Sourcing ECC RAM in the UK

[koli]

Long story short, I want to build my first Truenas server for home use and I am looking for components. I have a good idea of what hardware might be suitable for me in terms of components but I just can't find the recomended RAM for sale. Mobos I am looking at on ebay are Supermicros X11s and X10s, there are tones of them at very reasonable prices, CPUs are cheap as chips as well. But then I go to look up what RAM stick are recommended for these boards and they are all end of life.
Example: X11SSL-F for £80 incl postage - bargain in my book
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SuperMicro-X11SSL-F-MicroATX

Trying to find RAM for that seems impossible, as this guy found out two years ago:
https://www.truenas.com/community/t...ooking-for-ram-for-x11ssl-f.72718/post-503752

Online retailers don't sell recommended module anymore (EOL). Even on ebay I can't finding the exact model numbers for sale. And if I do by some crazy luck there is one for sale it will be an american seller charging crazy money for it.

I can think of these options right now:
1. buy mobo+CPU+ram combo on ebay hoping that RAM is correctly matched to board. Not sure how likely that would be though, it's a gamble to say at least.
2. buy mobo on ebay (and CPU) and the just buy current RAM modules from online retailer even though they are not on the recommended list. If RAM doesn't work out try to return to seller.
2. buy newer board from online retailer but then we are talking newer CPU and both will probably cost quite a bit more
3. buy consumer Ryzen CPU with ASrock Rack server board. Sourcing ram should not be a problem but then nobody know if ECC RAM will actually do it job (at least that's what my research suggests).

I am tempted to go with option 2 at the moment, hoping that if I match say Crucial RAM in terms of being ECC, unbuffered, DDR3, 2x16GB modules, 1.2v that it will just work with X11SSL-F.

Not sure what to do really, your thoughts/recent experiences are much appreciated.

 

[Chris Moore]

The used gear market has always been very tight in Europe. I don't know why, perhaps it is leasing or recycling, but very little equipment hits the secondary market over there. You just need to keep looking and be flexible. As long as the memory is the same or better spec, it does not need to be the exact model that was documented when the system board was made.

What about this:

8GB RAM Memory SuperMicro X11SSL-F (DDR4-19200 - ECC) Motherboard Memory OFFTEK | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 8GB RAM Memory SuperMicro X11SSL-F (DDR4-19200 - ECC) Motherboard Memory OFFTEK at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

How much memory are you looking to get?

 

[adrianwi]

Pretty sure the Crucial stuff is supported, as it's rebranded Micron RAM and should work just fine in that SuperMicro MB.

I've got 2 SuperMicro boards and both are using Crucial ECC RAM

 

[inman.turbo]

Have you tried memory.net? They are in California, U.S. so shipping might be difficult during these crazy times. They have a wide selection and very reasonable prices. They specialize in RAM identical to OEM, direct from RAM manufacturer before the server manufacturer gets it and relabels it. They also guarantee compatibility if you search by Supermicro part number.

 

[koli]

As long as the memory is the same or better spec, it does not need to be the exact model that was documented when the system board was made What about this:

8GB RAM Memory SuperMicro X11SSL-F (DDR4-19200 - ECC) Motherboard Memory OFFTEK | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 8GB RAM Memory SuperMicro X11SSL-F (DDR4-19200 - ECC) Motherboard Memory OFFTEK at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

How much memory are you looking to get?

That's great to know, that I can go for the same spec modules as recommended even if the model number is different.
Looking for 2x 16 GB for now, it will be more that enough but I would like to have an option to go higher.

And yes, I've seen listings for this brand, however I previously disregarded it because it is not officially suported. Also this specific item is about twice as expensive as the new/current production ram from online retailers, since the OFFTEK stick is £96 for 8GB.
But since i don't have the get the exact recommended models I could go for something like this instead, 16GB stick for £95:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/16gb-1x16-crucial-ddr4-udimm-2666mhz-pc4-21300-unbuffered-ecc-cl19-12v

Pretty sure the Crucial stuff is supported, as it's rebranded Micron RAM and should work just fine in that SuperMicro MB.

I've got 2 SuperMicro boards and both are using Crucial ECC RAM

Great news, thank you for confirming. Should be easy to find something then. I had the idea in my head that unless the model is not on the recommended list the board would go up in flames during the boot...

Have you tried memory.net? They are in California, U.S. so shipping might be difficult during these crazy times. They have a wide selection and very reasonable prices. They specialize in RAM identical to OEM, direct from RAM manufacturer before the server manufacturer gets it and relabels it. They also guarantee compatibility if you search by Supermicro part number.

Thank you, I've just had a look. Prices are suprisingly reasonable: $188 for 2x16gb, $28 for shipping to UK and a quick google suggests I'd pay around $75 import duty and tax. Comes out to £220 in total, so only about 16% premium on the ram I linked above. It might be worth paying to have the peace of mind if they guarantee the compatibility.

Thank you all, you've been great help. It will make my search much easier. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[hmidouch]

awwwwwwwwwww

 

[Bikerchris]

Hello, I'm in the UK and either used scan for quite reasonable ECC (but Reg) at around £50 for 16GB (2133Mhz), or I used Mr Memory, which I have to say did an ace job of matching. The only thing is when the 'lifetime warranty' RAM came, it wasn't a make I had heard of...it was also expensive at £100 for 16GB ECC Unbuffered. Hope that helps in some vague way - I did look at a DDR3 rig, but like you, found it tricky to find someone selling, that was close enough to return it, if it was faulty.

 

[koli]

So this is where I landed with the spec of the system:

X11SSL-F https://www.supermicro.com/X11SSL-F (£80 ebay)
Intel Xeon E3-1245V5, 4c, 3.5GHz https://ark.intel.com/e3-1245-v5 (£87 ebay)
2x 16GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM 2Rx8 2666 CL19 https://uk.crucial.com/mta18asf2g72az-2g6e2 (2x £75 amazon)
LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9240-8i in IT Mode https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9240-8i/ (£38 ebay)
Corsair CV450 450W 80 Plus Bronze PSU https://www.corsair.com/Power-Supply-Units/CV-Series (£40 scan.co.uk)
Lian-li A77 case https://proclockers.com/review/lian-li-a77/ (currently housing my personal system which I will replace with smaller new Lian-Li)
6x 4tb drives in RaidZ2 (probably Ironwolf - tbc)
2x 10tb WD Gold mirrored vdev for main pool
1x 6tb Ironwolf pool for snapshots of the some datasets from main poolwwe
Intel SSD X25-M Series, 80GB boot drive https://ark.intel.com//intel-ssd-x25-m-series-80gb/ (currently sits in my main rig unused)

Rationale behind this:
Motherboard:
X11SSL-F is cheap, available and allows for 64GB DDR4 ram (if i want upgrade from 32GB)

CPU:
I know CPU has onboard graphics and it won't be required (or even usable since it CPU doesn't seem to support VGA - the only graphics interface that mobo supports) but I think I got a good deal on it so I bought it. Same model without gpu was £130 on ebay. I am thinking to go a stock cooler from ebay or Hyper 212 EVO, haven't decided yet.

RAM:
Crucial website gave me a list of compatible RAM for X11SSL-F, all them are Micron parts:
https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/supermicro/x11ssl-f
One of them is available on Amazon, 16GB for £75 so going to go with that: DDR4 ECC UDIMM STD 16GB 2Rx8 2666, MTA18ASF2G72AZ-2G6E2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DDR4-UDIMM-16GB-2Rx8-MTA18ASF2G72AZ-2G6E2/

LSI controller:
This one is already flashed to IT mode, one less thing for me to worry about. It will also be required for 6x 4tb pool since mobo only has 6 sata, of which one will be used for boot. I might add another identical SSD in a mirror if something comes up on ebay for a reasonable price.

PSU:
Going with 450 watts as I expect the system to draw under 200w on idle, getting PSU to work at around peak efficiency in 50% band. I have a watt meter so I can easily determine power requirements of my system once I put it together to validate 450w is appropriate.

Case
I've had this case for 11 years housing my main rig. It's beast in terms of size so it will be great for NAS as the airflow is amazing. It currrently has three hdd cages, each can house three 3.5 drives on rubber grommets with 120mm fan blowing through them. Plus I can add another three cadies for 3x 3.5inch drives in the future. So can house up to 15 hdds. Did I say this thing is a beast?

HDDs for the pool:
I am settled on 6x 4tb drives in RaidZ2. However still debating if to go with a homogeneous pool of the identical new Ironwolfs or if go with some new Ironwolfs and some used Toshibas N300s. The thing is, ironwolfs are 5900rpm and toshibas 7200rpm which might not be ideal, i am still doing research on this. I am thinking that introducing another drive manufacture might be beneficial for diversify a risk of bad batches. Plus I've seen some N300s on ebay and I think they will be a bit cheaper that used Reds and Ironwolfs. I am not considering Red dues to WD's deception shenanigans.
I found 10tb WD Golds for £219 each, cheaper than same size Ironwolf or Ironwolf Pro. Bought for longer expected longevity backed up with 5 year warranty. I am going to run couple of them in mirrored vdev a the main pool. I am going to use 6tb ironwolf that already have for snapshots of certain datasets from the main pool (i.e. important file. Media files will not be backed up when ironwolf gets full).

Boot drive:
I already have this Intel SSD and I currently don't use it.

So why do I want all this? I would like a robust, long term and reliable storage solution for my irreplaceable personal data. Also to store my media files and serve them to my TV and my music receiver. I have 4 bay synology nas at home that currently does that but I don't actually have an onsite backup and I am not protected against ransomware as much as I would like. I have offsite backup to another synology though. So plan is to store data on truenas, back them up to onsite synology and also to offsite synology. I also have CCTV camera being handled by synology surveillance which works pretty well but I would like to experiment with what truenas has to offer.

So plan to is to build the truenas as per above, experiment with it, learn how it works, practise with things like snapshots, replications and restore of dummy data before moving my precious file over. Then set up backups of truenas to two synologies.

So if you are still reading this I am really grateful. Please let me know guys if you are seeing something you don't like in here. Maybe some thoughts on hdd selection, i.e. all new drives vs mix of new and used from two brands.

Hello, I'm in the UK and either used scan for quite reasonable ECC (but Reg) at around £50 for 16GB (2133Mhz)

Hi, I looked at Scan and the one recommended model (by crucial's website) they have is only available for pre-order. Gone with Amazon at the end since they are very good with returns, should one be required.

 

[Yorick]

I know CPU has onboard graphics and it won't be required (or even usable

Correct, the SSL doesn't support iGPU. No worries, it doesn't hurt you here. If you ever get that hw transcode itch, maybe NVidia & SCALE is the solution by then.

It all looks like a solid build. If you can get an X11SSH-F for the same price or close, that's an interesting alternative because:
- 8 x SATA onboard, ditch the HBA (less heat, less stuff)
- 1 x NVME (2x) which is perfect for a smol NVMe M.2 boot stick. More SATA for drives :). Could also be used for an L2ARC if desired; not fast enough for SLOG

Ironwolf is a solid drive choice, as is N300, as is WD Red Plus. Just don't ever do WD Red, because of the SMR bugbear.

 

[inman.turbo]

I am not considering Red dues to WD's deception shenanigans.

You certainly shouldn't restrict yourself from WD over a bit of confusion. They are great drives. Just make sure they are CMR when buying for use with ZFS. SMR is fine for Synology.

 

[koli]

You certainly shouldn't restrict yourself from WD over a bit of confusion. They are great drives. Just make sure they are CMR when buying for use with ZFS. SMR is fine for Synology.

Agreed. I found 10tb WD Golds for £219 each, cheaper than same size Ironwolf or Ironwolf Pro. I bought them for expected longevity backed up with 5 year warranty. I am going to run couple of them in mirrored vdev for the main pool. I am going to use 6tb ironwolf that already have for snapshots of certain datasets from the main pool (i.e. important file. Media files will not be backed up when ironwolf gets full). I know another pool in the same device is not a backup but i will backup to onsite synology and to an offsite synology. Second pool is mainly for convenience of having an easy restore option from a pool on the same device. After that I can expand by bringing another 2x 10tb vdev and after that i can switch to 6x 10tb RaidZ2.

All components except the case have turned up so I set up a test bench, playing with the setting, exploring etc. Of course I haven't transferred anything precious to it yet, only media file that use for Plex. So far so good.