Small NAS home server woes
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So, I currently have a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 with 1 SSD, 3 HDDs, Intel Atom D2701 and 4GB RAM, running Debian 12, and since getting it I've been getting more into self hosting. What I have now is primarily too weak in the CPU and RAM department, but it could also use more HDDs. I'm aiming for 5-6 3.5 HDDs, 1 Nvme, 1 2.5" SSD.
What I'm currently running:
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Samba and NFS server
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OpenVPN
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Jellyseerr/Jellyfin/*arr stack
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Pangolin
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Dawarich
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Immich
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rsnapshot
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Homepage
And it's rather sluggish right now, and is almost filling up its 4GB of swap.
What I'd also like to be able to run/have:
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Nextcloud
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Transcoding (including ability to decode AV1, but preferably also encode)
-
Anything else I may want to run (working on degoogling myself)
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ECC RAM (to prevent bitrot, I'm already running btrfs raid1 to prevent bitrot from faulty disks)
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1x 2.5G ethernet
If possible I'd like to have some room for upgradeability. I'm aiming for a low power build, that should be rather compact, especially not very wide unless I can find a better place in my office for it.
I'm looking at a Jonsbo N1 chassis (17cm wide) , but I'm also following a Readynas 626 (19cm wide) in an online auction. Options:
Intel N100 board
Pros: cheap, low power, quicksync with av1 decode
Cons: boards with 2.5G ethernet have to be ordered from Aliexpress and have no support and uses the JMB585 chip that prevents low power C states, limited pcie lanes, no AV1 encode, not very upgradeable (1 DIMM, soldered CPU) , no ECC, I worry it may be too slow
Intel 13100
Pros: AV1 decode, quite fast, upgradeable
Cons: No ECC, relatively expensive, no AV1 encode
AMD 8500G
Pros: AV1 enc/dec, ECC, relatively fast, upgradeable
Cons: relatively expensive, not as low power as the 13100
Readynas 626
Pros: enterprise grade HW, less DIY, ECC, may be relatively cheap
Cons: high power for its performance (roughly that of the N100), wider (19cm) than a Jonsbo N1 (17cm), not upgradeable (no CPU or mobo swap), expensive DDR4 2133 ECC UDIMM, doesn't have M.2 but has a PCIE slot
I'd love to hear what you think about these options and whether you have other concerns that I haven't thought about.
Edit: I just now realized that the 13100 doesn't have AV1 encode in HW, that didn't come until Core Ultra. And wowee, suitable mITX mobos start at 400$ here! I think AMD is the realistic choice if I want to go for AV1 HW encode...
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So, I currently have a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 with 1 SSD, 3 HDDs, Intel Atom D2701 and 4GB RAM, running Debian 12, and since getting it I've been getting more into self hosting. What I have now is primarily too weak in the CPU and RAM department, but it could also use more HDDs. I'm aiming for 5-6 3.5 HDDs, 1 Nvme, 1 2.5" SSD.
What I'm currently running:
-
Samba and NFS server
-
OpenVPN
-
Jellyseerr/Jellyfin/*arr stack
-
Pangolin
-
Dawarich
-
Immich
-
rsnapshot
-
Homepage
And it's rather sluggish right now, and is almost filling up its 4GB of swap.
What I'd also like to be able to run/have:
-
Nextcloud
-
Transcoding (including ability to decode AV1, but preferably also encode)
-
Anything else I may want to run (working on degoogling myself)
-
ECC RAM (to prevent bitrot, I'm already running btrfs raid1 to prevent bitrot from faulty disks)
-
1x 2.5G ethernet
If possible I'd like to have some room for upgradeability. I'm aiming for a low power build, that should be rather compact, especially not very wide unless I can find a better place in my office for it.
I'm looking at a Jonsbo N1 chassis (17cm wide) , but I'm also following a Readynas 626 (19cm wide) in an online auction. Options:
Intel N100 board
Pros: cheap, low power, quicksync with av1 decode
Cons: boards with 2.5G ethernet have to be ordered from Aliexpress and have no support and uses the JMB585 chip that prevents low power C states, limited pcie lanes, no AV1 encode, not very upgradeable (1 DIMM, soldered CPU) , no ECC, I worry it may be too slow
Intel 13100
Pros: AV1 decode, quite fast, upgradeable
Cons: No ECC, relatively expensive, no AV1 encode
AMD 8500G
Pros: AV1 enc/dec, ECC, relatively fast, upgradeable
Cons: relatively expensive, not as low power as the 13100
Readynas 626
Pros: enterprise grade HW, less DIY, ECC, may be relatively cheap
Cons: high power for its performance (roughly that of the N100), wider (19cm) than a Jonsbo N1 (17cm), not upgradeable (no CPU or mobo swap), expensive DDR4 2133 ECC UDIMM, doesn't have M.2 but has a PCIE slot
I'd love to hear what you think about these options and whether you have other concerns that I haven't thought about.
Edit: I just now realized that the 13100 doesn't have AV1 encode in HW, that didn't come until Core Ultra. And wowee, suitable mITX mobos start at 400$ here! I think AMD is the realistic choice if I want to go for AV1 HW encode...
First, I think you're attacking this from the wrong angle. You're focused on ECC memory for some reason, but that's not going to prevent bitrot, just potentially reduce errors in transfer, or catch issues. Your filesystem of choice has more to do with degradation in storage.
Second, you haven't mentioned any of the boards and their storage capabilities. Do they support the correct number of drives you want to use? Do they support hot-swap, and is that even something you care about?
Last, you want more services, and but are worried about power consumption...that's not how that works. More services means more CPU and MEM util, which means more power usage. You can either constrain your TDP at that point by using an UNDERpowered CPU and have that tradeoff, or provide a more capable CPU and take an increased TDP. There is no third option, that's just how it works. Pick the more capable CPU and take the power hit (really, it's going to be minor compared to a large server), and just run the things you need to run instead of coming back in a year and wanting to flip it again.
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First, I think you're attacking this from the wrong angle. You're focused on ECC memory for some reason, but that's not going to prevent bitrot, just potentially reduce errors in transfer, or catch issues. Your filesystem of choice has more to do with degradation in storage.
Second, you haven't mentioned any of the boards and their storage capabilities. Do they support the correct number of drives you want to use? Do they support hot-swap, and is that even something you care about?
Last, you want more services, and but are worried about power consumption...that's not how that works. More services means more CPU and MEM util, which means more power usage. You can either constrain your TDP at that point by using an UNDERpowered CPU and have that tradeoff, or provide a more capable CPU and take an increased TDP. There is no third option, that's just how it works. Pick the more capable CPU and take the power hit (really, it's going to be minor compared to a large server), and just run the things you need to run instead of coming back in a year and wanting to flip it again.
Ditto to your comment except power usage. I moved my Plex/Jellyfin (and hopefully Immich soon) docker containers to an N100 for the hardware acceleration. TDP is 6 watts on some of these devices and CPU use sits around 2% unless Plex is doing DB optimizations (about 60% for a bit).
I haven't measured consumption or my older server, but I feel moving some CPU intensive services to hardware GPU is saving a few watts. -
So, I currently have a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 with 1 SSD, 3 HDDs, Intel Atom D2701 and 4GB RAM, running Debian 12, and since getting it I've been getting more into self hosting. What I have now is primarily too weak in the CPU and RAM department, but it could also use more HDDs. I'm aiming for 5-6 3.5 HDDs, 1 Nvme, 1 2.5" SSD.
What I'm currently running:
-
Samba and NFS server
-
OpenVPN
-
Jellyseerr/Jellyfin/*arr stack
-
Pangolin
-
Dawarich
-
Immich
-
rsnapshot
-
Homepage
And it's rather sluggish right now, and is almost filling up its 4GB of swap.
What I'd also like to be able to run/have:
-
Nextcloud
-
Transcoding (including ability to decode AV1, but preferably also encode)
-
Anything else I may want to run (working on degoogling myself)
-
ECC RAM (to prevent bitrot, I'm already running btrfs raid1 to prevent bitrot from faulty disks)
-
1x 2.5G ethernet
If possible I'd like to have some room for upgradeability. I'm aiming for a low power build, that should be rather compact, especially not very wide unless I can find a better place in my office for it.
I'm looking at a Jonsbo N1 chassis (17cm wide) , but I'm also following a Readynas 626 (19cm wide) in an online auction. Options:
Intel N100 board
Pros: cheap, low power, quicksync with av1 decode
Cons: boards with 2.5G ethernet have to be ordered from Aliexpress and have no support and uses the JMB585 chip that prevents low power C states, limited pcie lanes, no AV1 encode, not very upgradeable (1 DIMM, soldered CPU) , no ECC, I worry it may be too slow
Intel 13100
Pros: AV1 decode, quite fast, upgradeable
Cons: No ECC, relatively expensive, no AV1 encode
AMD 8500G
Pros: AV1 enc/dec, ECC, relatively fast, upgradeable
Cons: relatively expensive, not as low power as the 13100
Readynas 626
Pros: enterprise grade HW, less DIY, ECC, may be relatively cheap
Cons: high power for its performance (roughly that of the N100), wider (19cm) than a Jonsbo N1 (17cm), not upgradeable (no CPU or mobo swap), expensive DDR4 2133 ECC UDIMM, doesn't have M.2 but has a PCIE slot
I'd love to hear what you think about these options and whether you have other concerns that I haven't thought about.
Edit: I just now realized that the 13100 doesn't have AV1 encode in HW, that didn't come until Core Ultra. And wowee, suitable mITX mobos start at 400$ here! I think AMD is the realistic choice if I want to go for AV1 HW encode...
I have a jonsbo n1, do not buy it.
- Cooling is insufficient. Something about the case layout makes the motherboard area not get enough ventilation and the supplied fan can't cool 5 disks, the chassis holding the disks doesn't allow enough air through.
- Only room for half-height expansion card.
- Cable routing is abysmal, with sharp edges.
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Ditto to your comment except power usage. I moved my Plex/Jellyfin (and hopefully Immich soon) docker containers to an N100 for the hardware acceleration. TDP is 6 watts on some of these devices and CPU use sits around 2% unless Plex is doing DB optimizations (about 60% for a bit).
I haven't measured consumption or my older server, but I feel moving some CPU intensive services to hardware GPU is saving a few watts.Yeah, the move from software to hardware processing is what will make the biggest difference. Software processing is very resource intensive.
-
I have a jonsbo n1, do not buy it.
- Cooling is insufficient. Something about the case layout makes the motherboard area not get enough ventilation and the supplied fan can't cool 5 disks, the chassis holding the disks doesn't allow enough air through.
- Only room for half-height expansion card.
- Cable routing is abysmal, with sharp edges.
Thanks for the advice, noted! I was attracted by the compact size, I guess it's not realistic that it would handle 5 disks...
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So, I currently have a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 with 1 SSD, 3 HDDs, Intel Atom D2701 and 4GB RAM, running Debian 12, and since getting it I've been getting more into self hosting. What I have now is primarily too weak in the CPU and RAM department, but it could also use more HDDs. I'm aiming for 5-6 3.5 HDDs, 1 Nvme, 1 2.5" SSD.
What I'm currently running:
-
Samba and NFS server
-
OpenVPN
-
Jellyseerr/Jellyfin/*arr stack
-
Pangolin
-
Dawarich
-
Immich
-
rsnapshot
-
Homepage
And it's rather sluggish right now, and is almost filling up its 4GB of swap.
What I'd also like to be able to run/have:
-
Nextcloud
-
Transcoding (including ability to decode AV1, but preferably also encode)
-
Anything else I may want to run (working on degoogling myself)
-
ECC RAM (to prevent bitrot, I'm already running btrfs raid1 to prevent bitrot from faulty disks)
-
1x 2.5G ethernet
If possible I'd like to have some room for upgradeability. I'm aiming for a low power build, that should be rather compact, especially not very wide unless I can find a better place in my office for it.
I'm looking at a Jonsbo N1 chassis (17cm wide) , but I'm also following a Readynas 626 (19cm wide) in an online auction. Options:
Intel N100 board
Pros: cheap, low power, quicksync with av1 decode
Cons: boards with 2.5G ethernet have to be ordered from Aliexpress and have no support and uses the JMB585 chip that prevents low power C states, limited pcie lanes, no AV1 encode, not very upgradeable (1 DIMM, soldered CPU) , no ECC, I worry it may be too slow
Intel 13100
Pros: AV1 decode, quite fast, upgradeable
Cons: No ECC, relatively expensive, no AV1 encode
AMD 8500G
Pros: AV1 enc/dec, ECC, relatively fast, upgradeable
Cons: relatively expensive, not as low power as the 13100
Readynas 626
Pros: enterprise grade HW, less DIY, ECC, may be relatively cheap
Cons: high power for its performance (roughly that of the N100), wider (19cm) than a Jonsbo N1 (17cm), not upgradeable (no CPU or mobo swap), expensive DDR4 2133 ECC UDIMM, doesn't have M.2 but has a PCIE slot
I'd love to hear what you think about these options and whether you have other concerns that I haven't thought about.
Edit: I just now realized that the 13100 doesn't have AV1 encode in HW, that didn't come until Core Ultra. And wowee, suitable mITX mobos start at 400$ here! I think AMD is the realistic choice if I want to go for AV1 HW encode...
Hi there,
I have build a nice backup NAS recently:Supermicro X11SCL-IF
16 GB ECC RAM 2666
Intel i3 9100T
M.2 512 GB System Disk
4x 8TB Ironwolf 5400 RPM
Fractal Node 304 Case
Be quiet Pure Power 11This is around 40W @the wall with all disks spinning and has Intel quicksync for decoding. My use case is mainly backup, you should consider i5 for hosting more apps on it. The processor was 30$ at eBay but is quite low power and has ECC support without being a Xeon processor. The newer generations of i3 do not have ECC ram from the spec. The board itself was 300€, but wanted ECC ram.
The case is well cooled what ist most important for a system running for a long time.
You should also consider N100 mini computer in addition to have more flexibility in the long run for different application demands.Hope this helps for decision making
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