Need help with initial components

[Arelius]

Hi everyone, (I hope I'm posting this in the correct section!)

I want to reach out and ask for some guidance on this since I'm truly in/on uncharted waters here.

My end goal is to build my own NAS with TrueNAS running on it (haven't decided on CORE or SCALE, I think I end up with CORE..).

I have been and still are on Synology for the past 10-15 years, done some stuff to the models I have had/have but I don't want to pay and get a closed/restricted system again. And well, also I quit frankly enjoy doing/building myself.

I think the first step is the motherboard and the case and there is where I'm asking for your inputs so I can get onto some clear path and chose the initial components.

(In my head) I would this NAS to;

• stay within or close to the form factors "Thin Mini-ITX" or "Mini-STX" (but can't say I see this being possible cause I really cant find any real purchasable motherboards).
• be able to buy a 3D printed case for this.., I can see this being beneficial so I could potentially scale up a bit down the road - maybe or go for some (I don't know what else is out there) but cases stuff from SilverStone maybe (not really since there is no place to have the SSD disk in the cases).
• have a motherboard with at least 2 SO-DIMM slots with support up to 64GB (maybe this is over kill?)
• run TrueNAS on ofc and that beeing installed on a M.2 PCIE NVMe so the MB needs to have one those slots
• have the main storage on SATA 2.5 SSD, 4-6 of them, I think I start with at least 4 disks with some swappable no-raid option (I hear raid is not great for SSD health?)
• also have built in LAN port, 10Gb preferably (or can one combine several eg 2,5G ports?)
• possibility to being able to back the entire storage up and out into some external drive using USB/TB (or some other interface which is just as fast?)
• have a fanless build (only if possible) but this is not something I can’t compromise on and at the most I think it would ok with a low-profile CPU cooler and maybe one case fan or so but this all depends on the motherboard and the case which should be the very heart and soul of everything so to speak

My usage is mainly entertainment/media/file center and a backup solution for home PC's and Phones and Tablets. The content is mostly massive files, 4K, HDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, FLAC Lossless Audio and so on.. But I don’t really need any transcoding cause all my devices take care of that themselves and I'm fine with it (been fine with the end result)


So, motherboard and case recommendations based on what I think I should go with/start at - please do correct me on anything and everything since you all know what you actually are doing/saying :D



Here is what I have gathered so far;

• Supermicro X13SAV-PS (from what I gather reading about these boards, power consumption is high on and also I don't think I can get my hands on one from where I live.. so maybe not a actually choice to have on the list)

So I guess my real choices are:

• ASUS H410 or N4000 (can't seem to find where these one can be bought though)
• ASRock H470M-STX or E3C246D4I-2T (same here, can't seem to find where these one can be bought)
• Some GIGA-BYTE variants I guess
• MSI H510TI-S05

During all the reading and so I ran into some stuff so here is some more question;
Dose anyone have any experience from this one and/or the ones mentioned in the comments? (maybe one has to be ok with getting stuff from AliExpress, I'm really not comfortable by the tough of that..)

I also ran into this post and therefore asking myself maybe anyone here have experience building something similar with some of these boards?

Or maybe I go down a easier path with mini-ITX MB and (in comparison) massive power supply and all that even though not much of it is needed in a NAS-build?

With best regards, Daniel from Sweden who is new here :)

 

[jgreco]

Welcome to the forums.

It's recommended that you NOT try an X13 board due to their being still relatively new; usually users have the best experiences with Supermicro X11 or perhaps X12 boards, even though they are a bit older. They are also problem-free and rock solid. There are resources to help you select optimal components in the Resources section of the forum. and once you are on a track where you are making realistic selections that are available to you, we can probably be more helpful. The number of random consumer desktop and gaming boards out there are really just too many to choose from, and it's really in your best interest to select a server-oriented mainboard.

 

[Arelius]

Welcome to the forums.

It's recommended that you NOT try an X13 board due to their being still relatively new; usually users have the best experiences with Supermicro X11 or perhaps X12 boards, even though they are a bit older. They are also problem-free and rock solid. There are resources to help you select optimal components in the Resources section of the forum. and once you are on a track where you are making realistic selections that are available to you, we can probably be more helpful. The number of random consumer desktop and gaming boards out there are really just too many to choose from, and it's really in your best interest to select a server-oriented mainboard.

Thank you, kindly!

Yes exactly, I really don't want to go for any gaming MB but choices are very limited from here (Sweden) cause most vendors that actually carry anything else beside the usual gaming components don't sell to consumers....

However, earlier today I found a vendor within EU, so both both X12STL-IF and also the X13SAV-PS are purchasable!


So I stick to the X12 since I have both my ideal amount of SATA and also Gigabit LAN port's and so on.

(Please do point me towards these resources you mention)

The X13 however is more appealing still though, the fact of the power consumption and connection. (Isn't this combination needed to keep the actually power supply or power brick to an absolut minimal sort or am I mistaking here?


I really want to keep the size of this NAS to the absolute minimum. But I cant ignore what you are pointing out either which is system stability, and so I have to ask, is there many reports from users having problem with these newer boards up until several BIOS updates later from when they are manufactured?

If so then it makes me want to think twice cause bad BIOS and bad core stability in these case would (by my book) mean overall low to maybe no actual quality control before releasing a product. But again, I have absolute none/zero reference point in this regard cause for the past 25-30 years I have had no experiance with NAS specific components.

 

[jgreco]

However, earlier today I found a vendor within EU, so both both X12STL-IF and also the X13SAV-PS are purchasable!

The X12ST boards are commendable; I've got an X12STW as part of a prebuilt that ran TrueNAS bare metal just fine before getting a hypervisor upgrade to ESXi. These come in various versions and seem appropriately sized for pure NAS or NAS-plus-Plex-plus-maybe-a-VM-or-two use, but you've got to keep it reasonable especially if you are using SCALE. The X12ST* can be paired with the Xeon E-2388G for iGPU plus QuickSync happiness.

The "A" in the X13SAV makes me think it is probably a workstation board, which may not be as desirable.

(Please do point me towards these resources you mention)

There's plenty of Resources in the Resources section, which is subdivided up into several subsections.

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

Don't be afraid to be SAS-sy ... a primer on basic SAS and SATA

With the introduction of SAS 12Gbps, seems like "it's time" to do a braindump on SAS. Work in progress, as usual. History By the late '90's, SCSI and PATA were the dominant technologies to attach disks. Both were parallel bus multiple drop...

www.truenas.com

etc

But I cant ignore what you are pointing out either which is system stability, and so I have to ask, is there many reports from users having problem with these newer boards up until several BIOS updates later from when they are manufactured?

The problem is stuff like support for new chipsets. You may have heard about Intel's new E-core and P-core strategy, and these are not yet properly supported in either FreeBSD or Linux. It usually takes a year or two from the introduction of a new component until the bugs are shaken out of the new code that gets written to support these things.

overall low to maybe no actual quality control before releasing a product.

Yeah, sorta. If manufacturers were to actually give OS authors early access versions of their stuff under development, and maybe even pay them to support it, we'd get more than the "Works on very latest Windows" that so often accompanies these new products. This assumes that you feel that making sure a product is usable counts as "actual quality control." Usually the silicon itself isn't bad.