New build feedback - first time homelab

[ccsimmons]

I donated an old PC I had, and needed to keep some data. What started with me looking at some NAS systems turned into "Why not just build a server"

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9JvJ4M

There are a lot of drives here. I wanted to fill up a motherboard. Capped the ram because I can. I'm mindful of budget but it's not the main concern. This is for fun, learning, labbing, and storing.

I guess the feedback I'm looking for is:

• if there's anything that stands out that I should change
• Should I add a video card / integrated graphics chip
• how efficient my budget is - trying to stay under $2k
• Any obvious upgrades?
• uses for PCIE slots?

As for what my plans are for this:

• I want to obviously have at least one file server with mirrored HDD.
• Probably build a media server (I assume this is where I want some graphics)
• Set up a windows domain lab - something I've wanted for awhile, I've been an IT pro for >10 years and never had a real 0 consequences lab
• plenty of room to run as many linux servers as I can think of.

​

 

[louie1961]

Your chosen board has 4 m.2 slots but you only specified 3 NVMe drives? I would probably select something other than 1TB NVMe and SSD drives. I would put the operating system on a pair of 128 or 256 gb SSDs (or NVMe drives, but Proxmox won't benefit from the OS being on an NVMe) in a mirror. I would put the VMs in a pair of 2 or 4 TB NVMe drives, also in a mirror. I probably wouldn't fill all of the NVMe slots, just because you don't really need to. I would also probably go with 4 of the Exos drives and set them up in RaidZ1 or RaidZ2

Of course someone will come along and tell the world will end if you use consumer grade drives in your setup, and that you should only use enterprise SSDs. Some folks have experienced really fast drive wearout with consumer drives. That hasn't been my experience so far, but it could be because I don't run in a cluster, or the mix of workloads I run, I am not sure.

 

[ccsimmons]

Your chosen board has 4 m.2 slots but you only specified 3 NVMe drives? I would probably select something other than 1TB NVMe and SSD drives. I would put the operating system on a pair of 128 or 256 gb SSDs (or NVMe drives, but Proxmox won't benefit from the OS being on an NVMe) in a mirror. I would put the VMs in a pair of 2 or 4 TB NVMe drives, also in a mirror. I probably wouldn't fill all of the NVMe slots, just because you don't really need to. I would also probably go with 4 of the Exos drives and set them up in RaidZ1 or RaidZ2

Of course someone will come along and tell the world will end if you use consumer grade drives in your setup, and that you should only use enterprise SSDs. Some folks have experienced really fast drive wearout with consumer drives. That hasn't been my experience so far, but it could be because I don't run in a cluster, or the mix of workloads I run, I am not sure.

There's a 4th nvme - the little 128gb patriot. I was going to run the OS on it, but I like your idea of mirroring 2 smaller ones for the OS.