Hi all, I’m gonna try to get away with keeping this post fairly short. I’m looking to start purchasing some parts so need some critique on my build plan. Assume I’m buying new unless stated otherwise (I don’t like to plan around on what’s currently available on ebay haha).
Requirements:
- NAS 4-8 bays
- 2-3 game servers for up to 10 players (Minecraft, Rust, Valheim, DayZ, 7 Days to Die etc.)
- Most likely scenario is it’ll be 1 at a time with 3-4 players but I don’t want to set the bar too low.
- Music streaming (for myself and partner)
- Video streaming (for myself and partner at our home)
- Very rare, I literally just have a couple of videos we occasionally watch. It’ll never be more than 1 stream
- Host a couple of small websites.
- Experiment with home automation and VMs etc.
- MUST be efficient.
Here’s an overview of what I’m currently looking at (specific questions below):
| Part | Product |
|---|---|
| CPU | i5 10400 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z590 Pro4 |
| PSU | Corsair CX450M |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB x2 |
| SSD | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB |
| HDDs | 4x second hand SAS drives |
| RAID Controller | LSI 9211-8i |
| Case | Logic Case SC-43400-8HS |
Total around £700 (not including HDDs).
CPU
Fairly set on this, it seems like a pretty potent CPU for my needs, includes an iGPU and looks to be very efficient. Open to suggestions if anyone can recommend anything better in a similar price range.
Motherboard
Bit stuck on mobo, but apparently ASRock are quite efficient? Looking for something fairly cheap with 4 memory slots. Must be efficient too. Not too worried about size. I don’t think SATA slots matter much either if I use a RAID controller?
PSU
Again just looking for something fairly cheap and efficient, open to suggestions.
RAM
2 x 32GB gets me halfway though my slots and availability on the motherboard so that leaves me space to double up if/when I need to.
SSD
Mostly for game storage but anything else that needs the speed.
HDDs
Need help with general NAS storage. I think I’m going to aim for SAS as I’ve seen a lot of recommendation and can get some cheap drives off ebay. Could do with some advice here, what should I look for? What should I avoid?
RAID Controller
I see these come up a lot and should allow me to hook up the total 8 drives that the case can hold. I think they also work with SATA and seem quite available on ebay. Again I don’t know much about these so please do comment on storage.
Case
Fairly set on this. I want to go rackmount as I’ve plans for some ubiquiti hardware. I’m also limited by depth and I like the idea of hot swap bays so this case just works very well for what’s available in the UK.
Any advice welcome, please don’t just tell me to go and buy a second hand enterprise machine though, I’m set on building my own and want to try and make it as efficient as possible 