AMD Ryzen build for casual home usage

[Imslow]

Dears,
after a few years using a Synology DS214+ NAS, I though it was about time to build a more reliable and more versatile NAS solution.
The rationale of the FreeNAS build is to (i) keep my precious pictures away from damage, (ii) future proof (5+years), (iii) cost and (iii) occasionally transcode 1080p movies on the lounge TV (Plex?).
Bearing in mind that I live in South-Kr. and following some of the guidelines and experiences from the forum,
I was starting collecting parts from the local equivalent of Amazon.
Would you please be kind enough to let me know if this build is consistent?

_ CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500X (6 cores), 185USD,
_ Motherboard: ASRock X570M PRO4 (Intel I211AT LAN), 255USD,
_ RAM: Samsung DDR4 32Gb PC4-19200 EE/REG 2400MHz, 120USD,

Disk pool:
_ RAID-Z2 double parity,
_ no encryption, no fancy options..., to keep it simple,
_ (3)5x4Tb HDD

Intel based configurations are less preferred, for some reasons prices are very high and could only find much lower performance hardware as follows:
_ CPU: Pentium Gold G5620 (2 cores), 122USD,
_ Motherboard: Gigabyte C246M-WU4 (Intel GbE LAN x2), 229USD,

Other existing equipment (case, powder supply, VGA...) will be re-used.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Arwen]

Unless it's a typo, using a 3 disk RAID-Z2 has the same amount of storage as a 3 disk Mirror. But, RAID-Z2 would likely be slower.

Did you really just need 4TB, (minus overhead), of usable storage?

 

[Imslow]

Dear Arwen,
thank you for the careful reading,
indeed, there was a typo.
I am intending of using 5x4Tb leading to ca. 10Tb of usable capacity.
I am currently using about 3Tb and at my rhythm of shooting RAW images and 4k videos, expect to reach 5Tb in 5 years.

As you did before, please comment if the proposed hardware and disk pool configurations make sense.
Thx, happy xmas too,

 

[andrewzah]

안녕하세요 Imslow님!
I've been using AMD for plex and a few other things, for around 3+ months. (ryzen 5 3600, asrock x570m).
One thing to keep in mind is DDR4 ram is going to be more expensive than DDR3, but the situation may be different for you.

Is something like a Xeon E5-2650 v2 out of the question?

 

[Apollo]

@Imslow , Just noticed you may be referring to Registered ECC memory. If this is the case, I beleive this is not going to work as stated my AsRock.
You need to get UDIMM ECC aka. Unbuffered ECC memory.

 

[Imslow]

@Apollo,
Thanks for catching this. I have to admit that I was not aware of the nuances in registered vs. unregistered memory ECC UDIMM types. A quick lookup on internet was enough to catch up. Here are my findings:
_ Amazon proposes three main references of unregistered ECC UDIMM,
(i) Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 ECC unbuffered CL17 DIMM 2Rx8 Desktop Memory (KVR24E17D8/16) <Link>, 155USD
(ii) Crucial Server Memory 16GB DDR4 DIMM 288-pin - 2666 MHz / PC4-21300 - CL19-1.2 V - unbuffered - ECC CT16G4WFD8266 <Link>, 100USD
(iii) Timetec Hynix IC 16GB DDR4 2400MHz PC4-19200 Unbuffered ECC 1.2V CL17 2Rx8 Dual Rank 288 Pin UDIMM <Link>, 90USD

_ Bearing in mind the differences in frequency and price, I would go for the second option: (ii) Crucial.
Would it make sense? And be compatible with the selected motherboard and hardware?
Also, would you recommend to go for 16Gb (1 stick) or 32Gb (2 sticks)?

 

[Apollo]

@Imslow ,
KVR24E17D8/16 is what I have on my Freenas box and my Desktop. On my desktop, I am overclocking the RAM from DDR2400 to DDR2866 and it is just running fine. I wouldn't suggest to do that with Freenas though.
KVR24E17D8/16 is no longer in production I think as I haven't been able to find it at my regular online store, hence the pricey tag.

In term of compatibility, it would be best to choose from the list of RAM from AsRock website corresponding to your CPU model.

It is not stated if it will work with only 1 stick populated. I think it would be safe to start with 2 sticks 16GB each. It should be more than enough for your use case and will give you the ability to add 2 more sticks in the future. This will also allow you to play with Virtualization (VM).

If you want to max out your capacity, AsRock has 32GB per stick support on their QVL page, so you can achieve 128GB total capacity.