Freek Dijkstra
Cadet
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
- Messages
- 2
I'm looking for a new low-power motherboard and CPU for my 11-year old TrueNAS system. The last post with this topic seems >5 years old, and things have changed :). TL;DR:
Background and details:
My current NAS was build in 2012 and has an ASRock E350M1/USB3 motherboard with AMD E350 CPU (2 core 1.6 GHz, 18W TPD, Passmark score 730). Two SSDs for the boot drive, Two 6 TByte HDD on SATA600 for pool #1, and two 8 TByte HDD on SATA600 for pool #2. Everything mirrored for simplicity. For details, see the extensive write-up I made at the time. This was intentionally build as a low power system for two reasons, and those reasons still hold to this day:
Operational cost. Electricity now peaks at €0.40 per kWh, meaning each 1 Watt of idle power costs €3.50 per year. So reducing idle power consumption by 10 Watt saves me €175 in 5 years.
Poor airflow where the machine is located. This NAS is stored in my house, in a place with bad airflow. That's the way it is. This thing is primary for on-premise backups (I only have selective backups in the cloud, while this things is supposed to backup everything)
The system is only used for SMB access. Even for streaming, the data is fetched over SMB, and decoded on the TV set-top-box. I don't get much performance: perhaps 10 MByte/s write over the network, 30 MByte/s read. Yes, pretty bad. But still sufficient for my current needs (mostly backups in the background). `smbd` peaks at near 100% CPU, so that's seems to be the bottleneck. In the near future, I like to (partially) replace my cron job backup with a sync system, likely by installing ownCloud or nextCloud software.
So I'm looking to replace the CPU and motherboard with something slightly more up-to-date. These are my requirements:
With that in mind, I searched a well known Dutch pricewatch & tech news website, and when filtering for the above criteria (Mini-ITX, 4+ SATA, 2+ M.2 ports), I got no (zero!) result for a system with a CPU or SOC onboard. So my next step was to look for the 24 results that has a socket, wondering if a pluggable CPU would be fine too. I expect it a bit more expensive, but that is fine -- my main concern is low power at idle.
Well, when I searched for "low power" CPU that would fit in one of these sockets (Intel 1200, Intel 1700, AM4 or AM5), I was shocked. 35 Watt and even 65 Watt CPU were considered "low power" and the motherboards that came up in the results were on the expensive side -- with metal shielding on all sides. Being used to a simple motherboard for what is effectively a simple task (NAS), this felt like overkill. However, I may be wrong. I'm actually fine with a 65 Watt CPU, as long as the idle power consumption is much less (<5 Watt).
So I'm a bit at loss what to buy now. Looking at the specs, the Topton with Intel Pentium N6005 would be a real good choice. The first downside is the lack of a PCI-express slot, so the 6 SATA600 is all I can I ever get. The second downside is the lack of support. I can't even find a product page. The link in the product listing points to a Alibaba sales website. I can't even find a downloadable manual with the exact specs.
So my two questions are:
Thanks!
Freek
- Does anyone has experience with the Topton NAS Motherboard (Intel Celeron N5105 or Pentium N6005 CPU, dual M.2 NVMe, six SATA3.0, two DDR4, Mini ITX form factor)?
- For a low-power NAS, would you recommend a mother with soldered-on CPU (SOC), or a separate motherboard and CPU? Is there a significant difference in idle power consumption between the two options?
Background and details:
My current NAS was build in 2012 and has an ASRock E350M1/USB3 motherboard with AMD E350 CPU (2 core 1.6 GHz, 18W TPD, Passmark score 730). Two SSDs for the boot drive, Two 6 TByte HDD on SATA600 for pool #1, and two 8 TByte HDD on SATA600 for pool #2. Everything mirrored for simplicity. For details, see the extensive write-up I made at the time. This was intentionally build as a low power system for two reasons, and those reasons still hold to this day:
Operational cost. Electricity now peaks at €0.40 per kWh, meaning each 1 Watt of idle power costs €3.50 per year. So reducing idle power consumption by 10 Watt saves me €175 in 5 years.
Poor airflow where the machine is located. This NAS is stored in my house, in a place with bad airflow. That's the way it is. This thing is primary for on-premise backups (I only have selective backups in the cloud, while this things is supposed to backup everything)
The system is only used for SMB access. Even for streaming, the data is fetched over SMB, and decoded on the TV set-top-box. I don't get much performance: perhaps 10 MByte/s write over the network, 30 MByte/s read. Yes, pretty bad. But still sufficient for my current needs (mostly backups in the background). `smbd` peaks at near 100% CPU, so that's seems to be the bottleneck. In the near future, I like to (partially) replace my cron job backup with a sync system, likely by installing ownCloud or nextCloud software.
So I'm looking to replace the CPU and motherboard with something slightly more up-to-date. These are my requirements:
- Mini-ITX form factor for the motherboard
- At least four SATA600 connectors and two M.2 slots. Preferably two more SATA600 connectors for a total of six, but I'm happy to use the PCIe slot for a HBA card. In fact, I can re-use the HBA card I already have for four more SATA600 connectors.
- Low power at idle
- Low power while file shares are synced over the network
- GPU in the CPU (any HDMI output will do, as I use a Marmitek HDMI+USB-over-UTP extender for remote access)
- Reasonable warranty and a clear manual
- Intel Atom C3558 (16 Watt, benchmark 2417, in Mini E+, Mini X),
- Intel Atom C3758 (25 Watt, benchmark 4750, in Mini X+),
- Intel Celeron N5105 (6-10 Watt, benchmark 4069, in Topton), or
- Intel Pentium N6005 (6-10 Watt, benchmark 5409, alternative in Toptop).
With that in mind, I searched a well known Dutch pricewatch & tech news website, and when filtering for the above criteria (Mini-ITX, 4+ SATA, 2+ M.2 ports), I got no (zero!) result for a system with a CPU or SOC onboard. So my next step was to look for the 24 results that has a socket, wondering if a pluggable CPU would be fine too. I expect it a bit more expensive, but that is fine -- my main concern is low power at idle.
Well, when I searched for "low power" CPU that would fit in one of these sockets (Intel 1200, Intel 1700, AM4 or AM5), I was shocked. 35 Watt and even 65 Watt CPU were considered "low power" and the motherboards that came up in the results were on the expensive side -- with metal shielding on all sides. Being used to a simple motherboard for what is effectively a simple task (NAS), this felt like overkill. However, I may be wrong. I'm actually fine with a 65 Watt CPU, as long as the idle power consumption is much less (<5 Watt).
So I'm a bit at loss what to buy now. Looking at the specs, the Topton with Intel Pentium N6005 would be a real good choice. The first downside is the lack of a PCI-express slot, so the 6 SATA600 is all I can I ever get. The second downside is the lack of support. I can't even find a product page. The link in the product listing points to a Alibaba sales website. I can't even find a downloadable manual with the exact specs.
So my two questions are:
- Does anyone has experience with the Topton NAS Motherboard (Intel Celeron N5105 or Pentium N6005 CPU, dual M.2 NVMe, six SATA3.0, two DDR4, Mini ITX form factor)? Did you find a downloadable manual with specs (e.g. listing what memory types are supported, I may find it online, but usually this is what a manual is for).
- For a low-power NAS, would you recommend a mother with soldered-on CPU (SOC), or a separate motherboard and CPU? Is there a significant difference in idle power consumption between the two options? Do you have a specific motherboard you recommend?
Thanks!
Freek