Low Power Unraid Build

[matt_to_the_max]

Hi everyone,

I just ordered parts for a low power unraid build. My previous unraid server was ran by a Dell T30 server that served me well for 5 years or so. Recently, the cache drive failed in my Unraid server so I lost all of my dockers and system data. I have four spinning disk hard drives in the T30 server and there are no more 3.5" slots available. I have 2TB of free space remaining from 20TB of usable space. Thus, I decided to build a custom server with an standard size ATX case that has 8 3.5" drive bays. Here is what I ordered:
Intel Core I3-12100F
Asus Prime B760M-A D4
Team Group 2x16GB DDR4 3600MHz
FSP Hydro GE 550W 80 PLUS Gold
SXTAIGOOD 9300-8I HBA controller
Silicon Power 1TB NVMe drive PCIe Gen4 (Docker, system, and appdata cache drive)
Silicon Power 1TB NVMe drive PCIe Gen3 (Downloads cache drive)
Antec Performance Series P101 Silent

Do you guys think I ordered decent parts for a low power Unraid build?
I'll post picture when I have everything assembled.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[VoloxitySF]

I want to like it, but I can't. Here's why..

warning: I'm a sucker for enterprise hardware. Expensive, but poor resale value which makes it easy to obtain used.

1. CPU, while low power, does not really provide any good virtualization options due to the limited cores. For docker containers I realize it's not a bad option for a lighter workload.
2. MB, while a good name with ASUS, I have a friend that has had nonstop issues with his PRIME series Intel board. He's on his third replacement now. Though its a 9th gen, could be resolved by now on 12th. I also hated how the RAM slots only had a hinge on one side.
3. RAM is not ECC ^ (no platform support either) but I realize it's not the end of the world. If your work is not mission critical it's less important. Have some good backups with versioning.
4. PSU, Watercooling is neat but, I wouldn't trust my storage/NAS PSU to run water. My FSP Bezerker in my Unraid box died once and had to be RMA'd. It's been good for a few years now though after that.
5. SXTAIGOOD? I've never heard of that brand. I'd be worried about the reliability or potential hardware-based vulnerabilities of what is originally an LSI controller.
6. Silicon Power IMO is taking the cheap way out of the most critical part of this whole machine.
7. Case is pretty sweet!

A lot of people will disagree with everything I said and I'm ok with that, and you should be OK with what you got. All that matters is if YOU like it in the end.

edit: realized the HBA is not for your SSDs but for the spinners!

Cheers

 

[Grebuloner]

I hope you have a spare GPU for setup? There is no IGP on an F cpu.

I'd buy a genuine LSI/Broadcom HBA. Just for the peace of mind and guarantee against counterfeit.

For a system you aren't going to be directly interacting with very much, I'd get a more reputable NVMe setup. WD/Samsung/SK Hynix. They're all relatively cheap to each other, anyway.

4. PSU, Watercooling is neat but, I wouldn't trust my storage/NAS PSU to run water. My FSP Bezerker in my Unraid box died once and had to be RMA'd. It's been good for a few years now though after that.

It's not watercooled, just a dumb name.

 

[matt_to_the_max]

I want to like it, but I can't. Here's why..

warning: I'm a sucker for enterprise hardware. Expensive, but poor resale value which makes it easy to obtain used.

1. CPU, while low power, does not really provide any good virtualization options due to the limited cores. For docker containers I realize it's not a bad option for a lighter workload.
2. MB, while a good name with ASUS, I have a friend that has had nonstop issues with his PRIME series Intel board. He's on his third replacement now. Though its a 9th gen, could be resolved by now on 12th. I also hated how the RAM slots only had a hinge on one side.
3. RAM is not ECC ^ (no platform support either) but I realize it's not the end of the world. If your work is not mission critical it's less important. Have some good backups with versioning.
4. PSU, Watercooling is neat but, I wouldn't trust my storage/NAS PSU to run water. My FSP Bezerker in my Unraid box died once and had to be RMA'd. It's been good for a few years now though after that.
5. SXTAIGOOD? I've never heard of that brand. I'd be worried about the reliability or potential hardware-based vulnerabilities of what is originally an LSI controller.
6. Silicon Power IMO is taking the cheap way out of the most critical part of this whole machine.
7. Case is pretty sweet!

A lot of people will disagree with everything I said and I'm ok with that, and you should be OK with what you got. All that matters is if YOU like it in the end.

edit: realized the HBA is not for your SSDs but for the spinners!

Cheers

Hi VoloxitySF, thanks for the input. I should say the goal of this build was not to be just low power but also be pretty cheap but maybe I cheaped out a little too much, lol, especially on the HBA controller. This server isn't hosting anything mission critical or super important at least but my main priority is to keep the data on the spinning disks intact. I have a more powerful Ryzen 5 5600X proxmox server that I run my virtual machines on inlcuding my router which is PFSense. Shoot, I hope the motherboard doesn't crap out, I had good luck with ASUS motherboards in the past so that's why I choose that motherboard. Also, the motherboard I choose has three full length PCIe ports which is what I need since I have a 10Gb SFP+ PCIe NIC, the HBA controller, and I can also put something else like a NVMe PCIe card if I needed to. I hope the NVMe drives hold up. Speaking on NVMe drives, I just had a Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe drive fail after four years of use so I replaced it with a Samsung 990 pro NVMe drive on my main rig. 7. Thanks, I do like the case, hopefully it's easy to work with.

I hope you have a spare GPU for setup? There is no IGP on an F cpu.

I'd buy a genuine LSI/Broadcom HBA. Just for the peace of mind and guarantee against counterfeit.

For a system you aren't going to be directly interacting with very much, I'd get a more reputable NVMe setup. WD/Samsung/SK Hynix. They're all relatively cheap to each other, anyway.


It's not watercooled, just a dumb name.

Hello Grebuloner, I do have an extra GPU but I don't plan on using it. I'm going to run this server headless like Unraid is intended. I'll have the flash drive setup already with an IP address so I should be able to manage the server through my main PC via HTTPS like I currently do with my old Unraid server. I agree with you on the genuine HBA and NVMe but I figure what the hell I'll shoot my luck with this cheap no name controller and cheap NVMe drives. Also, the FSP power supply does have a dumb name, haha, I got it for $60 in "like new" condition.

 

[Abula]

I'm not completely sure, but the motherboard might not boot if no GPU / iGPU is present to pass the the bios check, i would crosscheck this to avoid needing to use your GPU, personally i would prefer to buy an intel cpu with iGPU, not that much more money and its very efficient, and capable of doing lots of things.

 

[OFaceSIG]

I have been building my own nas4free, freenas, and now TrueNAS builds for a decade. No real issues. Biggest issue I've had is drives failing, but that can happen with any NAS. Unraid is interesting but I need the rocksolid reliability of ZFS.

Ever since I've had more than 3 bucks in my pocket I always follow a few rules:
1) T series Intel processors. 35W beauties you can find used on Ebay. Currently my TrueNAS is on a 7500T quad core 35w, it's perfect for what I need. Integrated graphics means I don't have to worry about not having a console.
2) Used motherboard too.
2) ZFS caches so try to use a fair amount of memory for your usage pattern. I have 32GB in it now.
3) I always buy new drives, and a new power supply. Usually, a DC to DC ATX adapter from mini-box.com Current build sips less than 60w of power from the wall.

As of this latest build I have Intel x540 dual port nic. I think 540 the model number, dual 10Gbps. It's not the 550 as that's multigig. This is only 1gig or 10gig.

My NAS used to just be for CIFS/SMB shares in my house. But now that this one has a 10gig NIC is also acts as NFS storage for my Proxmox box.

 

[matt_to_the_max]

I hope you have a spare GPU for setup? There is no IGP on an F cpu.

I'd buy a genuine LSI/Broadcom HBA. Just for the peace of mind and guarantee against counterfeit.

For a system you aren't going to be directly interacting with very much, I'd get a more reputable NVMe setup. WD/Samsung/SK Hynix. They're all relatively cheap to each other, anyway.


It's not watercooled, just a dumb name.

I'm not completely sure, but the motherboard might not boot if no GPU / iGPU is present to pass the the bios check, i would crosscheck this to avoid needing to use your GPU, personally i would prefer to buy an intel cpu with iGPU, not that much more money and its very efficient, and capable of doing lots of things.

You both were right. I ended up returning the non F CPU for a i3 12100. I used a dedicated video card to check out the bios and make sure everything was running fine with the F CPU and then I removed the gpu and the NIC would never light up. I don't think the motherboard booted past the BIOS without a GPU and I didn't feel like puting back the dedicated GPU. Now I can run my server headless but access the command line if needed through my Dell KVM console. I ended up buying another 14TB hard drive for shits and giggles/additional storage so now I have a 78TB array with 50TB usable not counting the two NVMe SSDs. So far the server is holding up and I love the case. It's pretty darn big and super quiet. It barely fits in my server rack next to my old antec 300 case, which has a mATX motheboard with a 5600X CPU. (It's my proxmox server.)

 

[Valnar]

The other nice thing about having a CPU with a GPU is if you ever learn the word...."Plex".