Hello, I'm new to the NAS world after two consecutive power surges that took out my PSU three months ago. I started looking for a UPS and somehow found some NAS videos which got me hooked.
I wasted a lot of time learning based on my own experience with consumer and enthusiast hardware until I found cyberjock recommended hardware posts... and guess what... they were truly highly recommended... I almost bought an Asus board before finding it.
Many users recommend the ASRock Rack C2750D4I ($460) but for that money I prefer to have something with better performance. The ASRock D1521D4I ($460) is an interesting choice but with an old Broadwell Xeon D-1521. Later I found the ASRock E3C236D2I and I'm happy with that. I also found the ASRock C236 WSI that was missing some management features but I added it to my comparison.
I did my own comparison (2.9MB very large image) with these three motherboards because ASRock website doesn't offer comparison. Here are the parts:
CPU+MOBO cost $460 almost the same price of a single ASRock C2750D4I... basically a win situation... however it maxes out at 32GB RAM vs 64GB for the C2750D4I.
I have some points I need some help with:
1. the Xeon E3-1225v5 isn't listed in the CPU supported list for the motherboard, does it mean there is a chance of incompatability or is it just not tested?
2. Not many ECC memory modules listed in the supported memory list for the motherboard. If I used untested modules will there be issues.
Sometimes stupid thoughts cross my mind:
Thoughts and comments are appreciated. Criticism is welcome also.
I wasted a lot of time learning based on my own experience with consumer and enthusiast hardware until I found cyberjock recommended hardware posts... and guess what... they were truly highly recommended... I almost bought an Asus board before finding it.
Many users recommend the ASRock Rack C2750D4I ($460) but for that money I prefer to have something with better performance. The ASRock D1521D4I ($460) is an interesting choice but with an old Broadwell Xeon D-1521. Later I found the ASRock E3C236D2I and I'm happy with that. I also found the ASRock C236 WSI that was missing some management features but I added it to my comparison.
I did my own comparison (2.9MB very large image) with these three motherboards because ASRock website doesn't offer comparison. Here are the parts:
Code:
CASE $45 Fractal Design Node 304 CPU $200 Intel Xeon E3-1225 v5 MOBO $261 ASRock Rack Motherboard E3C236D2I RAM - - HBA $91 LSI Logic SAS9211-8I 8PORT Int 6GB Sata+sas Pcie 2.0 HDD - - SSD - - PSU $170 Seasonic 750W 80 PLUS Titanium ATX12V Power Supply with Active PFC F3 (SSR-750TD) --------------- SUM: $767+
CPU+MOBO cost $460 almost the same price of a single ASRock C2750D4I... basically a win situation... however it maxes out at 32GB RAM vs 64GB for the C2750D4I.
I have some points I need some help with:
1. the Xeon E3-1225v5 isn't listed in the CPU supported list for the motherboard, does it mean there is a chance of incompatability or is it just not tested?
2. Not many ECC memory modules listed in the supported memory list for the motherboard. If I used untested modules will there be issues.
Sometimes stupid thoughts cross my mind:
3. Can I get a WD-BLUE and enable TLER (and other options from WD-RED drives) using smartmontools? I can't seem to find a clear answer. Also, I tried to enable it on 1TB-GREEN, 2TB-GREEN, 4TB-GREEN and 4TB-BLUE, bought over the last 5 years but non of them support TLER. Is there a way to enable this hack?
4. Can I use freeNAS as a no-raid backup system (with a HBA and ECC RAM) for a single hard drive? I was hoping to take advantage of the robust file system ZFS to keep an eye on files with the integrated checksums and integrity checks. I'm on low budget, Mirroring and RAIDZ2 is very costly.
5. I learned about "RAID is not backup" and "There should be three copies of the data" original, raid and offsite cold backup. Should the backup be in RAID or raw data form?
4. Can I use freeNAS as a no-raid backup system (with a HBA and ECC RAM) for a single hard drive? I was hoping to take advantage of the robust file system ZFS to keep an eye on files with the integrated checksums and integrity checks. I'm on low budget, Mirroring and RAIDZ2 is very costly.
5. I learned about "RAID is not backup" and "There should be three copies of the data" original, raid and offsite cold backup. Should the backup be in RAID or raw data form?
Thoughts and comments are appreciated. Criticism is welcome also.
Sorry for the huge edit. after reading some replies, I decided to start again from scratch.
Why aren't Asus boards recommended?
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