Dear Etorix and poldi,
thanks again for your kind and fast replies. I think I'm in position to draw my conclusions.
CLOSED > Motherboard: Supermicro X12STL-IF is probably the best choice here: although not having the ability for hardware transcoding on iGPU it still has 6 SATA ports + 1NVMe. Moreover it also has the full ATX PSU connector (that's a huge benefit: ability of multi-rail PSU to protect each circuit individually while combining all cable will make it act like a single rail, less DC-DC converter needed on board, etc.). ITX form factor is anyway given by the boundary conditions, namely space, so I will not change my mind on that! I might get the Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F (thanks again @Etorix for the tips on the Noctua fan!) at € 750 but has no NVMe slot unless using oculink as PCIe: as an option I might use a regular SATA drive as boot but still I need the OCuLink cable which is expensive like hell (~€ 55 for the OCuLink to 4 SATA cable). Moreover it has the small non standard ATX power connector and the base price of the Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F is roughly 80 euros more (+20 for the Noctua NF-A6x25) than the Supermicro X12STL-IF + Intel Xeon E-2334 which is twice as powerful (based on PassMark scores).
CLOSED > CPU: Intel Xeon E-2334 should last for a very very long time: @poldi you're right, in the worst case I might just get a Chromecast and probably I will not need to transcode. And even in the event of transcoding a 4k SDR video the CPU should still suffice.
CLOSED > Case: No better solution has been identified, so I will stick to the Node 304.
CLOSED > NIC: I will be using the 2x1 Gb/s ports on the motherboard with the option to install a 10 Gb/s card at a later stage.
CLOSED > Pool: I will be starting with 4x4 TB WD Red Plus. Thanks for the suggestions to start with 6 drives since the beginning but I'd like to keep the price, power consumption and noise down at the moment and see how the RAID-Z Expansion Feature will come along. In the worst case I might still destroy/rebuild the pool.
CLOSED > RAM quantity/type: I will start with 1x32 GB ECC UDIMM to keep the option to expand to 64 GB at a later stage, given also the fact that 1x32 GB is actually cheaper than 2x16 GB and the RAM speed is not relevant.
In the end there hardly is an overall best solution: it's mostly just a tradeoff between different characteristics. I would like to thank you all for your time and support! I will start some other threads for the software support!
Cheers,
Vortigern
thanks again for your kind and fast replies. I think I'm in position to draw my conclusions.
CLOSED > Motherboard: Supermicro X12STL-IF is probably the best choice here: although not having the ability for hardware transcoding on iGPU it still has 6 SATA ports + 1NVMe. Moreover it also has the full ATX PSU connector (that's a huge benefit: ability of multi-rail PSU to protect each circuit individually while combining all cable will make it act like a single rail, less DC-DC converter needed on board, etc.). ITX form factor is anyway given by the boundary conditions, namely space, so I will not change my mind on that! I might get the Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F (thanks again @Etorix for the tips on the Noctua fan!) at € 750 but has no NVMe slot unless using oculink as PCIe: as an option I might use a regular SATA drive as boot but still I need the OCuLink cable which is expensive like hell (~€ 55 for the OCuLink to 4 SATA cable). Moreover it has the small non standard ATX power connector and the base price of the Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F is roughly 80 euros more (+20 for the Noctua NF-A6x25) than the Supermicro X12STL-IF + Intel Xeon E-2334 which is twice as powerful (based on PassMark scores).
CLOSED > CPU: Intel Xeon E-2334 should last for a very very long time: @poldi you're right, in the worst case I might just get a Chromecast and probably I will not need to transcode. And even in the event of transcoding a 4k SDR video the CPU should still suffice.
CLOSED > Case: No better solution has been identified, so I will stick to the Node 304.
CLOSED > NIC: I will be using the 2x1 Gb/s ports on the motherboard with the option to install a 10 Gb/s card at a later stage.
CLOSED > Pool: I will be starting with 4x4 TB WD Red Plus. Thanks for the suggestions to start with 6 drives since the beginning but I'd like to keep the price, power consumption and noise down at the moment and see how the RAID-Z Expansion Feature will come along. In the worst case I might still destroy/rebuild the pool.
CLOSED > RAM quantity/type: I will start with 1x32 GB ECC UDIMM to keep the option to expand to 64 GB at a later stage, given also the fact that 1x32 GB is actually cheaper than 2x16 GB and the RAM speed is not relevant.
In the end there hardly is an overall best solution: it's mostly just a tradeoff between different characteristics. I would like to thank you all for your time and support! I will start some other threads for the software support!
Cheers,
Vortigern