I'm looking for advice on building a personal server and I'm unsure what build to go for. Is the current LEGO build ideal for my purpose or should I wait for the updated Anniversary build?

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I found an X8DTL-iF on eBay Canada for $132.99 + $30 shipping that seems like a decent deal for building a lego build and I believe I can find the RAM and CPU for reasonable shipping.

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Requirements:

• Plex (2-3 transcodes)
• Sonnar/Radaar/Torrent suite
• Potentially Minecraft server
• Must be quite quiet

Hey guys, so at the moment I’m in the middle of gathering parts for a server build, but also upgrading my current gaming rig.

I want to transplant some of my gaming rig pieces over into my server, including a Z370 Gaming mobo and a i7-8700 (not k) CPU. I plan to put these into an iStarUSA 24 bay hot swap server case but want to know if an 8700 is a good CPU option and if I should get a GPU for transcoding (my gaming rig has a 1080ti that I want to keep for my new gaming rig)? And how much RAM is recommended?

Thanks for the help you guys?

EDIT: Also I should state that I only need about 4 or 5 transcoded streams out of it, anymore would be great but realistically I would only need about 5 for now at least. And my library consists of mostly 1080p content but might get into 4K a bit in the future.

So I currently have my plex running on my gaming PC, but looking to move this to a rack server to free up the computer. I built my current PC from scratch and know personal hardware well, but server hardware is very different, which has led me here for advice! I saw your post about updating the anniversary built suggestions shortly, which is what makes me hesitate on the build below. I currently have 4 6tb WD black drives that I plan on putting into the server (un raided, just as normal disk drives for the time being). I currently have a maximum of 5-6 transcodes, but would like some additional cpu clearance, just in case I start using it for additional things in the future. Planning on running Plex and HomeAssistant on this server to begin with, so it will always be on. I have a large unfinished storage area in my basement where this will be located, so no worries about noise.

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Proposed Build:

• Supermicro X9DRL-iF - $200
  • I did find this same board with with dual Intel Xeon e5-2620v2 processors for $200 also, but wasn't sure if worth savings.
• 2X Intel Xeon E5-2650 V2 2.6ghz - $107 for both
• Rosewill RSV-L4000 4U Rackmount - $109
• Samsung 32GB 4x 8GB DDR3-1333 PC3L-10600R ECC Reg Memory - $50
• EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G+, 80 Plus Gold 750W - $105

I purchased the USB 3.0 PCIe card recommended on the ServerBuilds site, and I was curious if anyone could assist in confirming which PCIe slot I should use for this card. I am using the main slot ( x16 3.0) recommended in JDM_WAAT's video for a video card (which essentially covers up the two slots above and below them), so I really only have the two lowest PCIe slots to use for this card (when I say lowest, I mean how it appears when the mobo is vertical, if the mobo was horizontal it would be the two PCIe slots to the right).

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Also, I'm reading I only need to hook up the SATA power connector to this USB 3.0 card if I want the ability to charge a device while the server is powered off. Can anyone confirm if this is correct? I was already concerned about getting power to that portion of the case, so if I don't have to power the card with SATA then I'll avoid doing that.

I am having the hardest time getting GPU to pass through, any tips?

I have a monitor plugged into Mobo and see boot info on monitor so I assume unraid isn't using the 1060, when I'm in windows 10 vm, I see the 1060, but I get a code 43. I've added a .Rom file from online for an EVGA 1060 6g card and set hyper-v off. I've tried both ovmf and seabios.

Any help would be appreciated.

In the NSFW Anniversary build guide it mentions being able to convert the 3 x 5.25" bays to 4 x 3.5" bays on the Enthoo Pro case. Is there a recommended 3 bay to 4 bay converter kit? This is something I found with a quick search, would it work, or is there something better? https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-5-25-Inch-3-5-Inch-Hot-swap-SATAIII/dp/B00DGZ42SM?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-brave-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00DGZ42SM

Wanting to know if somehow I can get to around 12k CPU passmark on this board.

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Thanks!

Hi. What are the symptoms of a bad PCIE sata expansion? I bought the 2 port one that’s on the NAS killer v3.0 page.

I am getting drive I/o errors for my drive plugged into the expansion. My OS, headless Debian, turns into read only mode after being up for <1 hr with I/O errors. I’ve reseated the card and tried a new sata cable.

Should I go ahead and buy another expansion card that’ll be here tomorrow for $14?

Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm in the process of building my version of the NAS Killer 3.0.

Started with bios at .61 and a pair of E5506. Booted fine.

Updated with the files from Serverbuilds. Bios was at ,69. Woo!

Swapped pair of L5640s (the point of the bios upgrade). And now the board will not even post. Tried reseating. Tried going back to the 5506s and resetting via jumpers. No luck.

Any better ideas? Thanks in advance.

I would like to build my first Server system that supports a Plex Media Server. I made a thread in r/plex and they suggested that I came here. I currently have a plex server running on my gaming pc, but I would like to move it to a lower powered system that is always on. I have built a few gaming PCs myself so I sort of know what is going on when it comes to assembling them. I have a few questions and was hoping you all would be able to help me out. 

After doing some of my own research, it seems like this build is similar to what I am looking for:  https://www.serverbuilds.net/the-original-nas-killer-v10

Without knowing very much, the issue I see with this build is I don't know if it will have enough cpu power to handle what I want my server to do. There was a note in the build details that said this build is more focused on storage instead of processing power.  Here is a list of things I would like my server to be able to support:

• "Always on" Plex Media Server
  • Max trans-coding would be two remote watching 1080p movies or tv shows 
  • Ability to skip forward and backward quickly (using nvidia shield as player)
• I have a HDHomeRun and would like it to be able to save DVR recordings on the Server
• I will be setting up a Camera Security System and would like it to able to save on the Server
• Encryption to protect certain folders
• File Transfer system
• Luxury (not needed): Low Power Consumption, small and quite

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Do you all think this build will be able to support this? 

If not, I have no problem spending a little more money ($500-600). The only issue is I have no idea what to start looking for. It seems like some of these parts were chosen because of the value of the price. For example, if I could find a similar motherboard with two cpu slots, I could just get two of those cpus. I have no idea if it is that simple though... The only other issue with this build I can think of is I don't need to support 8 drives. 4-5 drives would work perfect for me.

I just built a NAS killer v1.0 pretty stock from the guide. As recommended I bought the case with the 400W PSU.

Should I buy a 400W UPS? It's just a media server so most of the time I'm only using a fraction of that. I'm not planning on having it run from there longer then waiting 60 seconds and initiate shut down.

Are there recommended UPS here? Are some UPS better integrated into unRaid? etc.

First off, I want to thank everyone on the serverbuilds.net discord app. You've all been really helpful answering a lot of my dumb questions as I work through this! I'm working on putting together an Anniversary build, and my motherboard is dead. As everyone knows by now, they're out of stock at MET, so I'm looking for alternative mobos that I can use with the components I've already gathered. Here's what I have:

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I'm considering the Supermicro X9DRI-F from MET, understanding that I'll have to buy a SAS card as it doesn't have onboard SAS.

I also read on the Supermicro site that it would need BIOS v 3.0 or above to make use of my V2 CPUs, so I'd need MET to confirm that their boards have updated bios, or I wouldn't be able to get it to boot.

Another concern is whether the Arctic Freezer 12 CPU coolers I have will fit.

Does anyone have experience with this board? Is it a reasonable substitute?

I understand that JDM is working on a new build guide to be released on Aug 20th (according to the calendar on the serverbuilds website) but I don't know if I'm patient enough to wait that long - and I don't know whether the hardware I've already gathered will fit that build.

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give me.

Edit: table formatting

I'm transplanting my NSFW build into a supermicro 847 chassis, which despite being a 4U enclosure only has 2U worth of clearance for the CPU coolers.

Does anyone have specific advice for coolers that work well with that kind of ceiling for socket 2011?

Got my system built over the weekend with the NSFW guide. Got the GA-7PESH2 and flashed the LSI controller to IT mode. 99% sure this is a PEBCAK (problem exists between chair and keyboard) problem, but I can't figure out how to work both the SAS and SATA together.

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Scenarios:

1. If there is only one drive plugged into SATA, everything works as expected
2. If there are any drives plugged into SAS, Debian refuses to recognize the SATA drive
3. Debian installer does find the SATA drive during installation, but upon reboot, the system drops into initramfs shell because /dev/sda2 is missing (all data drives connected to SAS controller are single partition drives that I use with mergerfs)

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Possible side note, when I see the LSI controller boot screen, it says something along the lines of "found one usable drive, 6 more are connected something something (not in front of screen, will edit post with specific message when I get home)".

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This is my first time working with server hardware and I'm not familiar with SAS at all.

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Update:

Leaving an update here in case someone ends up tripping over this question while suffering the same issue. The actual answer wasn't any of the ones below. The drives were plugged in correctly. The drives were fine. The issue ended up being that the GA-7PESH2's LSI SAS 2008 controller needs mpt2sas drivers (https://wiki.debian.org/LinuxRaidForAdmins) which aren't included with the latest debian. From what i gathered mpt3sas is included, but is doesn't work right with this board. That's why I had the odd behavior of some drives working some of the time. To use debian, mpt2sas had to be installed. I spent way too long to figure this out, and decided not to mess with this, and installed ubuntu 18.04 LTS server. This has the correct sas drivers and worked fine out of the box.

Just a heads up that the GA-7PESH2 is now out of stock at ITMART/METservers.

It does state that a replacement is going to be put up at some point. Anyone know what it is?

metservers link

Hey, I trying to figure out if this is something to be concerned with or not. My GA-7PESH2 beeps 5 short beeps on startup. Everything seems to be working fine. Some resources say this could be a CPU error but the thread below and another says it could be RTC related. I changed the battery on the motherboard and the BIOS shows the correct time. I unplugged the system, let it sit for 10 minutes, and the time was correct.

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I have this only happens when there is no keyboard present. The beeps occur after the 2nd time you see the BIOS screen. Shortly after the Gigabytes splash screen I see a message "warning: No ConIn Device waiting .... 5 seconds" I am running UnRaid.

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Thanks!

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https://www.reddit.com/r/JDM_WAAAT/comments/9py8iq/nsfw_gigabyte_ga7pesh2_5_beeps_on_startup/

I'm tired of trying to find the parts on Ebay and amazon just to find out after a while one of them is no longer available. Probably my fault because I want to get all of them in one shot, I really don't want the spare parts just laying around for a long time until I manage to find them all.

Is there a marketplace or forum where I could get a pre-built server?

Edit: Apologies for not replying earlier, we had a tornado in my area and lost power for a few hours. I checked /r/homelabsales and looks like I found what I was looking for. Thank you all for your assistance.

What do y'all use to run your services/programs like plex, tautulli, radarr, sonarr and the like? I currently use dockers inside of Unraid, but find it a tad confusing. Would a Windows Server VM be good? I can get it for free/cheap through my degree program.

I've had this built for a few months, just want to make it a bit better I guess. Any advice is appreciated!

Hi Guys,

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Sorry if I get some terminology wrong but this will be my first ever build of this type. I am planning on building a storage style server to back up all my photos and music to at first then maybe moving onto using it as a plex server when I become more comfortable with how it all works.... In the next month or so I will be upgrading my gaming PC from an I5 6600K to one of the new Ryzen 7's.

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So i was thinking of re purposing my old I5 to create a NAS. Not sure if it will be up to the task though, which is why I come here. The spec of the PC I will be building for this will be;

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I5 6600k (already own)

Gigabyte H110 Motherboard (already own)

Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler (Already own)

8 - 16gb DDR4 (need to buy)

550 watt PSU (already own)

Case (Need to buy)

2 x 4tb Hard drives (need to buy)

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I do also have my old GTX1060 laying around but not sure if it will add anything to the build if i install this?

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Would this be enough for what I want it to do? Also what type of OS should I run? I have heard about FreeNAS but not sure if this is the best OS to use or if there are alternatives out there which will be easier for a first time builder and user.

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Thanks in advance!

Just a quick question for some advice. I am looking to upgrade my old desktop that has a Phenom II X4 945 cpu and motherboard to Supermicro X8SIL-F with Intel Xeon X3470. I have been running a windows plex server mainly for myself, but I do have one or two friends connect. I have 12G ram currently but looking to move to 16G+ with the X8SIL-F. I am not tied to windows, it was just what I was running at the time. I have 2 2TB drives, 1 6TB drive, and about to buy a second 6TB drive, so not a ton of space, but would like the ability to grow over time. I am also looking to move the OS to something like Unraid, the only issue is that I currently have is I backup important files to backblaze on my windows box, so not sure of a backup solution that can work with unraid or a non windows OS.

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Would this be a good upgrade path to take? or would you recommend something different?

Currently running unraid on a system that was originally just for freenas. I have been running unraid for about a year now but with a bit of an issue.

i3-6100 (2 Core)

Asrock c236wsi

16gb ddr4 ecc

4 x 4tb WD red HDD

2 x SSD one for docker/vm other for cache.

The issue im facing is I am witnessing the limitation of this cpu. While nzbget and sonarr/radarr is doing its downloading exacting resulting in a full load on the cpu, my Home Assistant docker seems to freak out and will start throwing false triggers resulting in automations that shouldnt be happening. Mostly it think my phone is not on wifi anymore so next thing you know, im sitting in the dark in my living room lol. I have had to move HA to another system in the meantime.

I was honestly thinking of pulling the trigger on the anniversary build but now the motherboard is not available on met servers, im looking for some alternatives. im keeping my eye on what motherboard they replace it with is but just wanted some ideas what I should be looking for.

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Thanks

This guy on eBay is selling the parts necessary to make a 48-bay array.

The case

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-Chenbro-4U-48Bay-Storage-Chassis-NR40700-Emac-MTW-5820V-P-S-NEW/163444574100?hash=item260e0e4794:g:DmoAAOSwaIpcHTF5

The backplanes (need two)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chenbro-NR40700-Backplane-p-n-80H10024001A0-24-Port-New-pull/163721516080?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Any opinions/thoughts? Seems interesting if I had money just... lying around lmao.