NAS System Almost Exclusively For Plex

[LeDiable]

Wow, this is a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I want to be detailed with my usage, and current ideas. And I'm new to all this, so I'm out of my element.

I have a desire to replace an aging media "server" (built in January 2011) with something that mainly has more storage capacity, but more power is nice too. I am looking for something that won't be insanely loud, as it will have to be in my office next to my mini-tower PC, and I do work from home -- usually just once a week, but currently all the time (thanks coronavirus). With that in mind, I came across Mr. Slumber's $1000 build which was designed to be fairly quiet.

The box I want to replace is almost exclusively used as a Plex server, so there would be one jail for that. The media I currently have are just DVD rips, so nothing beyond 480p, and it is encoded with either h.264 or h.265. The good news is that internal playback is all been direct play/stream (no transcoding, even the h.265 stuff). Currently, I only have 1 internal stream, on rare occasions it is 2, but I may open up remote access to a friend or two, so I could be looking at 2 internal and 1-2 external streams. I also can't rule out 1080p or 4k content in the future. With the potential for external streams or higher quality content, I think I would rather have Plex create optimized versions of files instead of having to transcode on the fly, especially since storage capacity is going to be increased dramatically over my current capacity of just 2TB.

EDIT - I've decided to build a system similar to @Mr. Slumber, and I've purchased got the following components in mind. Does anyone have any thoughts, concerns, or other input?

• Case: Supermicro CSE-836BE16-R920B via eBay - 3U, 16 front 3.5" hot swap bays, 2 rear 2.5" hot swap bays, dual 920W Super Quiet PSUs, SAS2 expander backplane, and the SFF cable too. For $300, seemed like a fair price. The $92 shipping sucked though. Norco RPC-470 - 4U, 10 internal 3.5" bays, 3 external 5.25" bays, 2 front & 4 middle fans. I'm not sure I need hot-swap bays at this time. At least I'm hoping I won't need to swap drives any time soon.
• Motherboard: Supermicro X11SCL-F (from Newegg)- not much to say here.
• CPU: Intel Core i3-9100F from Amazon - Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that it does not have an iGPU, and I'm fine with that. 99% of my movies will not need transcoding. Anything I add in the future that won't stream natively, I will have Plex create an optimized version. Intel Core i3-9100 or i3-9300 (Newegg again) - I don't care about transcoding right now, so I acknowledge the integrated GPU won't be available for that.
• RAM: Hynix 32GB ECC DDR4 x2 from Supermicro directly. Decided to just hit the i3's RAM limit now while it is readily available. Supermicro 16GB ECC DDR4 (x2) - I'll probably get it from Newegg when ordering the mobo & CPU.
• PSU: Redundant Supermicro 920W super quiets, came with the chassis. Corsair HX1200 - 80+ Platinum, should be fairly quiet, and I've had good luck with the Corsair in my old box.
• HBA: Supermicro AOC-S2308-L8i. Needs flashed to IT mode though. LSI SAS 9207-8i from eBay. I know I'm just using spinning platters, but I hoped that in the future if I expand the drive pool it might be beneficial to have a PCI 3.0 card. Dell H310 from eBay - supposedly pre-flashed to IT mode, seems like a popular choice.
• Boot drive: 2 Innodisk SATADOM-ML 3SE Series 64GB from eBay - yes, much larger than I'll need, but it is only $25.
• Storage drives: Seagate Ironwolf 4TB x6 from Amazon. They were about $25/TB, and I'm moving up from having only 2TB (before formatting even!) so for now that will be more than adequete, even giving up 1/3 of the capacity by using RAIDZ2.
• There may be some fan replacements in the case and on the CPU. I'll evaluate things once assembled, and go from there - Noctua seems to be a popular option for low-noise fans.

I'm sure I'll have many more questions, but I don't want to make this even longer. Thank you all in advance!

2nd edit - updated the hardware with what has been purchased. I think my original plans definitely suffered from a foolish "go big" mentality, and while the chassis definitely has more drive bays than I'll need for awhile, I tried to scale things back. HDDs were selected a bit more for noise/power levels rather than capacity or speed, given my current needs & uses.
3rd edit - removed some questions about buying a used server since I decided to build one. Updated the HBA again.

 

[SweetAndLow]

1. Graphics don't matter for freenas and good luck setting to gpu offload for Plex.
2. Very loud
3. Only use sas drives if you have them or get a deal on them. Otherwise Sata is perfectly fine and way cheaper.
4. Sas3 really only plays a role with ssd drives.

 

[sretalla]

Does anyone know how loud one of those 4U boxes might be?

You could look at the PID fan script and possibly change out the fans (depending on how good the onboard ones are) to reduce fan speed to match the cooling needs of the HDDs rather than running them high all the time.

PID fan controller Perl script

I can't post in Useful Scripts, so Hardware will have to do. I've updated @Stux's hybrid fan controller script to replace his HD fan control logic (which uses three discrete fan duty cycles as a function of warmest HD temperature) with a PID control loop, which controls duty cycle in 1%...

www.ixsystems.com

 

[LeDiable]

1. Graphics don't matter for freenas and good luck setting to gpu offload for Plex.
2. Very loud
3. Only use sas drives if you have them or get a deal on them. Otherwise Sata is perfectly fine and way cheaper.
4. Sas3 really only plays a role with ssd drives.

1) Yup, and like I said, I'm going to try to avoid transcoding as much as possible.
2) I've been trying to find fan replacement recommendations for that case, but at least the systems come with the SQ power supplies, and there is the Perl script sretalla mentioned that hopefully could mitigate this.
3) Noted - I've seen some used 6TBs Exos 7E8 drives on eBay recently for ~$100, but I don't know if that's a good deal.
4) Out of curiosity, what kind of SSDs have people used for this? Newegg routinely has them on sale, but something tells me those units aren't recommended in this application, so I'm almost afraid to know what the cost would be for an enterprise SSD array.

Generally, I just need to find time between work & the kids to research things more.
Thanks!

 

[LeDiable]

So, found some time over the past week to look through some options, and have updated my original post with the hardware I've come up with so far.

I'd appreciate any thoughts people might have, suggestions, criticism (it is the internet, after all...).
Thanks!

 

[ornias]

1. Graphics don't matter for freenas and good luck setting to gpu offload for Plex.

1. This Intel CPU is currently not supported for hardware offloading. But should be supported with the next Truenas Major release.
Before we get some sort of endless debate:
- I did quite some research and assisted on the kern2011 guide to freenas hardware offloading (https://github.com/kern2011/Freenas-Quicksync)
- I also read the actual code behind it and know what changes they made that made it to FreeBSD 12 but not to FreeBSD 11.

Rest:
the 9100 is already slightly overkill if it's just for plex, we do precisely what you are doing, with up to 3 HD streams (with up-to 2 transcodes) and we handle it fine with a Intel® Pentium® Gold G5400

Also use the H310, its a good card. But beware of fakes. A good way test is if they give you the old cables with it, because no chinese faker is going to add used old cables with a fake card.

Double up on the OS drives. Always use mirrored drives.

 

[Velcade]

Case: Norco RPC-470 - 4U, 10 internal 3.5" bays, 3 external 5.25" bays, 2 front & 4 middle fans. I'm not sure I need hot-swap bays at this time. At least I'm hoping I won't need to swap drives any time soon.

Where are you buying this case?

 

[LeDiable]

Where are you buying this case?

From IPCDirect.net. The About Us page says they are the online store for Norco. From the RPC-470 product page on the Norco site there is a "Buy Now" button (with a broken image, I might add) that took me there.

 

[Velcade]

From IPCDirect.net. The About Us page says they are the online store for Norco. From the RPC-470 product page on the Norco site there is a "Buy Now" button (with a broken image, I might add) that took me there.

I ordered that same case from IPCDirect on March 27th. It's still awaiting fulfillment and they won't respond to my emails or messages. Just an FYI if you want your case any time soon. Their shipping is expensive too. Cost $100 to ship it.

 

[LeDiable]

Shit. Yeah, shipping was shown as $70 for me, not awesome. Even with that it seemed like a decent deal compared to the prices of similar cases.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the pandemic lockdowns in California. Does anyone there answer the phone?

 

[Velcade]

pandemic lockdowns in California. Does anyone there answer the phone?

It's possible. I had hoped someone was at least monitoring their email... Just a simple "these need to be shipped from china it'll take 3 months" would be fine. But I can't get any response.

 

[LeDiable]

Well, a quick internet search does not instill much hope here.
Reddit thread questioning their operational status
BBB complaints similar to your situation.

Back to the hunt for a reasonably priced case I guess.

Edit - sorry I tried to use a 4-letter word for fecal matter in post #10 above

 

[Velcade]

Well, a quick internet search does not instill much hope here.
Reddit thread questioning their operational status
BBB complaints similar to your situation.

Back to the hunt for a reasonably priced case I guess.

Edit - sorry I tried to use a 4-letter word for fecal matter in post #10 above

Sorry to be a downer... Just wanted to save you some time. Silverstone makes a nice case similar (RM41-506) but I can't find their drive cages (G11909510-RT) anywhere in the US.

 

[ornias]

Sorry to be a downer... Just wanted to save you some time. Silverstone makes a nice case similar (RM41-506) but I can't find their drive cages (G11909510-RT) anywhere in the US.

For drivecages (and basically all case parts) you often need to manually contact a importer/reseller.

 

[Velcade]

For drivecages (and basically all case parts) you often need to manually contact a importer/reseller.

Got a recommendation?

 

[LeDiable]

Sorry to be a downer... Just wanted to save you some time. Silverstone makes a nice case similar (RM41-506) but I can't find their drive cages (G11909510-RT) anywhere in the US.

Never fun being the bearer of bad news, but I sincerely appreciate the warning. Good luck with your order/refund.

 

[subhuman]

Storage drives - I've reevaluated my plan for Exos drives. For my usage they would be more for bragging rights than anything. I'm evaluating the non-SMR drives in the WD Red and Seagate Ironwolf product lines to see what will best meet my lower power/noise goals, and have a reasonable price per TB.

WD purples are viable if the pricing is in-line with the others. They're rated at a higher max operating temp (just in case!), higher max g-force, and double the annual workload of either Reds or Ironwolfs (wolves? naw). None are SMR, they support TLER and are recommended by WD (if you pin them down; they try to first point you at more expensive Red Pros) for 8+ bay configuration.

 

[LeDiable]

WD purples are viable if the pricing is in-line with the others. They're rated at a higher max operating temp (just in case!), higher max g-force, and double the annual workload of either Reds or Ironwolfs (wolves? naw). None are SMR, they support TLER and are recommended by WD (if you pin them down; they try to first point you at more expensive Red Pros) for 8+ bay configuration.

Thanks for the tip, I'll add those to my research list.

Meanwhile, my search for a chassis has switched gears. Not many options I like that are in stock and reasonably inexpensive. Started looking at used Supermicros on eBay, found one with PSUs, so its almost a wash compared to buying the Norco & Corsair. Plus hot-swap, so that's nice, but I'm worried about the noise from the 80mm fans. Guess I'll just have to see how it turns out.

 

[Yorick]

I don't care about transcoding right now, so I acknowledge the integrated GPU won't be available for that

Yup. If you want to be ready for that “just in case”, it’d be the X11SCH-F instead, but otherwise, yeah sure.

Definitely a loud system. A Define R5 is built for sound dampening, if you care about noise, that sounds like a better choice.

 

[LeDiable]

Yup. If you want to be ready for that “just in case”, it’d be the X11SCH-F instead, but otherwise, yeah sure.

The X11SCH-F has the Intel C246 chipset, the X11SCL-F has the C242 chipset, but there's no mention of graphics in the specs for either, where it is for the older chipsets like the C236. Any reason C246 could do it but not C242? Or, for the 1% of my content that may require transcoding, couldn't the CPU handle that? The increase of total storage capacity from the current 2TB to somewhere north of 8TB (with additional growth potential) was leading me to just having Plex optimize the videos, or creating 2 verisons myself when ripping my movies - one original quality, the second at a lower bitrate around 480p. When multiple versions are available like that, Plex is supposed to be smart enough to select the appropriate one for the device/bandwidth limit instead of transcoding. Or so they claim

Also, an upside to the X11SCH-F is that Supermicro actually has 32GB RAM sticks in stock, unlike the ones they've got on the memory list for the SCL board.

Definitely a loud system. A Define R5 is built for sound dampening, if you care about noise, that sounds like a better choice.

That would work, it is very similar to my Cooler Master but significantly better looking. I was hoping for more of a rack-mount style with room for hard drive expansion in the future, but for the price this is definitely worth consideration. As for the Supermicro CSE-836 I'm considering, it already has the SQ power supplies, and starting with just 6 HDDs I can space them out nicely to prevent too much heat buildup. I spent a bunch of time looking last day or two, and found a guy who swapped fans with Noctuas and it seemed reasonably quiet without temps being totally out of control. Can't guarantee the same success, but it does seem to indicate it is at least possible.

So, plenty of things to consider still. Which sucks, I'd like to just get stuff ordered, but I don't want to make particularly rash decisions.