Server

We’ve been hobbling along with a Mac Mini as our PleX server for the past few years. I’m becoming quite a data hoarder and the poor Mini can’t keep up with my appetite so it was time to move to something a little more serious. I built JDM_WAAAT’s “Thread-Runner” config and hope to migrate my data this weekend.

My config and cost:

ComponentDescriptionUsed /NewCost
CasePhanteks Enthoo ProNew$80
MotherboardS2600CP Intel LGA2011Used$140
Processors2x Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650Used$105
CPU Coolers2x Arctic Alpine 20New$37.50
RAM32 GB DDR3Used$62
SSDSanDisk Ultra IIUsed$0
HDDs4x 2TB WD RE Enterprise HDDsUsed$160
PSUEVGA - 80 PLUS 600W ATXNew$35
CablesSATA Cables & PSU SplitterNew$16.50
Case Fans5x Arctic F12New$25
Operating SystemLinux Mint$0
Total$661

As you can see, a lot of the major components were purchased used which I sourced primarily via eBay. There’s a lot of power (16 cores / 32 threads) and a bit of storage (9TB). It’s quite a build at a very reasonable cost. Assembly was easy. The Phentoo case is amazing. I really like the HDD cages (no screws required) and the cable management behind the motherboard. I encountered two minor hiccups and was able to resolve them quickly. The machine was booting to EFI and required disabling in BIOS to boot to USB and the NIC was not enabled, also resolved with a quick BIOS switch.

I’ll be running it headless and administering via Muximux and running PleX, SABnzbd+, Sonarr, and Radarr. I’m going to cheat and use AtoMic Toolkit to get it all done. The SSD will host the OS and metadata/thumbnails for speed and I’ll throw the data to the HDDs. The Western Digital HDDs are enterprise/data center certified and rated 1.2 million hours MTBF. Impressive!

After migrating data, I’ll be backing up using Duplicati to my unlimited Google Drive.

I’m really interested to see what else I do with this box. It should be all we need for several years (save for a few more HDDs)!

MISC

– I got a new iPhone 6. Usually I opt for the least expensive model but, as I may not be renewing my Spotify (which has been free since Feb 2013 [Thanks, Sprite!]), I am likely going to be using iTunes again and opted for a 128GB to accommodate my massive music library. I was working on a lady’s computer the other day and she was missing some songs in iTunes. I asked her how many tracks she had and she said, “A lot! I had a huge Library. Like 500 songs!” My current Library, which has not grown much since I started using Spotify:

iTunes

– I watched Amazon’s Transparent. Have you? It’s already been renewed for a second season and Jeffrey Tambor gave a great interview about his character. I watched Transparent. Have you?

mousearsWe head to Disney World in 19 days, 20 hours, and 10 minutes for our last trip of the year. We’re staying on property and secured 4-day park hopper passes. We’re hitting all of the parks and having FastPass lunch at Be Our Guest on Halloween. We also secured reservations for Parisian Breakfast at Chefs de France during EPCOT’s Food and Wine festival. I’m also looking forward to shopping at Memento Mori, the new Haunted Mansion gift shop in Magic Kingdom. Also, I cannot wait to hit up Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney for a Full Montagu.

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