Mini-ITX, 6x SATA Port Motherboard Upgrade

[lgriffo]

G'day all,

TL;DR - Requesting advice on MB+ upgrade (plus SSD/RAM as recommended)

Desirables:​

Mini-ITX FF to suit current Lian Li case​

6x SATA ports for existing WD Red Drives​

Run TrueNAS Core with efficiency and reliability​

Not cost an arm and and a leg (happy with used/second hand reliable gear)​

Requirements:​

Store and stream home media​

Store/backup family photos and documents​

Backup PCs and devices​

I would like to upgrade my old NAS using some of my current hardware where possible. I've been reading a number of recent posts on Mini-ITX boards and other similar builds and upgrades and I'm tying myself in knots trying to figure out which direction to go. It seems the Mini-ITX form factor isn't that favourable however, I would like to stick with it if possible as I already have the case and I really like it. My plan is to run TrueNAS Core and to use it store my media, backup photos and documents from the family, backup my PCs and devices and allow NextCloud access or equivalent. I'm looking for any advice you may have.

Background
I built my last NAS system about 10 years ago and I've listed the specs below (purchased in 2013). This system never operated as intended and has spent most of the last 10 years in storage. I tried to get it up and running recently but found 2 drives wouldn't connect. I discovered two of the SATA ports on the MB had a little corrosion. I cleaned the corrosion as best I could and the two drives worked again. I'm satisfied the drives work but have no faith in the MB or the SATA ports lasting any time at all, so I've shut the system down pending this upgrade.

• SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ PSU
• Lian Li PC-Q25B Mini-ITX Case Black
• 6x Western Digital WD30EFRX RED NAS- 3TB
• Asus C60M1-I MB

When I first got the system running, I managed to get a RaidZ2 pool up and running and I backed up a reasonable amount of photos and data before it was stored. I would like to recover the pool on the new system. Over time, my plan would be to upgrade the HDDs but they would suffice for now.

Thanks in advance!

 

[joeschmuck]

Store and stream home media

This is the minimum spec requirement as I see it. But this leads to the question on if you need to do transcoding or not. If not then that simplifies your build for the CPU selection. If you must transcode, then you need to figure out what CPU at a minimum you need. Myself, most players will transcode the given stream so I do not transcode my media library.

Asus C60M1-I MB

It appears this MB has a RealTek NIC. It may work okay but these are almost always problematic in some way. When you purchase a replacement MB, try to get an Intel NIC. It makes a difference. I know you are looking for an ITX form factor but if you can expand to a micro-ATX your options open up quite a bit. But there are a lot of ITX motherboards out there, but how many support ECC RAM? If you find something with WiFi built in, I'd recommend you disable it in the BIOS initially, get the NAS setup before you start to muck around with the WiFi, and who knows if it will be supported.

I'm really not sure what help you need as it sounds like you have a handle on it already. You could do a Google Search for "itx truenas" and find a lot of postings about folks building an ITX form factor machine. This should give you some good information.

With the way TrueNAS is advancing, I would recommend 16GB ECC RAM minimum and 32GB ECC RAM preferred for what you want to do and any other future VM's you wish to run, or at least leave yourself the ability to upgrade to 32GB RAM in case you find you really do need more.

Good hunting!

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F

 

[lgriffo]

Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F

Thanks very much for your help. Anything in particular to watch out for when looking for this board? I've done a quick check of the specs and it appears the 4C and 2C share SATA lanes with the PCIE. Is this a big deal? I'll be running the 6x WD drives initially but could possibly expand in the future. Should I look for an 8, 12, 16C?

But this leads to the question on if you need to do transcoding or not.

Thanks for the advice. At this stage my plan is to run my Plex server on a Proxmox server which could possibly do the transcoding if required. It's got an i7-6700 which I think should handle the transcoding ok.

I know you are looking for an ITX form factor but if you can expand to a micro-ATX your options open up quite a bit.

I know. I'm kinda making my life difficult but, I like my current case and if I can somehow make it work using Mini-ITX that would be a bonus, and save some $. If there's a much better mATX option then I'm not going to rule it out just because of a case.

but how many support ECC RAM?

I'd like to stick with ECC RAM I think. The whole point is data integrity and I'd feel pretty stupid if I had an issue because I skimped on the RAM/MB.

I would recommend 16GB ECC RAM minimum and 32GB ECC RAM preferred

I was thinking 64Gb min, 128Gb if I can get it. Overkill?

Thanks heaps!

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Thanks very much for your help. Anything in particular to watch out for when looking for this board? I've done a quick check of the specs and it appears the 4C and 2C share SATA lanes with the PCIE. Is this a big deal? I'll be running the 6x WD drives initially but could possibly expand in the future. Should I look for an 8, 12, 16C?

4C gives you 8 SATA ports, 8/12/16C give you 12 SATA ports.

The PCIe x4 slot has got its own connection to the chipset and does to my understanding not share any lanes with the SATA controller.
Neither does the onboard M.2 PCIe/NVMe slot if used for an NVMe SSD. Only if used for a SATA M.2 SSD does one of the SATA ports get re-routed to that connection so you "lose" one SATA port.

HTH,
Patrick

 

[Etorix]

Should I look for an 8, 12, 16C?

Mini-ITX implies that you should get a board with exactly the right feature set. The x4 slot may be used for either a HBA, for more drives, or a NIC for 10 GbE—but not both.
Boards based on C3758 give you 12 SATA ports. A2SDi-H-TF gives you 12 SATA and onboard 10 GbE (but Base-T rather than SFP+).

As already said above, if you plan to expand to more than 8 drives, and thus in a new case, getting that larger case NOW could give you a lot more options in micro-ATX size.

In mini-ITX size, it should be mentioned that X10SDV boards (Xeon D-1500) generally fit your basic requirement list: 6 SATA ports—but not more. A bit old now, but not obsolete.

A2SDi and X10SDV take DDR4 RDIMM. Hopefully, finding 64-128 GB of second-hand RDIMM should be easy and cheap.
The issue are the boards themselves. A2SDi are rare second-hand, so you may need to buy new. X10SDV are more common second-hand, but good offers are rare (and I've seen eBay listings for used more expensive than the same board at retail).
So the "not cost an arm and a leg" part may be difficult, especially in Australia.

 

[joeschmuck]

I was thinking 64Gb min, 128Gb if I can get it. Overkill?

For what you said you plan to do with the NAS, hell yea! But if you plan to run jails/dockers/VM's, the more RAM, the more options you can have. But then I'd tell you to buy a higher end CPU to go with all of that since you are planning to do some serious VM work. Get a single 16GB or 32GB stick, see how it works before spending all your money. But if you have money to toss around, toss some this way

But seriously, 32GB RAM is more than enough for file sharing and a few VM's. Since you have another machine doing Plex, even a light weight CPU should do the job fine.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Yeah, the Xeon D boards in the X10SDV line also rock, but are even more expensive. I got an 8 core D-1541 for my main system because I run a couple of production VMs and the single core performance of the Atom based systems just weren't enough.

 

[lgriffo]

The PCIe x4 slot has got its own connection to the chipset and does to my understanding not share any lanes with the SATA controller.

Thanks very much.

A2SDi-H-TF gives you 12 SATA and onboard 10 GbE

No requirement for 10 GbE here at the moment but could be a good idea for future proofing the system.

As already said above, if you plan to expand to more than 8 drives, and thus in a new case, getting that larger case NOW could give you a lot more options in micro-ATX size.

Good point. Might start researching other boards and cases. Although I'm not sure if I'll need more than 8 drives but I never thought I'd have 4-6 separate PCs either.

But seriously, 32GB RAM is more than enough for file sharing and a few VM's. Since you have another machine doing Plex, even a light weight CPU should do the job fine.

Fantastic. Thanks for the advice.

Yeah, the Xeon D boards in the X10SDV line also rock, but are even more expensive. I got an 8 core D-1541 for my main system because I run a couple of production VMs and the single core performance of the Atom based systems just weren't enough.

I'll keep my eye out for this as well and see if there's any good deals.

Thanks again for all your advice!

 

[lgriffo]

Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F

I know it's taken a while but I've finally got my new board. I ended up getting the A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F. I went with the plus because of the CPU fan. I'm worried with the tight space in my case and possibly poor ventilation it might help keeping the CPU a little cooler.

I also have 2x 32GB of RAM.

My next task is successfully exporting/importing the Z2 pool from Xigma to TrueNAS.