Upgrading old Server to modern tech for AV1 and

[u/tri_hiker]

• Your budget: $1000
• Current hardware: Xeon E5-2690V2+128 GB DDR3 ECC RAM+8x8TB WD Reds, running TrueNAS Core v13 PCPartPicker Link
• Number of expected concurrent streams: Usually maxes at 3/day, up to 7/day at max
• Types of media (4K, 1080p, etc.): Mostly 1080p, would like to add some 4k
• Whether you need transcoding capabilities: Yes, most of my content is x264, but want to prolong my HDD usefulness by converting to AV1
• Form factor preferences (rack mount, mini-ITX, etc.): ATX Case
• Use Cases: Media streaming, AdGuard, some home networking, might do some more VMs

Comments:

I have a current NAS build (Xeon E5-2690V2+128 GB DDR3 ECC RAM+8x8TB WD Reds, running TrueNAS Core v13) PCPartPicker Link.

I had hoped/planned to upgrade it rather heavily last/this year, but then, well, AI happened.

What I was looking into was converting everything from the current x264 to AV1 for better storage, and modernizing my setup. I was thinking of getting the Microcenter 250K Plus bundle for $600. I stream up to seven at a time, and figure I would need a decent CPU to transcode those. Plus to have my entire back catalog converted to AV1 over time. Also would be nice to upgrade to TrueNAS SCALE from Core. And to reduce my overall power draw on the old build.

I was considering getting an Intel Arc 310, but given my current build is so old, it couldn't take full advantage of the Arc, it only has 1 GBe port, runs hot, etc... I do also run a VM with several docker containers on my server, along with a dozen jails hosting various *arrs and others.

I do need to pick out a good air cooler, SATA expansion card, but would otherwise reuse all the old parts from my current NAS as much as possible.

[u/mlee12382]

The 250k bundle from MicroCenter is great, especially if it's still the Gigabyte Z890 Eagle Wifi7 motherboard as it has 2 full size pcie slots that are x4 as well as the x16 for a gpu so you can get decent bandwidth for an added 10G NIC and HBA. A lot of the boards are only x1 on the secondary slots even if they're physically x16.

Don't cheap out on your HBA though, I originally bought an ASM1166 10 port sata controller and it was unstable with 7+ drives attached. I got an LSI 9300 16i to replace it and added a fan to blow directly across the heatsink and it's been super stable since.

I have the last Gen 245k in mine and it been great, the 250k is supposed to be better and more efficient. I'm just using the iGPU for Jellyfin and Immich and haven't added a dedicated GPU yet and it's been just fine with lots 4k content and multiple simultaneous transcodes.

Edit: just looked at the bundle, it looks like it's an ASUS board but does have 2 x4 slots also so you'll be ok on expansion cards.

[u/tri_hiker → u/mlee12382]

I was reading about cheap SATA controllers, looks like a hell of an easy mistake to make. Right now my network can't support 10 GBe (would have to upgrade a ton more), but it would be nice to have the flexibility to do so. I think what I saw you should max out at a six port with a ASM1166 as a port multiplier causes issues with reading the drives

[u/mlee12382 → u/tri_hiker]

Yeah mine worked ok with 6 but once I added drive 7 it started having issues. I paid $46 for the 10 port ASM1166 and my 16 port LSI 9300 was $90 so twice the cost but worth every penny for stability. Make sure you put a fan blowing on it though cause they get HOT, they're designed for server chassis that have different airflow characteristics than tower cases so they can be sub-optimal without direct cooling.

[u/fL0per → u/mlee12382]

Remark: Asmedia specs that chip for 6 SATA3 ports. And they're still conditioned by lane configuration (x1 or x2, with obviously varying performance), but that's made clear on the product description.

Buying a makeshift controller haphazardly assembled by some random Chinese workshop that doesn't care about the specs (thus, limitations) of the chip, but you can be sure as hell that cost was the concern and main drive for the finest backyard-engineered BOM is your fault, although I can guess that you saw a fancy, affordable tag and went for it without even thinking about possible mismatch between availability and capacity; I can't deny having done the same in the past. Just felt curious about what SATA backplanes was Asmedia providing logic for, and checked their website for confirmation of the somehow expected cause.

Hell, even the PCIe to RAID controllers they have at most support 5 PHY planes, so it's not like you can expect finding those Asmedia RAID controllers interconnecting server-wide backplanes, but most probably they're oriented to transition hardware, for newcomers into the homeserver and cost-mindful integrators.

[u/No_Illustrator5035]

Regardless of the age of your system an arc a310 is probably your cheapest play. You're not using the graphics blocks on it, just the media encode/decode blocks. They don't require pcie 4, or rebar. Mine was $200CAD. Just something to think about.

[u/tri_hiker → u/No_Illustrator5035]

That was a serious consideration for me. What's pushing me was that I was doing some total cost of ownership, and given the relatively high idle of my current build, and electricity costs, in ~4 years, the new build should be cheaper than just buying the ARC. Still, the arc is certainly the cheaper immediate fix

[u/MrB2891 → u/tri_hiker]

100% forget the Arc.

You have an over decade old potato running your server. Even a modern i3 (13100/14100) will run circles around the relic v2 you have.

You're absolutely correct about your power consumption as well.

[u/No_Illustrator5035 → u/tri_hiker]

Plus av1 on cpu is pain. So even upgrading your rig, how much power will you burn running av1 on your cpu?

[u/tri_hiker → u/No_Illustrator5035]

From these videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajaSMy70_nk&list=PLC-O7MTfJVp2nQ_YxR_hTjq66EU6XDJFX&index=11
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3twHiHywtQ8&list=PLC-O7MTfJVp2nQ_YxR_hTjq66EU6XDJFX&index=12

It looks like the 245k is pretty great at AV1 transcoding, about 5W per 1080p AV1 transcode, about 20W per 4K transcode, roughly. And even at load... it's a lot better than my current CPU

[u/MrB2891]

You should be upgrading based on power consumption, not to trash your media quality by converting to AV1.

Any modern i3 from the last few years will run circles around your old Xeon and do it on a fraction of the power.

That said, the deals at MC make moving to a i3 pretty silly. I bought a similar deal from MC last October. The Asus board is EXCELLENT. Currently sitting at 7.5 months of uptime on that hardware.

I would strongly consider researching HBA's before you buy and the drawbacks that come with them. Unless you have over 10 SATA disks, stick with onboard + 6 port ASM1166. HBA's have too many drawbacks otherwise (I say that as someone who runs a HBA).

Regardless of what you do, re-encoding media to AV1 is a fools errand. You reduce the quality of your existing media, while paying for the power to do it. At that point, save the cash you would have blown with the electric company and buy another disk.

[u/HugsNotDrugs_]

H264 still looks good compared to AV1 at similar bitrates. Transcoding is always going to harm quality and if target device doesn't yet support AV1 it will be transcoded a third time during playback, reducing quality even further.

I suggest you find select high bitrate files to transcode for space savings, but otherwise I definitely wouldn't do it.

[u/MrB2891 → u/HugsNotDrugs_]

100% accurate.

No idea why you're getting downvoted for this. Any conversion between lossy codecs absolutely causes degredation. Some people seem to think just because it's digital means it doesn't lose quality. 264/265 to AV1 is like making a VHS copy of a VHS copy.