Suggestions for a NAS + Hypervisor - Small form factor server

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Aaroona

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#314918 29-May-2024 00:36

I'm hoping people have suggestions here for a small form factor stand-alone server, which will also work as a NAS. I'm working with limited space, and ideally on the lighter side of the power envelope. Partly inspired by Linus Tech Tips CM3588 mini-NAS... but with a desire of more speed and abilities.

Decent processor (better than i7-2600 I have now) reasonable power, but reasonable focus on low idle watts.
Handle 32GB, but preferably 64GB ram
5+ drives (either Sata/SSD, M2, or mixed considered)
Small form factor (especially for M2's), and low noise.

This server will essentially host a plex server, among other things, and be used as a NAS. I will probably run Proxmox on it so I can spin up a VM or two now and then.

I was considering a Gen10 Microserver, but it seemed reasonably compromised on the CPU side of it, and non-upgradeable.

With these requirements, I'm guessing I'll probably have to go custom, but if there's something someone is aware of prebuilt, or a parts list that might fit the use case... I'm all ears!

NB: this is homelab rather than SMB. So custom is fine.

cddt

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#3242084 29-May-2024 08:41

Do you have a budget you're working with?

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Aaroona

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#3242089 29-May-2024 09:07

cddt:
Do you have a budget you're working with?

Didn’t specifically have one in mind, but obviously don’t want to spend the earth. I saw a gen10 microserver for $600 on trademe, so I’m willing to go secondhand to keep the bill down, with the exception of storage which I’ll likely buy new.

freitasm

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#3242162 29-May-2024 09:58

I know @michaelmurfy upgraded the memory and CPU on the HP Microserver he inherited from me.

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CYaBro

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#3242174 29-May-2024 10:47

I got one of these:

Amazon.com: Yottamaster 5 Bay 2.5 & 3.5 Inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure, 6Gbps USB C HDD/SSD Enclosure with Fan, Up to 80TB(5x16TB) Direct Attached Storage (DAS) for Data Backup NAS Expansion [PS500C3] : Electronics

And connect it to a Beelink mini PC via USB-C.
I filled it with some old WD Red 3 & 4TB drives that I had.

The Beelink is an i5-12450H with 16GB RAM and 500GB nvme plus I added a 2.5" 500GB SSD just because I had it here. 😂

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michaelmurfy

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#3242229 29-May-2024 11:06

I've got a Gen 10 Microserver but wouldn't actually recommend this for Plex. The reason being, no hardware transcoding.

Instead I am running my Plex server on an Intel NUC running Proxmox (LXC Container) as this has Intel Quicksync. The device you're running Plex on doesn't have to be powerful, just have Quicksync support.

If I were to build a NAS from scratch to be honest I'd actually go towards a Synology as this can run containers / VM's fine out of the box but then you can just shove Proxmox on a small form factor computer and use this for VM's / Containers also.

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Tzoi

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#3242327 29-May-2024 14:58

The jonsbo n2 or n3 cases could be good for a custom build, depending on how many drives you want to use

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ShinyChrome

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#3243702 2-Jun-2024 12:27

If you are comfortable with custom built, I built a small NAS using unRAID that is mostly used for Plex and local files. i aimed for density, low footprint, low power setup and this build has smashed it out the park for me.

I built it out of bits and pieces cheaply with a mix of new and secondhand, but anything 8-9th gen Intel is pretty cheap at this point and capable with Plex.

I also used a T processor which is designed to run in power budget limited scenarios i.e mini-PCs; and set disks to spin down after 4 hours non-activity.

freitasm

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#3243705 2-Jun-2024 12:53

I just use a Synology DS923+ for Docker and it supports VMs. Just install more memory. No hardware decoding for videos though.

It's only four drives, but you can get a different model if wanted.

Not as cheap building one but works out of the box.

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Mehrts

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#3243716 2-Jun-2024 13:42

For my "bitsa" of a home server & NAS, I use an older HP Z440 workstation running Proxmox, with Plex & TrueNAS core running as VMs (along with others). It's been running rock solid for the past four years. Ultimately I was chasing low hardware cost & low power usage, but with plenty of power & flexibility.

I've made a few additions/changes from the stock machine.

-Xeon E5-2630 V4 (10 cores, 20 threads @ 2.2GHz base freq/3.1GHz boost freq & 85w TDP), which means it sips away at the power when at idle, but has a heap of CPU power available when needed.

-80GB of ECC RAM, as it was pretty cheap to throw in an extra 64GB on top of the original 16GB.

-GTX 1650 Low Profile GPU for Plex hardware transcoding & remote gaming via Moonlight. This GPU is rated at 75w max.

Since the Z440 Motherboard supports PCIe bifurcation, I use an Asus 4x M.2 SSD to PCIe adapter with 4x 256GB NVMe drives.
I installed a 5.25" to 4x 2.5" drive adapter which allows me to repurpose the many 2.5" laptop HDDs & SSDs I have lying around.

I pass 32GB of RAM, two of the NVMe drives, and all of the 2.5" drives through to the TrueNAS VM, which makes it easy for share & drive management. The NVMe drives act as a cache although its not actually needed due to the RAM acting as ZFS cache anyway, but hey why not!

Since I'm using repurposed 2.5" drives which don't have a proven track record, I just run them as two mirrored pairs. I make backups on a separate machine of the more important stuff, so no biggie if everything is lost in one hit.

All up, the power used by this whole setup is measured at ~60 Watts at idle. Under load it ramps up to ~160w, which is nothing really.
For the hardware, it was around the $700 mark. The only new item was the GPU.