Building Asgard: My Plex-Serving, Future-Proofed, Middle-Finger-to-Synology Backup Beast

Welcome to the story of Asgard, my over-engineered, Plex-serving box of glory—built not to replace my main server (Valhalla), but to mirror it with style, sarcasm, and SATA saturation. This isn’t just a backup server. This is a digital bunker—quiet, expandable, and ready to swoop in if the main server gets hit by a power surge, disk failure, or an unfortunate case of "human error at 2 a.m."

If you’ve ever looked at a Synology NAS and thought, "Why does this toaster cost more than a gaming rig and offer the performance of a 2013 Chromebook?"—then buckle in.

✨ The Situation

Valhalla is my main Unraid server. It handles Usenet downloads, Plex serving, Docker shenanigans, and anything else I decide to throw at it after too much caffeine. But one server isn’t enough when your friends and family treat your Plex like it’s the second coming of cable.

So, I'm building Asgard—a fully independent media server clone that syncs with Valhalla and is ready to go full-throttle if needed. It’s wired into my UniFi-powered home network with a 2 gigabit upload pipe, and it’s built like a fortress—on purpose.

🔌 The Hardware (and Why It Slaps)

This entire build was pieced together with a blend of strategy, reusability, and discount-stalking worthy of a tech scavenger king. Some parts were brand new, some were recycled from my stash of digital relics, and others were plucked from Amazon and eBay with laser-focused thrift.

Here’s the breakdown:

💪 CPU: Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 235 – $257 (Amazon)

• 14 cores (6 P + 8 E), up to 5.0GHz
• Quick Sync for Plex transcoding (including AV1)
• Future-proof, efficient, and no discrete GPU required—unless I want one later

📏 Motherboard: Gigabyte Z890 EAGLE WiFi7 – $158.98 (eBay, tax + shipping included)

• 4x M.2 Gen4 slots, DDR5 support, built for growth
• Grabbed this new from eBay, which saved me a chunk over the typical retail price

🪜 RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB (2x32GB) 5200MHz CL40 – $159.99 (Amazon)

• Great balance of speed, stability, and cost
• Plenty of headroom for containers, VMs, and whatever AI sidequests I dream up

❄️ Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE V2 – $37.90 (Amazon)

• Dual towers, dual 120mm fans, and cools like a liquid system in denial
• Absolute overkill in the best possible way

📦 Case: DARKROCK Classico Max – $94.99 (Amazon)

• Holds 10x 3.5" drives and 3x 2.5" SSDs
• Comes with 4 pre-installed fans and fantastic airflow

🌀 Fan Hub: ARCTIC 10-Port PWM with SATA Power – $9.99 (Amazon)

• Centralizes fan control like a dictator with cable management skills

🚀 Cache Drives: 2x 2TB NVMe (Repurposed, $0)

• Already had them lying around
• Set up in a mirrored cache pool, leaving ~1.8TB usable for appdata, Docker, VMs
• Zero cost. Maximum efficiency

⚡ PSU: Corsair RM750x ATX 3.1, PCIe 5.1 – $119.99 (Amazon)

• Fully modular, 750W Gold-rated
• Quiet, reliable, and perfect even with future GPU plans

🔌 SATA Power Cables: 3x Zahara 6-pin to 4x SATA – $41.64 (Amazon)

• These cables power all 10 hard drives plus the fan hub with one connector to spare

🔌 HBA Card: 16-Port HBA (Already owned)

• Handles all 10 SATA drives easily from a single PCIe slot
• Leaves the main x16 slot open for future GPU expansion

📁 Drive Layout Plan

Current Drives:

• 1x 28TB (parity)
• 2x 20TB (array)

Expansion Plan:

• Add one 28TB drive every two weeks until the 10-bay case is fully populated

Total Capacity:

• Raw storage: 264TB (8x 28TB + 2x 20TB)
• Usable storage with single parity: 236TB (when fully built)
• Initial usable storage: 40TB (with 1 parity + 2 data drives)

Valhalla will continue handling downloads. Asgard will sync only the final content—movies and TV folders—using rsync with the --delete flag. This keeps it lean and reliable as a 1:1 media mirror.

⚙️ Optimization Highlights

• Drives spin down when not in use to save on heat and power
• Rsync with SSH key automation between Valhalla and Asgard (daily scheduled sync)
• Cache pool separation: appdata and VMs get the NVMe speed boost
• Fan curves managed via ARCTIC hub and motherboard PWM controls
• PSU efficiency: 80+ Gold with 650–750W draw capacity
• Expected power draw:
  • Idle: 60–85W
  • Moderate load (Plex + Docker): 130–180W
  • Full tilt (parity check + transcode + VMs): 250–300W

🚜 Compared to Synology (and Friends)

Verdict: Asgard crushes them.

• More CPU horsepower
• Real RAM capacity
• PCIe slots and fan control
• Better OS flexibility
• Less money

🌟 Final Thoughts

For $921.56 (before drives), I’ll build a quiet, future-ready, power-sipping media fortress. It was cheaper than prebuilt options, smarter than some of my past decisions, and more satisfying than explaining Plex to my uncle for the tenth time.

Asgard won’t just sit idle. It’ll be synced, armed, and ready to pick up the mantle if Valhalla drops dead in the middle of a binge-watch.

Asgard is coming. Let the build commence!

Next up: Details on the build and what I experienced on the way.

Stay tuned.