Hi Guys

First real post here.

I'm mapping out a first build and a first Linux server for my home office and it's about damn time. I'm planning to use CentOS 7, Samba, and Plex Media Server. Hopefully you can share some tips and advice with hardware. I do have a networking friend who can help with the OS and software setup, but he's not sure about hardware compatibility.

Primarily this will be a local file/ftp server for backing up my graphics, video, and audio projects from Windows and Mac machines and to stream movies and music to VLC. I'm hoping since I use VLC I can skip the transcode step since it plays all this stuff natively and not need a beast of a processor in the server.

For a processor I was thinking of an Intel Core i3-8100. It's cheap, has 4 cores, and isn't ancient. I'm not finding many motherboards that are known to work well with this cpu AND support Registered ECC RAM, CentOS 7 and have onboard video. My searches might just suck though as I'm new to all of this. Yes, I want ECC so you don't have to try to talk me out of it.

I'd like the motherboard to have at least 1 x 1000BASE-T ethernet port, but preferably 2 of them and USB3 headers. If that's not possible I can get a PCI card for it. No point in 10Gb since I don't have the funds for tons of drives to take advantage of the speed. I read Cat6 cables work with both so I can buy those to future-proof. I was reading up about Link Aggregation using a managed switch so I can try to maximize the transfer speeds using 2 ports on each machine.

I have no need for a RAID currently as a new workstation is going to eat up most of my funds, so I will just be running the server as a NAS in JBOD with a 256GB Samsung SSD boot and 5 x WD Red Pros of various sizes for storage (20-30TB total). I would like a suggestion from anyone who has a similar setup as to a good PCI RAID controller card, because I do want to expand it in the future. LSI seemed to be recommended in general around the web—their 8-port SAS/SATA cards.

For RAM I'd like to start with 8-16GB of Registered ECC (depending on what's recommended). Seems to be slim pickings for an i3 setup but there was one or two options on the web. All depends on the motherboard.

If there are no good solutions for an i3-8100 cpu, I was also looking at a slightly more expensive build using an Asus P10S WS motherboard and a Xeon E3-1225 V6 3.3GHz Quad-Core. Might be overkill, might not, I have no idea. I just saw people saying they had CentOS7 running on that board and it supports ECC as does the cpu.

Thunderbolt 3 would be nice if it works. Even one port incase I need to quickly offload a backup onto an external drive for a client. Not mission critical and I can use USB3 if needed. Curious if you guys have gotten the Asus or Gigabyte cards to work in CentOS 7.

Backups I can handle with Carbon Copy Cloner on the Mac as I've used it for years and AOMEI Backupper Professional on the Windows side looks pretty good.

As for cost I'd like to keep the build between $700-$800 not including the cost of the drives if I can. Most of my funds have to go to a new workstation and some external hardware that I cannot do without. I'll probably grab a KVM switch (price not included above) so I don't need a separate monitor and keyboard for the server. I saw some people using FreeNas to access the server using a browser, but haven't read up on it yet. My friend will advise on that part.

I'm not dead set on any of the hardware so feel free to make suggestions. I'll be happy to post images (and maybe video) of the build once it comes time. I have really good camera gear so I can make it look nice and slutty for you

Thanks and hope you can help.

I can't really help much. But at least you seem to understand the basics pretty well. The ecc ram requirement severely limits your options, especially using core processors, almost none of which are ecc compatible. Your application in no way suggests ecc memory would be of any advantage.

Core i3 is probably not going to be acceptable to you, especially if you run more than 2 applications at the same time.

Also, you might consider shopping on eBay, where you can get the equipment at about 1/2 the cost.

I prefer the ECC to reduce the chance of errors when transferring large projects and for a touch of peace of mind. I'll be backing up important project files, both for clients and my personal stuff. Anything to reduce problems is worth the extra cost for me.

I do agree, there's not much at all. I think only the i3 has ECC support. That's why I was looking at the cheaper end server processors as an alternative. I guess I'll stay on that path for now.

I definitely will check Ebay. Just trying to figure out what will work best for this.

Thanks for the reply.

OK, you might want to wait a few months until Intel releases the server-board chipsets. When that occurs, there will be a lot more socket 1151 boards with ecc support.

I don't think you will have much trouble with that build. While Centos is geared to server hardware it won't be too much trouble usually getting Intel products to work. Intel has had great linux support over the years.
If you really do want server level DDR4 ECC Udim that stand by for the cost. It is way high and no sign in site of getting lower.

I couldn't guess the ability of common day ram to compete with server ram in terms of errors.