Edit: Thanks to the feedback I found out that the playback issues are caused by transcoding setting. I had to select QSV instead of VA-API. Now playback is smooth with any bandwidth setting.
If there are any recommendations regarding data storage in my setup, it’d be much appreciated!
So, I am running Proxmox on an old thinkpad (Intel I7 11th gen, 32 gb ram) to host home assistant, nextcloud, npm and jellyfin. I was just able to set up hardware acceleration with the iris xe driver on jellyfin and install the client on my TV, but replay struggles at 4k hdr content. I doubt that this is actually the CPU, but my LAN interface. Buying the laptop I didn’t notice that it doesn’t have an RJ45 socket so I have to use an USB-C adapter instead.
Additionally, I will definitely run into storage issues before getting anywhere near a reasonable movie database and adding more and more external usb drives does not seem a good idea.
I think I need a NAS. But looking at used prices of a decent 4bay device, makes me wonder if “sidegrading” my PC wouldn’t be a better option. I could buy a new mainboard, cpu and memory, install all HDDs in my current case, and move my current hardware to a new, smaller one.
Does that make sense? Or is it more likely that my hardware is just incorrectly configured and a NAS would make more sense? Or should I get a DAS and set up USB pass throughout? Or…? What’s your opinion?
What hardware is your current PC running? Are you intending to replace the aforementioned Thinkpad with this PC? Or are they one and the same?
Something to remember is that “NAS” is just an acronym for Network-Attached Storage, i.e. a fileserver. That’s it. It is not specific to any particular software or hardware, so long as whatever you implement functions as a fileserver. But unfortunately, like most things, that acronym has been co-opted by many companies as a catch-all marketing term for their proprietary “home server that does all the things” systems.
I use a ryzen 3600x and 5600 or 5700xt with 16gb of ram. Works fine for my day to day work. The Thinkpad runs proxmox.
My idea was to get a new, smaller case to fit my mitx board and psu in and use the old one with a cpu which supports “all” codes, 32gb ram. The old case has enough space for everything I’ll ever need, but the question is, would it be worth the effort. With transcoding ticked off my issue list, my last remaining point is storage and the uncertainty, whether using usb-c connected, direct attached storage (DAS) systems to set up a fileserver is inherently problematic or not.
I don’t understand ZFS and docker would yield a ton of chaos if i used it. Setting up shared network directories in a somewhat polished user interface seems more achievable for me without causing a bottle neck. But I had issues when I rebooted VMs / containers with usb pass throughout which took to long to recover. A dedicated NAS would mitigate that issue but would be more costly.
At the moment, I am looking at a terramaster d5 DAS to give my file server a trial…
I use a ryzen 3600x and 5600 or 5700xt with 16gb of ram
Solid. My gaming PC runs a 5800X3D, 7900XTX, and 32GB RAM.
My idea was to get a new, smaller case to fit my mitx board and psu in and use the old one with a cpu which supports “all” codes, 32gb ram.
Fair. For what it’s worth, the 3600X will easily support 4K streaming.
The old case has enough space for everything I’ll ever need, but the question is, would it be worth the effort.
“worth the effort” is highly subjective. IMO, never take on a hobby with the expectation of a return on your investment - you’ll never see it. Do it to learn and further your knowledge.
As far as the case goes, most “standard” ATX cases should fit your needs. I harvested the case from an old HP Proliant ML110 G2 from 2004 which, shockingly, is (mostly) ATX-compliant, and will become the new home of my NAS…at some point.
With transcoding ticked off my issue list, my last remaining point is storage and the uncertainty, whether using usb-c connected, direct attached storage (DAS) systems to set up a fileserver is inherently problematic or not.
My NAS is strictly just a NAS. It’s a 2014 Mac Mini running, Open Media Vault, with a Sabrent DS-SC4B 4-bay hard drive enclosure connected via USB. All 4 drives are in a RAID5 array.
My Plex and Jellyfin instances run within a VM under Proxmox, on an entirely separate machine. It works pretty well for what it is. Though, like I mentioned above, I plan on moving the whole NAS to a larger case where I can mount the drives inside and directly connect them to the motherboard, instead of relying on USB.
I don’t understand ZFS
Neither do I, and I have neither the time nor energy to figure it out. Solidarity!
and docker would yield a ton of chaos if i used it.
Docker is actually pretty sweet once you get the hang of it. I would recommend skipping over
docker runcommands entirely and going straight to Docker Compose. You write a “compose” file (using YAML) that defines the service, container, volumes, ports, and other (optional) environment variables, find a central place to keep your compose files (separated by folder, because they all tend to be namedcompose.yaml- it can be anywhere as long as you have the right permissions), point your terminal at whatever compose file you want to run, and tell Docker to fire it up with `docker compose up -d’. And the neat part is that most self-hosted projects will already have an “example” compose file that is easily tweaked to fit your own use case.There is also a project called “Dockge” (not a typo) that really helps to streamline that whole process with a simple web UI. Made by the same dude who created Uptime Kuma. I run Dockge on everything that runs Docker, including my laptop and gaming PC. They can all be linked together.
Setting up shared network directories in a somewhat polished user interface seems more achievable for me without causing a bottle neck.
For this, I use NFS mounts. OMV makes it pretty easy. Those mounts are then mapped to the appropriate containers inside of my
compose.yamlfiles.But I had issues when I rebooted VMs / containers with usb pass throughout which took to long to recover. A dedicated NAS would mitigate that issue but would be more costly.
I always advocate for a dedicated NAS, because you can reboot VMs and containers on a separate hypervisor (even the hypervisor itself) willy-nilly without affecting the actual files.
At the moment, I am looking at a terramaster d5 DAS to give my file server a trial…
Looks nice, but I wouldn’t recommend a hardware RAID. If the hardware dies, your data is fucked. With software RAID like
mdadm, you can move the array between machines with zero issues as long as the new machine hasmdadminstalled. It recognizes the array immediately. Really handy.
Run an iperf test to see if the ethernet adapter is working correctly. The speed tests on my USB ethernet adapter are almost identical to an integrated one as long as it’s connected to a USB 3 port.
I once did a whole bunch of research looking into turning my old gaming laptop into a Nas/Homeserver.
And buying the supporting hardware to get more than the three SATA ports it had (mcpie adapter and SATA card and a power supply) would have been more jank and expensive than buying a used desktop in a big case and using that instead.
I’d say it does make sense, the only thing I lost is power efficiency, but I’m trying to not think too hard about that :D
With the right software most consumer hardware can be a decent server, although not having ECC ram kinda sucks. Usually most motherboards have enough SATA ports for a few drives and if not, just add a PCIE card that does.
What makes you think it’s the r usb-c adapter? Switch to wifi and see if there’s any difference. Try a 4k source that doesn’t need transcoding to confirm it’s not a hw acceleration issue.
As proxmox does, to my knowledge, not natively support wifi, I’d rather not try it. Good idea regarding an alternative source. Any idea suggestion how if a) which codes might be supported by my tv b) find / generate a suitable file?
Frankly, my considerations regarding usb-c is not really based on anything meaningful besides chat gpt.
Jellyfin logs will tell you if it’s transcoding. If you have a dvd you can use handbrake to convert it to any format you want.
If you stream to a different device and have the same issues and it’s also not transcoding then you can isolate the issue to your tv, network, or hypervisor.
Fyi my TVs all have 100mbit ports and I stream 4k content all the time. Larger files (LOTR 50gbish) can take a while to pre load when direct streaming but once they start it’s smooth and i can seek instantly.
Lotr is my benchmark here as well. Your 100mbits are a good indication that something in my config is wrong. I went back reading the docs and found out that I should perhaps use QSV instead of VA-API. Did that and playback is smooth as it should be! Seeking not that much but that’s probably because I just buffer 3 minutes. Thanks a lot!
