Finished my DIY server (mostly for Plex)

I took the plunge and built a server/NAS based on the J1900

I went a cheaper route then I originally wanted and ended up with:

Motherboard: ASRock Q1900-ITX Intel Celeron J1900 Motherboard
Case: Thermaltake SD101 VP11821N2U Black Steel Mini-ITX
Memory: Kingston 4GB 1600MHz KVR16LS11/4
SSD (os): SAMSUNG 830 MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SSD (old)
HDD (data): Western Digital WD40EFRX 4 TB WD Red
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit

All total with tax and shipping $488.65 (using an old SSD as boot drive) if you remove the HDD you come to $299.66. So if I add in $100 for a SSD that is $400 which is cheaper then Synology DS414($475) but more then a DS214($300) or DS214+($350). But instead of dual Core Marvell ARM CPU you get a quad core X86 part that is running full Windows. In the case it would be easy to fit one more 3.5 inch drive and with some drilling I could fit 2 more. Or if you wanted to use 2.5 inch drive you could fit 4 more easy.

If you have any questions let me know

Andrew911tt said:

I took the plunge and built a server/NAS based on the J1900

I went a cheaper route then I originally wanted and ended up with:

Motherboard: ASRock Q1900-ITX Intel Celeron J1900 Motherboard
Case: Thermaltake SD101 VP11821N2U Black Steel Mini-ITX
Memory: Kingston 4GB 1600MHz KVR16LS11/4
SSD (os): SAMSUNG 830 MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SSD (old)
HDD (data): Western Digital WD40EFRX 4 TB WD Red
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit

All total with tax and shipping $488.65 (using an old SSD as boot drive) if you remove the HDD you come to $299.66. So if I add in $100 for a SSD that is $400 which is cheaper then Synology DS414($475) but more then a DS214($300) or DS214+($350). But instead of dual Core Marvell ARM CPU you get a quad core X86 part that is running full Windows. In the case it would be easy to fit one more 3.5 inch drive and with some drilling I could fit 2 more. Or if you wanted to use 2.5 inch drive you could fit 4 more easy.

If you have any questions let me know

Click to expand...

OK on hardware. But what software will it use that has the feature set in QNAP/Synology?

I was finally able to get the system on the Kill-A-Watt last night and at idle I am pulling 16 watts.

stevech said:

OK on hardware. But what software will it use that has the feature set in QNAP/Synology?

Click to expand...

I can find Windows software to replace most of the apps available from those feature sets, but the main thing for me is the huge difference between what is available in a feature set and what I will actually use.

This will primarily be a File server, Plex server, and torrent box. Those 3 things can be done by both QNAP and Synology, but I think they will be even easier to set them up the way I want in windows.

Also there are things I can do with a full computer that can't be done by a retail NAS(in my price range).

For the Plex portion this machine will actually be able to transcode where as the other NASs I mentioned cannot and I don't want to use a proprietary Qnap/Synology app that is ugly and sucks on just a few specific NAS models just so the NAS can actually transcode.

This will all so serve is as a remote computer using Chrome Remote Desktop from my Chromebook if I ever need a windows app, or if I need full access to a computer on a trusted network rather then work on a computer in a public network.

Andrew911tt said:

I can find Windows software to replace most of the apps available from those feature sets, but the main thing for me is the huge difference between what is available in a feature set and what I will actually use.

Click to expand...

That's a very good way to look at it. Some people get wrapped up in feature parity but forget that most of those features aren't being used by many others.

Andrew911tt said:

This will primarily be a File server, Plex server, and torrent box. Those 3 things can be done by both QNAP and Synology, but I think they will be even easier to set them up the way I want in windows.

Click to expand...

I had similar desires and ended up going with an Ubuntu server which may not be your prefered OS. I get everything you mentioned except for the remote desktop (which isn't a problem since I have a Windows 7 VM running that I use for that).

Either way, welcome to the homebuilt crew and don't fool yourself, you'll never be 'finished' building it, you'll just take breaks till you want something else out of it!

theonlyski said:

Either way, welcome to the homebuilt crew and don't fool yourself, you'll never be 'finished' building it, you'll just take breaks till you want something else out of it!

Click to expand...

Amen. I am already planning a broadwell upgrade...without know what the Broadwell processor line-up is. Those nice low power Gigabyte (or is it MSI?) 9 series boards they just unveiled look tasty. The uATX H97, plus some suitable Pentium/i3 processor should do 'er up nice as an upgrade from my H77 uATX board and G1610 celeron.

I am starting to do some things which are a wee more processor intensive, so something a little more capable would be nice, though not paramount.

All for possibly under $200. Or if I cheap out I am sure I can just get another Broadwell celeron processor and a lower end H97 board for ~$100.

In terms of transcoding, how well is it working? Do you have any 1080P MKV blu ray rips that you transcode and watch on an iPhone, for example? It seems like that CPU might struggle with transcoding...

I wanted to have a back-up Plex Server but didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I looked at building one but couldn't justify the cost. I ended up as follows:
1. Refurbished Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p w. 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 3.0GHz 2-Core Intel processor, DVD RW drive, T-1000 Gigabit Ethernet Port, Display Port, eSATA Port, 8 - USB 2.0 Ports, PS2 Port, VGA port, Serial Port, Com Ports, Windows 7 32-Bit OS, 107 key USB2.0 keyboard, USB 2.0 mouse - US$89
2. Seagate Momentus 7200rpm 512GB 2.5" HDD w. Windows 7 64-Bit Pro OS - Used, came from an upgrade to a SSD. I think these are about US$49 new now.
3. Syba PCIe 2.0 card 2-USB3.0 external ports, 2-SATAIII internal ports - Used, came from an upgrade of another PC. I think it cost US$16 new
4. 3-Seagate 5TB external HDD in enclosures to store the video Files. US$129/each.
5. Shared monitor since I normally run this headless and remote in from another server or client PC.

My actual out-of-pocket cost was less than US$100 for the PC. The most expensive items were the 3 Seagate 5TB external HDD's which would be needed for any device or server to store the files.

Performance:
-The biggest hangup is the fact that the M58p only came with one 2GB RAM module. These are PC3-8500 modules that are hard to get. (If anyone has a source for these, please let me know). They are NOT the PC3-8500 Laptop modules. These are the 200-pin 5.25" long modules.
- There are 4 memory module slots in the Lenovo M58p. If anything, upgrading the memory would give the most performace boost.
- The metadata on the files (video and music) takes up 70GB of space which is why I installed a larger HDD. With the OS, Plex Server Program, Metadata files, Open Office Suite, Nero Suite, Spybot S&D 2.4, Panda Anti-Virus, Daemon Tools Lite Virtual Drive, HandBrake Transcoding, and a few other pieces of software; about 125GB of space is used on the HDD. A 7200rpm HDD allows the system to boot pretty quickly but that really isn't necessary for a device that runs 24/7.
- This unit will easily stream 2-720p videos simultaneously or 1-1080p video without hangups.
- This unit will stream at least 3 music files simultaneously (all I ever tried).
- Office applications run fine.
- Transcoding an .iso file is slow compared to doing it with the Haswell i3-4130 or Xeon E3-1225 v3 processors in other servers I have.
- You cannot simultaneously transcode .iso files with Handbrake and do any other application on this machine.
- You can simultaneously stream a 1080p video and work on an office application at the same time - or surf the net.
- Adding the PCIe card with USB 3.0 ports disabled the Display Port on the M58p. This was not as big a loss as one might think becase the DP was ver 1.0 which didn't have audio enabled (only useful as a video feature). With the USB3.0 card, you need to use the VGA port for video and com ports for audio. I only use a monitor on this server when doing maintenance that requires me to restart the machine.
- Power consumption of the system at idle is 15-20 watts (including the HDD's). Maximum power consumption (excluding the monitor - not normally used) for streaming a difficult 1080p video and a couple music streams is less than 30 watts. The only way to get less consumption is to turn off one, or more of the HDD which use about 1 watt at idle and up to 6 watts when fully spun up and actively seeking. (Turning off the HDD for 1 watt/each is not worth it to me)

Conclusions:
For the price I have invested I really can't beat this machine as a back-up Plex Server. I needed the HDD's as back-ups to my files on another server so this was a way to have them available in case I am out of town and my primary server went down for any reason (has happened to me several times in the past).

Yes, I realize that it has limited streaming capabilities. For almost all instances, I really don't need to stream more than 2-720p videos simultaneously(which are still HD and most of my library is in that format because of size constraints). It is also my back-up Plex Server, not my primary. If necessary, some traffic can be on the primary and some on the back-up server.

Yes, you can pm me. Leave a private e-mail address with the pm since I don't check this forum every day except when I have a problem that I am asking for help on (happens frequently and these people usually have good answers or suggestions).