BUILD Build #1 Some questions on plex and cpu

[SavageCore]

Hey guys lurked here awhile and finally got a part list together that I hope is reasonable!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SLL-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£140.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£94.42 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.10 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.67 @ Amazon UK)
Other: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB x 2 (£10.52)
Other: Akasa Super Slim 30cm Black Data Cable SATA 6GB/s x 4 (£12.92)
Other: CyberPower CP900EPFCLCD 900VA/540W Pure Sinewave (£119.50)
Total: £1097.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 15:58 BST+0100

I will be using Plex to transcode one 1080p bluray rip and sharing media files to 2 PCs over samba. Is the i3 overkill? could I get the pentium? G3258?

Pure Sinewave UPS for the Active PFC PSU, correct?
2 USB drives for mirrored installation
Raid-Z2 so should be 7.3 TB usable with a max of 14.6 TB with the 6 on board SATA which should be plenty.

Thanks in advance!

 

[BigDave]

Hey guys lurked here awhile and finally got a part list together that I hope is reasonable!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SLL-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£140.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£94.42 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£124.89 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.10 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£51.67 @ Amazon UK)
Other: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB x 2 (£10.52)
Other: Akasa Super Slim 30cm Black Data Cable SATA 6GB/s x 4 (£12.92)
Other: CyberPower CP900EPFCLCD 900VA/540W Pure Sinewave (£119.50)
Total: £1097.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-05 15:58 BST+0100

I will be using Plex to transcode one 1080p bluray rip and sharing media files to 2 PCs over samba. Is the i3 overkill? could I get the pentium? G3258?

Pure Sinewave UPS for the Active PFC PSU, correct?
2 USB drives for mirrored installation
Raid-Z2 so should be 7.3 TB usable with a max of 14.6 TB with the 6 on board SATA which should be plenty.

Thanks in advance!

Is it over kill? No, I tend to think of it as future proofing, you have done your home work.
If I were to consider any change to your list, it would be to go with a Xeon instead of stepping down to a G3258.

 

[BigDave]

For an increase to £1103.59 (seven pounds)
Trade the four 4TB drives for
six 3TB drives WD reds (RAIDz2),
then some time in the future when more space is desired,
replace each 3TB drive (one at a time) with a 4 or 5TB
drive to increase the over all size of your pool.
Future proof WAY OFF into the future.. ;)

 

[SavageCore]

Ok great!

Are you thinking Xeon for future proofing? I do wonder about 4k streaming...

 

[BigDave]

I tend to buy as much processing as I can afford from the getgo.
But in your case it's an upgrade you can do later on if and when it
becomes necessary. If the budget is tight, go with the i3 for now...

 

[BigDave]

@SavageCore
@Ericloewe Runs a Supermicro X10 board with an i3 4330 which is just 100MHz faster
than the 4130 you're looking at. Perhaps he will read this and give you
some (personal experience) feedback.

 

[diedrichg]

Ok great!

Are you thinking Xeon for future proofing? I do wonder about 4k streaming...

The Xeon wouldn't hurt but you're going to be limited by your LAN speed for 4k.

 

[Ericloewe]

The biggest difference between an i3-4130 and an i3-4330 is the extra MB of L3. The extra 100MHz on the clock are mostly immaterial, in comparison. For most workloads, obviously, but not all.

Pure Sinewave UPS for the Active PFC PSU, correct?

Yeah. I've seen the output of some "stepped approximations" and it's scary. Not good at all for the main filter caps. If I'd known back then, I'd have gotten either an APC Smart-UPS or one of the CyberPowers, instead of the Back-UPS Pro. I can only hope that this unit's approximation is indeed reasonable and not "5 different voltage levels counts as an approximation to a sine wave, right?". At least until I find an excuse to buy an oscilloscope. I'd like an oscilloscope, but it's hard to justify buying one.

 

[Jailer]

I'd like an oscilloscope, but it's hard to justify buying one.

Ebay, just sayin........

Not that I'm an enabler or anything......... :D

 

[Ericloewe]

Ebay, just sayin........

Not that I'm an enabler or anything......... :D

I have enough time sinks. I don't need to find myself examining random waveforms from around the house... And I'm not sure how the power company would react to a thorough examination of their supply the next time there's a brownout...

 

[SavageCore]

@Ericloewe

I see you have the 550W psu. What are yours and others thoughts on power consumption? pcpartpicker says 218W

 

[Ericloewe]

Idle power is well below 100W. The limiting factor is startup current, mostly dictated by drive spinup current. Estimate 30W per drive for WD Reds.

 

[SavageCore]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor (£91.18 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SLL-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£140.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£94.42 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£84.32 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£77.10 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£75.25 @ Amazon UK)
Other: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB x 2 (£10.52)
Other: CyberPower CP900EPFCLCD 900VA/540W Pure Sinewave (£119.50)
Other: Akasa Super Slim 30cm Black Data Cable SATA 6GB/s x 6 (£19.37)
Total: £1133.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-06 17:13 BST+0100

Revised build. 360W SeaSonic only has 4 SATA, 550 has 8. I presume as I am never going to get near 550W usage that the 540W of the UPS is fine?

 

[BigDave]

I would pay more attention to needed/desired wattage, rather than wires.
That's why they make these...

 

[SavageCore]

That's a good point, went back down to the 360W and pulled the trigger!

Thanks for all the help

 

[BigDave]

That's a good point, went back down to the 360W and pulled the trigger!

Thanks for all the help

Now at some point in the future you might increase your power needs because you add larger capacity drives
or a second Vdev which would demand more wattage than the 360 is capable of, but that's true of any
purchase you might make today...

 

[SavageCore]

Yeah I don't like the word future proof much in terms for computers.

More capacity will also need more RAM to follow 1GB per TB, right?

 

[Darren Myers]

Yeah I don't like the word future proof much in terms for computers.

More capacity will also need more RAM to follow 1GB per TB, right?

In terms of "future proof" id much rather have more wattage now, then need it later and have to buy a larger PSU when it could of been 10-20$ more at the time of original build. As far as the RAM amount, yes you would want to increase it, at least a bit just to be safe, when using Plex youll always want a bit more RAM

 

[BigDave]

More capacity will also need more RAM to follow 1GB per TB, right?

@SavageCore


this may be a good read for you as you plan your system