stuff. I have seen people run everything in Proxmox and virtualize TrueNAS, there are no right or wrong approach. In both cases, they support ZFS. I would argue you get more ZFS finetuning in TrueNAS, if that's something you are after (most people aren't).

nekkidtruth

Prevok There are pros and cons to all of the options (TrueNAS, Unraid, Proxmox etc). Definitely go with whichever works best for you.

I'm not adverse to tinkering or command line by any means, but my experience with Unraid was just so good I didn't need to move on. What I liked most about it was I don't need to tinker too much and don't need other software like Portainer etc to just set up what I need. When it comes to the dockers you literally go to the Apps tab and search for what you want. Click on it, it asks a few configuration questions, and then installs and starts the docker. The biggest seller for me though, was I could just throw all my drives in and they can be mixed and still be part of the array.

But like I said above, you go with what works for you. Just as I can't imagine switching from Unraid because it's working great for me, TrueNAS is working great for you. That's why testing is important before finalizing. I do wish I had tried the others when I was first starting as well.

Octavean

Little update:

The RyZen 5 5500 was delivered yesterday. I picked it up today and unpacked it. I also ordered a SanDisk combo USB-C / USB-A thumb drive that could suffice for UnRAID demo. I might be able to get to the build this weekend but any number of things could interfere with that.

In any event the build should commence soon.

Octavean

OK, I slapped the server together this afternoon. It looks serviceable. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to turn it on, install the OS and test it out. I’m looking for a suitable DVI cable to HDMI cable since most of my monitors now don’t have DVI.

ElQuintron

Octavean I didn’t have a chance to turn it on, install the OS and test it out. I’m looking for a suitable DVI cable to HDMI cable since most of my monitors now don’t have DVI.

I have to locate my old gt720 in a box somewhere, hopefully it's no too far.

ElQuintron

Just bought all the components for my TrueNAS box, gonna post some components soon

Octavean

Initially I thought I’d use an unused RTX 1060. However, the space is a little cramped and that card isn’t exactly small. When I was disassembling the old system I decided to reuse the old GTX 650 due to its diminutive size.

I may have an HDMI to DVI cable around here or at another location. I’ll look around tomorrow and probably order one tonight

ElQuintron

Octavean Youngest child is still using the 1050ti, so that stays with them. the 720 works fine, I just have to find it in my pile/boxes of used electronics.

therobin

Why not use a 5600G and sans the video card? It would save on space, power usage and noise. That is what I use in my homelab and it's been great. I get hardware encoding for the jellyfin and more than enough horsepower for CPU needs.

Octavean

therobin Yeah, that was one of the considerations when I was referring to an APU. The 5600G would have been a great option but I already went with the 5500. I wanted the built in iGPU but I wasn’t sure if it would transcode as well as a video card or an Intel iGPU with respect to Plex, Jellyfin and the like. Also IIRC it cost more.

Anyway, I ordered a set of two HDMI to DVI cables. The kit should arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately I don’t have much time to tinker with it today or tomorrow either way