First (True)NAS Build: What hardware for power efficiency and
performance?
reddit / selfhosted

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positron-- · 2023-11-29 18:18

Hello r/selfhosted,

I'm in the process of building a new, proper NAS with a TrueNAS Scale
setup and could use some guidance on the hardware side of things.
Currently, I'm running:

* **CPU**: Intel i7-6700k
* **Motherboard**: MSI Z170A
* **RAM**: 32GB (non-ECC, of course)
* A bunch of old 1TB HDDs. One failed already, the other is 21k hours
old, and the third has almost 100 unreadable sectors

I'm quite happy with the current system to test out TrueNAS Scale, but
of course wouldn't ever trust this with real data. The performance of
the i7 is pretty nice at the moment, and I get \~40W idle.


Here are some thoughts about hardware, but I'm a bit lost when it
comes to prosumer hardware with ECC support. Can I just get a 9th gen
Intel CPU and a Chipset that supports ECC and be fine? Do I need full
server-grade hardware that completely drains my wallet (both for
purchase and my electricity bill)?
My current thoughts on the specs:

* **CPU**: Something akin to the i7-6700k but maybe a bit more power-
efficient and ECC compatible.
* **Motherboard**: Affordable, with sufficient SATA/PCIe slots and ECC
support.
* **RAM**: Minimum 32GB ECC RAM.
* **Storage**: Four 4TB HDDs in RAID-Z1.

**NAS Use-Case:**

* Running TrueNAS for personal data, family photos, and backups.
* Hosting apps like Immich, paperless-ngx, etc.
* No major media library or heavy-duty applications in the pipeline.

In addition to the hardware side, some more general questions that I'd
love some input on are:

* is 12TB generally adequate for my hosting purpose, or will this be
undersized in a few years?
* is it better to run applications like paperless-ngx on this NAS, or
keep using my orange pi SBC for such services, accessing NAS data over
a network share? Also, how does Docker react to network share issues
in your experience?

Would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and any hardware
recommendations you have. Thanks a bunch!

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hdddanbrown · 2023-11-29 19:12

software sub, not hardware as that one guy always says here.

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positron-- · 2023-11-29 21:11

Thanks for the pointer, do you think r/homelab is a better
destination?

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hdddanbrown · 2023-11-29 21:33

r/homeserver too and why not look at those subs descriptions to see if
they fit or not

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Reckless5040 · 2023-11-30 00:26

/r/datahoarder is best