Questions about building a NK4

I am interested in building the NK4, I acquired a Dell T110 II from my work a few weeks back and was looking to make some upgrades to it and I found this forum. :smile:

I am using this server for PleX and automated media downloading, I was looking to add more HDDs to it, currently I have 2 2TB WD Reds, 2 500GB Reds and a Samsung 250GB SSD . I also wanted to add a Quadro GPU for remote transcodes and I found that the T110 cannot power more than 25w on the PCIe lanes. I am also out of sata ports on the mobo and only really have space to add 1 more HDD.

It currently has a Xeon E31220 proc. in it and it’s not the V2 listed on the build nor is it the low power one you have listed, It also has 2 2GB mem sticks. Is this ok to re-use or should I get one listed on the build?

Also what mobo should I get that will support a GPU, the boards listed don’t seem to have the notch cutout to fit the GPU and was wondering if there were any other suggestions.

I plan on getting the Rosewill 4U chassis RSV-R4100 I would rather get the 15 bay version for future expansion but my rack is only 21" in depth. I guess I can always build a DAS if i need more storage.

Currently I have it running openmediavault as I was just testing all this stuff out and wanted something free and it has been working very reliably and was extremely easy to setup but I never see it mentioned in here and I was wondering why?

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The Dell Server, 1220 CPU and 4GB of RAM is a good start. Not sure about a GPU in the server. As to motherboard just follow the guides. OMV is a good OS, but I prefer the features and community of Unraid.

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It was a good start but I need more drives and have no where to put them so I was looking to get a new case and mobo but use as much existing as I could from the T110 II.

Motherboard will not come over to a new case but the RAM, CPU and drives will. If you’re gonna stick with the 1220, and want to stay as cheap as possible, the Inventec board listed in the guide is great for $26.

I tried to find it but that link is sold out and I couldn’t find any others.

DQ77MK

I was contemplating this board but I will have to get new mem my T110 II has ECC in it

You really don’t need to add a GPU for transcodes. Upgrade the CPU to an i7 or an e3-1270 (or similar) and you’ll have plenty of transcoding power.

If you need more SATA ports, add a LSI SAS HBA from the guides.

Ok, should I go with the X9SCM over the DQ77MK if I end upgrading the CPU so I can use the ram I currently have? It’s only 2 4gb sticks and the ecc is more expensive to add more of.

Right now my system is running at 75% ram usage under normal operations

Sure, the X9SCM is a fine option.

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I did have a couple questions I was hoping for help with. With the data ports listed in this guide on these. Is it ok to have sata 2 when using this as a media server? Also, is ECC truly necessary?

For hard drives, SATA 2 provides plenty of bandwidth. For SSDs, you may see a reduction of up to 50% of throughput, depending on the device.

ECC is not necessary, but is never a bad thing when it comes to servers. Generally the cost of ECC memory is on-par or cheaper than non-ECC.