I am putting together an Unraid server which will include Plex. How many, what sizes, and what kind of SSD’s do I need? Unraid uses a cache drive or two? Do I need a seperate drive to house the Plex metadata?
I have an extra 512GB Gen3x4 NVMe M.2, but no M.2 slot on the motherboard. Should I still use it? With a PCIe adapter? (assume SATA adapter is too slow)
That all depends on you. Any reason you want to do only SSDs? I’d recommend using an SSD that has cache. For example, a really solid SSD I see people recommend at /r/buildapcsales a lot and one I personally use is a Crucial MX500. It comes with a cache, Kingston A400 is cheaper, but doesn’t have a cache. What size you want depends on how much data you will have. I have a lot of TV shows and Movies so I have already filled up 50TB. I only use an SSD for the the unraid cache drive to help with write speeds. You can use an HDD, but the difference in write speeds are night and day. You don’t need a separate drive to house the metadata. It’ll all be on the cache drive. You can use that M.2 if you want, but i’d probably just save it for a different build.
I have 48TB of mechanical hd’s for my data. I just am used to Windows PC’s where I would put the OS on an SSD. Wasn’t sure how many SSD’s I should have for an Unraid/Plex build.
So one SSD for Unraid’s cache usage is enough? What size? Where is the Plex metadata when it’s not in cache? Or are you storing it on a seperate partition on the SSD?
Have you watched Spaceinvader One’s videos on Youtube about unRAID? Also, JDM has done a few videos recently which are shorter videos pointed at answering specific questions. I would watch those.
I have a while ago, but haven’t tried unraid yet so not sure I paid enough attention. Will try and watch and rewatch some now. Just wondering if there’s anything I need to buy before my server comes. SATA cables, power splitters, and another SSD I think should be it hopefully.