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Building my first NAS: Assistance on part selection please (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 10 months ago by CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi! I've never built a NAS before and only one custom gaming PC, so I'd love if any of you more experienced folks could take a look at my parts selection and possibly suggest better options.

Of course first my use cases:

  • Nextcloud
  • Immich
  • Jellyfin
  • Possibly more, similar to the above

Planning on using Truenas with a Raidz (1? - 1 disk failure tolerance) and running most of my stuff in Docker containers. The amount of users will likely stay at or below 3, certainly at or below 5, so it doesn't need to handle that much.

Here's my parts list:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G
    • iGPU, power efficient, AM4 so cheaper, performant enough (I think)
  • Case: Jonsbo N3
    • This is the component I started with, since I really like the form factor. It did limit my choice on motherboards heavily though.
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte A520I AC
    • I was trying to go for one with ECC memory support, but at least on pcpartpicker I struggled to find ones at this form factor supporting it. However from reading through Forum threads ECC isn't critically important for a more "casual" build like mine, just a nice-to-have.
  • Memory: Found about 16GB of DDR4 in my old pc, they worked before so I didn't bother looking at them in detail
    • Cheap
  • Storage:
    • OS: Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280
      • Where I live the 500GB version is actually more expensive
    • Cache: Samsung 870 Evo 500 GB
      • Cheap enough, although if I can combine this with the OS drive, then even better
    • Primary Storage: 4x Seagate IronWolf Pro 8TB (ST8000NT001)
      • I have to admit, I can't recall why I settled on these. 8TB seemed good for price-to-size and I didn't want the server ones despite them actually being cheaper because they're extremely loud apparently, but why Pro and not non-pro and why this exact model... I can't recall, I just remember having a headache that afternoon TwT

I realize I left out the cooler and psu as I don't think they're particularly relevant here, I can deal with those myself. Price-wise, I am going by German prices and parts availability. On any of the parts listed, or if I forgot anything else though, I would love advice on the quality of my decision and how to improve it, thanks <3

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[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You're fine with this setup, and in many respects it's overkill.

I run 33 containers including jellyfin, frigate, and immich as the hardest working ones across 2 HP elitedesk g4 with 48 GB ram, and a 3rd low power system hosting 8gb NFS for storage on simple gigabit lan. Even that is overkill for these tasks.

The apps most commonly run in a self-hosted env are really quite lightweight and spend most of their time at idle.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Ah, sorry, I should've specified this further. Whether this can run what I need it to isn't the primary concern, I believe it can do so, I primarily attached my decision making basis just in case it changes anything.

I'm more concerned about things like picking the correct drives, or if limiting my motherboard selection through an ITX case was a bad idea, or if my choice of not going with ECC was a poor one, those kinds of things.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Its fine.

Best advice I can give you is start where you are with what you have.

What you need will become apparent as you do.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I think you're still OK.

There are lots of great itx boards out there, so basically take your pick. And there will be ppl who say you don't need ecc, but it certainly won't hurt, it will just cost a bunch more.

I run a supermicro mini itx with ecc, for my zfs backup, but my non ecc machines have also been fine.

[–] alterelefant@mastodontech.de 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

@CatLikeLemming Seems alright at first sight. Personally I would probably double the RAM but anything you don't (yet) have to buy is money you can save up for a future upgrade. For now the configuration feels like it will be more than capable.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I thought about the RAM, but since I already have two 8GB sticks I decided not to bother. Couldn't even buy two more since I have no idea what those are exactly, there are no stickers on them, so I'd have to buy 32GB entirely which is like 80-120€.

And as you said, that can always be done later if I run into trouble :)

[–] AppearanceBoring9229@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can check their capacities and speeds with software like cpu-z.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

I sadly can not. The old PC I'm scavenging from is incomplete and my current PC has a DDR5 motherboard. So the earliest point I can check them is once I've built the NAS since then I'd have a functioning PC here with DDR4 support.

[–] monkeyman512@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I assume the cache drive is for your ZFS pool. You probably don't need that.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How come? I've seen those recommended quite often.

[–] monkeyman512@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

When you read files from the ZFS filesystem it will automatically keep the files in RAM. This is called the ARC and it is why people frequently recommend having a lot of RAM with ZFS. The ARC is very effective, automatic, and has no risk because it only caches reads. A cache drive is a secondary ARC generally using a fast SSD. The problem is that it generally only helps performance when you are reading lots of small files multiple times. This is because ZFS does so well reading large files from HDD that it doesn't make much of a difference.

In short: If you already have the drive and want to play with the feature, go for it. But if your going to spend money on the drive, you will probably be better served spending it on more RAM.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

Got it, thank you

[–] tofubl@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm doing everything you list and quite a bit more on a QNAP with a Celeron J4125. A fraction of the cpu performance you'll have, yet very capable of all the tasks I ask of it. 16gb of memory is a good starting point I think.

What does your build come out at?

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago

Prices fluctuate but last I checked it was around 1600€. Also, after posting this thread I re-checked the CPU and noticed that isn't even available in my region anymore apparently, so I'll have to find a suitable replacement there anyways.

[–] h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'll make the obligatory unRAID suggestion. It fits a lot of less intensive scenarios like what you're describing. It does carry a cost, and the licensing model is "interesting", but it has top-tier ease of use, especially around container apps. It would also allow you to use that 1tb ssd as a cache drive since the OS would run from usb (well, in-memory but stored on usb). You can also trial it for free for 30 days and if you don't like it, there's plenty of good suggestions in the thread already

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago

A friend of mine had an unRAID NAS and moved that over to TrueNAS later after being bothered by the licensing costs, that's why I was looking into the latter more. I do know how to RTFM, so I think I should be fine on that? But maybe there's gonna be a huge negative surprise, I suppose I don't know that yet

[–] artyom@piefed.social 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This is way overkill for these applications. A low end mobile Intel processor will do all these things well and use much less power.

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

When I built my first server, TrueNAS, ZFS, and Raid z1 made perfect sense. And I loved it for the first couple months. Then an update and unexpected shutdown rendered my storage pools unrecoverable. Had backups for most but not all of the files, and spent almost a year of bits of free time here wading in way over my head on highly technical support forum threads & there trying to bring the pools back online. Nothing worked, the array was toast.

I don't know how tech savvy you are, but here's the advice I'd give my past self - Take a few weeks to read documentation and play with TrueNAS before filling up your drives with stuff. Peek around in troubleshooting forums, see if the troubleshooting you may have to do is in line with your experience level.

After wiping my drives and starting over, I built around Open Media Vault. It's less pretty and less feature rich than TrueNas, but it's also much less fragile in a raid z1 setup and I never worry about it.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

them actually being cheaper because they're extremely loud apparently

Please tell us more about your design goals and priorities.

Is noise the most important prio? Would you spend money for this goal?

How about power usage?

How about price limitations?

When looking at harddisks, there is that performance issue called "CMR or SMR" (google it). Your ST8000NT001 seem fine performance-wise as the use CMR.

Source: https://nascompares.com/answer/list-of-wd-cmr-and-smr-hard-drives-hdd/

If you need really quiet ones, then maybe you want "desktop" harddisks. But many of them use SMR which limits their performance.

Raidz (1? - 1 disk failure tolerance)

Most guides recommend Raidz2 currently. Do you use backups?

When buying SSDs, check for the "TBW" spec.

[–] CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Is noise the most important prio? Would you spend money for this goal?

Not the most important, but it is an important factor. If I am not losing much otherwise, I'd like to keep it not louder than say, an idling fridge. I would spend some more for quieter drives and fans, since those are the biggest noise concerns.

How about power usage?

Absolutely important, power prices here are some of the highest globally.

How about price limitations?

I'd very much like to stay below 2000€, preferably below 1750€. Currently it's coming out at around 1600€.

When looking at harddisks, there is that performance issue called "CMR or SMR" (google it). Your ST8000NT001 seem fine performance-wise as the use CMR.

Yup, took that into account, but nonetheless thanks for mentioning it!

If you need really quiet ones, then maybe you want "desktop" harddisks. But many of them use SMR which limits their performance.

Doesn't need to be super quiet, just not disruptive, I'm planning on having the NAS in the hallway.

Most guides recommend Raidz2 currently. Do you use backups?

Raidz2 means there are two entire "unused" drives which would be quite painful for my budget. I am planning on renting around 1TB of rsync storage and throwing things like Immich's data on there. This is fine to me since I'd prefer one backup off-site anyways. Any of my jellyfin stuff can always be redownloaded as long as I keep a list of what I got somewhere else. Oh also I'm planning on getting all four drives at different stores and/or different times (at least a week or two in between) to reduce the chance of them failing all at once.

When buying SSDs, check for the "TBW" spec.

Noted