Few questions regarding my first DIY TrueNas Scale build

[Katastrophe]

Hello TrueNas community,

I need a cheep NAS for multimedia and a bit of file sharing between my PC and Smartphone. I have some PC components lying around like:
- Intel I3-8100
- H310 Mainboard dual channel, NVMe slot
- 2x Crucial RAM CT8G4DFRA32A 8GB DDR4 3200MHz CL22
- 500W Power Supply
- 2x Seagate IronWolf 4 TB Modellnr.: ST4000VNZ08
- 1x WD Blue 250 GB interne SSD SATA 6 Gbit/s
- 1x Intenso 3835440 250GB M.2 SSD PCIe Premium 2100 MB/s, (PCI Express Gen.3x4 NVMe 1.3, Solid State Drive)
And i have some questions:
1. It will be enough to transcode in 4k on my TV or I need a GPU also?
2. Can i backup my Phone files and access the files on my NAS away from home?
3. Can I install TrueNas Scale on the NVMe + Apps/VM´s or do I need a separate SSD?
4. It will be possible to play videos thru the HDMI cable from MB to TV?
5. Overall this components will be enough?

Thank you very much

 

[mervincm]

i3-8100 is an excellect CPU for a media server as the built in GPU has excellent media encode / decode features and the CPU has an excellent amount of grunt for the transcode items you can not perform on the integrated GPU. I transcoded many 4k files to lower res options on CPUs that have 630 integrated GPU. (8100,8350k,9600k,9900k) I am assuming you are using plex and have plex pass. You will want to use a dedicated SSD for the OS install. your wd blue seems perfect for that. I would dedicate this as a backend device, not something you try to use as a media player.

 

[ChrisRJ]

3. Can I install TrueNas Scale on the NVMe + Apps/VM´s or do I need a separate SSD?

No, you need separate SSDs. In theory it should be possible (it is for Core, not sure for scale though), but it is non-trivial and you would end up with an unsupported configuration that could cause issues down the road.

 

[Katastrophe]

i3-8100 is an excellect CPU for a media server as the built in GPU has excellent media encode / decode features and the CPU has an excellent amount of grunt for the transcode items you can not perform on the integrated GPU. I transcoded many 4k files to lower res options on CPUs that have 630 integrated GPU. (8100,8350k,9600k,9900k) I am assuming you are using plex and have plex pass. You will want to use a dedicated SSD for the OS install. your wd blue seems perfect for that. I would dedicate this as a backend device, not something you try to use as a media player.

thanks for the answer. should i buy a cheap 64gb nvme ssd for the os and use the other ssd for apps and vm´s?

 

[Katastrophe]

No, you need separate SSDs. In theory it should be possible (it is for Core, not sure for scale though), but it is non-trivial and you would end up with an unsupported configuration that could cause issues down the road.

thanks for the answer. how much space i need for the os alone and does it needs a fast ssd?

 

[ChrisRJ]

In my case 64 GB is multiple times what I need. But to be sure I would check the installation section of the documentation.

What is fast? For OS boot any decent SATA SSD should do IMHO. So I would not be concerned too much.

 

[mervincm]

IMO I don't by anything less than 256GB anymore, so the WD Blue SATA would be perfect for me. If you already owned something like a 64GB SSD, it could easily be a boot drive.

 

[Etorix]

- H310 Mainboard dual channel, NVMe slot

Check whether transcoding is supported with H310 chipset. With your CPU, transcoding would be supported on C246 but not on C242 (which are the preferred chipsets, for ECC support), so there may be an issue with the cheap H310.

- 1x WD Blue 250 GB interne SSD SATA 6 Gbit/s
- 1x Intenso 3835440 250GB M.2 SSD PCIe Premium 2100 MB/s, (PCI Express Gen.3x4 NVMe 1.3, Solid State Drive)

You already have a boot drive and an app drive here.