Compact NVME NAS ! GMKtec G9 Mini PC / NVME NAS Review

Can you please do video on best 10 gbps ethernet and thunderbolt 5 mini pc?

I would personally run TrueNAS on that device

Still rocking the original Nvidia Shield Pro as my Plex server, few years ago I did replace the spinning disk with a SSD. Storage wise I have an old Synology DS418 with 4 20TB drives, recently upgraded from 4 8TB Drives. I do have a secondary Plex Server for transcoding media on the GMKTec K8 Plus I won at the WhatNot auction. It might be time to retire the Nvidia Shield Pro but it's been a tank and doesn't miss a beat! I've been eyeing the Synology 923+ but the new UGreen DXP4800 is also a contender.

So how hot do the SSDs get? I don't understand why GMKtek doesn't see the need to cool the top of the system board. I added a Transcend 512GB M.2 SATA drive to my G3 (N100) and SSD Scope, the supporting utility from GMKtec, reports temps exceeding 70C in just 15 minutes of running the PLEX client to watch the evening news. I added a heat sink to the SATA drive and still had to leave the top of the case off to achieve barely acceptable temps.

G3 is an amazing device, I even enjoy Windows on it, which got update to 24H2 just a day before.

I see you have your system share/system data on your array, you actually want that on your cache as well. Anytime you need to interact with your dockers(updates, installs etc) it would have to spin up one of your HDDs. You have to stop the docker in settings and delete everything in that folder/share. set the share to cache only and then start back up the docker and under apps previous apps reinstall your dockers.

love the channel!

I have a GMKtec G3 with an Intel N100 processor running the latest version of Linux Mint. I configured it as a Channels DVR server with a Seagate 6TB external HDD as the storage for my recordings. I'm also looking at Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin to store the rips of my film collection. I'd like to backup my storage so that if one drive goes down, I can easily replace it. Does it make sense to store all my recordings and rips on NVMe or should I use a hybrid of NVMe and HDD? Having the OS on an NVMe definitely makes sense from a performance standpoint. I'm just not that knowledgeable when it comes to mass storage.

From a long time Unraid user I have a suggestion. Replace the 500Gb SSD with a 1Tb SSD to match your 3 existing SSDs. Next recreate the cache pool using all 4 1Tb SSDs. Use ZFS and create a RAIDZ1 pool. This will give you 3Tb of usable space and parity protection (which you don't currently have). Unraid by default places the system, appdata, and domains shares on the cache pool. I recommend you do too. Leave these 3 shares on cache (i.e. don't use Mover to move them to spinning disks). Of course you'll need to move some files around since you already have those shares on spinning disks.

Also be sure to install and use the Appdata Backup plugin. This will backup your appdata files, and some other files, to another share (AppdataBackup) on the server. Take the extra step to move/copy this backup to another server/computer. Rebuilding all that Plex metadata can be a real pain.

Reach out if you need help.

I've got the PR4100 and I'm looking for an upgrade too. Probably not going to ever buy another pre built NAS though.

I bought the GMKtec Mini PC G3 to use as my Plex server. (after watching Lon's video) It's been great. I did add a usb powered fan as stand. I found the G3's fan to be a bit loud. The G9 is all ready on my toy list. Thanks Lon!

Does anyone know if those M.2 to SATA adapters work to add HDDs on this? If so then could I do that with all 4 M.2 slots?

I heard it's possible to install TrueNAS scale on integrated 64gb eMMC of the G9 but requires some fiddeling.
I would be very interrested to watch this on a video!

I never know what’s a good price to performance value for external drive cages. I want to use my NAS for backups but just reusing an intel 9th gen motherboard headless.

About 3 years ago I chose unraid and very satisfied. It is highly reliable. My uptime is at least 99%. Unraid is powerful targeting hobbyists\professionals with decent IT skills. It is not for those who want mass raid storage that works right out of the box and problems are easily solved. When Unraid does fail, such as HDD failure, then you need you need the tech skills to trouble shoot the problem.

I have one of the mini pc's, a Beelink SER4, I was using a RPI4 with Open Media Vault but decided to try CASAOS. I find it much easier to install docker apps as I struggled with docker on OMV. It's run like a champ so far and I've yet to tax the system. I have Plex, Crafty (A Minecraft server utility), Audiobookshelf set up on it and will be moving Home Assistant to it, freeing up another Pi4. It has 116 apps available so far, all the usual suspects.

I wonder how viable Storage Spaces would be as a RAID alternative in Windows.
I've done that with an old PC hosting Plex.

Thanks for the great content as always. I would love to see the wave enclosure paired with an older Mac mini (intel or M1) to see how well it runs Plex and other server apps.

Lon, you seem to be always on my wavelength and several steps ahead of my planning, and that's why I'm always happy to be a Patreon!!. I've had a QNAP NAS running Plex and HDHomerun for about as long as your WD having followed your early videos for setup, and I'm running into similar issues with performance and scalability. I'd been researching unRAID and was elated to see your first video, and now I'm happier to see you putting some pieces together that I've been thinking about. You answered a lot of the questions I've had about parity, storage and cache with this video, and I'm thinking that this collection of hardware might be a good first shot project...kind of like you! So, thanks for keeping my wheels spinning!! Now, if we can only get you hooked on Home Assistant??? LOL ~Frank

I've been looking for a future replacement for my QNAP server. This looks promising. Thanks!

Will you be on stream today?

Does anyone know if Windows has decent support for the gpu? I'm asking because I think this might make for a decent BlueIris server.

Oh, so promising but shoot so much fail on the non upgradeable RAM! bummer.

Was u able to install TrueNas or Proxmox on the emmc?
My one stop while installation; only at NVME worked

You should not use NVME in the array within unraid. It's fine to use them in pools. has to do with how unraid handles parity and drive wear. Unraid themselves advise this

doing parity through usb does it cause any problem?
i notice torrenting through usb will corrupt my hard disk as too much data and errors bombed those usb

Nvidia shield pro gave out on me 😢. Thanks for the new ideas

It is recommended to remove your SSDs from the array, unRAID recomends to not use SSDs in the array, because it makes TRIM not work. You can use them as a pool device even with redundancy like btrfs raid1