Yeah, you’re right, I thought RAIDZ1 was ZFS’ RAID1 implementation (🤦‍♂️), while it’s actually called mirror. I’ll just do a mirror.

Thank you, really! Congrats for your setup, seems awesome! Yeah, splitting the computing and the storing parts is an interesting option I may not have considered enough. What I don’t like about mini PCs (if you mean refurbished) is that they’re tipically from 2015-2018 so I’m afraid a part will break in <4 years. New mini pcs are an interesting option though.

I started with a Synology NAS. I don’t know about your specific NAS, but NAS hardware can be underpowered

Yeah I noticed that too, but the ugreen has great specs from my understanding. N100 cpu seems to be enough for Immich (so I guess for pretty much anything that doesn’t imply heavy AI usage), and it ships with 8GB of RAM so not so little to begin with.

I was tending towards this system because it would serve as both a server and a NAS, while if I had to buy both a nas and a mini pc I’d have to spend like 100-150 for a mini pc with enough computing power and at least 200 for the nas, so we’re still in the same range, but the power consumption and practicality of such system looks a bit worse. Also, I’m afraid having data in a network device can bottleneck performance.

DMed for the beginner resources! Thanks! :)

Alright, as others have said, ZFS tends to use as much ram as it’s available, so it might also be because of that. If you want to expand on the

I wouldn’t say performance is great

I’m all ears!!

Hmm, you might be right, but if you’re talking about piracy then no, it’s ok if I don’t have much space for it. I know the piracy community is awesome and I don’t have anything against who decides to pirate, but it’s just not for me, thanks for the warning nevertheless!

About the ZFS waste: yes, it’s definitely a waste, but I’m going to store there critical data I don’t want to lose (mainly pictures and documents). I can’t spend too much right now because I’m still a student and 4 bay systems cost at least 200 more for the same specs, while a more open, custom build has other implications that would be more difficult to control (noise, space, power consumption, heat). I know I’m kind of locking myself in this system, though, but I really think 4TB will be enough, my calculation is this: all the pics+vids I have are <40GB rn. All important files I store are <60GB. That totals 100 GB. Let’s say I collect that many GBs every year (strong assumption): I won’t fill 4 TB in 10 years. If my GF wants to use Immich, maybe she’ll store more pictures, but I doubt it will be more than 100GB/years. But let’s be pessimistic: she uploads 200GB/year. Then it would still take more than 10 years for me & my gf to fill 4TB.

And in case I desperately need more space I can always use both drives and have more backups in the cloud. Or I can buy a DAS and connect it to the ugreen.

Really appreciate your input anyway, it’s precious to me :) Let me know if you think I’m making mistakes !!

Yes, of course 321 all the way! I was thinking 3 copies: two in RAID, one in B2 or Hetzner. Also I could keep daily ZFS snapshots for 1 month in case I mess up something. I know, it’s a bit of a waste but for me it’s ok since what I waste is definitely cheaper than buying a 4 bay or making a custom build. An alternative would be using two different clouds for backups and using both HDDs for space.

Nice idea, a used pc, but I’m concerned that something could fail in <4 years if the machine is too old, used office pc those are tipically from 2015-2018, so they’re already 7 years old in the best case.

Thanks for the benchmark! I think 16 GB will be more enough for me then, I don’t plan on using jellyfin, only transcoding would be immich but again it’s ok if these task are slow.

Makes sense. Once I understand how much RAM I really need and what build I’m gonna go with, I’ll hurry up to get my hands on a RAM. Thanks :)

Thank you! Really appreciate your input. I could sacrifice Nexcloud if it’s too resource hungry actually. And good to know about ZFS having low RAM impact in my case. If you say 8gb could be enough, in case I go with the dxp2800, I could try keeping the stock 8gb and upgrading only if necessary and when I find a good offer.

I really feel your point about the diy pc, what worries me is the price (I can get the dxp2800 for about 300 including 8gb of ram, hardly beatable by a custom build with new hardware) and then there’s also noise, space, power consumption, heat that must be taken into account. It’s a bit overwhelming and I think I would mess up. But yes, it’s true that if something breaks in the ugreen I’ll have to replace everything.

You’re right, I should have done more research

Got it. I’ll go with mirror then. Thx

That’s actually fire, do you mean that you shouldn’t add anything more services (ram is full) or that you shouldn’t add any more ram? Anyways sounds good, I won’t be using the arr stack probably so adding a few more services won’t hurt I guess…. Is performance great? Is it responsive?

That’s great! What software do you use it for? How does it perform?

Sorry, I meant RAIDZ1 (which is the same as mirror I think?) I’ll edit the post. Anyways, Yes, I did my research and I can run TrueNAS; I plan to buy a 128gb m2 ssd for the boot device.

Ok, so I need plenty of RAM. Do you have an idea of what the impact of something like 16 vs 32 gb of ram would be? Sluggish performance on apps would be a problem for me, but I can accept if tasks take longer.

Got it about the CPU. I have been wondering about that too. But I heard people running immich on worse CPUs and they say the only problem is that initial ML tasks take longer (couple of days tipically), but once they’re done you’re good.

Do you have another build to suggest in the same/slightly higher price range that you think would better suit my needs?

tysm

Thank you! Noted.

I have been waiting for the black friday hoping to find a good deal, anyway I plan to buy in by december, but I found a 16GB RAM for a good price that’s tempting me, although it may not be enough. I head that RAM prices are currently very high, so maybe wouldn’t it be better to wait for a better price?

No, that’s the difference between Open Source Software and Free Software