AM4 Trial And Error

[authoranderton]

Alright, so, this isn’t a question or a request for help. This is me offering a log of my experience building my first NAS because a LOT of this trial and error could have been avoided if someone else had posted about some of these components for me to find.

First Attempt: I decided to build a NAS because I had a spare Asus Strix B550-I and nothing to build on it. Having suffered prior data losses due to faulty Windows updates in the past, a NAS sounded like a good idea to build using some spare parts and the extra board. So, doing a quick search and finding no one else who’d had any experience with this board and TrueNAS Core, I took the plunge. I purchased a couple of m.2 SSDs to use as storage and a SATA 2.5” SSD for the OS, slapped it all with an affordable Athlon 220GE into an InWin B1 case and installed TrueNAS. No IP address popped up. Further digging and experimentation led me to the conclusion that TrueNAS Core wasn’t getting along with the on-board Ethernet of the Strix B550-I. Being fairly inexperienced and illiterate to the NAS world, I didn’t think about an Intel PCIe add-in card and the B1 didn’t have a slot for one, anyway. So, I went up a size.

Second Attempt: I bought a mATX Raijintek Styx case and a MSI B550M Pro, still no Ethernet compatibility. Then I discovered the add-in card idea. Picked up a Gigabit Intel NIC and slapped it in the PCIe slot. Got an IP address but now the SATA ports and two of the rear USB ports weren’t being recognized by the BIOS. I angrily returned the board to Amazon due to the dead ports (I’d later realize this wasn’t the case with the SATA ports but the USBs were absolutely dead on arrival).

Third Attempt: replaced the MSI board with an Asus Tuf B450M Pro. Still using the add-in card, all was well. Populated an IP address, got into TrueNAS via browser, but now my second m.2 was missing from my storage list. Rebooted the NAS with the case open and saw the dreaded red light on the m.2 drive. Returned the drive to Amazon for a replacement. Again, the red light. Moved Drive 1 that was working in the first slot to the second, drive died. The board was killing the drives somehow.

Fourth Attempt: fed up with the board issues and not liking the bulky Raijintek Styx case, I switched back to itx and bought an Asrock B550i Phantom Gaming board. Got into the BIOS just fine but couldn’t see ANY of the drives. Found out this particular board was not compatible with Athlon processors, despite recognizing them. My fault for not doing the research on compatibility ahead of buying the board. So, as a test, I pulled my Ryzen 5700G out of my streaming rig and popped it into the Asrock board. Worked like a charm. All drives showed up in the BIOS. I now realize the MSI B550 was probably not getting along with the Athlon, also, causing it to not see the SATA drives as those answer to the CPU and not directly to BIOS. Curious, I tried the on-board Ethernet and, despite being the same controller as the Asus and MSI boards that didn’t work, the Asrock board worked with TrueNAS and gave me an IP address. Ordered a 5600G with the money from returning the Athlon CPU and the Intel NIC, now I’m up and running with on-board 2.5g Ethernet and no issues.

There aren’t a lot of forum entries for these consumer boards which is why I fumbled around so much. Even those I could find that mentioned the boards didn’t offer clear answers as to whether they eventually got them up and running.

So, here is the final build list confirmed to be working with no hitches:

Case: Silverstone CS01-HS Black
Motherboard: Asrock B550i Phantom Gaming ITX
CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G
RAM: TeamGroup T-Force 16GB 3200mhz C16 DDR4 non-ECC (I’m only doing file storage so ECC not necessary here)
PSU: Lian Li SP750
Storage: 2x TeamGroup MP33 Pro 1TB NVME SSD (chosen for high TBW rating and price) - Mirrored
1x TeamGroup AX2 1TB SATA SSD - single drive for sandboxed document storage
Boot Drive: 500Gb WD Red SATA SSD

I went with m.2 for storage rather than boot because I wanted the high transfer speeds for the bulkier files I’ll be storing. The AX2 SATA will be holding small docs and personal files like tax records and intellectual property, so speed was less important there. I put the OS on the WD Red because it’s a NAS drive rated for 24-hour use and I figured that was most important for TrueNAS whereas the storage drives wouldn’t always be active unless I’m transferring or browsing them.

All of this without populating any of the hot-swap bays of the case allowing for future storage expansion.

I’m sure I’ll catch some shade for not researching and for most of my component choices, but I chose based on my budget and my own particular use case. I don’t need crazy high capacity NAS drives or to shell out $400 on an Asrock Rack board. I’m not running Plex, Unraid, or anything complicated. No virtualization needs, no live media editing, and no other needs beyond simple file storage for extra backups. I wanted simple, consumer-level components that would just work. It took a lot of trial and error to find a combination of components that worked, but I’m more than content with what I ended up with.

Anyway, hopefully someone else out there is researching an AM4 TrueNAS build and comes across my post so I can save them all the headaches I endured here.

 

[jgreco]

I’m sure I’ll catch some shade

<shade></>

for not researching

Oh?

all the headaches I endured here.

All those headaches you endured? That's called researching. The hard kind. Via experimentation.

Look, at the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with that, if it suits you and you can afford it. Most of the time what we're trying to do with pushing people in certain directions is optimizing for a good outcome without going through four iterations. Your detailed write-up may allow someone else to learn from your ... less successful attempts. Better yet, you understand the value of doing this. This is indeed helpful to others, so thank you.

Enjoy your NAS!

 

[Etorix]

I’m sure I’ll catch some shade for not researching and for most of my component choices,

As said, you did research. In accordance with the old adage: "Six months in the lab can spare you six hours in the library."

Your final setup looks over-specced and overpriced for just serving files (current generation board and CPU, 750W PSU for 3 SSDs, hot-swap 2.5" bays… with M.2 main storage), so maybe a previous generation AsRockRack X470D4U (currently retails for 280 E around here, so not spending $400) with a Ryzen 3000 from the support list would have saved you time, and quite possibly money—but admittedly not in the mini-ITX case you picked.

Thanks anyway for the write-up, though I think it may rather serve as a warning that making a NAS out of some unused components that were just laying around is generally a one-way ticket into the rabbit hole.

 

[Arwen]

One note, people sometimes don't equate time with money. That's fine if they have enough time.

Others don't have the time, and get frustrated with an initial build that does not work as they thought it should. So, their are times to spend money and save time. Either because the person does not have as much time. Or they have the money to get closer to functional NAS the first time around.