NK 4.0 Prebuilt Help

Builds [LGA1155] NAS Killer 4.0
1

Hi,

I was looking to build a NAS and came across the NAS Killer builds. However, I’m more than clueless on how to build these things and what goes into it. I’ve seen people on the forums say they’re noob, but I’m Michael Scott “explain it to me as if I was 5” noob.

My goal for the NAS is a Plex server that will store my pictures and personal videos that I take on my phone in a central location that I can access anywhere. I am also using the Plex pass DVR and HDHomerun to record NFL games. I may be giving family access to the server, but it would mainly be to access pictures/videos and not to watch the NFL games. I only plan to watch the NFL games at home on a TV. I was also thinking about using PlayOn to start recording other shows to store and view on the NAS.

JDM_WAAAT’s description of “why prebuilt” described me since I am on a tight budget and just want to get into “the game,” so I purchased a Dell Poweredge T110 II from ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273935941856?ul_noapp=true

From what I’ve read, I believe that the Dell should be good enough for what I intend to do with the NAS. Please let me know if this is not the case!

I’m pretty much at a loss on what to do going forward. I think what I need to do to complete this is the following:

  1. Buy an SSD. I was planning on buying something similar to the Pioneer 512GB SSD that is recommended in the NK 4.0 guide
    1a. JDM_WAAAT mentions that he likes to use small 120GB SSDs for VMs. What does this mean, and is this something that I want to do? Would both the 512GB SSD and 120GB SSD fit in the Dell?
  2. Decide on the OS. From what I’ve read, unRaid sounds like the recommendation so I was planning on using this. I will buy a USB drive for this.
  3. Buy HDD. I’m really confused on this as there’s SAS and SATA. From a budget perspective, the SAS is way more affordable so I’d like to go that route (on ebay I can find used 3TB Seagate SAS drives for $25 each). Since I plan to use unRaid, I felt like it would make sense to buy two or three 3TB drives for around $25 each. I have a lot of questions here:
    3a. If I go the SAS drive route, it appears that I need a SAS controller. Would any of the SAS controllers listed in the NK 4.0 build work? What price point should I be looking at?
    3b. Should I instead be looking at Sata Drives or Shuckable Drives? They just seem to be a lot more expensive but perhaps this would be easier on me since it sounds like I would only need to buy cables.
  4. I’m assuming the Dell should already come with a CPU cooler. Is this something I should replace?
  5. Buy a power cord since the Dell I bought doesn’t come with one.
  6. Do I need to buy additional fans for the unit?

Is there anything I’m missing that I would also need to buy to get this running?

I would really appreciate any help, feedback, and/or suggestions, and also appreciate your patience as I am new to all of this. Also, if everything I’m asking is just super basic I’d appreciate it if you could point me to some information that could help me understand these things better.

Thank you!

2

Spent some time doing research and found the answer to most of my questions and got this build up and running. It’s great so far for my purposes. The biggest limitation that I wish I caught before buying this is that the HDDs are limited to 2TB. I did a bit of research and it sounds like even with the BIOS updates the mobo won’t recognized HDDs greater than 2TB.

3

Hey, I’m sorry I missed this thread - I was on vacation for most of it! You could add a SAS card and that would fix your HDD issue.

4

No need to apologize, really appreciate the reply! Glad you didn’t see it beforehand, most of those questions were fairly easily solved with more research.

I looked a little more into the HDD issue and apparently with newer updates this could have supported 4 TB drives, but oh well. Since I’m not doing too much with this thing other than photos/videos/DVR on Plex I’d expect 2-4TBs will last me for a quite a while so I’ll worry about that in the future.

I’m super happy to get a “build” up and running and really appreciate your guides! I’ve been having a lot of fun looking into this so far and perhaps next time I’ll actually plan and build something completely custom.

5

The key is that if it supports 4TB, it supports 14TB or more.

There’s really only 2 options:

  1. Up to 2TB
  2. Greater than 2TB
6

I had no idea it worked that way. Thanks for letting me know! This will definitely come in handy if/when I need to increase my storage space.

7

So I got a good deal on one of these from Ebay, and it’s being mailed to me. However I’m not clear on what RAM this actually takes? I gather UDIMM ECC, but I want to make sure I get it right. Anyone know?

8

Also is there any benefit in putting a graphics card in this?