TrueNAS on NUC i7?

[betso]

I am looking for a NAS on a (physically) small and quiet machine using an open source product. So I came to the idea of using an Intel NUC.

Since the time most threads about using TrueNAS on Intel NUCs were posted here, the hardware made some progress and I would like to ask for your opinions about using some of the newer NUCs for running TrueNAS. I have e.g. an i7+16GB version in mind using an internal SSD.
However NUCs don't support ECC memory which AFAIK is sub optimal with TrueNAS.

Does anyone have experience with such a setup or theoretical thoughts about this idea? Or a better one?
Thank you!

 

[danb35]

However NUCs don't support ECC memory which AFAIK is sub optimal with TrueNAS.

That is suboptimal. The other thing that's suboptimal is that they don't generally have much room for internal storage devices, and external storage devices aren't usually recommended.

 

[betso]

That is suboptimal. The other thing that's suboptimal is that they don't generally have much room for internal storage devices, and external storage devices aren't usually recommended.

Thank you for your thoughts!

I need the whole setup just for backup. TrueNAS may be an overkill and I may get what I want with just a RPi based solution.

 

[Arwen]

Many large capacity 2.5" hard disk drives use SMR technology, which can be slow with ZFS. Or out right not work perfectly.

That said, some people want to use high capacity, (aka 2-4TB), NVMe drives, for their storage. So a NUC which supports 2 x NVMe slots, of the correct size might be suitable. (Some boards have 1 x 2280 and 1 x 2260. NVMe drives with 2260 size are generally not high capacity.)


For example, my current desktop is a miniature PC with 2 x 2.5" SATA drives, (probably limited to either 7mm or 9.5mm high). And has 2 x 2280 NVMe, (with 4 lanes each), drives. Not really NAS material, but could be suitable for a portable server. Of course it has a RealTek NIC :-(.

Anyway, this is what it is;

ASRock DeskMini A300 Series

AMD AM4 Socket CPU, - Picasso, Raven Ridge, Bristol Ridge, up to 65W, - Support MAX Height ≦ 46mm CPU Cooler<br />High-Speed DDR4 Memory, - DDR4-2933MHz (Ryzen), - DDR4-2400MHz (A-series)<br />Dual Ultra M.2 (NVMe), - M2_1 M.2 (2280) – PCIe Gen3 x4, - M2_2 M.2 (2280) – PCIe Gen3 x2/x4<br />2 x...

www.asrock.com

 

[betso]

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and the system, @Arwen!
I'll take a look into that.