New build high end help required

[fragledoozer]

Hi all
Just joined after a fair bit of reading. Probably started the same as you looked at a synology system then realised qnap was better but couldn't quite find the hardwear spec i required for sensible investment. Looking to build a nas that can do 4k transcoding needs to be 10 gbe with maybe 40 to 50 Tb. I have started reading up on the hardwear but to honest i am a bit out of my depth, budget not a real issue just one a good future proof system. Any help greatly appreciated

 

[Inxsible]

1. Without a budget, it's hard to provide suggestions
2. Since you are in the UK, prices between DDR3 systems and DDR4 systems are not going to be very different
3. If you need 4K transcoding, you need a high-end processor (mostly a Xeon) or even a DP board. How many streams do you expect to transcode simultaneously?
4. Is your entire network 10Gbe? If not what are you planning on achieving with the 10gbe port? direct connection to another 10gbe enabled system?

 

[fragledoozer]

hi thanks for the quick reply

£1000 ish give or take can be more if needed

probably only 2 streams at most

network is 10 gbe

i have a fair bit of 2160 p movies as well as 1080 and download a fair bit so i will have another pc downloading and then move the files to the nas where plex will be running. The nas will be connected via 10 gbe via a 10 gbe switch as will the pc

 

[fragledoozer]

also if possible have a unifi 5 camera setup if the nas could also work as a nvr

 

[Inxsible]

£1000 ish give or take can be more if needed

Does that include the cost of the HDDs?

probably only 2 streams at most

You should look at the passmark of the processor that you choose. Plex suggests that you need a passmark of 2000 for a transcode. 4K transcode might be slightly higher.

 

[Inxsible]

also if possible have a unifi 5 camera setup if the nas could also work as a nvr

It can. But I would suggest that you keep your nvr pool separate from your fileserver/mediaserver pool. You should also look at different types of drives for those pools.
SMR drives are used for archiving/nvr/surveillance purposes and PMR drives are usually used for file servers.

 

[fragledoozer]

no hard drives not included in that budget the nvr isnt a big issue i can run that on a separate nvr

 

[Inxsible]

First things first: If you are going to have nvr and fileserver in one then the below chassis might work for you. You can easily have enough storage and separate pools for both. In this case, I would also suggest a DP motherboard.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Server-Che...504799&hash=item3b05f5ef28:g:oSAAAOSwHNdZyX-j

This seller will take $350 as quite a few users have bought from him/her. He/She has only 1 left now. Your shipping costs might be higher since you are in the UK. Ask him if he ships to the UK too.

 

[fragledoozer]

to expensive to ship to uk what is a dp motherboard to be honest the unifi nvr is only £250 i might as well just get that and keep the nas separate just want good motherboard, psu, cpu, memory & case presume supermicro is the best

 

[Inxsible]

what is a dp motherboard

dual processor.

i might as well just get that and keep the nas separate just want good motherboard, psu, cpu, memory & case presume supermicro is the best

ok. in that case, we can go a different route. do you know or have an approximation of what size drives you will have? 14GB, 12GB, 10GB, 8GB, 6GB.... ?

 

[fragledoozer]

i was original thinking of wd red 10 tb drives or am i better going with 8's or 6's and have more drives

 

[Inxsible]

i was original thinking of wd red 10 tb drives or am i better going with 8's or 6's and have more drives

Since you don't already have a chassis, you can go either way. Check this calculator for space that you will get with each drive size. I would keep each vdev between 6-8 drives. So with the below 24 chassis you could have 3 or 4 vdevs in your pool.

https://jsfiddle.net/Biduleohm/paq5u7z5/1/embedded/result/

But in short, even the 6TB drives -- in combination with below 24 bay chassis, gives you more space than your original requirement of 40-50TB.

Here's a starting point:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Supermic...587620?hash=item2f19c1b324:g:~csAAOSwY3Rav~Bh

The board and processor can be changed if you need something else. I forgot to ask earlier... are you ok with rackmount or not ?

 

[fragledoozer]

good find about 30 mins from my house would the board and processor do?

 

[fragledoozer]

rack mount is fine think i would struggle to fill 24 drives :)

 

[Inxsible]

good find about 30 mins from my house would the board and processor do?

That will save you on shipping :) but might add VAT :(

rack mount is fine think i would struggle to fill 24 drives :)

you don't have to buy a 24 bay... 2U servers with 12 drive bays are great too. I use a 2U server because I don't need 24 drives either (at least currently)

But the bigger size usually means more expandability options later on.. so if you do have expansion planned for later, you should take that into account when choosing a chassis and board and cpu.

 

[Inxsible]

Here are the board details : https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c202_c204/x9sca-f.cfm

Since you want 4K transcode, the 32GB RAM limit might be a limiting factor... I don't have much experience with 4K, so I would let someone else chime in with regards to that. But the X10/X11 series allows 64GB RAM which might work out in case someone points out that 32GB does not cut it for 4K.

The processor is E3-1275 -- Xeons with xxx5 usually have a graphics chip built in. This is useless for an application like FreeNAS. But at the same time, if you are getting the whole system which has a xxx5 cpu, I wouldn't worry about going out and changing it. If you were buying everything piecemeal, then I would stay away from xxx5 -- as I'd rather not pay for things that I don't plan on using.

The processor has a passmark of 8348, but a plex employee's comment here might seem to indicate that only 1 4K transcode might work.

This thread on plex forums might give you more insight on 4K transcoding requirements. You will have to match that with the encoding that you have on most of your videos.

 

[Inxsible]

Reading that ebay description, it seems the price is different for different configuration of RAM (8GB vs 32GB). You might want to check that with the seller.

 

[fragledoozer]

phoned him he want £600 for it would that get me up and running or is she a bit old

 

[fragledoozer]

that price is for 32 gb is the case expensive on its own

 

[Inxsible]

Here's another one with 8 bays. Might save you some money if you are sure you won't need 24 drives. They motherboard is X8DTU-F which is a bit older than the X9 in the 4U chassis, but it is a dual-processor board and the listing includes a HBA card to control all 8 disks.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Supermic...182151?hash=item2aa6ddd487:g:dAAAAOSwIk9ahYpL

phoned him he want £600 for it would that get me up and running or is she a bit old

with 4K transcoding, most used CPUs are going to be a bit underpowered. Even the new ones might be given that 4K is still not mainstream enough.