Modest Plex Build - 4x6TB

[hotshot9092]

Hello All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking to get some feedback on my build. Have already done my own desktop gaming build, but am intimidated by the world of server-grade hardware.

I have a current selection of parts, but I am open to suggestions.

What will I be using this for?
Mainly Plex and downloading software (Sonarr, Radarr, SABnzbd). I have a relatively low number of concurrent transcodes going at the same time. Possibly 2 or 3 maximum.

This NAS will be used for light home file sharing. May also use this as a full image backup location for my desktop.

Additionally, I would like some extra headroom to experiment with VMs, a Minecraft server, and Crashplan. I am also considering using this storage for 1 or 2 IP cameras in the future. Moral of the story: I'm not sure what additional services I would like to run on my NAS, but would like a system that has wiggle room to play with.

How important is data security to me/RAID configuration?
For all pools, I would like to have 1 drive redundancy (RAIDZ). I will not be keeping priceless data here, so I am ok with this moderate security.

Going to start with 4x6TB HDDs, would like to be able to add another 4x in the future. Also going to start with 2x SSDs for VMs and Plex local data.

Computer Build:

Case: Fractal Design - Node 804

• Undecided on the case. Requirement is to house 8xHDDs + 2xSSDs. Low noise and small-ish form factor preferred. Hot swap bays are a plus. (Having difficulty finding all of these features in one case.)

Motherboard: SuperMicro MBD-X11SSM-F-O

• Trying to work through the many choices of SuperMirco motherboards. I know this board only supports 8x SATA3 ports, and but I am unsure how to get the extra 2x SATA3 ports. Either change motherboards, or add a controller in the future?
• Unsure of how many networking ports I would need. Would my setup even saturate 1 LAN connection?

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1225 v6 Kaby Lake 3.3 GHz

• I do not know if I need an iGPU or not. I initially considered an i3-6300, but am not sure if that will meet my requirements (please advise). I am still looking through the Xeon E3-12XX v6 models, and am unsure of which is most suited to my needs.

RAM: 2x Supermicro 16GB 288-Pin DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Server Memory (MEM-DR416L-SL01-EU24)

• Intel's specifications for Xeon E3 v6's state the frequency at 2400 MHz. I do not know if I can cheap out and go to 2133 MHz, but I found this RAM recommended by Supermicro. Open to suggestions here. I am starting with 32GB of RAM, with the open DIMM slots for 64GB in the future if needed.

Storage:
Hard Drives: 4x 8TB Reds

• Great drives. Enough said. One will be for parity.

Thumb Drives:

• Would like some recommendations. Intending to have a mirrored pair.

PSU: Seasonic - G 550W 80+ Gold

• I selected this because it came highly recommended on this forum. According to PSU guide, this should be adequate for my CPU and HDD setup.

Let me know if I missed anything, or need to clarify any information.

 

[danb35]

I do not know if I need an iGPU or not.

No. You probably don't need a Xeon at all, but if you go that route look into the 1230 vs. the 1220--IIRC, there was a fairly significant improvement in capability, with a fairly minimal increase in price.

How can I find out what UPS's are supported?

Most UPSs that have a data port are supported, and I expect all APC UPSs with a data port are supported. APC likes to use funky cables though; if you don't already have a cable you might be searching for a bit. CyberPower is another brand that seems to get good reports and is price-competitive.

 

[adrianwi]

SSDs: 2x 250GB SSDs (currently own 1)

• Higher speed drives for VMs and Plex local data. In my current setup, Plex benefits greatly from having library information on an SSD - takes all of the delay out of browsing my library. Mirrored drives.

Whilst I'm sure running Plex on an SSD has some improvements, mine runs perfectly, and more than quickly enough, from the pool HDDs. Never noticed any delay accessing or playing on any clients, locally and remotely.

I'd be tempted to keep the SATA ports free for HDD and see how Plex performs rather than taking 2 for SSD which might not offer that much in real world use.

 

[melloa]

SSDs: 2x 250GB SSDs (currently own 1)

• Higher speed drives for VMs and Plex local data. In my current setup, Plex benefits greatly from having library information on an SSD - takes all of the delay out of browsing my library. Mirrored drives.

The performance here is not related to where Plex is installed, but with your network, CPU, media/transcoding directory location, etc. Once is running you won't feel a difference.

Mine is a VM, transcoding inside the vdisk, pulling from FreeNAS CIF, and I can't feel any degradation with three streams at the same time.

Just my USD 0.02.

 

[hotshot9092]

No. You probably don't need a Xeon at all, but if you go that route look into the 1230 vs. the 1220--IIRC, there was a fairly significant improvement in capability, with a fairly minimal increase in price.

Most UPSs that have a data port are supported, and I expect all APC UPSs with a data port are supported. APC likes to use funky cables though; if you don't already have a cable you might be searching for a bit. CyberPower is another brand that seems to get good reports and is price-competitive.

Trying to find justification for an i3-6300 vs. Xeon E3. My understanding is that Xeon E3 has more cores, and would be better suited to Plex and VMs. Or is it overkill?

This UPS does come with a cable. I was more interested in how FreeNAS supports a software interface with the UPS for auto-shutdown. I know in my Windows 10 desktop, there is a program from APC that manages this. Did not know what the equivalent would be in FreeNAS.

Whilst I'm sure running Plex on an SSD has some improvements, mine runs perfectly, and more than quickly enough, from the pool HDDs. Never noticed any delay accessing or playing on any clients, locally and remotely.

I'd be tempted to keep the SATA ports free for HDD and see how Plex performs rather than taking 2 for SSD which might not offer that much in real world use.

Do you have any idea of what sort of read/write speeds I should expect from my 4x6TB RAIDZ pool? Also, I have read in a few places that VMs benefit from SSDs. Still, it would be low-risk to see how the HDDs go, and add SSDs later if needed. I just had the perception that SSDs would help a lot.

The performance here is not related to where Plex is installed, but with your network, CPU, media/transcoding directory location, etc. Once is running you won't feel a difference.

Mine is a VM, transcoding inside the vdisk, pulling from FreeNAS CIF, and I can't feel any degradation with three streams at the same time.

Just my USD 0.02.

Melloa, just to be clear, I intend to have Plex media all located on my HDDs. However, the Plex library information (list of movies, poster images, other movie info) being on an SSD improved my browsing experience -- at least on Windows 10. Therefore, I would be streaming from my HDDs, and browsing from my SSDs. Do you notice any delay when scrolling through your Plex library on movie poster load times on your HDD-only setup?

Thanks for all of the input.

 

[melloa]

Melloa, just to be clear, I intend to have Plex media all located on my HDDs. However, the Plex library information (list of movies, poster images, other movie info) being on an SSD improved my browsing experience -- at least on Windows 10. Therefore, I would be streaming from my HDDs, and browsing from my SSDs. Do you notice any delay when scrolling through your Plex library on movie poster load times on your HDD-only setup?

I don't notice any issues with my Plex running on a esx(i) VM, but again I'm used with US Robotic Sportster speeds.

If you have the SSDs and want to install in it (assuming you are creating a volume with them, installing inside a jail/plugin/etc) you will probably be faster than what I have, as mine is in two different servers (FreeNAS CIFs and esx(i) VM).

 

[danb35]

I was more interested in how FreeNAS supports a software interface with the UPS for auto-shutdown. I know in my Windows 10 desktop, there is a program from APC that manages this. Did not know what the equivalent would be in FreeNAS.

http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/services.html#ups

 

[adrianwi]

Do you have any idea of what sort of read/write speeds I should expect from my 4x6TB RAIDZ pool? Also, I have read in a few places that VMs benefit from SSDs. Still, it would be low-risk to see how the HDDs go, and add SSDs later if needed. I just had the perception that SSDs would help a lot.

With your proposed build, the network adapter will the bottleneck and you'll easily saturate the 1Gbit port. My older system (with a Xeon processor) runs Plex in a Jail on the pool like a champ and will happily transcode and stream 5-6 files, to both local and remote clients. I boot FreeNAS from a SSD, but have never felt any need to move the jails onto a SSD.

 

[Stux]

ZFS ARC should take care of keeping the important parts of the plex library in RAM.

If you're planning on more VMs, and 2-3 transcodes with plex, and the bittorrent/newsgroup stuff, I'd think a few more cores than 2 might be a good idea.

And that puts you into Xeon territory. In which case you should get either a 1220 or a 1230.

The 1230 is better bang for buck as it adds HyperThreading, for a transcoder, that can be good for an extra 60% performance.

 

[hotshot9092]

Okay, I have one last thing I am struggling with.

I would like to purchase an Intel Xeon E3-1240, supported RAM speed of DDR4-2400. https://ark.intel.com/products/97474/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1230-v6-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz
However, the motherboard Supermicro - MBD-X11SSM-F-O lists it supports only DDR4-2133. https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm

What do I do?? Can anyone recommend some 2x16GB RAM to me?

Thanks.

 

[Ericloewe]

Don't worry about RAM speeds. The motherboard has been validated with DDR4-2400.

Even it it wasn't, the BIOS would initialize the memory controller to the fastest speed supported by CPU, motherboard and RAM.