Hi all–for a prebuilt option, i’ve been keeping my eye on Dell PowerEdge T130’s that have been popping up on eBay. Similar in spirit to the T110 II recommended in NAS Killer 4.0, but only 4 drive bays. Could probably fit more in there with some bravery. It also has a dual gigabit NIC, so maybe could be used with pfSense as well.
Been wanting to attempt a NAS build for a long time and have finally decided to do it now we have moved back home to New Zealand. The trouble is getting PC parts here is exhortation.
I plan to run cat6 through the house and get a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro for my router and security cameras.
Want to build a NAS in 2U or 4U format.
Used as local fileshare, backups, Torrent box and Plex server.
I have no build experience apart from the PiNas I have used whilst travelling.
I have come across a used 1U Supermicro server.
supermicro X10SL7-L motherboard
e3-1220 v3 cpu
16G RAM
no hdd
For $500NZ which seems reasonable.
Would this work CPU work for Nas killer 5.0?
Link below. Seller also has some other servers.
Would appreciate some guidance.
What do you think of this setup as a NAS Killer 5.0 candidate?
Motherboard: ASRock Z87M Extreme 4
CPU: i5-4670
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Turbo Red Top Cover
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 16 GB (4x4 GB)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
Cache: Samsung EVO 860 SSD 250 GB
PSU: Corsair CX450M 80+ Bronze
Hello, I just bought this MB and am looking for memory. Can you tell me what memory you bought for yours?
Would you suggest a CPU with or without an iGPU for a NAS/hypervisor server with minimal demand for graphics?
I got my hands on an Xeon E3-1270 v6 (4 cores x 3.80GHz; without iGPU) and a Xeon E3-1275 v5 (4 cores x 3.60GHz; with iGPU) and I don’t know which one to use ! 
The E3-1270 v6 is a bit faster of course, but with the E3-1275 v5 I won’t need an additional graphics card (which I already own) that occupies a nice x16 PCIe slot and consumes extra power!
What motherboard are you running?
I am not sure! I didn’t mention that the CPUs are actually part of two similar systems (performance-wise); so this is what I actually have next to me right now and I cannot decide which one to keep for my first NAS 
:
- HP Z240 Workstation with Intel Xeon E3-1270 v6 (4 cores x 3.80GHz; without iGPU) + NVS 315 PCIe graphics card. The onboard controller supports max 4 SATA drives.
- Lenovo ThinkStation P310 Xeon E3-1275 v5 (4 cores x 3.60GHz; with iGPU). The onboard controller supports max 5 SATA drives.
Each system came with 1x512 GB SATA SSD and 11x6GB DDR4 RAM (both max at 64 GB DDR4 ECC RAM).
I will of course add some SATA HDDS and extra RAM…
Ah, well - sometimes these motherboards have built-in simple VGA controllers. Supermicro does this a lot, for example. In this case, you wouldn’t actually need an external GPU for the CPU that’s missing an iGPU.
Either CPU is totally fine and overkill for most basic NAS tasks.
Now I understand, but based on the spec, the HP Z240 mobo doesn’t offer any graphics support unless the CPU has an iGPU (which means that there is a VGA port in the back of the box but doesn’t work, so I had to use the crappy NVS 315).
You think so? I was a bit worried if it would be enough for basic hypervisor/virtualization/containers setup.
Although I like the HP box more, but the Lenovo is more battle ready: offers 1 extra SATA port, more hdd caddies, and 2 case fans (front and back) (although it is physically a little smaller than the HP). And the Lenovo will result in more energy efficient setup as I won’t have an extra graphics card running.
That’s what I am considering at least!
Btw, I very much appreciate your support and sharing your knowledge with me. Fantastic work here with the forums, I’ve learnt a lot of stuff!
I am in the market to build my own server to function as a NAS and a PLEX server. How do I use this guide to pick and choose my parts? I want to only stream to maybe 4 devices max so I don’t need an overpowered parts for transcoding.
I have ordered Supermicro X10SLL-F and am looking for a compatible CPU cooler for it (board comes with passive 1U heatsink). According to sellers pictures my board will have the infamous Supermicro Xeon backplate that complicates things.
I checked the list provided for compatible CPU heatsinks, but it seems that most of the Xeon backplate compatible options are EoL. For example Arctic has newer versions, which are readily available, but I haven’t found any information on if they would fit. It seems that they have changed their mounting hardware.
The one and only off-the-shelf option I have found is the Thermaltake Gravity i2. Only problem I have with it, is that it probably is as good/bad as the 1U heatsink with a fan attached to it. If that is my only option, I rather just attach a fan to the 1U heatsink and be done with it. The list of compatible heatsinks, while helpful, seems a bit outdated (atleast on the parts I have been interested in).
So my question boils down to this: Is there any off-the-shelf Xeon backplate compatible cooler that would fit in 4U enclosure and be somewhat decent of a cooler?
First post for me, hope I asked my question in the right topic.
There’s nothing wrong with the Thermaltake Gravity other than it’s a little louder than the Arctic options.
Hi Guys,
I have a question regarding my possibilities with such configuration :
CPU Intel I7 X980 ===> CPU Mark 6746
RAM 24gb
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX580 ==> GPU Mark 4494
2nd GPU NVIDIA GTX 750TI ==> GPU Mark 3925
I know that for Plex the configuration is good enough but I would like to know how many stream I would be able to have. I heard that this one encoding is taking 2000 so I should be able to get approximately 5 if I add CPU + GPU ?
Any idea if it’s possible to add a second GPU ? Would it be a good idea ?
Thanks for your help.
Any ETA on Sample Builds Section to guide noobs like me…
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I’d be interested in this too. I’ve spent days trying to research motherboards, cases, CPUs etc and I’m feeling overwhelmed. I think it would be best for me to buy something pre built and tinker with it
Precisely what am also looking for. Some of the parts of the Sample Builds for NAS Killer 4.0 aren’t available. Plus considering the time lapse, an Updated Build would be sort of future proof.
I’m trying to put a built together but finding the right motherboard and cpu is really difficult. Does anyone have an opinion on either of these two MB CPU bundles for a fractal node 804 case?
Supermicro X10SL7-F Motherboard C222 LGA1150 <32GB> E3-1230L V3
Supermicro X10SLH-F Motherboard & INTEL Xeon E3-1285 v4 CPU Bundle
My concern is the INTEL Xeon E3-1285 v4 might be too power hungry for a 24/7 NAS but I think it might be better if I want to use the NAS as an NVR and add some security cameras .
Here is what I want to do: I want to build a NAS and a machine that I can stream videos via Jellyfin. Can I do this all from one machine or would I need two different machines to do this?
Any of the NAS killer builds will work fine from 1-5 users streaming. More than that, and you’ll want to use something like an external Quicksync encoder.
How would I use an external Quicksync encoder? What are the part(s) that I need?