Hi all...I've been reading a lot in the forums for the last month and figured I would ask some questions. I've been using a QNAP 8-bay system for 8 years (TS-869 Pro) and I'm looking for an upgrade. I have a couple of reasons for the upgrade:
- Looking for more drive bays, which led me to the Supermicro cases. I think I'd like the 846 (24 bay) better, but those seem pretty few and far between right now on ebay used. The 847 market seems pretty big, although I think the compressed inside is going to lead to more sound (I'll hopefully address that with some fan updates and picking a SQ power supply).
- I currently have 8 6TB WD Reds and 6 3TB WD Reds (all SATA) that I plan on using, so I wanted something over the 12 bay Supermicro.
- 10Gbe for multiple users of video editing directly on the NAS
- Plex media server for a couple transcoding at the same time
- What processor should I go with? As I said, I want to do a couple transcoding (4k to 1080p) at the same time. I saw some info that maybe suggested needing a E5-2660, but can't seem to find that information anymore. What do you think?
- I'd like to knock down the sound some, so going with PWS-1K28P-SQ. And if I can, swapping out the internal fans for a Noctua fan wall (120mm, 3000rpm). I won't have all drives populated, so does that sound reasonable? Or do I need to go with a low-profile active cooler on the CPUs as well?
- Seems like most have the SAS3 BPs in them, but don't think I will ever need it. And I'd go with a 9311-8i controller in IT mode.
- What size base drive SSD should I get? 120s are ridiculously cheap, or should I go to something bigger? Do I need one for caching? If I do any VMs, should I run them on a separate SSD?
- As I grow the system, is there any reason to get SAS drives over SATA?