I am trying to decide which one of these systems I will use as my TrueNAS server. I have both motherboards/CPU combos, just wanted to get some opinions as to which one is better suited for my anticipated use scenario.
First off, I'm using Scale, and I use it as media storage, primarily Plex, with some hardware transcoding. At most there are 3 users using the Plex app. I also have a few other (very minimal) apps, including wireguard, duckdns, etc. Maybe 5 apps, tops. I do have my Home Assistant running in a VM, and it's a rather large instance, with about 150 devices, combination zwave/zigbee, and several docker containers which are primarily within the VM for Home Assistant to use. I've debated doing away with the VM/Home Assistant and just running HA Core Apps, it just ruins a few of the integrations so I've kept it in the VM for now. Either way, that's the extent of it.
As stated above, I have both motherboard/CPU combos, so it's not an added expense.
Option 1:
Intel Xeon E-2286G
Gigabyte C246-WU4
128 GB ECC ram
LSI PCIe SAS adapter
Solarflare SFP+ using 10Gbe fiber
3 WD HC550 18TB drives in Raidz1
2 Crucial P3 Plus 2TB NVME drives (apps and vm)
2 WD Red 500GB SSD (Truenas OS mirror)
Option 2:
Ryzen 3950x
Gigabyte Aorus Master
128 GB ECC ram
EVGA Nvidia 3060 12gb (for transcoding)
LSI PCIe SAS adapter
Solarflare SFP+ using 10Gbe fiber
3 WD HC550 18TB drives in Raidz1
2 Crucial P3 Plus 2TB NVME drives (apps and vm)
2 WD Red 500GB SSD (Truenas OS mirror)
I've been on a kick lately on trying to get the power consumption down, and I believe the Xeon is able to get to a higher C state than the Ryzen (I think Ryzen just gets to C1). Obviously the Ryzen is a much more powerful CPU for multi-core, but do I really need it for my use scenario? The Xeon is better for single core performance.
The Ryzen also has PCIe 4.0, so the NVMEs run at full speed. The Xeon C246 motherboard is PCIe 3.0 so it does run them slightly slower, just don't know if it makes that much of a perceived difference from the 4.0 speeds for my use scenario.
Also, the Xeon has built in Intel graphics and quicksync for transcoding, which I can use for Plex, and take out the 3060, to further reduce some power.
So, can either of the CPUs run my intended apps/vm without any lag, etc?
If so, should I go with the Xeon for power consumption?
Yes, I probably should just swap them out and see, but any recommendations would be appreciated...
First off, I'm using Scale, and I use it as media storage, primarily Plex, with some hardware transcoding. At most there are 3 users using the Plex app. I also have a few other (very minimal) apps, including wireguard, duckdns, etc. Maybe 5 apps, tops. I do have my Home Assistant running in a VM, and it's a rather large instance, with about 150 devices, combination zwave/zigbee, and several docker containers which are primarily within the VM for Home Assistant to use. I've debated doing away with the VM/Home Assistant and just running HA Core Apps, it just ruins a few of the integrations so I've kept it in the VM for now. Either way, that's the extent of it.
As stated above, I have both motherboard/CPU combos, so it's not an added expense.
Option 1:
Intel Xeon E-2286G
Gigabyte C246-WU4
128 GB ECC ram
LSI PCIe SAS adapter
Solarflare SFP+ using 10Gbe fiber
3 WD HC550 18TB drives in Raidz1
2 Crucial P3 Plus 2TB NVME drives (apps and vm)
2 WD Red 500GB SSD (Truenas OS mirror)
Option 2:
Ryzen 3950x
Gigabyte Aorus Master
128 GB ECC ram
EVGA Nvidia 3060 12gb (for transcoding)
LSI PCIe SAS adapter
Solarflare SFP+ using 10Gbe fiber
3 WD HC550 18TB drives in Raidz1
2 Crucial P3 Plus 2TB NVME drives (apps and vm)
2 WD Red 500GB SSD (Truenas OS mirror)
I've been on a kick lately on trying to get the power consumption down, and I believe the Xeon is able to get to a higher C state than the Ryzen (I think Ryzen just gets to C1). Obviously the Ryzen is a much more powerful CPU for multi-core, but do I really need it for my use scenario? The Xeon is better for single core performance.
The Ryzen also has PCIe 4.0, so the NVMEs run at full speed. The Xeon C246 motherboard is PCIe 3.0 so it does run them slightly slower, just don't know if it makes that much of a perceived difference from the 4.0 speeds for my use scenario.
Also, the Xeon has built in Intel graphics and quicksync for transcoding, which I can use for Plex, and take out the 3060, to further reduce some power.
So, can either of the CPUs run my intended apps/vm without any lag, etc?
If so, should I go with the Xeon for power consumption?
Yes, I probably should just swap them out and see, but any recommendations would be appreciated...
