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Hardware

I've went through a lot of changes in my hardware setup, from a weirdly hacky mini-pc clobbered together with a makeshift DAS to a full blown 4U server case holding a bunch of HDDs.

Last Upgrade for Awhile? ~ 4/26​

Since learning that the transcode engine in the Intel Arc A380 is the exact same in 12th gen Intel CPUs I realized I could probably forgo having that GPU entirely, since the setup I had for my PCIE cards was really cluttered with the NVIDIA GPU, HBA Card, and the Intel GPU. So I decided to buy an Intel i7 12700, giving me more cores and threads and with the same transcoding performance I would have with the Intel GPU. With this I don't invision touching the server any more, there's literally nothing more that can be improved (unless I really want to run more AI services)

  • RackOwl 4U Server Case
  • Intel i7-12700
  • ASRock B760 Pro RS/D4
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

Case Upgrade ~ 11/25​

With where I was performance wise on the NAS server, one thing that I've thought about was if my NAS server should be in the DarkRock case, or if I should do what I see that other folks do and get an actual server case. The only legitimate reason for doing this was due to cooling concerns for my HDDs, since the DarkRock case was not properly cooling the drives because of it's fan placement. I ended up getting a RackOwl 4U case and buying a bunch of Arctic Freezer fans, had a new properly cooled case for all of my hardware

  • RackOwl 4U Server Case
  • AMD 7 5700x
  • AMD ASUS STRIX B450-F GAMING
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • Sparkle Intel Arc A380 ELF
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

CPU Upgrade ~ 8/25​

Just like the last few upgrades I was looking to get a bit more out of the server, and with that I went ahead and purchased an AMD 7 5700x. It gave me some more cores and threads and basically had my system running without a concern whether it was running AI models or running the gaming VM

  • DarkRock Classico
  • AMD 7 5700x
  • AMD ASUS STRIX B450-F GAMING
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • Sparkle Intel Arc A380 ELF
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

Second Server Upgrade ~ 4/25​

Since having the GPU gave me the transcoding performance I wanted I realized I can upgrade the CPU to be even beefier and to provide better performance when running the gaming VM and the server at the same time. So I went ahead and bought an AMD 5 3600 and a new motherboard. With the AMD CPU it gave me such a significant performance upgrade without needing to worry about transcoding at all.

  • DarkRock Classico
  • AMD 5 3600x
  • AMD ASUS STRIX B450-F GAMING
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • Sparkle Intel Arc A380 ELF
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

Another GPU ~ 2/25​

I was a little underwhelmed with the transcode performance of the i5-9600 that was TBH at the time me just wanting to purchase something else. I ended up getting an Intel Arc A380 that was able to handle transcoding up to 6 streams for 4K streaming until it starts stutterring. The CPU alone was able to handle 2. It was a concern at the time since when anyone was a watching a movie while someone else was the transcoding performance was terrible.

  • DarkRock Classico
  • Intel i5-9600
  • ASUS PRIME Z370-A
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • Sparkle Intel Arc A380 ELF
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

GPU Upgrade ~ 11/24​

At this point I was kind of itching for a new upgrade 😅 and purchased an NVIDIA 3060 12 GB to allow me to setup a gaming VM. I initially bought an Intel Arc B580 but it was terrible at the time for AI usage so it felt really one dimensional to have. Using the the new NVIDIA gpu I was able to use it to set up a QEMU VM with GPU passthrough

  • DarkRock Classico
  • Intel i5-9600
  • ASUS PRIME Z370-A
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • ASUS Phoenix NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 V2
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

First Server Upgrade ~ 8/24​

I spent way too much time on reddit and ebay looking at marginal upgrades I can make to the server, especially now that I have significantly more space. One thing I was quite unsatisfied with was the CPU on the workstation and while it performed really well for normal tasks, it was terrible for quicksync. So I started eyeing an upgrade to a newer generation Intel chip, but it required upgrades almost across the board. I also took the opportunity to upgrade the case to a DarkRock Classico since I was getting tired of the janky setup with the Z220 and the HDD cage. The new case gave my way more capacity for my HDDs.

  • DarkRock Classico
  • Intel i5-9600
  • ASUS PRIME Z370-A
  • CORSAIR - VENGEANCE LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode

No More Mini PCs ~ 5/24​

I finally decided to move on from the really janky setup with the mini pc since there was just so many performance issues and the HDD setup I had with it was ridiculous. I started my first splurge into eBay and purchased a HP Z220, a highly recommended entry level nas server. It had a good amount of HDD space and it was easy to add in my HDD cage into it. I also tacked on a couple of new HDDs (2 Hitachi WD HGST He10 10 TB HDDs) and purchased an HBA card to which I still use today.

  • HP Z220 Workstation
  • LSI SAS2008 9200-8i IT Mode
  • 23 TB HDD storage

The First Upgrade ~ 2/24​

This was my first

This technically wasn't an upgrade but it was the first step in me looking to get more out of my hardware for all of the services I ran. After taking apart the Beelink Mini PC it just stopped booting up, and so I was able to return it to Beelink and got myself a new N100 Mini PC with a much more impressive QuickSync performance, allowing for me to support more transcode streams and with better performance. I used this opportunity to expand a bit more in terms of storage as well so I went ahead and purchased two 4TB Hitachi refurbished HDDs. That with a hard drive cage enclosure and a Thermallake 500W Power Supply I was able to power all the drives and plug them in (either through an NVME to SATA splitter or the Orico 5 HDD Bay Enclosure)

  • Beelink Mini S12 Pro, N100
  • Can't remember HDD Configuration but had (13 TB total)

First Step ~ 11/2023​

It all started with a really basic CyberGeek Mini PC Nano J1 Intel N5095A. I bought it since it was a really low price and it was more than capable to run some basic services. Something I found rather quickly was that it was struggling to play media when transcoding audio and/or subtitles since the CPU was really slow. I decided to upgrade the mini pc to a Beelink SEi10 Mini PC,10th Generation Intel i5-1035G7 that I really put through the works. That coupled with a pair of WD BLUE 3TB HDDs and two ORICO USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure Ihad my first self hosted setup. It was more than enough for me to start downloading movies and watching it through Jellyfin. It was also the first time I learned about QuickSync technology from Intel.

  • Beelink SEi10 Mini PC, i5-1035G7
  • 6TB Raid 0
  • Orico USB HDD Enclosure

HDD Array​

Decided on using Snapraid over a RAID array to allow for on demand resizing of the pool with different size drives without worrying about wasting drive space or having to rebuild the array anytime I wanted to add a new drive. Snapraid isn't alone is this architecture as it is only managing the backup/redundancy aspects of the array. MergerFS is the pooling software used to merge drives together to create a single filesystem. Testing with the HBA controller, MergerFS performance compared to RAID5 should very little to no difference in read speeds.

I did have to add Seagate Exos due to my pool growing and needing more space, but buying pre-owned drives from Amazon wasn't sustainable anymore due to them failing so quickly. Decided to finally spend extra and purchase almost brand new drives from ServerPartsDeal.

- 2x 3TB Western Digital Blue HDD (Cold Storage)
- 2x 4TB HDD
- 2x 10TB HGST HDD
- 3x 20TB Seagate Exos