[Hostile_18]

Very basic OT, as I'm getting into all this myself.

What is a Home Server/NAS?
A computer or machine primarily aimed at serving other computers/devices. These come into two main types Pre-Built or DIY, the latter being very similar to building your own PC.

What can I do with my own Server?
Hundreds of things, but the most common uses are for Home Media Storage, CCTV, Access to share drives for multiple users, long term secure file storage, Virtual Machines, self hosted email etc etc.

What are the advantages/Disadvantages of a pre built system?
Guaranteed compatibility and bespoke software, that "just works", small discrete size and very low power (perfect for 24/7 availability). Synology, Asustor and Qnap are the main players. The downsides much like PC building are that you can't upgrade/modify easily, you may be tied into certain software and you won't get as much performance for your money (a lot of that money is invested in the software that device uses).

What are the advantages/disadvantages of a DIY system?
Greater expandability, more performance for your money, can match your exact needs, easier to swap out parts and upgrade. Downsides are that you must purchase your own software, when problems occur (and they will) it's up to you to solve, takes time to research.

My Setup
There's so much to cover beyond this, it would be pages long, so its probably easier to just go into detail as the need arises. My setup is a DIY solution, its primarily a media server. I use a Fractal Define 7XL that can hold 20+ Hard drives, so well over 300tb+ (It's 120tb at the moment). In this case it is so large because I want to host a large amount of content in the best quality possible. Depending on your needs an all SSD NAS is perfectly viable. I do have a 4tb NVME Cache drive, to keep all my apps on, so the server runs really fast for everyone (and new files are transferred to the main array over night). I use Unraid as the OS as if a drive fails it can be recovered with no data loss and you can use mixed disk sizes. Just note the Parity drive in your system should always be the biggest drive.

I then use Jellyfin as my media server, accessed by about 8 people (close friends and family). It takes more work to setup then say Plex, but it never "phones home" and local users can use the server even when the Internet goes down, plus all the feautes Plex has without the Paywall. I have Sonarr setup to download my episodes via Usenet so very little manual work is required by me now, as all my quality preferences have being set. Next up I'm going to look into Radarr to automate my movie solution and get an app on my phone to control it all, when out and about. Other uses for my server so far have been putting family pictures on as a secure backup, and storing my classic game ROMS.

 

[J-Roderton]

Really need to get one of these set up for my Plex server.

 

[Showdown]

Was looking for this over in Chill. Glad I checked back over here. I'll have to chime in on this in a little bit.

 

[Hostile_18]

Really need to get one of these set up for my Plex server.

That's what I did. I initially had Jellyfin on my PC. I havent tested it in a while but my NAS allowed me to use about 10-20% of the electricity my main rig was using. It just wasn't viable to keep my PC on all the time. Plus I have since moved over to HDD from SSD as my storage requirements grew.

How do you find Plex? I've never used it, but noticed a growing dissatisfaction from users about how much it is pushing streaming. I know while Linus still uses it, he won't take sponsorship with them until they fix several long running issues, chiefly the download feature.

 

[Hostile_18]

Was looking for this over in Chill. Glad I checked back over here. I'll have to chime in on this in a little bit.

That's a good point actually, as I usually lump gaming and computers in my mind it ended up here, it might be more appropriate over there. I'll move it now.

 

[J-Roderton]

That's what I did. I initially had Jellyfin on my PC. I havent tested it in a while but my NAS allowed me to use about 10-20% of the electricity my main rig was using. It just wasn't viable to keep my PC on all the time. Plus I have since moved over to HDD from SSD as my storage requirements grew.

How do you find Plex? I've never used it, but noticed a growing dissatisfaction from users about how much it is pushing streaming. I know while Linus still uses it, he won't take sponsorship with them until they fix several long running issues, chiefly the download feature.

I like it enough. Been using it about a year. It's been great since I decided to digitize my dvds. I'm using my gaming laptop and an external HD so I'm pretty due for an upgrade.

 

[Hostile_18]

I like it enough. Been using it about a year. It's been great since I decided to digitize my dvds. I'm using my gaming laptop and an external HD so I'm pretty due for an upgrade.

100%. I used to be a big physical media guy, but having everything available, at all times in one places is just so convenient.

It doesn't even need to be a 1-1 copy either. 90% of the quality comes at 50% of the file size easily IMO.

 

[J-Roderton]

100%. I used to be a big physical media guy, but having everything available, at all times in one places is just so convenient.

It doesn't even need to be a 1-1 copy either. 90% of the quality comes at 50% of the file size easily IMO.

Next I'll be working on the blu rays. I don't own as many of those as the DVD discs, but still gotta get on that.

 

[Hostile_18]

Next I'll be working on the blu rays. I don't own as many of those as the DVD discs, but still gotta get on that.

We all have our own line to draw when it comes to media we own and how we get it. But I'd personally download the copy for the disc you have and save you tons of time and let the people who do it for a living give you the best settings etc. Even Linus does that and he's pretty buy the book.

 

[Arkam]

I run a Synology 1019+ with four HDD. It's great. I use it as a NAS and Plex Server.

Plex is totally pushing streaming and rentals, but you can easily ignore that crap. Plex has a lot of neat little perks like searching for Subs, adding tags, mark as watched, etc.

While I love physical media, I cannot understate how convenient streaming from your own server is. Oh and with the app you can download movies to your phone. I do this when I travel so I have stuff on the plane.

 

[Hostile_18]

I run a Synology 1019+ with four HDD. It's great. I use it as a NAS and Plex Server.

Plex is totally pushing streaming and rentals, but you can easily ignore that crap. Plex has a lot of neat little perks like searching for Subs, adding tags, mark as watched, etc.

While I love physical media, I cannot understate how convenient streaming from your own server is. Oh and with the app you can download movies to your phone. I do this when I travel so I have stuff on the plane.

What size are your drives? Might be worth trying Jellyfin on the same library directory as I am pretty certain it too can do all that.

I have took it a but further than just my old discs and my new digital collection blows it out the water. I have quality either at home media levels or past it for tv shows. You can also use MKVNix and put together the best quality video release with the best quality audio release etc for content (or strip out foreign content should you so wish).

 

[Arkam]

What size are your drives? Might be worth trying Jellyfin on the same library directory as I am pretty certain it too can do all that.

I have took it a but further than just my old discs and my new digital collection blows it out the water. I have quality either at home media levels or past it for tv shows. You can also use MKVNix and put together the best quality video release with the best quality audio release etc for content (or strip out foreign content should you so wish).

Four, 4TB drives in RAID 10.

 

[HE1NZ]

What do you use it for?

 

[Hostile_18]

@HE1NZ Me? It's in the OP. Primarily my media server for myself and close friends/family. Also to store important photos in a more secure location. I also use a share to hold my roms, as they aren't dependant on NVME speed.

@Amorous Biscuit wants to know how many hard drives to buy 10 or 20?

 

[kiNeMs]

I built my own using xpenology. Was heaps cheaper than an actually synology. Been running it for years. I will share the specs when I have time.

 

[Hostile_18]

The eternal struggle;

 

[Showdown]

So right now, this is my current setup:

The main player is the Dell PowerEdge R710 at the bottom running in RAID 10 (so only working with 6TB). That's what's handling all of my VM's. I originally bought it for work/labbing purposes but since I had plenty of extra space on there, I ended up spinning up VM's for fileshares and for Plex. It's not really intended for Plex but it's been working great for our purposes. We don't run multiple instances of it in the house nor are we streaming anything beyond 1080 so I'd imagine that's why it's been "ok".

I'd prefer to build out a standalone box for Plex and any other media and I may look at doing that in the future.

On the topic of Usenet and the stuff that goes with it, are there any good places to read up on how to get started with that? I'm probably getting a lot of my media like it's circa 2000's and this sounds like it's a better way to go.

 

[Hostile_18]

So right now, this is my current setup:

The main player is the Dell PowerEdge R710 at the bottom running in RAID 10 (so only working with 6TB). That's what's handling all of my VM's. I originally bought it for work/labbing purposes but since I had plenty of extra space on there, I ended up spinning up VM's for fileshares and for Plex. It's not really intended for Plex but it's been working great for our purposes. We don't run multiple instances of it in the house nor are we streaming anything beyond 1080 so I'd imagine that's why it's been "ok".

I'd prefer to build out a standalone box for Plex and any other media and I may look at doing that in the future.

On the topic of Usenet and the stuff that goes with it, are there any good places to read up on how to get started with that? I'm probably getting a lot of my media like it's circa 2000's and this sounds like it's a better way to go.

Love that setup. So with downloads you have a few options without messing about with sharing files and getting them slowly. Either Torrents + Stremio + a Real Debrid service, or Usenet and one or two good indexers.

I've moved into the latter from the former. Both are great, both will max your connection. For me I deal more in Remux's of which there is more on Usenet and also more internal/private releases. The public trackers are still great for encodes though and some remuxes. If you ever want to get into specifics send us a private message.

 

[Showdown]

Love that setup. So with downloads you have a few options without messing about with sharing files and getting them slowly. Either Torrents + Stremio + a Real Debrid service, or Usenet and one or two good indexers.

I've moved into the latter from the former. Both are great, both will max your connection. For me I deal more in Remux's of which there is more on Usenet and also more internal/private releases. The public trackers are still great for encodes though and some remuxes. If you ever want to get into specifics send us a private message.

Safe to say Usenet > Torrents? Generally speaking that is.

 

[Hostile_18]

Safe to say Usenet > Torrents? Generally speaking that is.

I think its one of those questions where the answer is person specific. I've only had a week on Usenet but I'd say its a lot better, but I have paid a little bit for three good indexers. If you are EU based or adjacent Eweka have a REALLY good deal, not available on the main page through this link (It's what I got and it maxes my connection in the UK).

checkout

www.eweka.nl

 

[Hostile_18]

Set up Radarr last night. Almost exactly the same as Sonarr so very easy to do. Trash guides have great tutorials for both and some great custom scripts you can copy over based on your requirements.

 

[Pyrate]

The eternal struggle;

Whatever is the largest in size.

About media servers, my use case is very light so a NAS is out of my scope. I have a couple 2TB external hard drives full of Movies/Shows, in order to make managing them easier, I've thought lately to hook them to my PC then broadcast a DLNA server to the living room downstairs, which is where we'd be watching, and just use Kodi to build the media library locally, but I'm having trouble actually making the DLNA thing access the hard drives so I just gave up and hooked them back to the TV directly, this networking shit is always frustrating and complicated even for someone who's not hit with the tech illiteracy syndrome.

 

[Hostile_18]

Whatever is the largest in size.

About media servers, my use case is very light so a NAS is out of my scope. I have a couple 2TB external hard drives full of Movies/Shows, in order to make managing them easier, I've thought lately to hook them to my PC then broadcast a DLNA server to the living room downstairs, which is where we'd be watching, and just use Kodi to build the media library locally, but I'm having trouble actually making the DLNA thing access the hard drives so I just gave up and hooked them back to the TV directly, this networking shit is always frustrating and complicated even for someone who's not hit with the tech illiteracy syndrome.

What about getting one of those mini computers Beelink et al with at least one two SSD's inside. Perfectly silent, mini server. It will use about 10w and so be able to be on all the time as well.

With regards to file size, while it is a good quality indicator its not absolute. I.e A big Web Rip will never be better than a much smaller Web DL, as the latter is the raw file. It's like the data from a photograph or taking a photo of the photograph. Also Breaking Bad for example has 1080p Blu Ray Remuxes but against the Netflix 4K WEB DL it would be hard to say the Blu Ray images are better despite the higher bit rate of the former.

My personal quality profile is>

2160p Blu-Ray
2160p Web-DL
1080p Remux
1080p Web-DL
DVD Remux.

I try to avoid WebRips, unless it is the only source. 2160p Remuxes are a no for TV, only really applies to Westworld and Game of Thrones. Encodes by Don are transparent to the source, at half the size. Movies I'll likely set my ceiling at 1080p Remux for the vast majority, and only my absolute favourite's as a 4k Remux or Encode.

 

[Pyrate]

What about getting one of those mini computers Beelink et al with at least one two SSD's inside. Perfectly silent, mini server. It will use about 10w and so be able to be on all the time as well.

I have thought about all of that, but like I said, I don't watch movies all that much anymore to consider it to be worth the money and trouble, the closest I was to considering this is when I thought about buying a crap Optiplex and running Batocera on it then have it as retro consoles emulation box and an htpc, but I also felt that would probably be pointless and I wouldn't really use it that much in the end.

 

[Showdown]

This thread was a terrible idea now that I think about it lol. @Hostile_18, you're going to make me go out and put together a NAS build now. My wallet is going to take a beating. I need to start researching parts and which OS I want to run before going down other rabbit holes.

I did come across this site just today.

Server Part Deals | Enterprise Drives

Upgrade the datacenter with enterprise-grade storage at the best prices. Shop for hard drives and SSDs that will be fit for servers, business NAS, and RAID storage arrays.

serverpartdeals.com

Looks like they've got some decent drive deals.

 

[Hostile_18]

This thread was a terrible idea now that I think about it lol. @Hostile_18, you're going to make me go out and put together a NAS build now. My wallet is going to take a beating. I need to start researching parts and which OS I want to run before going down other rabbit holes.

I did come across this site just today.

Server Part Deals | Enterprise Drives

Upgrade the datacenter with enterprise-grade storage at the best prices. Shop for hard drives and SSDs that will be fit for servers, business NAS, and RAID storage arrays.

serverpartdeals.com

Looks like they've got some decent drive deals.

Do it companies want you to own nothing and subscribe. Show them who's boss by spending more than you ever would on subscriptions!

Seriously though at least the media is yours forever, and you get the best quality.

I've heard of that website, I'll check it out as I'm ordering another drive tomorrow (though my go to website for the UK is really good as well).

 

[Showdown]

Do it companies want you to own nothing and subscribe. Show them who's boss by spending more than you ever would on subscriptions!

Seriously though at least the media is yours forever, and you get the best quality.

I've heard of that website, I'll check it out as I'm ordering another drive tomorrow (though my go to website for the UK is really good as well).

Any time I can give the middle finger to those types of companies, I'm game. I hate the "everything as a service" world we live in.

That site is US based so may not be your jam. I just tossed it up there for anyone looking for a resource. Looked like it had some fair pricing on drives from what I could tell.

 

[Hostile_18]

This is where I've been ordering for recently. Highly recommended. Especially if you are UK based, not sure how it compares to American prices (where you would have to pay import tax). Just ordered another brand new 16tb myself for £153, 5 year warranty. They have just come back in stock a few hours ago.

Seagate ST16000NM001G Exos Enterprise (X16) 16TB SATA Hard Drive

Lowest price for Seagate Exos X16 ST16000NM001G 16TB is £179.99.Seagate Exos X16 ST16000NM001G - Hard drive - 16 TB - internal - SATA 6Gb/s - 7200 rpm - buffer: 256 MB

robertelectronics.co.uk

 

[Hostile_18]

This is where I've been ordering for recently. Highly recommended. Especially if you are UK based, not sure how it compares to American prices (where you would have to pay import tax). Just ordered another brand new 16tb myself for £153, 5 year warranty. They have just come back in stock a few hours ago.

Seagate ST16000NM001G Exos Enterprise (X16) 16TB SATA Hard Drive

Lowest price for Seagate Exos X16 ST16000NM001G 16TB is £179.99.Seagate Exos X16 ST16000NM001G - Hard drive - 16 TB - internal - SATA 6Gb/s - 7200 rpm - buffer: 256 MB

robertelectronics.co.uk

And they have sold out! Lasted 24 hours lol.

I worked it out and im now on to 154 TB Raw.

 

[Dreamlord]

I worked it out and im now on to 154 TB Raw.

Your mother must be so proud!

 

[Hostile_18]

Your mother must be so proud!

I'm still trying to get her to upgrade her computer from about 15 years ago, but she's having none of it lol.

 

[prag16]

So right now, this is my current setup:

The main player is the Dell PowerEdge R710 at the bottom running in RAID 10 (so only working with 6TB). That's what's handling all of my VM's. I originally bought it for work/labbing purposes but since I had plenty of extra space on there, I ended up spinning up VM's for fileshares and for Plex. It's not really intended for Plex but it's been working great for our purposes. We don't run multiple instances of it in the house nor are we streaming anything beyond 1080 so I'd imagine that's why it's been "ok".

I'd prefer to build out a standalone box for Plex and any other media and I may look at doing that in the future.

On the topic of Usenet and the stuff that goes with it, are there any good places to read up on how to get started with that? I'm probably getting a lot of my media like it's circa 2000's and this sounds like it's a better way to go.

You have that in your house? Lmaowtf. Anybody looking for an affordable option look elsewhere lol.

 

[Showdown]

You have that in your house? Lmaowtf. Anybody looking for an affordable option look elsewhere lol.

That Dell server wasn't terribly expensive. I think grabbed it off Amazon for like $600 (it was refurbished). 6x2TB drives, Intel Xeon X5670 @ 2.93GHz, and 144GB RAM. I'd say that's fairly affordable. Just depends on your use case I guess. I know this thread is leaning more towards media servers but like I mentioned before, I bought mine primarily for spinning up VM's and labbing/POC for work stuff. When I saw I was going to have extra space on it, that's when I started adding things like SMB shares and Plex to it.

 

[Hostile_18]

You have that in your house? Lmaowtf. Anybody looking for an affordable option look elsewhere lol.

Here's mine, big, but blends in quite well.

If you don't need loads of storage, I'd get something like this;

 

[Hostile_18]

That Dell server wasn't terribly expensive. I think grabbed it off Amazon for like $600 (it was refurbished). 6x2TB drives, Intel Xeon X5670 @ 2.93GHz, and 144GB RAM. I'd say that's fairly affordable. Just depends on your use case I guess. I know this thread is leaning more towards media servers but like I mentioned before, I bought mine primarily for spinning up VM's and labbing/POC for work stuff. When I saw I was going to have extra space on it, that's when I started adding things like SMB shares and Plex to it.

It's crazy how cheap and high capacity hard drives have become. SSD's as well, but only up to 4tb there. I just got a 16tb Enterprise class hard drive for £155.

At the moment I have;

5x20tb Exos.
3x16tb Exos
1x4tb NVMe gen 4 (cache drive).

 

[Dreamlord]

I'm still trying to get her to upgrade her computer from about 15 years ago, but she's having none of it lol.

Dude. She has and uses a computer at least. I bought my mum a modern phone finally this year (she had an old flip phone from ... early 2000s??) so we can WhatsApp without having to pay for calls abroad finally. And every month, she manages to delete the WhatsApp icon (android) from the main screen and tells me "I lost whatsapp". And I die a little more inside, each time.

 

[Hostile_18]

Dude. She has and uses a computer at least. I bought my mum a modern phone finally this year (she had an old flip phone from ... early 2000s??) so we can WhatsApp without having to pay for calls abroad finally. And every month, she manages to delete the WhatsApp icon (android) from the main screen and tells me "I lost whatsapp". And I die a little more inside, each time.

Are you expected to know your parents passwords for things as well like I am? I have a hard enough time remembering my own lol.

 

[Showdown]

I really need to get an idea of what folks around here have built out and what else they're using it for besides media. I need some ideas. I'm struggling based on whether to go UnRAID or TrueNAS and I need to decide on that before I can really look at the hardware portion of this. TrueNAS has the performance advantage and it's solid on security. Oh, and it's free. On the downside, it's potentially more of a pain to set up, it chews up RAM so you need to accommodate for that, and you can't just add storage to the array all willy nilly, you have to plan that out and purchase ahead of time.

UnRAID on the other hand is pretty simple to set up from what I'm reading, has better docker support, has a better community, and you can add storage easily (and any sized storage under your parity drive). Downsides are shit security and read/write performance are meh unless you have a cache drive, and even then it's still not the best depending on use case. Media server that's not a huge deal but as a fileshare and backup server, that may suck for me.

I'm leaning heavily towards UnRAID because I don't want to screw around with setup. I just want something that works. And I like the fact that the system requirements are a bit more lax as well as how it handles storage additions. Not a fan of buying a license, especially after it looks like they just jacked the Pro/Lifetime license up substantially. I won't be having it internet facing but even still, hopefully it can be locked down beyond that.

Here's mine, big, but blends in quite well.

Actually, that blends in very well. Mind sharing your entire build? I know it's the Fractal 7XL with your listed drive but what else is under the hood? And since it looks like it's in the living/family room, is it fairly quiet?

It's crazy how cheap and high capacity hard drives have become. SSD's as well, but only up to 4tb there. I just got a 16tb Enterprise class hard drive for £155.

At the moment I have;

5x20tb Exos.
3x16tb Exos
1x4tb NVMe gen 4 (cache drive).

Yeah definitely. I remember looking a few years ago at 4TBs on Amazon and now, for close to the same price, looks like I can get 12 to 16TB's.

 

[Hostile_18]

I have no experience with TrueNas but from what I hear your right in that it's more complicated. Unraid have changed their pricing structure massively this year. Cheapest tier is cheaper, but the Pro licencee went up alot as they realised they needed more money for development. It's still pay to keep but feature updates stop after a year.

I went Unraid because of the Parity drive and also being able to add discs of different sizes easily and when you like. It's being a learning curve, but getting the hang of it now. It's also very low power.

Ill do a break down of my parts when I get chance. It's completely silent apart from the hard drives and even then it's still super quiet, you can only hear it's on with everything else muted. Obviously that may change depending on your workload but I'm always downloading/uploading, doing checks etc so I'd imagine the world load would have to be pretty intense for noise to become an issue. I also went with a Seasonic PSU that only comes on above 60% load (so it's always silent). The define XL has foam pads inside as well that help insulate the noise.

I bought a 2.5g switch for £30-40 and so transferring files from my PC to NAS gets me 280 MB/s so not bad at all. Also I feel like not using Raid will stress my drives less? Plus should disaster strike and I lose a drive that's not recoverable it will only lose the data that was on that drive, not the whole array. Plus I can help out alot more with Unraid. Found a load of essential Apps.

I use a reverse proxy to let my clients use Jellyfin, works well.

 

[kiNeMs]

I did freenas for many years. It was rubbish. I ended up losing 2 drives and lost the raid. I spent 3 mo the trying to recover it. Lost alot of work, art and music. Only recovered about 60%. I then turned to xpenology and haven't looked back. Xpenology is a hacked synology. It's difficult since it all depends on what hardware you use if it will work. But if it does work, it's synology which is awesome

I'm still to post my setup, but I use it for storing all my work software, my art, my music and other random shit. Then I have the radarr and sonarr setup that I have been running for years. Radarr and Sonarr monitor lists from trakt and another auto list site. They connect to nzbgeek and use Usenet to collect. It then gets placed in the corresponding folders and plex monitors it. There is also another rr that does subtitles that runs over the top grabbing subs.

I then have a 4TB usb that's doing daily backups of the important stuff, if it has the sonarr and radarr backups, I don't need to backup the media since they can go and collect again.

Synology is great since they have their own raid partitioning method that allows different size drives. I think you can lose 2 drives at a certain size % and still be ok. But I have 6 x 3TB drives. The Seagate raid wolf drives haven't skipped a beat. I have a 4TB on standby.