Mini-Das or NK build.
Truthfully, I jumped on the purchase without planning it out too much. Hindsight, I would have built the multi-tasking NAS (OTiS). I’m just starting my library.
Edit: If you have good upgrade path, or better than a seperate build, I’m open. I originally wanted to do an AIO but thought separating the NAS and PMS would be beneficial. I haven’t seen evidence that it would. Not a big deal though.
The NAS Killer 4.1 is the best cheap NAS build right now. Since you have a dedicated QS box, you can just get the lowest end combo with 8GB of RAM.
I prefer NAS + separate QS box.
oh i though “k” worked, i know it doesent give anything in thing system but i figured could be “nice to have” with a future motherboard.
i will run proxmox on the 290, “retire/sell” the dual e5 2640 i currently have running and very little of that cpu power is put to use as it is today.
figured 32gb (64gb if doable) 9700 and one m.2 and two ssd´s
Sounds like extreme overkill, unless you have a specific use for it. You may be better served by a non-prebuilt system, such as the OTiS.
I see the NK 4.x being recommended more often than the 5.0 - any specific reason?
For the QS box: assuming no thumbnail previews - 250gb enough or worth moving up to 500gb? When I do upgrade, I’ll probably move some of the containers (ie Sonarr, Radarr, seeding, etc.) over to the NAS, assuming that’s recommended.
Thumbnail previews do take up quite a bit of space in the Plex metadata folder, but they aren’t the only thing that you need to think about. If you don’t use RAM transcoding, the transcode folder can get quite large if you have a lot of simultaneous transcodes going. Any time Plex needs to change anything in the media, whether it’s a full transcode to reduce bitrate or changing the audio stream or even just changing the container, all of the stream components go into the transcode folder. Transcoding to RAM will eliminate that space requirement, but that’s not the only thing that could be taking up space. Offline sync can use a bunch of space as well. If your brother-in-law decides to sync an entire season of his favorite show in anything other than original quality, all of the files will be transcoded and saved in the Sync folder until he’s finished downloading them. There’s also the PhotoTranscoder folder, which stores copies of media posters, backdrops, cast posters and other images in various sizes and formats to be sent to client devices. This one usually won’t be exceptionally large, but it can still get into the several gigabyte range if you have a lot of media and a lot of different clients.
TL;DR Go with a 500GB drive. Even if you don’t need all the space today, you might need it down the road.
NAS Killer 4.X builds are much more cost effective for only slightly lower performance.
Perfect, thank you. Swapped the 250 for the 500. Will have to look into Transcoding to RAM.
@JDM_WAAAT - Thank you. And more so for putting all this together. New to all this and you have made it easy for someone like me to jump in!
minecraft server, valheim server, inify controller, plex, cacti and a few win 10
if the proxmox doesent pan out i´l use as a transcoder,opnsense etc, i usually figure some out 
SO if i purchase a HP290 can i use it as my plex server and use for torrents also? run ubuntu on it? and build the NAS with your 5.0 nas build?
I’ve repurposed my 290 a few different times for different ideas/projects. it’s current form is with the stock cpu, intel 16gb optane ssd as the boot drive(ubuntu 20.04 server lts) and a shucked 8tb easystore for mass storage. currently running jellyfin and so far so good. Kind of thinking i should’ve gone with lubuntu or something but wanted to try something new.
as a side note, the included psu works fine with shucked drives since it’s 4 pin. but also read that since it’s the edaz model it’s air filled and doesn’t need to have the 3.3v mod.
I’m with you up until the “air filled” part. Air/helium do not inherently make it need the 3.3v or not.
Yeah that didn’t make sense to me either. That’s what a couple responses were over on sth.
From PSA: Western Digital Changed the drives in Elements Enclosures! | ServeTheHome Forums
“ It has come to my attention that this is a AIR filled drive and not Helium like the others. It also DOES NOT REQUIRE the 3.3v pin mod.”
“ EZAZ-11TDBA0 requires tape hack (unless you are using it in a server backplane) or alternatively (what I do) is a use a Sata->Molex adaptor that is missing the orange wire.
EDAZ- 11TA3A0 DOES NOT require tape hack”
Well, that may be the case, I just don’t think those two properties are related in any way.
Even so, you can safely 3.3v mod the entire SATA power cable, it won’t affect the drives that don’t need the mod in any negative way.
“k” model CPU’s work fine. I installed a i5-9600k along with 32 GB RAM and an LSI SAS9207-8e HBA. This little box will be my unraid server (consolidating a few machines). I tested out Plex running in a docker container passing through the CPU to use Intel Quick Sync for hardware transcoding… and it works like a dream!
Just make sure to update the HP 290 to the latest BIOS for the 9xxx series CPU’s to work. I installed the i5-9600k and the machine would power on, but would not load Windows. I had to put the celeron processor back in, boot to Windows, update the BIOS, the re-install the new i5-9600k. After that it booted just fine into Windows 10. Then it was on to installing and configuring unraid.
You cannot confidently say the i7-9700k will work just because the i5-9600k does.
My bad. Didn’t realize that there could be such a difference between the i5 and i7 in the same 9xxx series. Live and learn.
I can confidently say that the i5-9600k works beautifully (after updating to the latest BIOS)… mostly thanks to other fine serverbuilds.net members. Thanks @weskarl for posting that the i5-9600k worked in the first place and reminding me to check Microcenter!
Don’t get me wrong, you’ve provided good and helpful information! 9th-gen are coming down in prices.
@JDM_WAAAT I appreciate the informative thread. I just purchased my first 290 to be used with OPNSense and in particular Sensei. I am considering upgrading the CPU at some point since I have a symmetrical gigabit Internet connection and just barely hitting 850Mb during speedtests.
I noticed some of the 8th and 9th gen T series are supported (e.g. i5-8500t). I understand this series has a configurable TDP-down frequency. Is this something that’s supported in the 290’s bios? Thanks.
Long time lurker with a few builds under my belt, but registered to confirm that the 9700k does work fine, at least in terms of booting and minimally running Ubuntu server 20.04. I’m having trouble getting quick sync to work in my dizqueTV docker, which is the only reason I’m curious about upgrading the processor to something a little beefier. I just happen to run a 9700k in my gaming rig.
I did not stress the processor very much so I cannot speak to the max power consumption, thermals, or stability of the power supply at full load etc. The stock heatsink was cool to the touch after 30 minutes or so at 16% total usage (roughly 100% single core usage in FFMPEG).
With a Samsung 500GB SATA SSD, 4GB RAM and the 9700k, reported power usage from my KP115 smart plug is 7-9W at the server login prompt, and 14-18W at the usage mentioned above. These numbers are roughly equivalent to the G4900 stock CPU from my testing which was somewhat surprising to me, but Intel does have their power efficiency down pretty well at low usage.
Obviously most use cases for this little box would leave a lot of performance on the table with these higher end processors. I will probably try reinstalling proxmox tomorrow and testing a Windows VM etc. once I move over some RAM.
I’m running the F.43 BIOS.
