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The Perfect Home Server Build! 18TB, 10Gbit LAN, Quiet & Compact - YouTube
Channel: Wolfgang's Channel
[4]
This is my home server.
[5]
You might remember it from this video that
I made last summer, and it's pretty cool.
[9]
It's cheap, doesn't consume a lot of power
[11]
and has enough storage for system
backups, Youtube footage and Linux ISOs.
[15]
Unfortunately, after around a year of use, one
of the backplane connections on the case failed,
[20]
which prompted me to look for a new case.
[22]
I had some parts left over
from my previous builds,
[24]
and it kind of spiraled out of control from there.
[27]
So this is my new home server.
[29]
It has 18TB of hard drive storage,
a 1TB SSD for fast backups
[34]
and 8 SATA ports in total.
[36]
It also has a 10 Gbit SFP+ LAN connection,
Raspberry Pi-based KVM for remote access
[42]
and all of this is installed, provisioned,
deployed and managed automatically
[45]
using Ansible and cloud-init.
[48]
This might be one of the most overkill
computer builds that I've done in my life,
[52]
And if two of my previous
home server videos focused
[54]
on practical setups that don't break the bank
[56]
This build went a little bit off the rails.
[59]
As I mentioned, I used some parts that
were left over from my previous builds,
[62]
So I wasn't really concerened
about the price of those parts,
[64]
But I will definitely mention sensible
alternatives later on in that video.
[68]
That being said, if you need a file server
for torrenting, media streaming and backups,
[72]
you probably don't need something like that,
[74]
and my previous server build
would be just fine for you.
[77]
Oh, and one more thing before we get started –
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This video is going to be about
the hardware side of things.
[82]
If you want to know about the
software setup – what OS it's running,
[85]
how I deploy and configure
it, what services I'm using –
[88]
check out this video right here
[90]
(here)
[91]
It should be out in about a month if you're
watching this video the day it came out.
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First off, let me tell you a little
bit about how I use my home server
[98]
And what I need from it in
terms of hardware and software.
[100]
First of all, I need my
server to be small and quiet,
[103]
And that eliminates both rack
and ATX tower form factors.
[107]
Rack cases often have
industrial cooling fans in them
[109]
That are optimized for maximum airflow
with no consideration for noise.
[113]
(1U fan noise intensifies)
[116]
And ATX tower cases take too
much space in my opinion.
[119]
So that's why I decided to go with
a miniITX enclosure and motherboard.
[123]
Even though you are limited to one PCI express
expansion card for most miniITX boards,
[128]
That's not really a deal-breaker for me.
[130]
Second, I want my server to be performant enough.
[132]
I don't run any virtual machines and
don't do any crazy computational stuff,
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But it should at least be able to handle
media encoding in Plex and Jellyfin.
[140]
I also run Nextcloud, Bitwarden, Unifi
Controller and many other services on my server,
[145]
So I need something that could handle that.
[147]
That's the reason I didn't go
with an off-the-shelf solution
[149]
Like HP Microserver, Synology or QNAP.
[152]
They're great products with their own use
cases, but I needed something beefier.
[156]
Third, despite going with a small form
factor, I want to have enough SATA ports.
[160]
Many cheap miniITX motherboards
have 4 or even 2 SATA ports,
[164]
Which just isn't enough for a storage server.
[166]
Last but not least, I want my home server
to be as power efficient as possible,
[170]
While still fulfilling all
of my other requirements.
[173]
And I think I've found a platform that is the
perfect balance between those four factors
[177]
Size, performance, SATA
ports and power efficiency.
[180]
This is ASRock Rack C236 WSI.
[185]
It's an Intel Skylake miniITX
workstation motherboard
[187]
That has 8 SATA ports and
supports DDR4 ECC memory.
[192]
It's an old motherboard, and it's
still pretty expensive even today.
[194]
I bought it for 185 euros
used, which is about 210 bucks,
[199]
And that's a lot of money for
a used Skylake motherboard.
[202]
But it's pretty much the only miniITX motherboard
in this price range that has that many SATA ports.
[207]
I paired the motherboard
with an Intel Core i3-6100
[210]
And even though it's a pretty old CPU,
[212]
the performance is still more
than enough for home server tasks.
[216]
And yes, the i3 Skylake CPUs do
support ECC memory just fine,
[220]
And you don't need a Xeon CPU for that.
[222]
As an added bonus, i3-6100 also supports
QuickSync for hardware video decoding.
[227]
Now, the fans of AMD might want to ask me
[229]
Why I went with a crappy Intel CPU,
instead of a glorious AMD Ryzen.
[233]
And the reason is pretty simple
[235]
As I already said, Asrock's C236 WSI was the
only miniITX board that had 8 SATA ports,
[242]
And apart from that, Skylake
CPUs are dirt cheap and feature
[245]
hardware accelerated video encoding and decoding,
[247]
Which is good for Plex and Jellyfin.
[249]
Now RAM is where this is where the whole "I
had this kicking around" gets a bit weird,
[253]
Because it just so happened that
I had two 16 gig ECC RAM sticks
[257]
Literally laying around in my basement.
[259]
I bought them for my desktop ITX build
[261]
Since those were the only RAM sticks
that would fit under the CPU cooler.
[264]
Now that I have a different
case and different RAM sticks,
[267]
I've been trying to sell these, but to no avail.
[270]
Which is good, because now I
can use them in this server.
[273]
If I didn't have 32 gigs of ECC memory laying
around, I'd probably just buy something like this.
[278]
8 gigabytes is more than enough for a server like
this and 30 to 40 euros is a pretty good price.
[283]
Hard drives are probably the most
important part of a NAS build,
[286]
And here you have three options.
[288]
If you want cheap drives, get these.
[290]
These are 6TB WD Elements external drives
[293]
Which you can just take apart and use in
your PC just like any normal SATA drive.
[296]
The problem with those drives is that
they're based on the SMR technology,
[300]
Which makes them slower and probably
less reliable in the long run.
[303]
You should definitely stay away from
SMR drives if you plan on using ZFS
[307]
Because the resilver times are
incredibly slow with those.
[310]
That being said, they're
pretty good for casual use
[312]
And go for as little as 90
euros on Amazon Warehouse.
[315]
I'm cheap, so that's what I went with.
[317]
I've been running these drives for 1 year
pretty much 24/7 and they haven't failed yet.
[321]
If you want good and
inexpensive drives, get these.
[325]
These are the same WD Elements
drives, but 8TB instead of 6.
[329]
Those should be CMR drives,
which is the good stuff,
[332]
But they're also harder to get.
[334]
Also, depending on when
you're watching this video,
[335]
Western Digital might have made them
SMR as well, so do your research.
[339]
Now, if you want to go balls to
the walls, need maximum reliability
[342]
And don't care about the money, get these.
[345]
These are WD Red Plus, flagship prosumer drives
that are made for the use in storage servers.
[351]
They also cost almost twice as
much as the WD Elements CMR drives,
[355]
But for that price you get the NASWare firmware
and a 3-year limited warranty, so there's that.
[360]
Now, if you're gonna be using
MergerFS and Snapraid like me,
[363]
You don't have to go for the same size
drives and buy all of the drives at once.
[367]
You can start with just one or two drives,
[368]
And then gradually buy more and
more drives as time goes on.
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There is only one thing that you need to consider:
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Your parity drive, the one you're going
to be storing the SnapRAID data on,
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Should be as large as your biggest data drive.
[379]
So in my case, I got three 6TB SMR drives,
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Which will mostly be used
for backup and media storage,
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And I also got a 1TB SSD for Time Machine backups.
[388]
I pulled that SSD out of my Sandisk Extreme
and stuck it into an M.2 to SATA adapter,
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And so far it's been working out pretty well.
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I've also got a 128gb SATA SSD as my boot drive.
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It's the same drive that I used all
the way back in my first NAS build
[401]
And it still chugs along just fine,
although it's far from being fast.
[405]
Next, we've got the case.
[407]
I decided to re-use Streacom DA2 that
used to house my workstation build,
[411]
But you can definitely get a cheaper
case like this Fractal Design Node 304
[415]
With six 3.5" hard drive slots.
[418]
Because of its modular rail system, Streacom
DA2 can fit up to six 3.5" hard drives
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AND up to twelve 2.5" drives.
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That's 18 drives in a system that
can easily fit in a large backpack!
[430]
Obviously, my motherboard doesn't even have
that many SATA ports, but the option is there.
[434]
I've also ordered some extra
rails from the Streacom shop
[436]
To mount the additional hard drives at
the bottom and 140mm fans at the top.
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Remember I said that Noctua's 140mm fans suck?
[444]
Well, apparently they suck so
much nobody wants to buy them,
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Which is once again good, because now
I can use them to cool my home server.
[451]
I'm also going to be using
Noctua's smallest CPU cooler, L9i.
[454]
This case can fit coolers that
are way beefier than that,
[457]
But I need the space for hard drives,
[458]
And the L9i is way enough to cool
the i3-6100 installed in there.
[462]
In my previous NAS I used a
power supply called PicoPSU.
[465]
It's a passively cooled super
small 150W power supply,
[469]
Which would absolutely not cut it in my new build.
[472]
So instead I went with Corsair SF450,
[475]
Which is a small form factor 450W power
supply with a platinum efficiency rating.
[479]
It's also modular, which makes cable
management a little bit easier.
[483]
And there's going to be a lot of cables to manage.
[485]
For the network card, I got this.
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You might wonder why I need another network
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adapter if I already have two LAN
ports on the motherboard itself.
[492]
Well, that's because it's not
just a regular network adapter.
[494]
This is Mellanox Connect-X3,
a 10 gigabit SFP+ card.
[499]
This will let me have a
10Gbit link to my home server
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and take advantage of that 1TB
SSD I have installed in it.
[505]
I'm going to make a separate video
on my 10Gbit home network by the way,
[508]
So make sure to subscribe if
you don't want to miss it.
[510]
One thing that I really wish my old server had
is some kind of a remote management system.
[515]
Sure, SSH is fine for most things,
[517]
but it only works if you can boot
into your OS in the first place.
[526]
If your operating system doesn't boot, or
if you need to change the BIOS settings,
[530]
You need to take the server out
of the shelf, put it on your desk,
[532]
Connect it to the monitor and the keyboard,
and then bring it all the way back.
[536]
Which is really annoying.
[537]
A lot of server motherboards have a
separate LAN port for remote control.
[541]
It gives you access to a web UI where
you can change the BIOS settings,
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Change the boot order or reinstall the OS
[546]
Without connecting the computer
to a monitor and a keyboard.
[549]
But this motherboard is a workstation motherboard,
so it doesn't have a remote management port.
[553]
Plus, even if I did find a
miniITX server motherboard
[556]
With 8 SATA ports and a remote management port,
[558]
it would probably cost three times as much.
[560]
So instead, I use this.
[562]
This is a Raspberry Pi with a USB-C splitter
and an HDMI capture card running PiKVM.
[568]
The capture card connects to
the HDMI port on the board,
[570]
And the USB-C splitter is connected
to a USB port on the server.
[574]
PiKVM gives you a nice web interface where you
can see the display output, and the keyboard
[579]
And even upload ISOs and boot from them,
[581]
Since Raspberry Pi can also pretend
to be a mass storage device.
[584]
As you'll see in the next video,
[585]
I also use it to automaically mount
the Ubuntu Server installation ISO,
[588]
So the only thing I actually need to do
is reboot the machine and boot from USB.
[592]
This thing saves lives.
[594]
It can add remote management to any
motherboard and it's also very cheap
[597]
Compared to a server
motherboard with built-in IPMI.
[599]
The whole setup looks pretty clunky
[601]
But you can just hide it somewhere in the case
and forget about it, if you have the space.
[605]
There's also a Kickstarter for PiKVM
hat, which is an All-In-One solution
[609]
That doesn't need a USB-C splitter or an HDMI
capture card, so make sure to check that out.
[614]
So since I've done my fair share
of ITX builds for the past 3 years,
[618]
Building in this thing wasn't too difficult.
[620]
I used the vertical brackets to put a
couple of Noctua's NF-A14 fans at the top –
[625]
I think two 140mm fans are more
than enough for this 17L enclosure,
[629]
And the components seem to be running pretty cool.
[632]
I also had to use some standoffs for the PSU and
the drive bracket in order to clear the fans,
[636]
and the 2.5" drives just barely
clear the 3.5" drives at the bottom,
[641]
Which is oddly satisfying.
[642]
I used rubber grommits between the vertical rails
[645]
And the hard drives themselves
to minimize vibrations,
[647]
And I also put some rubber bands
between the drives themselves.
[650]
Now I also wanted to hide the
Raspberry Pi somewhere in the case.
[653]
Since you need a total of 4 cables for it to work,
[655]
It could create a pretty
bad cable mess in the case.
[658]
So I decided to separate the server part and
the PiKVM part using the stock dust filter.
[662]
I think it worked out pretty good,
[663]
But I can tell that accessing the Pi in
case I want to use it for something else
[667]
Would be a real pain in the butt.
[669]
I might find another way later.
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Overall, I'm really happy with this build.
[672]
It's a tight little box, but
there's still enough place
[675]
For 3 more hard drives and 10 more SSDs
in here, if I ever need more storage.
[679]
It also looks pretty cool.
[681]
Now we're coming to the cost.
[682]
And well, all I can say is when
it comes to Wife Approval Rating,
[686]
This thing doesn't score very high.
[688]
My first build was focused on cutting costs and
getting a viable home server setup for cheap.
[692]
It costed me 256€
[695]
My second build costed quite a bit more,
but was still mostly budget-friendly.
[699]
I paid 481€ for the whole build, including
the hard drives, and that's still pretty ok.
[704]
This built cost me almost twice
as much, WITHOUT the hard drives.
[708]
I'm obviously still including the prices
for the parts that I had laying around,
[712]
So 755€ is about as much
as you would have to spend,
[716]
If you were to build something
like that from scratch.
[718]
Is 755€ a lot of money?
[721]
Well, depends.
[722]
In and of itself? Yes, it is.
[724]
But for a small form factor NAS with
10 gig networking and 8 SATA slots?
[729]
That's actually pretty cheap.
[730]
Synology,'s 8 bay NAS costs 1000€, and
doesn't come with 10 gig networking.
[735]
That would cost you 200€ extra.
[737]
And QNAP's 8-bay NAS is 1300 euros, which
is almost twice the price is of this build.
[742]
They do have their advantages of course.
[744]
You don't have to set anything up
– stuff just works out of the box,
[747]
With no need for manual
configuration. At least in theory.
[750]
The drive bays are also much
easier to access than on my build
[754]
And if a drive fails, the NAS will tell you
which bay it's in, which is pretty neat.
[758]
There are also a lot of refurbished
enterprise solutions that can be cheaper –
[761]
HP MicroServers, Dell PowerEdges,
and so on, and so forth –
[765]
If those solutions work
better for you – that's great!
[767]
Just because I built something else,
doesn't mean your option is somehow worse.
[770]
Unfortunately, can't go over each and
every one of the potential alternatives
[774]
And tell you exactly why my
solution works better for me,
[777]
But rest assured, I did go through
pretty much all of the popular options,
[780]
And ended up with building my own NAS instead.
[783]
It might not be the most cost-effective,
[785]
or the most performant, or even
the most future-proof home NAS.
[788]
But I think it's perfect for me.
[790]
It's small, quiet, powerful enough
for media server and NAS use,
[794]
has 10 gig networking and plenty of room
left for additional hard drives and SSDs.
[798]
And I seriously hope that this is going to be
the last NAS that I will ever have to build.
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