waterstorm
Cadet
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2018
- Messages
- 4
Hi all,
I'm looking for suggestions for a good motherboard to buy. I've done a lot of research the last weeks, but I'm still not sure what I should buy. So I wanted to ask for some suggestions.
Background:
I'm currently running an QNAP TS-453A with 16 GB RAM and 4x4TB WD Red. It works fine, but I'd like to upgrade mainly because I need more space, but also because I've grown quite fond of TrueNAS and I'd also like to have more "power" than that Celeron has.
I'm running a few containers on my QNAP (which are currently sometimes very slow) so I'm aiming for TrueNAS Scale.
I've used TrueNAS quite a while at work now. A larger TrueNAS (Enterprise) setup in the compute center and also a smaller self-built TrueNAS (Core) in the office as well. Both work remarkably well and so I'd like to use TrueNAS at home as well.
However, my problem is finding a suitable motherboard, which is also affordable and available in Germany.
Requirements:
I thought a small and power-efficient NAS would be nice. I like that my QNAP is so small and efficient (because it's running all day), it only needs around 30W when active, which is quite nice. So I've been looking at mITX boards and a Fractal Node 304 case. But I could not really find a board which fit my requirements, was available in Germany to actually buy and was still affordable. I found a few nice boards, but those were either not available to buy or cost >1400 Euro (for the board alone).
So I'm also looking at the larger mATX boards with a Fractal Node 802 case, but still I'm not really sure what would be the best option. Most of the embedded Ryzen seem to be available for mITX only (ASROCK) while Supermicro has lots of boards, half of which you cannot buy in Germany at all at the moment.
What I'd like to have:
Motherboards I liked but did not quite fit:
mATX:
Supermicro X11SSH-GTF-1585L: Only 6 SATAs and really expensive with ~1150 EUR
ASRock EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R: Very nice board. Embedded Ryzen and 8 SAS, however the CPU is total overkill and I don't need SFP. Way too expensive (>$1800).
ASRock D1541D4U-2T8R: Quite nice, but not available in Germany and very expensive in online shops outside (>$1400)
mITX:
Supermicro M11SDV-4CT-LN4F: Only has 4 SATAs and does not include 10gbe, costs around 550 EUR
Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F: Probably the "best fit" I found. However it's SATA and not SAS and shares the NVMe with 4 SATAs via OCuLink, so I'd need some other way to attach an SSD or use and USB stick for the OS. It's around 650 EUR, not cheap but okay.
ASRock EPYC3101D4I-2T: Similar to the Supermicro X11SDV-4C but with AMD. Shares the M2 with a SATA Port. Also around 650 EUR
Maybe there are "workarounds" for these issues I mentioned above. Such as an extra controller for SAS/SATA (which I have never bought before). Or maybe I should simply go for a "normal" board instead of an embedded one. However I do not have much knowledge about power draw / power efficient CPUs. So I'm not sure what would be a good combination of motherboard and CPU if I'd go for a "standard" board with a server CPU in terms of power draw / efficiency. Any advice is very appreciated.
Do you have any recommendations for a motherboard (and CPU if not embedded) which is available and which I can actually buy in Germany for a "good" price?
Thank you very much :)
I'm looking for suggestions for a good motherboard to buy. I've done a lot of research the last weeks, but I'm still not sure what I should buy. So I wanted to ask for some suggestions.
Background:
I'm currently running an QNAP TS-453A with 16 GB RAM and 4x4TB WD Red. It works fine, but I'd like to upgrade mainly because I need more space, but also because I've grown quite fond of TrueNAS and I'd also like to have more "power" than that Celeron has.
I'm running a few containers on my QNAP (which are currently sometimes very slow) so I'm aiming for TrueNAS Scale.
I've used TrueNAS quite a while at work now. A larger TrueNAS (Enterprise) setup in the compute center and also a smaller self-built TrueNAS (Core) in the office as well. Both work remarkably well and so I'd like to use TrueNAS at home as well.
However, my problem is finding a suitable motherboard, which is also affordable and available in Germany.
Requirements:
I thought a small and power-efficient NAS would be nice. I like that my QNAP is so small and efficient (because it's running all day), it only needs around 30W when active, which is quite nice. So I've been looking at mITX boards and a Fractal Node 304 case. But I could not really find a board which fit my requirements, was available in Germany to actually buy and was still affordable. I found a few nice boards, but those were either not available to buy or cost >1400 Euro (for the board alone).
So I'm also looking at the larger mATX boards with a Fractal Node 802 case, but still I'm not really sure what would be the best option. Most of the embedded Ryzen seem to be available for mITX only (ASROCK) while Supermicro has lots of boards, half of which you cannot buy in Germany at all at the moment.
What I'd like to have:
- A CPU which can handle data transfer and a few containers, but still not drawing too much power. So I was looking at embedded CPUs such as the Epyc 3xxx, but I'd also go for Intel. If the board was cheap enough I'd certainly consider a "normal" CPU instead of embedded
- >= 32GB (ECC?) RAM, I know ZFS likes RAM and it also needs to have enough for the containers
- Dual RJ45 LAN, gbe would probably be enough, but 10 gbe would be nice
- 8 HDD connectors for mATX / Node 804 or 6 if I'd go for the Node 304. I'd like to try the EXOS SAS HDDs but I'd also go for SATA if SAS is not worth the effort / price
- >= 1 M.2 for the system drive
- IPMI Port (nice to have, not mandatory)
- "Server Grade", so I've been looking at ASROCK Rack and Supermicro
Motherboards I liked but did not quite fit:
mATX:
Supermicro X11SSH-GTF-1585L: Only 6 SATAs and really expensive with ~1150 EUR
ASRock EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R: Very nice board. Embedded Ryzen and 8 SAS, however the CPU is total overkill and I don't need SFP. Way too expensive (>$1800).
ASRock D1541D4U-2T8R: Quite nice, but not available in Germany and very expensive in online shops outside (>$1400)
mITX:
Supermicro M11SDV-4CT-LN4F: Only has 4 SATAs and does not include 10gbe, costs around 550 EUR
Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F: Probably the "best fit" I found. However it's SATA and not SAS and shares the NVMe with 4 SATAs via OCuLink, so I'd need some other way to attach an SSD or use and USB stick for the OS. It's around 650 EUR, not cheap but okay.
ASRock EPYC3101D4I-2T: Similar to the Supermicro X11SDV-4C but with AMD. Shares the M2 with a SATA Port. Also around 650 EUR
Maybe there are "workarounds" for these issues I mentioned above. Such as an extra controller for SAS/SATA (which I have never bought before). Or maybe I should simply go for a "normal" board instead of an embedded one. However I do not have much knowledge about power draw / power efficient CPUs. So I'm not sure what would be a good combination of motherboard and CPU if I'd go for a "standard" board with a server CPU in terms of power draw / efficiency. Any advice is very appreciated.
Do you have any recommendations for a motherboard (and CPU if not embedded) which is available and which I can actually buy in Germany for a "good" price?
Thank you very much :)
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