Guidance/Advice For First Time DIY NAS Build With HexOS

[TrOnzl3r]

Hello Everyone,

I am brand new to the forums, be gentle with me 😉

I currently have a QNAP TS-853 Pro which has just hit 10 years old, and it is showing its age. I run a Plex server on a separate PC with an RTX 4060 GPU that accesses files from the NAS, as the NAS hits 100% CPU usage doing a single CPU video transcode operation.

I looked at upgrading to a QNAP TVS-h874-i5-32G but the cost of QNAPs has substantially increased in the last 10 years and it costs far too much. The i5 version is also the lowest SKU with an i7 and i9 CPU version sitting above it. I have instead decided to DIY my own NAS using HexOS (or TrueNAS vanilla) and wanted to sanity check my parts and look at any possible compatibility issues. A DIY NAS is also less than half the price of a QNAP TVS-h874-i5-32G and I will gladly listen to any constructive feedback on my hardware choices as follows:

Case - Jonsbo N3 SFF 18L Mini-ITX 8-Bay NAS Case (Black)
CPU/Mobo Combo - Topton 9-Bay NAS Motherboard AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS (https://www.toptonpc.com/product/9-bay-nas-motherboard-amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-usb4-4xi226-v-2-5g-lan-9xsata3-0-2xm-2-nvme-pcie-x16-2xddr5-mini-itx-firewall-mainboard/)
CPU Cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin 90 SE Black CPU Cooler
RAM - Crucial 64GB (2x32GB) 5600MHz DDR5 SODIMM
PSU - CORSAIR SF Series SF750 750W Power Supply - More power than I need but chosen for the 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rating
GPU - GeForce RTX 4060 (to be migrated over from other PC currently running Plex Server)
HDDs - 8 x Seagate Ironwolf 12TB NAS Drives - Migrating these over from the old NAS after backing up my data. Drives are in good condition with no issues.
M.2 Port #1 - Crucial P3 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
M.2 Port #2 - IO Crest 10 Gigabit M.2 M Key Ethernet Network Expansion Card - UNSURE ON COMPATIBILITY OF THIS (https://www.amazon.com.au/IO-Crest-Gigabit-Ethernet-Expansion/dp/B0BWSLSK78?th=1)
Fans - 2 x Noctua 80mm NF-R8 Redux Edition 1800RPM PWM Fan
OS - HexOS primarily, TrueNAS vanilla as a backup

Notes:
1. I am tracking that Intel CPUs are better for Plex transcoding due to their Quick Sync technology that is optimised for Plex.
2. I am using an AMD CPU that is not really optimised for Plex transcoding, but I have dealt with that by using a dedicated GPU with the RTX 4060, and Plex can use nVidia NVEC for transcoding which is Plex optimised.
3. I looked at other ITX motherboard CPU combos but the Topton one offered much better performance than the other Intel variants and I refuse to use any 13th/14th gen Intel CPUs due to the ongoing issues with them.
4. I want to move to 10 Gigabit networking thus the M.2 adapter but if it does not work then I can use one of the four Intel 2.5gbe i226-v NICs on the motherboard.

Thank you.

[Mobius]

1 hour ago, TrOnzl3r said:

IO Crest 10 Gigabit M.2 M Key Ethernet Network Expansion Card

it might work but jgreco, the guy that wrote the truenas 10gb primer, called it garbage.

1 hour ago, TrOnzl3r said:

I am using an AMD CPU that is not really optimised for Plex transcoding, but I have dealt with that by using a dedicated GPU with the RTX 4060, and Plex can use nVidia NVEC for transcoding which is Plex optimised.

yup nvenc should be more than adequate for plex but we usually recommend intel cpus for the lower power draw vs amd cpu + gpu.
I get not wanting to deal with 13th and 14th gen. its why i usually recommend 12th and older or the new core ultras.
How much it matters really depends on your power costs, for me with my shit rates itll cost me close to $40 usd a year just from gpu idle costs.

1 hour ago, TrOnzl3r said:

M.2 Port #1 - Crucial P3 Plus 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD

if this is your OS drive, i would recommend spending less and getting a smaller drive as OS drive doesn't really benefit from being larger than 16gb as the rest of the storage is locked out.

2 hours ago, TrOnzl3r said:

Noctua 80mm NF-R8 Redux Edition 1800RPM PWM Fan

you can save your self a bit of money getting arctic p8 max or p8 silent fans, both highly rated.

2 hours ago, TrOnzl3r said:

PSU - CORSAIR SF Series SF750 750W Power Supply - More power than I need but chosen for the 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rating

 80 plus efficiency means almost nothing for us homelab nas users as our systems will be at idle most of the time.
Check out this article of best psu's from the ppl that do the cybernetics ratings

You want to scroll to the graph for idle 20-80w power at 230v (assuming your are in australia) 
and just find whatever has the most efficiency.
in general psus that are rated for smaller loads tend to be more efficient at 20-80w

[TrOnzl3r]

Thanks very much for the feedback Mobius.

I agree the IO Crest 10 Gigabit M.2 card is a bit of a risk but I have read that other options such as 10 Gig Ethernet via USB are usually no better and have their own problems. I will keep looking and see if there is something better on offer.

Thanks also for the tips about the SSD size and the PSU. I am not sure if I can do it but I was hoping to be able to create a separate partition on the SSD used for the OS to use as a cache drive. I will take a look at the hardware busters article.

[Duncan Innes]

Yeah - I made a similar mistake with using a 1Tb M.2 boot drive.  Totally wasted.  For now.  Don't know if there's a plan to be able to use it more, or make it more secure & tolerant of failure.  But my next install will see the 1Tb boot drive swapped out for a 256Gb boot drive I have sitting doing nothing.  Even that is overkill for now.  My other two M.2 drives are SK hynix Gold P31 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 for power efficiency.

Can you do Link Aggregation with multiple 2.5G NICs?  Worth a look.  I'll certainly be hoping for LAGG when I get round to building a HexOS 1.x build (i.e. non-beta).

[Mobius]

5 hours ago, TrOnzl3r said:

I am not sure if I can do it but I was hoping to be able to create a separate partition on the SSD used for the OS to use as a cache drive.

outside of running hexos as a vm, its not possible.

glad i could help