Sense check on build/plan please

[MrPlow]

Hey all, very new to DIY NAS and XPEnology, hope my plan makes sense.

 

Am looking to migrate family files out of wife's desktop into standalone NAS.

Add in backups of PCs, phones etc.

Plus Plex server (not a lot of transcoding but nice to have the option)

Currently only 1TB of files so not massive. The storage was on twin 8TB HDDs with a LSI RAID card (which started getting flaky)

 

Planned hardware is:

i5-6500 CPU

MSI H170 motherboard (6 SATA ports, 4xDDR4 ram slots

2x8GB RAM @3200MHz (not that it will run that fast)

2x8TB HDDs

Circa 550 watt PSU

I have a couple of small spare SSDs floating around, if they serve a purpose?

Maybe chuck in a 5yo graphics card if there's a point to that also

 

So my questions are:

• Hardware sound ok?
• What DSM version should I be looking at? eg DS918+ vs 3617xs?
• Updates - I've noted all the warnings, do I give the latest a crack since I'm starting from a blank slate, or stick with an earlier version?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[IG-88]

ASRock J4105-ITX or ASRock J5005-ITX would do the job too for much less power consumption

not as scalable as your plan but as long as you dont start data hoarding or want 10G network ...

 

9 hours ago, MrPlow said:

I have a couple of small spare SSDs floating around, if they serve a purpose?

not much, if you have two you might use them as write cache bit most effect will be seen in multi user environments

 

9 hours ago, MrPlow said:

Maybe chuck in a 5yo graphics card if there's a point to that also

no, will only increase power consumption and you have intel qsv in the cpu already

 

9 hours ago, MrPlow said:

What DSM version should I be looking at? eg DS918+ vs 3617xs?

with the planned cpu or gemini lake 918+, intel qsv is only available an 918+

 

9 hours ago, MrPlow said:

Updates - I've noted all the warnings, do I give the latest a crack since I'm starting from a blank slate, or stick with an earlier version?

no, latest 6.2.3 is good

[MrPlow]

Awesome, thanks so much. 918+/6.2.3 it is

[bateau]

@IG-88 are there other low-power options with a little more grunt than J5005 but not as much power as Haswell Xeon or i7

[IG-88]

1 minute ago, bateau said:

are there other low-power options with a little more grunt than J5005 but not as much power as Haswell Xeon or i7

there are intel "T" type cpu's with 35w tdp but using a normal type and undervolt/underclock might get good results too and most newer reasonable priced  "T" cpu's seem to be rare (did not get it a few month ago so i ended up with a normal 9100, but 9100T seems to be available now)

also it gets more  expansive with a bigger intel cpu

[mervincm]

T type CPU don't have the benefit some people are looking for. If you want to build a small enclosure and use a small heatsink avoid heat build up in a short time, they are good. If you want to save money by using less power they are virtually no better than a normal CPU. The don't idle at less power usage than a non T model. And they don't use less power for the bursty work either. for bursty tasks, they peak at less power , but they take longer to get he job done, so in the end its all more or less a wash. As you say, underclock (limit your CPU multiplier) allows you to acheive much the same thing. Undervolting is always an option, and can impact CPU power usage at the risk of introducing instability if you go too far. Still, its fun, why not try

 

 

[MrPlow]

Follow up question - in the event that I later want to add a 3rd HDD (same or different size) would it make sense to enable SHR?

And is something I must choose at the start (as opposed to a later date when storage is starting to fill up)?

[flyride]

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/Storage/What_is_Synology_Hybrid_RAID_SHR

 

Same size, not necessarily.  Different size, maybe.  Upsides = flexibility and maximize storage for dissimilar drives.  Downsides = potentially variable performance depending on drives selected, longer rebuild times, and more complexity in the case of a problem.

 

For their first array, most people choose SHR.  For their 10th array, I would argue many choose not to SHR.

Edited June 30, 2020 by flyride

[MrPlow]

Thanks all, install went fine, now to get the basics sorted...