How much ram for a real home server?

[Bhoot]

Well I am not here to start a controversy and I know the thumbrule of 8+1GB/TB of RAM (ECC preferred) etc etc. but what I actually want to know is how much ram will a home user running plugins like Plex/Sickrage/Emby/CP/Transmission (maybe 2-3 more) with no SLOG and no more than a couple of machines connected really need? This is a completely non professional setup so slowdowns aren't really an issue but of course wouldn't want server to be restarting/getting stuck too often.

I remember reading somewhere in the forums a typical home user can get by using 16GB of ram. Is it true? and if it is then upto what raw storage? 16tb/32tb/64tb/100tb?

I have no intentions of preaching or spreading misinformation. I am just calculating the expenses for expanding my server by populating it with more hard disks

 

[mattbbpl]

Cyberjock (IIRC) and I are using 32GB of RAM on 60TB of raw storage. It seems to work fine for me running Emby to a couple devices with some transfers going concurrently. He says he sees some performance slowdowns on occasion, but I can't vouch for his workload.

He also states that he or I will HAVE to upgrade beyond 32GB of RAM before expanding our pools. So he believes (and firmly, it seems) that we're at the very limits of that stretch.

That's about the extent of what I can contribute here.

 

[Mlovelace]

I remember reading somewhere in the forums a typical home user can get by using 16GB of ram. Is it true? and if it is then upto what raw storage? 16tb/32tb/64tb/100tb?

No it's not true but it's not set in stone either. If you mostly just write to your pool then the amount of memory you'll need may not follow the 8+1GB per raw TB rule-of-thumb. However, with an insufficient amount of memory your pool with take a prohibitive amount of time to scrub. So the rule-of-thumb is just that, a good place to start when building your NAS.

 

[Bhoot]

snippy.

Cool. That's a good benchmark. I am currently using 32gb for a 4tbx8 (reds) setup. Adding @Mlovelace 's point. How long does a scrub take you? What's your used/total pool size?

snippy.

I probably will follow a 1gb/tb rule through the upgrade. Just wanted to know if I could break the purchase over 2-3 months. Disks first DIMM to follow.. If I may trouble you with another question. I see you are using a HBA. I am planning to switch to a sff8087 backplane chassis. My doubt here is. Suppose one of the HBAs fails in a single (huge) pool of (say) 24 disks will the entire zpool get destroyed? And if I need 6 sff8087 cables do I need to buy 3x LSI9211-8i or 2x LSI and use sata to SFF8087 from the motherboard directly or maybe 1xLSI9211-8i with an intel raid card expander? Any pros and cons to such configurations?

 

[mattbbpl]

Cool. That's a good benchmark. I am currently using 32gb for a 4tbx8 (reds) setup. Adding @Mlovelace 's point. How long does a scrub take you? What's your used/total pool size?

I'm not sure how long a scrub takes me, to be honest. I can say that I have it start at Midnight, and once when I had to shut it down around 8:00 am to 9:00 am for some construction work (I'm finishing the basement) it was still running from it's midnight launch. The pool is roughly 40% full.