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)
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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 enc/dec, quite fast, upgradeable
Cons: No ECC, relatively expensive
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
I’d love to hear what you think about these options and whether you have other concerns that I haven’t thought about.
I did the same.
Jellyfin and all “fun” containers to a N100 NUC and let the NAS be a NAS. It’s only running the .arr stack and qBit. Works really well and the NUC has power for days to expand.
Fourth person chiming in here [email protected], and I’ve pretty much the same as the above guys.
Segmented the NAS to being a NAS + arrr stack, N100 for Immich/Jellyfin HW transcoding, RPi3& 5 for Adguard and TVHeadend server.
I like the idea of there not being a single point of failure.
You’re starting to convince me, I’ve been looking at getting a GMKtec G3 N100 mini pc and just slotting it beside my existing NAS. I can even get a dedicated gigabit ethernet connection going between these two.
That would be a mirror of my setup. GMKtec N100 with 16 Gb of RAM doing all the heavy lifting with Jellyfin (transcoding), game servers, HomeAssistant and so forth. Not once has it had a hickup.
It’s a brilliant little thing for really very little money.
Remember to activate C-states in BIOS to achieve the super low idle TDP people talk about, around 6-8W.
Good luck on your journey!
It’s an expensive journey if you wanna ever keep near Moores Law and why I like handing down shit.
A family member has my old Synology NAS and they still can’t get their head around Jellyseer but understands it, works.
It then also gives me a test + bonus backup place. Have fun!