First: Thanks to this community for the knowledge base that allowed me to take the plunge.
Please don’t let my wife see how much this cost. I went a bit above what my original budget ($550) was, but with the drives it really was much more than I anticipated. I started buying parts last year (2019) so I could spread out the financial impact. But with COVID and having more time at home to mess around with stuff while I was working, I decided to go ahead and finish the build buying and putting it together.
Now I’ve built two PCs in my life, the last one being around 8 years ago, so venturing into server parts was an education. I’m also very unfamiliar with any other OS’s besides Windows, but I wanted to learn and hands on is always the best way for me. Okay, enough talk, here’s the build.
Purpose:
- Media server: Calibre, Plex, Subsonic/Airsonic
- Network: Unifi controller, VPN, Pi-Hole
- Long term: I’m hoping to learn VMs, pfSense, Linux, etc.
- Home automation in the future
With a toddler in the home, I want to try to stay 1.5 steps ahead of her with technology, so I gotta start now. I hope to dabble in the Discord to tap into the knowledge that exists there as I learn unRaid and everything else.
Build:
| Part | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2x XEON E5-2630V2 (x2) | $88 |
| MoBo | Supermicro X9DRi-F | $119 |
| Case | Rosewill RSV-4500 | $80 |
| RAM | Samsung 16GB 1600 ddr3 rdimm ecc (x4) | $98 |
| SSD | Adata SU800 512GB | $60 |
| SSD | Adata SU630 480GB | $58 |
| HDD | WD Shucked “White” 8TB (had 2 bought 2) | $280 |
| HDD | HGST 8TB Ultrastar He8 SAS3/SAS2 (x2) | $190 |
| HDD | WD Green 3TB x1 | $0 |
| HDD | WD Green 2TB x1 | $0 |
| SASExt | LSI SAS 9211-8i (x2) | $79 |
| Fans | Arctic 120mm fans (x6) | $34 |
| Fans | Arctic 80mm fans (x2) | $17 |
| Heatsink | Supermicro SNK-P0050AP4 (x2) | $82 |
| PSU | EVGA SuperNOVA 80+ GOLD 650W | $109 |
| Total without disks | $706 | |
| Total with disks | $1294 |
**Edit to insert images.