Home Nas/Server CPU & MB help

[xenon20]

Hi All,

I’m going to build a home NAS and backup device, but in due course will also want to use as a server for Media, Home security, Router/Firewall, and probably more.

I’ve been reading up about ECC memory and the extra benefits it provides. Sounds like the general advice is, it’s not necessary but is extra security for your data, and if you can afford it, you should use it. Do you agree / disagree with this?

I have a budget of around £350-£400 for CPU/MB/RAM/CASE.

I recently ordered THIS cheap CPU/MB/RAM bundle from AliExpress, but having doubts if it is the right choice for a number of reasons:

1) I have a Ryzen 7 2700X which is unused and would love a new home, and according to THIS page, it supports ECC when used with a X570 board.
2) Looking at THIS comparison it suggests the R7 would outperform the Xeon E5-2650 V4 by a decent margin.
3) Lack of support for cheap Chinese boards I.e manufacturer support, driver support etc
4) Quality & reliability of components

Another factor is that this is going to host multiple HDD’s (intially x4 but possibly up to x8 in the future) I’m most likely going to use an HBA card for additional SATA connections which will use up a PCIe slot, so I’m debating if I should go with an ATX board over an M-ATX board for better expandability options for the future.

So my questions are:

1) Should I...

a) give the AE combo a chance

b) Return the AE combo, look for an X570 board to use with 2700X (for ECC)

c) Return the AE combo, look for a cheaper board like X470, B450, X370, B350, or A320 to use with 2700X (No ECC)

d) Sell the 2700X, return the AE combo, buy an intel CPU (maybe something like THIS) and appropriate MB

e) Something else


2) M-ATX or ATX ? This will then allow me to choose a suitable case.

Any advice or guidance would be most appreciated.

Thanks
X20

 

[xenon20]

ANY AM4 board can support ECC if the manufacturer provides support, though even if the ECC works it doesn't mean it is fully supported

So do the 2000 Ryzen CPU's support ECC no matter what, it's just the MB that is the limiting factor?
What are the implications of it working vs being fully supported? In THIS example, with pinnacle ridge, Is it telling me that ECC is "fully" supported?

Zen+ is not officially supported by B550, but it still works fine in many boards

So it'd be a gamble as to whether it'd work or not on any given B550 board? I assume to be sure I'd just have to choose a board which states that it supports ECC with pinnacle ridge (like in the case above)?

What backup strategy you have, e.g. if you are taking full backups regularly that are independent than an error in one is less important.

Probably a combination of full and differential backups, and a parity drive in case of a drive failure.

How critical is the data?

Not very, nothing mission critical, or with financial ramifications.

If you can afford to use the primary slot (e.g. headless) then it would be a moot point.

It would be used headless the majority of the time, Would just need graphics for initial configuration but I have an old GPU for that and then could swap out for HBA card once complete. Was just thinking about what other cards I may want to fit at a later stage, and if I should go ATX should that need arise. EDIT: I think M-ATX would probably be fine TBH.

If you want ECC I would not buy a 12400F because it doesn't support ECC

Oh, bad example then!

I think it makes most sense to either go with the AE bundle that was crazy cheap to keep the cost down, or buy an AM4 board for the 2700X (this would also allow me to chuck something like a 5800X in it also should the need arise). If I went the latter route, and based on the discussion do you have any recommendations on what good value M-ATX board that supports ECC would fit the bill? My ASRock X470 Taichi has been superb, so I'd probably be tempted (but not essential) to go ASRock again, but a cheaper board.

 

[xenon20]

I've ordered THIS to use with my 2700X & THIS case

 

[xenon20]

Correct. All Ryzen CPUs support ECC memory, EXCEPT the APUs, they do not support ECC unless they are a PRO version

That's good to hear, because when I looked at THIS it says that ECC is not supported for the 2700X (under the architecture section). I guess that's wrong then.

the whole point of having ECC is that you do not want silent corruption

Indeed, I read the article. It's a shame to hear that it's not fully reported by the OS's, or that the system is halted when a multi-bit error is detected.

I'm planning to run either Unraid or TrueNAS initially which I believe are FreeBSD / Linux based. What I'm not so sure about is which one to choose. I believe one of the benefits to Unraid is that you can use HDD's of different sizes, whereas with TrueNAS they all need to be the same size.

I hear that with TrueNAS you can use the ZFS filesystem which apparently is very good (and better when used with ECC)(not sure but I think this may be possible on Unraid now as well?). Obviously then the is the fact that TrueNAS (core) is free whereas Unraid is license based.

Do you have experience, views or guidance that might steer me in one direction or the other?

 

[xenon20]

No worries on both accounts. Thanks for your help and advice.