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foreword

After the brief introduction of " Why Do You Need a NAS Series ", if you decide to assemble your own NAS like me, then don't miss this article!

I have been using Snail Interstellar for several years, until recently I was ready to upgrade the configuration of the NAS. Of course, I am not going to disassemble the NAS, but directly assemble a brand new NAS . Generally speaking, if you directly buy a branded machine (such as Synology), although it is convenient, the price/performance ratio is generally relatively low. Small partners like us who are capable of tossing around are completely free to choose hardware, so that they can buy hardware with better performance at a relatively low price.

If you are playing NAS for the first time, in fact, I don't recommend Snail Star, after all, it is an old configuration a few years ago. Now there are many good entry-level CPUs similar to G5400T, their playability and scalability are much stronger than J1900, and the price is not much higher. I think the NAS configured in this article is very suitable for beginners, and the performance is just enough. You can add or delete some features based on mine, such as buying only 4-bay chassis, only 16G memory, changing the power supply that is almost there, etc., try to buy from Xianyu, etc., so that you can control the budget of Zanji well.

If you have never configured a computer yourself before, you can watch the series of video tutorials on the "Must-See Installation" and "Computer Installation" series of the main Miaomiaozhe app of Up at station B. I personally think that this is a high-quality tutorial for beginners , can help beginners get a general understanding of some basic principles of computer installation:

The essence of computer DIY is to make various considerations in the process of tailoring accessories for yourself, and finally get the most satisfactory solution with confidence. Although it is a bit difficult at the beginning, I still encourage my friends to try more. Without further ado, Let's go!

need

My upgrade needs have also been mentioned in " Why Do You Need a NAS for NAS Series ", and the summary is as follows:

Smoothly decode various high-definition bit rates and transcode H264 to increase remote playback capabilities
Play virtual machines, for example, you can install soft routing + NAS system (OpenMediaVault) at the same time
Disk upgrade: 6 disks
Pursuit of cost performance, energy saving and miniaturization while satisfying the above requirements

Let me talk about my hardware selection ideas and strategies, as well as the final choice. If you just want to know what hardware I finally configured, you can directly pull to the bottom 附：配置单to view the hardware selection.

Chassis

When choosing hardware for NAS, it is best to determine the chassis first . NAS cases are generally specially designed with hard disk backplanes/hard disk cages, which are quite different from ordinary PC cases. This is because NAS often has many hard disks, and has strict requirements on hot swapping, heat dissipation, power supply, and anti-resonance.

Because my Snail StarCraft originally had 4 disk slots, since it is rare to upgrade, I hope there will be more disk slots. However, I actually have no hard requirements on this aspect; because in the foreseeable future, my demand for capacity should not expand rapidly; even if it is really not enough at that time, I can replace the hard drive with a higher capacity, and the previous hard drive is free The fish is sold at a low price. So, I plan to choose a 6-bay chassis , and then try a small motherboard to build a mini NAS. The original Raiz2-ZFS array is directly transferred to the OMV virtual machine to continue to observe the stability of the OMV/ZFS array. The remaining two disk slots are not intended to be arrayed. Just put two 8T Western Digital red disks directly, and put some relatively unimportant files such as movies and TV.

As for the 6-bay NAS chassis, the quality of domestic manufacturers seems to be good. I bought this one: 6-bay nas chassis

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The price is on the high side, but the material it uses is quite sufficient, which I think is acceptable.

case fan

The fan that comes with this case is very noisy, so I have to choose a 12CM silent fan. I chose this one, which was also introduced by netizens: GELID 12CM fan

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Works well and is easy to install:

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It doesn’t matter if the appearance is ugly, anyway, the NAS is just placed in the corner (～￣▽￣)～

power supply

Generally speaking, after determining the chassis, it is necessary to choose the power supply. The power supply of NAS is still very important, especially for NAS with many hard disks. A good power supply can make the NAS run more stably and cause less damage to the hard disk. Since we chose a small chassis, we can only choose a 1U power supply . This time, I am going to be as extravagant as Yiwang, and choose a better Haiyun SSP-300SUG power supply . The 80PLUS gold medal full-module Japanese capacitor is quiet enough, although the performance of 300W is a bit excessive (ฅ´ω`ฅ):

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CPU

The main reason is to see the CPU model identified in this video of Sibotu , that is, G5400T . Its single-core performance is much better than J1900, but it does not consume too much power, and the performance/power consumption balance is relatively good. G5400T also supports virtualization technology (Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) = ‡ Yes), and supports a maximum of 64G DDR4-2400 ECC memory, so you can play with virtual machines happily. More importantly, it has a core display with just enough functions - Intel® UHD Graphics 610:

Since NAS usually does not install an independent graphics card, a proper core display can achieve a win-win situation of scalability and power consumption. A small partner has roughly counted the support degree of video format decoding/transcoding of the series of Intel core display, Intel® UHD Graphics 610which happens to be the older model with a wider support spectrum:

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I have already Intel® UHD Graphics 610passed through to the Jellyfin of LXC in PVE, and it feels quite stable, and the CPU burden is very small, haha! I haven't tested 8k 10bit video yet, most of the videos I downloaded from PT station are in 4k/1080p h265 10bit format. Of course, directing to the core display in PVE is another bitter story, let’s not start here Σ( ° △ °|||)︴ In addition, it is said that the energy consumption of G5400T and its non-low-power version G5400 in actual performance The difference is not big, but the explosive power is better; therefore, if you don't like G5400T, you can also buy G5400.

All in all, the recommendation of Mr. Sibotu is quite good! He also made a video evaluation of the real-time transcoding performance of several mainstream CPUs at that time (2022), interested friends can check it out!

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If you want to choose the CPU for NAS by yourself, I personally suggest to consider in this direction: 核显——单核性能——内存max支持——功耗——虚拟化支持.

It is worth mentioning that CPUs like the G5400T are generally disassembled/disassembled, and brand new ones cannot be bought. Friends with good eyesight and who are not in a hurry can squat idle fish. I just found a Taobao store to buy: G6900T G7400T G6500T G4900T G5500T G6400T G5420T G5400T CPU . CPU is one of the most sophisticated equipment in the history of human industry, and the quality control is relatively strict (ฅ´ω`ฅ) Generally, it is very difficult to break, so you can buy it with confidence!

CPU cooling

The most important principle for choosing a CPU heat sink is to be short enough , otherwise it may not fit in due to the limited space under the case. When the Wing King team was a small NAS , he encountered this problem, and he finally solved it with violence. emm...I feel that I chose a very expensive heat sink Σ( ° △ °|||)︴ actually I also read the recommendation on the Internet: overclocking 3 blade heat sink . Other heat sinks with a height of 2.7cm should be fine:

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This radiator can be easily installed on the motherboard:

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motherboard

After determining the chassis and CPU, you can start to choose the motherboard! Generally, FCLGA1151the chipset (Chipset) is determined according to the Sockets Supported of the CPU (support pins; G5400T is), and then find out what size and brand motherboards are available for the corresponding chipset. Searching in Google FCLGA1151, it is easy to find this support article: Compatible Intel® Core™ Desktop Processors for FCLGA1151 :

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At that time I found out: Intel G5400 also supports dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM and utilizes 8th Generation (Coffee Lake-S) technology. Therefore, it is speculated that G5400/G5400T should be the 8th generation CPU , so G5400 can choose the motherboard of the 300 series chipset . I am not very professional in this aspect, if you are not sure, just ask the boss when buying a motherboard. If you have friends who know more, you can also leave a message in the comment area!

Due to the size limit of the chassis, I can only choose a small motherboard of 17×17cm. From online tutorials, I found a 豆希B365good industrial control motherboard called Douxi B365 industrial control motherboard . Although it is not brand new, but the impression that the motherboard is not easy to break, it should not be a big problem:

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G5400T is an 8th generation CPU with 1151 pins. The motherboard is a B365 chipset and belongs to the 300 series, so this motherboard is perfectly compatible with G5400T. The motherboard can be installed with an M.2/nvme solid-state drive, which I plan to use to install the PVE system, and the space inside is allocated for virtual machines. However, the Douxi B365 motherboard does not support ECC memory , so I am going to buy two 16G DDR4 2400 non-ECC memory and plug it in. 32G memory is quite suitable. The error correction function of ECC memory is actually very important for soft Raid such as ZFS . Although it's a little shocking not to use ECC memory, but I heard from many friends that there is no big problem. I am going to take this risk and test it for a period of time. The SnailCraft I used before can use ECC memory, this one is considered a downgrade (ฅ´ω`ฅ) In addition, the motherboard has 6 SATA ports , which perfectly fits the 6-bay chassis I chose. Finally, there is a PCIE-16 expansion slot. I am going to put a 2.5G 1 network port network card, and try the PCIE device passthrough.

It is worth noting that Douxi B365 motherboard needs to set the jumper properly before it can be used normally. It is recommended that friends who are going to buy Douxi B365 motherboard read this article . I have never touched this kind of motherboard before. At that time, I thought that one of the SATA ports was not lit due to poor contact. After communicating with the seller, I found out that the jumper cap was not set correctly.

Douxi’s B365 motherboard’s power-on self-starting jumper is like this. I personally suggest that people who play NAS should adjust it to 23 to connect the jumper , so that the NAS can be softly shut down, which is more flexible:

The MSATA/SATA jumper of Douxi B365 motherboard is set like this. Since I am a 6-bay NAS and need to use 6 SATA ports, I need to 开启SATAconnect the jumper according to the scheme at the bottom right:

It is better to pick up the jumping cap with tweezers or a thinner needle. The jumper cap is small and easy to miss, so handle it with care . If you really don't understand, you can explain your needs to the seller when you buy the motherboard, and let him adjust it before sending it to you.

Finally, although the Douxi B365 motherboard has an HDMI interface, it can only use the VGA interface at the beginning . I was also tricked at the time! Therefore, you need to prepare an old-fashioned bright machine monitor and VGA cable. If your display at home only has an HDMI interface, you must prepare a VGA转HDMI带音频带供电cable (other cables are not allowed, don't buy the wrong one!), like this :

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Otherwise, you can only see that the CPU fan is running and the keyboard/mouse is on, but there is no way to test whether the CPU/mainboard/memory system is working properly!

Memory

I am going to buy two 16G DDR4 2400 non-ECC memory. After searching around, some friends recommended this one: Owl Whale ddr4 16G memory

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There is nothing to say about the memory, just choose the model supported by both the CPU and the motherboard, and then choose the capacity.

M2 solid state

Although I'm using ZFS, I'm not going to configure SSD cache, just use it as a system disk. I chose Pioneer SE20 256G NVME :

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There is nothing to say about this, I also chose randomly. You can also choose a good quality one. But I estimate that the NAS may be upgraded again in the next 3-5 years. No matter how bad this solid state is, it should last for 3-5 years (ฅ´ω`ฅ) In my impression, I have never tried to use a bad hard drive (playing in NAS It was damaged when using a mine disk to form a ZFS array).

Attachment: configuration sheet

The configuration sheet is as follows:

merchandise	Link	price	Purchase quantity
CPU-G5400T	https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.38.7ac45646znFG6w&id=590633619356&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail	230	1
CPU Cooling - Overclocking 3 Blades	https://item.jd.com/10078370544.html	79.9	1
Motherboard-Douxi B365 Industrial Control	https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.16.1d665ad8Y0Acn9&id=607038171852&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail	395	1
Chassis - domestic 6 trays	https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.50.71c01e53IMKQgF&id=598480501813&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail	278	1
Power supply-Sea Rhyme SSP-300SUG	https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.16.66c8458fKB9s0U&id=641881466441&ns=1&abbucket=3#detail	480	1
Memory-Owl Whale ddr4 memory stick 16g non-ECC	https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?abbucket=3&id=612739626952&ns=1&spm=a230r.1.14.8.61af3d02pBHP4N	219	2

I bought them from Taobao/Jingdong at the time. If you are willing to shop slowly in Xianyu, you should be able to further reduce the cost of a few hundred yuan. Choose a poor power supply, and you can also lower your budget. However, in terms of quality, you can only ask for blessings! It is worth noting that this configuration list does not include the hard disk , and the hard disk is often the most expensive part of the NAS . The upper limit is very high, so it is not easy to evaluate! I recommend novice players to use the Western Digital Red Disk , which is a hard drive specially optimized for NAS, which is quieter and more durable. If you are not afraid of tossing, you can find second-hand ones in Xianyu like me; if the purpose is more formal, it is better to buy brand new ones!

summary

This article mainly summarizes my hardware choices when upgrading my NAS recently. The general principle is roughly: determine the needs and budget, then select the chassis and CPU, and then select other accessories on this basis . I will elaborate on the assembly of NAS hardware later in an article, so stay tuned!

NAS series hardware selection