The Perfect Home Server 2023 – 48TB, 4x 2.5Gbit LAN, 18W, Quiet & Compact

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:33 Platform (Motherboard & CPU)
04:08 Pros, cons and price
05:05 What about the Erying boards?
06:10 Why ECC is not a big deal
08:35 Memory
09:04 Case
09:46 Power supply
11:40 Hard drives
14:23 SSDs
15:52 Build montage
17:00 Build impressions and tips
17:20 Power efficiency
18:49 Total build cost
19:25 Comparison with Synology
20:24 Total build cost with storage
21:05 Outro

This video is sponsored by Brilliant.

[WolfgangsChannel]

CORRECTION: Wireguard doesn't utilize AES, so it won't benefit from AES-NI. However, other VPN technologies like OpenVPN and IPSEC will benefit from it.
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NOTE: The version with a green PCB and a PCIe x2 slot comes with a different, more efficient SATA controller that supports ASPM
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[marklewus]

9 month update. You can now get i3-n305 eight core motherboards similar to the one you bought. The i3 has 2 1/2 times the performance of the N5105 at the cost of another 3-5 W (idle). Still no ECC (thanks, Intel). A choice with ecc and graphics is an AMD ryzen 7 pro 4750G w/ B550 motherboard. The motherboards are under $100 but used 4750G chips are around US $100 because they were sold only into the OEM market.

[marcinneuman]

Great video! The only thing I'd like to hear more is the C-states problem and ASPM support. How to check it, how to hunt for problematic components, how to set up BIOS, etc. I've watched this one and the previous (23W server) one looking for the answers. It looks like you know more about this than you share in those videos. Maybe you think it's not interesting/boring for us - but it's is an interesting topic! I'd love to see a separate video about it. I know every system is different and it's hard to show something really universal - but something to show us where to start would be awesome!

[petermarin]

This is great. Can you make a video and continue this with the OS/ software/ configuration side of this build? It’d be so helpful to see an end to end, replicable process. You’re a great educator.

[gabbieblue]

i have very limited supplies for my homelab, so seeing someone who actually knows what theyre doing run it all on one machine would be super helpful :D

[bamx]

That moment when a youtuber who inspired you on (re)building the home server and use Ansible actually uses the motherboard that you've bought for a new server several weeks ago!

[jakebezzina]

Awesome video! I just built my first NAS (Unraid) this week out of a free used i3-8100 m-ITX PC after watching a few of your videos. It would be super helpful if you were to make a video about the initial set up of containers, VMs, and cache configs for both beginners and experienced hobbyists.

[WolfgangsChannel]

Unfortunately, it still uses the JMB585 SATA controller, which doesn't support PCIe ASPM.

[millomaker]

Very impressive the low power consumption !
Nice video, a lot of good information, thanks man :)

[FaceAndSurface]

Topton is due to release a version with the i3-N305 soon, so if anyone is thinking of buying it might be worth waiting a while.

[GogozRule]

I have a build with the Topton/CWWK N6005 board since around January, (wrote a review on Ali, specced it with HyperX Impact kit, Jonsbo N1 and Open Media Vault.) welcome to the club! I inspired myself around your video talking about power efficiency, looked at J4105 but wanted something beefier and with the newest Intel QSV. This board is magical, much love. ❤

[Khoukharev]

What do you think would be the best replacement for Corsair rm550x (PSU)? These aren't available at all in my region

[NoxSayin]

It is so amazing to have power consumption mate. My NAS and multi-purpose Home Lab Server is NUC12 Wall Street Canyon with i5-1240P 12cores 16 threads. 64GB Ram and 1x4TB M.2 SSD + 1x 4TB SATA SSD. It runs ESXi at around 10W avg. Power consumption only. The ESXi runs DSM, 3 Windows Desktops for my Mac remote usage and 2 Ubuntu Test Labs as I am a cybersecurity researcher. And it still has room for an M.2 Key B NGFF for me to expand one more SATA 2.5" SSD. It also comes with 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports which I can use for a 4x M.2 SSD enclosure and another for 10GbE Ethernet in the future. I really love your video :)

[kevinhu]

I wish there is a same board but with N100. Which has better performance, both CPU and iGPU transcoding than the N5095/5105. Fast alder lake CPU, 6 SATA ports, power efficient, this would be a dream build.

[ApxuBbI]

Would be cool to see video from you, how you do your backups, advices, specifics. And how you verify these as well

[mebeingme]

Great video!! I went like 2 month ago with a smilar board...having 1 nvme and slightly cheaper, also with 32Gb ram :). The only thing I modded was cpu cooler, didn't like that one and went with a aluminium coolingblock which I had to modify, but runs now completely passive. from what I've seen is that WD drives generally are better at powerconsumption ...so went with those just the 5400 rpm's red plus. Over the moon with it, it handles everything I throw at it. For PSU Sharkoon Silent Storm 500, which is also quiet power efficient at low power. Currently with 4 drives and possibilities to expand.

[IMDee]

@WolfgangsChannel. Thank you very much for the video. I've been waiting for a video like this for a long time. I am going to try the build you're suggesting and see how it goes :). I have, however, ran into a roadblock. I can't find the PSU anywhere. Do you have any alternatives that have a similar IDLE load efficiency ? Power consumption is really important to me too
Thanks again for all your work

[menoslinks]

Do you have an update for this video one year after?

[otter-pro]

This is such a thorough and well-researched video... I could tell that a lot of work went to making this video. That motherboard is now on my to-buy list. Thanks

[denverag]

One note i would like to make for people new to the game of home built NAS.
Avoid using NAND based SSDs for caching, especially write caching.
While NAND SSDs are fine for most use cases of read caching, write caching will often see even high end SSDs die within a year(ask me how i lost 4 in one year)
If you're just storing a few files here and there thats fine.
But if like me, you record TV worth of video, then transcode that video, and TB worth of security camera footage, well, all of that writing, and re-writing is murder on SSDs.
I reccomend at least avoiding a write cache, and if you do want a write cache, those 120GB Optane drives have really come down in price.
Yes they're small and still expensive at around 4x the price of a 256GB NAND SSD, but i've had a pair working as write cache for close to 4 years now without any signs of wear, impressive seeing as they're close to 1/8th the capacity of my old 950 Pros that died at around 18 months.

If you're getting Optane, another option would be to use a pair of those 120GB drives for 'special metadata' or basically the file directory information.
This can speed up a RAID array of HDDs even more than a read cache in some use cases, but only when the file you're looking for is not on the read cache disks, really in a best case scenario you'd have 2x120GB optane for special metadata, 2x120 for a write cache, and maybe 2x2TB TLC NAND for read cache, but remember, if you're pulling many diverse files off of the server, this can kill a read cache just as quickly as a write cache..

One thing i've done with my server is take 3x16TB HDDs, and 2x2TB 870 EVO(SATA) and used the SATA as a read cache, then used this share for my games install folder, so far it has gone over 2 years without issue, and it feels as fast as a SATA SSD, sometimes faster thanks to the RAM caching, just with the added latency of running through a 10+gbit switch