Hardware setup recommendation

[WhiteHelix]

Hi all,
I currently have a running system for Proxmox, based on a Dell Optiplex Micro 3080. For my Proxmox usage, that worked pretty well. I do however, also still have a off the shelf QNAP NAS, which I want to integrate in the setup. Integrate in the means of, get rid of the QNAP and use the disks themself.

My issue right now is, the OptiPlex does not offer more options of accessing the 3.5" SATA drives. I do have a free M.2 PCIe where the WiFi card was before and could use a M.2 to SATA controller (as far as I read on here, preferably something with a ASM106x) but still have to figure out enclosure, power for the drives, etc. which is not that convincing tbh.

So, second thought, use the CPU of the Optiplex and get a µATX or mATX mainboard with dedicated M.2 and SATA ports for my drive. What would be your recommendation? Im on a budget depending on new hardware (150-200€) and power usage is the No1 concern.

To the current hardware:

• OptiPlex Micro 3080 with a Intel i5 10500T
• 40GB RAM (32+8GB SODIMM)
• 1TB Crucial M.2 PCIe SSD
• 2.5" SATA SSD for Proxmox
• QNAP TS251A with 2x 10TB Seagate IronWolf

Appreciate your thoughts on this

 

[Davvo]

Honestly I would not reccomend this hardware for such a project.
Watch out for the WiFi's PCIe slot, usually they have very few lanes. If you want to virtualize TN, you want to passthrough the entire controller to TN and not only the drives.

I would reccomend the use of ECC ram, but your current CPU does not support it.

With the budget you want to commit it would be difficult to have something conforming to the standards (ECC RAM, server-grade motherboard, etc). Also, the 1TB SSDappears to be a bit wasted there... what were you considering using it for?

Also, make sure to read the following resource.

Resource - "Absolutely must virtualize TrueNAS!" ... a guide to not completely losing your data.

[---- 2024/01/16: Still relevant. Virtualization really doesn't change much. Updates made as appropriate. ----] [---- 2018/02/27: This is still as relevant as ever. As PCIe-Passthru has matured, fewer problems are reported. I've updated some...

www.truenas.com

 

[WhiteHelix]

I would have actually gone for a desktop mainboard as long as I can get an Intel NIC, as I dont have support for ECC anyways. Passthrough of the controller was what I was thinking of. Regarding the bandwith, I was thinking that it should be enough for the speed of the Seagate HDDs?

The 1TB SSD is currently used as VM storage in proxmox, so it hosts the VM/LXC and the storage of those directly on that SSD. So there currently is a separate SMB share on proxmox, running on that SSD for everyday stuff and small files, and a second SMB share on the QNAP for movies etc. Also the Jellyfin LXC that is running on proxmox accesses the QNAP via NFS. Though the QNAP is on sleep most of the time and only gets WoL when needed, I also have issues from time to time with having to manually re-mount the share on the Jellyfin LXC. Thats another reason why everything else resides directly on the 1TB SSD so far.

 

[Davvo]

I mean, it's not reccomended but it could work.

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

In the last year or two, we've had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use port multipliers, and use cheap SATA controllers only after extensive research. SATA controllers and SATA...

www.truenas.com