Mostly-final decisions for new home build: Feedback?

[the_jest]

tl;dr: I currently have a home system running TrueNAS Core; it is getting old, and I am going to replace it with a new server running SCALE. Looking for advice on my planned setup.

Use case: General server for a small household. Media storage, Plex, a range of *arr apps, Nextcloud, UniFi controller, Photoprism, uptime-kuma, other similar around-the-house apps, some low-power VMs, backups/mirroring of several cloud servers/databases/email, etc. I'd asked some questions back in November, and got much useful feedback from forum regulars; this is the culmination of that process.

My current system is still largely adequate for what it does; I don't have any real need to upgrade, except for better Plex transcoding. However, it is now 7 years old, and is based on consumer rather than enterprise gear, and I'd like to get ahead of its inevitable demise. I will turn the existing system into a backup box for the new one.

I would prefer to keep it as small as possible; I actually love my current DS380 size-wise, but it is hard to cool, and this got worse when I added a 3rd mirror vdev, thus further interfering with airflow. Also, ITX mobos are limited. Accordingly I am going to move up to a micro-ATX system, which informs many of the decisions below. (I don't want to go larger than that.) The CS381 seems better than some similar options (e.g. the Fractal Design Node 804) because it has hotswap drive bays. It's important that it be reasonably quiet and doesn't draw more power than it really needs.

Despite my homelab fantasies, I don't need anything particular fast or powerful. (My desktop has an overpowered CPU so if I need to run any serious VMs, I'll just do it on that.) The one thing I really do need is an iGPU, for Plex transcoding. The Xeon 2300 series seemed a good one for this purpose.

Current system
Case: Silverstone DS380
CPU: Intel i3-6100
Memory: 2 x 16GB Micron ECC DDR4 2133
Mobo: ASRock Rack C236 WSI
Main pool: 3 2-way mirror vdevs, mixture of WD Red Pro and Seagate IronWolf drives, various sizes, total storage 32TB
Jail/VM pool: 1 2-way mirror vdev, Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB
Boot pool: 1 2-way mirror vdev, SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB
PSU: Corsair SF450

Planned system
Case: Silverstone CS381
CPU: Intel i7-14700T
Memory: Micron 32GB DDR5-4800 ECC UDIMM
Mobo: ASRock Rack W680D4U-2L2T
Main pool: Move the existing pool over from current system
New main pool (to swap into current system): RAIDZ2, TBD
Boot pool: 1 M2 SSD, Intel Optane P1600x series
App/VM pool: 1 2-way mirror vdev, Intel P5500 1.92 TB
Connector: Supermicro Oculink-to-U.2 cable
PSU: Seasonic Focus PX-650 (?)

As indicated, I am planning on taking the existing six-disk pool from the current system and just putting it into the new machine. This consists of 10TB and 12TB drives; if I need to grow the pool I can swap in larger drives, which should be more than enough for my expected needs. Last-ditch scenario, I could add a fourth mirror vdev. Until then, since the mobo has 8 SATA ports, I figure I'll get another drive as a hot spare. I will then create a new pool on the current system, RAIDZ2 this time for storage efficiency. What's the cheapest reliable rust drive for this purpose? I often see refurbed HGST Ultrastar He drives online at very good prices; are these worth considering?

I welcome advice on the PSU and the various SSDs. It's annoying that the X12STH-F only has a single M2 slot, if I'm reading it correctly; I'd prefer to mirror the boot drive. But I can always use a USB stick as a boot drive in an emergency. For the app/VM pool, I'll use NVMe drives (suggestions welcome!), through a NVMe to PCIe adaptor.

I generally don't have any firm thoughts on any of the specific decisions above, really, and am happy to take suggestions for alternates.

Thank you for any and all ideas!

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Any reason why you didn’t consider Intel 13500 with Supermicro X13SAZ-F with ECC?

Homeserver 1700 | Wunschlisten Geizhals Deutschland

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Best Homelab Configuration right now in that price range imho

Budget Option (if you find a good deal for the Mainboard)
Intel 9100 with C246 with DDR4 ECC

Homeserver 1151v2 | Wunschlisten Geizhals Deutschland

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[the_jest]

Any reason why you didn’t consider Intel 13500 with Supermicro X13SAZ-F with ECC?

(etc.)

Not specifically, but the general guidance here is to avoid the very newest generation of things (esp. for the Supermicro motherboards, which are expensive), and I don't need 13th-gen for anything. And I don't know why that CPU would be better for my needs.

[edit:] Also, the X13SAZ-F is a workstation mobo, not a server mobo.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Newer GPU with better Transcoding, 6 (performance) cores + 8 efficiency cores, power efficient at idle, much lower price than Xeon E2324G, DDR5 ECC RAM at basically the same price than DDR4…

On top: Mainboards with PCIe5.0, usually more M.2 and and better NICs

 

[ChrisRJ]

Best Homelab Configuration right now in that price range imho

As such a general statement that is simply wrong. It may be the best setup for a certain use-case. Or it is the best that you have so far identified for your needs with the amount of time you were willing to invest into the research process and budget constraints. But it is not universally the best choice.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

As such a general statement that is simply wrong. It may be the best setup for a certain use-case. Or it is the best that you have so far identified for your needs with the amount of time you were willing to invest into the research process and budget constraints. But it is not universally the best choice.

You are absolutely right: my answer was related to (pure perception) 80% of the questions in the forum for a server in the area of 1K budget and the requirement for ECC RAM, power efficiency and Video Transcoding…

What alternative would you propose for that scenario? I’m curious

Other budget friendly choice is AM4 with 4650/4750/5650/5750G CPU (if no transcoding required or additional GPU in place: regular Ryzen)

If I ditch power efficiency: E26xx v3/v4 are great…

 

[the_jest]

OK, I'm circling back to the CPU question, which I thought I'd settled. I was looking at the TrueCharts systems requirements page, which indicates that 4 cores are a minimum and 8 cores are recommended. The Xeon E-2324G that I'd been considering only has 4 cores. Will that be sufficient? The Xeon from the same era that has 8 cores and an iGPU would be the E-2378G, which is $600. I'm still not entirely clear what the advantage is of getting a Xeon over a more desktop-oriented CPU, esp. given the enormous price difference. Thoughts?

 

[Constantin]

I second using He10 or whatever used drives from a reputable vendor. I just bought a bunch from goharddrive.com, a vendor I have had good experiences with in the past.

I counsel against the hot spare in a home lab. Instead, qualify a cold spare with bad blocks or whatever then pull and set aside. No point to incur wear and tear if the drives are easily accessible. You might as well set up a Z3 instead of a hot spare and actually benefit from operating that “extra” disk.

As for configs, I agree that z2 seems like a better fit than lots of mirrors for your use case. Can’t speak to motherboard or cpu, that’s outside my wheelhouse. But given a powerful desktop, I kinda scratch my head re: transcoding, when endpoints can usually do it better and cheaper. But then again, most of my content here is SD and my endpoints can all handle HD.