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Homelab upgrade! - Looking for suggestions on new setup :) (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 days ago by Sunny@slrpnk.net to c/homelab@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/17736356

Hi there good folks!

I am going to be upgrading my server within the next couple of months and am trying to do some prior planning. My current setup is as follows:

Case: Fractal Define R5

Mothberboard: Gigabyte Z170X-Designare-CF

CPU: i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz

Memory: 32 GiB DDR4

Storage: 15TB spread across 4 HDDs (10x2x2x1) + 1HDD at 10TB for Parity.

OS: Unraid 🧡

While this setup as served me well, I am completely hooked on these mini-racks(Rackmate T1) and am thinking of getting one eventually. Fortunately I'll be getting my hands on my first mini-pc soon, an ASUS ExpertCenter PN52. This little badboy has the following specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX

Memory: 32 GiB DDR4

Storage: Comes with one NVMe SSD 1TB

From my little cpu knowledege this one is superior in almost all ways, so it feels like an easy choice to swith out the old one. I need an enclosing for my 5 HDDs that connects to this minipc. This leads me to my questions:

What are your suggestions for enclosings?

Whats the best way to connect an enclosing like this to the mini-pc?

Any pinpointers, opinions and suggestions appriciated!

edit: im getting the mini-pc for free actually, so feel like its a no brainer to upgrade.

Pictures of the mini-pc for those interested:
Ports overview

Front

Easily configurable

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[–] filister@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why are you buying a rack when neither of your machines are rack mountable?

What is your use case, what are you using the big PC and the small one? Why Unraid and not TrueNAS Scale for example.

If you are planning on using the big machine for multimedia, be aware that the i7-6700K doesn't support hardware encoding/decoding of HEVC and the CPU is not powerful enough for live 4K software transcoding.

This CPU is quite an odd choice though, it is 10 years old and in my opinion extremely outdated. Get at least 8-9 gen, that at least have this running.

[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Right, so sorry if I was a bit unclear about this. The rack is just something i'd like in the forseeable future. I like the idea of having a small homelab.

My usecase is media streaming. Unraid because its more simple and I want to support the good work they do there.

Am not planning on using the big machine in the future, this is just what I was able to scramble up as a student from second hand shops and friends.

I assume you mean the AMD CPU when you mention that its an odd choice? Well, im getting it for free, so thats why :)

[–] filister@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, by CPU is an odd choice, I meant for the i7-6700K. The Ryzen CPU is quite recent and very powerful, and energy efficient. Again, for a multimedia system you need a big case like the Define one and lots of SATA ports and bays. The Intel one checks the boxes, but you need a better processor or alternatively an external GPU, like the Intel Battlemage to have hardware encoding acceleration.

The mini PC is nice but not suitable for multimedia machine, as it lacks the SATA ports and bays. You can use it as a router, like OPNSense.

[–] Sunny@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Alright yeah I see what you mean. The i7-6700K was just a leftover cpu I had from a prvious computer build, and it has worked wonders uptil now as it has Quick Sync. But yeah, I was kinda hoping there would be an "easy" solution for connecting a MINI PC to some type of enclosed case for the HDDs with a SATA connection between the two. I'll probably end up with a different use case for the minipc in the end. Thanks for your input!

[–] filister@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I mean you can exchange the network card with at least 2.5Gbps of your Intel computer, install Linux and create a share and use the Ryzen mini PC for managing and transcoding media files, but it will complicate your setup and won't be very energy efficient.