Upgrading Mini-ITX NAS to 2.5Gbit

[Absestos]

I just finished upgrading my home network to 2.5Gbit ethernet switches and now I'd like to get my NAS up to speed as well.

I use my NAS as bulk storage for media files/isos etc. accessed solely via SMB by 1-2 clients at a time - almost entirely sequential workloads. No VMs or plugins either, so I don't need a lot of CPU grunt and want to optimize for low power and cost. Current config is:

• Motherboard: Asus P9D-I
• CPU: Xeon E3-1268Lv3
• RAM: 16GB ECC RAM
• Storage: 8x16TB HDDs in RaidZ2
• Case: Silverstone DS380
• LSI SAS 2008 based HBA

What are current recommendations for a Mini-ITX motherboard that includes at least 2.5Gbit ethernet (better if via RJ45 instead of SFP)? Having 8x SATA ports onboard (either native or via OCuLink, to ditch the HBA) and/or being fanless would be appreciated (building in the DS380 is challenging and any space freed up would help)

Looking around, the X570D4I-2T would tick most of the boxes, however:

• It's not cheap and a Ryzen is probably overkill CPU wise - I figure something like an N100 would be enough
• I have read conflicting reports about whether the X550-AT2 Ethernet controller supports 2.5Gbps: some say it does on Linux - what about FreeBSD/TrueNAS Core?

 

[MrGuvernment]

Most 2.5Gb NICS are flaky right now under BSD and people are having numerous random issues, so it has been advised by some to skip 2.5Gbs NICS from Intel for now. Do you have a 2.5Gb switch already ? or would doing something like a used Brocade ICX do where yo do 10Gbps from TrueNAS into the switch and then 1Gb out to clients, or also do 10Gbps out to the users machines, even if you had to use RJ Cat 6e vs fiber or a dac