ASROCK ECC Yes or No?

[Andaluz]

Hi everyone,

i was checking on how to build a simple Freenas and came across following:

CPU: Intel Celeron G4920 supports ECC
https://ark.intel.com/products/129950/Intel-Celeron-G4920-Processor-2M-Cache-3_20-GHz

Mainboard: ASRock H110M-DGS R3.0
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H110M-DGS R3.0/?cat=Specifications

Reading the specifications i was very happy to read on the sellers site that this board supports ECC which would make it perfect for a budget build, BUT reading on the ASRock site it says "Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)"

Does this now mean you can put ECC on the board and it will work but without really beeing ECC?
This sounds weird for me? Any help is appreciated.

regards,
Andaluz

 

[Johnnie Black]

Does this now mean you can put ECC on the board and it will work but without really beeing ECC?

Correct, you usually need a server chipset for ECC support, for that CPU it would be C232/6, but difficult (impossible?) to find budget boards based on these.

 

[Chris Moore]

Does this now mean you can put ECC on the board and it will work but without really beeing ECC?
This sounds weird for me? Any help is appreciated.

What kind of budget are you shooting for? You might come out much better off with used gear.

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. You might want to look at this forum post where I detail the hardware that you could use for a low cost build:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/first-freenas-server.69125/#post-475744

 

[Andaluz]

Thanks so much for the answers!
This ECC would have been to good to be true.

@Chris Moore
Really nice thread. I read everything and tried to find something similar here in Europe (Germany) without luck.

I think i will go with a normal pentium as mentioned above and a non ECC RAM etc. As the system will be for playing around and testing and beeing backup of the backup i hope it will do the trick.

As most boards in this price range only have 4 SATA ports i would need an expansion SATA card. Are all compatible with freenas or are there some which are recommended?
Please no cards which cost more than the CPU and Board together ;-)

thanks,
Jose

 

[Chris Moore]

As most boards in this price range only have 4 SATA ports i would need an expansion SATA card. Are all compatible with freenas or are there some which are recommended?
Please no cards which cost more than the CPU and Board together ;-)

I don't know how much the other components cost, but if you need more connectivity for drives, the best option is to add a SAS controller because they will work to run SATA drives and with the correct assortment of adapters, you can connect 256 drives to a single SAS controller.
This is the kind I use:
HP H220 6Gbps SAS PCIe 3.0 HBA LSI-9207-8i P20 IT-Mode for ZFS FreeNAS- - US $69.55
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162862201664

You will also need a set of cables to go with that:
Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

Now, the card does not need to be the HP version, several OEMs like Dell, IBM and HP produce cards that are virtually identical. The feature that is important is the "LSI-9207-8i" part and the firmware "P20 IT-Mode". These cards may be available for less with the OEM firmware still installed, but this one has had the LSI firmware programmed. You can reprogram the firmware yourself, just watch out for cards like this that have the 'low profile' bracket:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS-92...-Bus-Adapter-LSI00301-SAS9207-8i/323250646911