discussion Help with parts list for building a local backup server / NAS (for music projects)?

[QuestionAsker]

I’m planning a home server mainly for backups of my music projects (from both PCs and Macs) and potentially some homelab use (remote access, Plex, Docker). I want something that will last a long time (10+ years) without being overkill.

And I'm also trying to get the parts that are the best value, that are new. Not bleeding edge, but not crap either - just something that has quite good performance yet is economical at the same time (e.g. ASRock motherboards compared to top-of-the-line ASUS ones).

I expect to need around 40–60 TB usable space, with redundancy (RAIDZ2?, RAID6?)

Parts I already own:

• Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 (older full tower)
• Cooling: New H60x RGB Elite liquid CPU Cooler
• PSU: New Corsair RM850x
• GPU: used 8GB gtx1080 ftw3 edition from evga with a liquid cooler on it

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Parts I’m considering:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 5500 ($76)
• Motherboard: Asrock B450M Pro4 R2.0 ($80)
• NVMe drives: one for OS, maybe one for SLOG/cache (still not sure if I even need this for backups)?
• Noctua 200mm fans (to replace the 15 year old 230mm Cooler Master fans)

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My questions:

1. What HDD's are the best bang for the buck right now for a backup-focused server? I'm open to learning shucking if that would be a big cost-saver.

2. I've been watching videos on local backup servers but am quite lost... for my application(s), what would be the best software to use? Should I use Proxmox (with something like TrueNAS as a VM), or just run everything bare-metal on Windows/Linux?

(I would also like to be able to remote into this machine, and having it run Windows, to also potentially run Plex and other homelab stuff. I'm still very new to all that, and just not sure where or how to start exactly.)

3. Should I aim for RAIDZ2 (like RAID6), or can I start smaller and expand later?

4. Is the LSI 9300-8i still the best HBA choice in 2025 for ZFS/NAS builds, or is there a newer/better option?

5. I'm aware of ECC vs non-ECC tradeoffs - is it worth worrying about it in my case?

6. How many (if any), and what size NVMe's should I get? Any particular ones you guys recommend?

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Looking for advice from people who have built similar setups: is my current path decent, or should I spend differently for better reliability/cost efficiency?

 

[sswilson]

Recent external seagate drives have been shipping with their new Baraccuda line which doesn't appear to be rated for 24/7 NAS use. My personal recommendation would be to stick with Ironwolf or Ironwolf Pros.

I built a NAS earlier this year coming at it with zero home lab experience and found Unraid to be relatively easy to get up and running. Docker implementation is seamless, and I believe VMs are relatively easy to set up as well (although that might just be a docker container... I don't know).

I guess one of the biggest questions would be what kind of throughput you need for your applications.... is it simply a matter of backing up content created on another device, or do you need better than 120 - 220MB/s to support live streaming content direct to the NAS's storage?

Expect to spend a fair bit to get 40TB+ usable storage area. You could get by with 5X used 10TB drives for 40TB + 1 Parity, but >12TB new drives start to get expensive.

 

[Izerous]

2. There are multiple approaches to this. Personally I went with ProxMox for all the virtualization messing around I'm doing. Within the ProxMox web UI you have console access to every VM and the hosts, less of a hassle than RDP. RDP also doesn't work in Windows Home, you have to upgrade to windows pro license.
5. Registered ECC ram is really more of a server thing not desktop component thing
6. If your using the NVMe drive(s) as read cache 1 is enough, if using as read/write or write cache the common suggestion is to have 2 in RAID 1. If your write cache fails it can damage more than just the last written file.

...
Some random side notes that get pushed by people far more experienced than me "RAID is not backup", it is high availability. The guys pushing backup methods talk about 3-2-1. 3 copies, 2 types, 1 off-sight.

So example ...
1 copy on the computer, type = hdd, offsight = no
1 copy on the NAS, type = hdd, off-sight = no

so that is 2 copies, 1 type, and no off-sight. Adding something like a monthly backup to Glacier or similar cloud services would add a 3rd copy, second type = cloud, and it meets the off-sight requirement. Now your random cat videos downloads does this matter probably not, but if your saying doing music production professionally and something happens to the NAS and desktop (house fire, flood destroys the computers whatever) how hurt are you if you cannot recover from the HDDs etc?

(This is next on my list to figure out, but glacier snapshots is likely what I'll end up doing)
...

Personally I also went with decommissioned servers, sometimes you can find pretty powerful servers even ones that can be swapped into a tower chassis (my board is swappable) for surprisingly little money... but in general poke around for used stuff in your area even if not server hardware. Some of the deals on slightly older stuff can sometimes blow you away. I would just keep to anything DDR4 or newer (xeon 26XX v1/v2 are DDR3 but v3/v4 are ddr4 for example). Sometimes even slightly older threadrippers, or 2xxx/3xxx ryzens etc for surprisingly little money if you keep your eyes open.
...

Also I know how expensive those 200mm noctua fans are I have 8 on my wishlist as I want to upgrade my ridiculous external liquid cooler... don't spend more on fans than the hardware itself.

 

[djbrad]

Yep, RAID is not backup.

We had to recover a major cybertattack at my job in 2022 (the day Russia invaded Ukraine), and had to reinstall everything from backups (and I mean, EVERY pc / server / etc, it was a cryptovirus).

That aside, for myself, I do a monthly backup on an external hard drive at home, and a second one on another external hard drive (encrypted), that I store in my desk at job.

 

[QuestionAsker]

Thanks guys for your responses. Been thinking a lot about this build, and learning about ZFS and TrueNAS, I apologize for the long response time.

I've updated my parts list based off what I've heard / learned, but still have some questions before I buy that parts, if you guys might have any insight:

Current updated parts list:

• Mobo: ASRock B550 Pro4 - $155
• CPU: Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G ($99 used, off ebay) (has onboard graphics, for Plex. Supports ECC)
• HDD storage: 5 x WD Ultrastar DC HC580 (24TB SATA) - $340 each - (5 wide vdev in RAID2Z)
• ECC UDIMM RAM: 2 x 32 GB Micron MTA18ASF4G72AZ-3G2R (used) - 2 x $185
• OS DRIVES: 2 x used Intel Enterprise SATA drives
• BDXL Drive: ?

Parts I Already Have:

• Cooler Master HAF 922 Case (5 x 3.5" HDD bays + 5 x 5.25" bays) (Note: One 5.25" bay to be used by BDXL drive)
• PSU: Corsair RM850x
• AIO CPU Cooler: H60x RGB Elite

Questions:

1. ECC UDIMM RAM
   • Will the 2 x 32 GB Micron MTA18ASF4G72AZ-3G2R (used) work for my setup? I believe another RAM SKU is recommended (from another manufacturer), but I cannot find any of them
     
2. HBA
   • Since 2 x SATA SSD Boot Drive + 5 x SATA HDDs will exceed the motherboards 6 x SATA ports, should I get a cheap PCIe-SATA card for the second boot SSD, or install an HBA (LSI 9300-8i) to add headroom for more drives later? (second 5 drive vdev)
     
3. BDXL Drive
   • Any recommendations for a solid BDXL drive for burning 25 GB cold storage archival M-Discs?
     
4. General
   • Any other suggestions / recommendations / advice? Anything I missed?

...
Some random side notes that get pushed by people far more experienced than me "RAID is not backup", it is high availability. The guys pushing backup methods talk about 3-2-1. 3 copies, 2 types, 1 off-sight.

So example ...
1 copy on the computer, type = hdd, offsight = no
1 copy on the NAS, type = hdd, off-sight = no

so that is 2 copies, 1 type, and no off-sight. Adding something like a monthly backup to Glacier or similar cloud services would add a 3rd copy, second type = cloud, and it meets the off-sight requirement. Now your random cat videos downloads does this matter probably not, but if your saying doing music production professionally and something happens to the NAS and desktop (house fire, flood destroys the computers whatever) how hurt are you if you cannot recover from the HDDs etc?

(This is next on my list to figure out, but glacier snapshots is likely what I'll end up doing)
...

Personally I also went with decommissioned servers, sometimes you can find pretty powerful servers even ones that can be swapped into a tower chassis (my board is swappable) for surprisingly little money... but in general poke around for used stuff in your area even if not server hardware. Some of the deals on slightly older stuff can sometimes blow you away. I would just keep to anything DDR4 or newer (xeon 26XX v1/v2 are DDR3 but v3/v4 are ddr4 for example). Sometimes even slightly older threadrippers, or 2xxx/3xxx ryzens etc for surprisingly little money if you keep your eyes open.
...

Also I know how expensive those 200mm noctua fans are I have 8 on my wishlist as I want to upgrade my ridiculous external liquid cooler... don't spend more on fans than the hardware itself.

Thanks Izerous - I do need to figure out the 3-2-1 backups. It's why I want to incorporate the BDXL drive to burn 25 GB M-Disc's for long term archival and keep local and offsite copies.

Down the line I'd like to build a 2nd mirror TrueNAS to mirror this first one I'm building, and keep it at a family members house.

---

I think down the line I'd go with decomissioned servers as well. At the moment I don't fully wrap my head around which ones are good / not good / etc - I'd also have to figure out a place where to store them. Though I am slowly thinking of how to fit this TrueNAS into the garage, and how it'll work. Atm will store it in my bedroom (it won't be running 24/7), but I imagine the noise might get annoying.

---

Which brings me to Noctuas - I was recommended the industrial fans by them, if I do choose to store in garage (I live in a temperate dry climate, so winters the garage is between 45F - 55F, and summer 75F - 90F, more or less). If putting in garage, noise won't be much of an issue. And I hear the industrial Noctua's can push way more air.

Yep, RAID is not backup.

We had to recover a major cybertattack at my job in 2022 (the day Russia invaded Ukraine), and had to reinstall everything from backups (and I mean, EVERY pc / server / etc, it was a cryptovirus).

That aside, for myself, I do a monthly backup on an external hard drive at home, and a second one on another external hard drive (encrypted), that I store in my desk at job.

Thanks djbrad - was the cyberattack part of the Russian invasion? That's wild. Must have been quite a pain in the ass to bring it all back.

Since you have real world experience in that - any tips or best practices to quickly get things back up and running, after an event like that?

My current backup strategy is also external drives, but I've already had one fail on me, and have like 5 drives mucking about, I lose track of what's stored where, etc. I also back up way less often than I should, since I don't have a solid process for it.

So just hoping to centralize / better organize / automate things for better data resiliency and retrieval.

 

[moocow]

Double check Plex transcoding on AMD iGPU. Last I check, it doesn't work that well with AMD GPU period. If you don't need transcoding, then the CPU you listed works fine. I would avoid ASRock if possible as their stuff tend to be lower quality but make sure whatever brand you pick supports ECC memory.

 

[djbrad]

An offline backup is very important (and not in the house), as a ransomware could encrypt your NAS (and then you have nothing), and a fire could destroy everything.

For the burner, anything available (and compatible) should do the job.

I got one LG and Asus at home, both doing well (one is Libredrive compatible, to rip blurays with makemkv).

 

[Izerous]

Double check Plex transcoding on AMD iGPU. Last I check, it doesn't work that well with AMD GPU period. If you don't need transcoding, then the CPU you listed works fine. I would avoid ASRock if possible as their stuff tend to be lower quality but make sure whatever brand you pick supports ECC memory.

JellyFin even goes as far in their setup documentation to suggest choosing anything over AMD especially an AMD iGPU. I suspect plex has similar suggestions.

Hardware Selection | Jellyfin

This page covers what you need to know in order to select appropriate hardware for a Jellyfin server and take full advantage of its features (e. g. hardware acceleration).

jellyfin.org

Apple ≥ Intel ≥ Nvidia >>> AMD*

* This only represents the default Jellyfin settings. The quality may be different depending on your exact configuration.

AMD is NOT recommended if you plan to use integrated graphics for Jellyfin.