first time building and i need help

[Mad2024]

first time building a NAS and day by day i get more confused.

here's what I'm looking fort a truenas scale:

MB requirements:

1. ECC memory ddr4
2. 8 Sata 3.0 6gb/s
3. pcie for 10gpe
4. pcie *16 for another 6 Sata expansion
5. pcie for gpu if needed
5. extra pcie will be great

case: full tower
space for 12 *3.5 hdd.

processor:

enough cores to handle some vm on truenas scale and future proof as i see scale will be the future hypervisor

tdp=100w or less
low noise as the server will be in my living room.



usage:
NAS
Home assistant
plex
ftp server
some vm

every time I decide to go with certain MB and search the threads i found guy's are having some issues with it and i end up going to square one.
i think the
Supermicro X10SRL-F Motherboard Intel C612 LGA2011-3 Xeon E5-2600 V3 V4 ECC DDR4
was gonna be a good option but after some research i found people were having problems with this MB

 

[PhilD13]

Whats wrong with the supermicro board? I have a X10DRH-CT motherboard as well as a really old Opteron board and neither gives any operational issues. Both boards were left at defaults except for the IPMI interface which I set to static address and changed the password.

The board you mentioned is a server board designed for servers and has 2 powered SATADOM connectors for your boot drive mirror, and room for plenty of ECC ram.

I would download the motherboard manual and see if the PCIe slots will actually support everything properly at the corrct speeds by reviewing both the block diagram and the specs for PCIe. Most boards from any manufacture will have some PCIe slots shared. I think people run into issues by not making sure the motherboard will actually support all the devices they intend to add at the speeds they expect the devices to run at.

 

[sfatula]

every time I decide to go with certain MB and search the threads i found guy's are having some issues with it and i end up going to square one.

Well, that's becuase every motherboard ever made has at least 1 bug/problem somewhere. So, don't let that turn you away. A motherboard has so many options and features, so many combinations so it's not surprising at all to me that someone purchases a motherboard and then finds out the hardware they want to use won't work, or it has less ports than they thought, or some lanes are shared, or, they don't enable the right features on the motherboard, or enable the wrong feature, etc. etc.

I don't know about the low noise portion... Ymmv. Drives can be noisy, fans can be noisy. And you didn't say how many drives unless I missed it, but more drives = more noise and possibly more fans which also means more noise, and then you say you might want a gpu which possibly means more fans too. I don't use and will never use a gpu, I see no need for it for most people. Yes there are quieter cases out there but then you typically lose airflow.

Oh, and definitely add a UPS that works with NUT if you don't have one already. You don't want unscheduled power losses.

 

[Etorix]

A 12-drive NAS cannot be "low noise". The 10 GbE NIC as well as possible -8i HBA each need a x8 slot. The purpose of GPU is unclear. And "enough cores" is yet to be defined.
But if you're already looking at E5 systems you'll find plenty to chose from. (Have a side look at 1st/2ng gen. Xeon Scalable and EPYC while you're at it.)

 

[sfatula]

I suppose you could use all SSD instead of hard drives.

So, my experience. I have a theater room, a nice one. It has lots of soundproofing and is *very* quiet. I had a low noise case, one of the lowest. I had quiet drives, quiet fans, and, the computer was in the equipment closet. Guess what? I could hear it. Admittedly, it's in a very quiet room but the point is, it all depends what you mean by low noise and how much ambient noise there is in the room.

I ended up running cable and moving the machine.

 

[danb35]

The 10 GbE NIC as well as possible -8i HBA each need a x8 slot.

...and don't forget power, and cooling.

enough cores to handle some vm on truenas scale and future proof as i see scale will be the future hypervisor

That's a pretty vague requirement, but any E5 will likely be fine in this regard.