[Guide] NAS Killer 6.0 - DDR4 is finally cheap

Builds [LGA1151,LGA1200] NAS Killer 6.0, Plex QSV Builds
83

I don’t think this guide was recommending ECC memory. Especially since it is using an i5 CPU which won’t support ECC memory on any motherboard.

ECC support on Intel’s consumer / workstation lines is a bit of a crap-shoot. Once again it is because of insidious market segmentation. Intel builds support for server grade features like ECC memory support, certain virtualization support, remote management, etc into their core CPU architecture, but then they disable it in their consumer core i5, i7, i9 lines so that they can justify selling basically the same chip re-branded as an “Entry Level” Xeon for twice the price to their enterprise customers.

They do leave it enabled on the low end chips like the core i3, Celeron, and Pentium lines, I think they just didn’t want to make a whole new line of “Sub Entry Level” Xeons to differentiate them. However they continue the market segmentation game by only enabling ECC on their C2X6 (For Coffee Lake that is C246) series motherboard chip-sets and not their consumer line chip-sets.

In Coffee Lake the consumer chipsets are the 370 boards although I am not familiar with Q370. I’ve seen B, H, Z, and X before. I’m not sure why they need so many chip-sets for the same CPUs… just kidding its more market segmentation.

I wouldn’t necessarily sweat the lack of ECC support. Folks on these forums are a bit divided on the issue. I think a majority opinion is that ECC memory really just adds cost and effort without much benefit to the average home NAS user. In a normal use case ECC will probably catch 1 or 2 errors a year and 95% of those errors probably don’t matter at all anyway. At least not until one of the RAM modules starts to fail.

That might start to shift a little though now that ZFS is the new hotness in Unraid. The hardcore ZFS folks swear by ECC memory since ZFS does a lot of work in RAM and a failing stick could thrash an entire array leading to 100% data loss, so in that case it is a more worthwhile insurance policy. However it is still no replacement for a backup strategy which is always recommended.

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84

I can’t find any of the recommended motherboards for sale where I live. Even on ebay, they mostly all ship from the US, which makes shipping costs double the item price. Can anyone point me towards any other motherboards, preferably consumer grade, that would fit the scope of this system? I was looking at an Asus Prime B365-A, but I am not entirely sure what I’m missing out on by going this route. Same goes for the PSUs.

I’m looking to use this to host my Plex server, as well as downloading and storing all the associated media. I would possibly also like to host a minecraft server on it, but this is something I can live without. I already have an i5-8500 and 16GB 2666mhz of RAM that I will be using.

85

Very interesting stuff, @Ian. Thanks for the rundown on ECC.

The article still says “ECC support contingent on the CPU,” which is wrong for the X11SCQ. I’d recommend correcting the error in the article.

The article also links to a bunch of DPS-475CB PSUs and makes the claim “that they are part of a sample build with the N400” that they won’t fit in. I’d recommend changing that as well.

Thoughts, @JDM_WAAAT?

86

Just wanted to update here. I bought the delta 475 PSU (listing: DELTA 475W Power Supply DPS-475CB-1 A DPS-475CB A 468930-001 | eBay) and am using the board X11SCQ SUPERMICRO. However, upon assemply the 8 pin PSU connector is not on the PSU it only has 1 4pin so beware.

87

That shouldn’t be a problem.

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88

Gotcha, ya I read that i can use it. It was just not something I was expecting at least if someone searches they’ll see this and your response. thanks!

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89

@ frankvs

Where are you located? Perhaps some one on here can point you in the right direction for local sources or could forward you a motherboard.

I’m in the US but often the cheapest parts come from Chinese sellers on eBay or aliexpress who offer cheap or free worldwide shipping. Be prepared to wait 3 - 4 weeks minimum for delivery though.

90

I’m based in Portugal.
Yes, there are a few offers from China with free international shipping, but the board themselves (Supermicro X11SCQ) are priced at 570€, which is absolutely insane. The same goes for Aliexpress. The cheapest I can see is 100€ (including shipping) from the US, which I’m starting to believe will have to be the route I take. Or I might go with one of the other boards, those I can find for cheaper.

91

That DPS-475 part number should probably be removed from the guide altogether as it leaves too much room for error for newcomers.

This video @3:46 shows the DPS-475CB vs a standard ATX psu. It looks like it should work fine from an ebay listing but when you see it in person, it is rather large.

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Would some of the holes line up if that brace thing wasn’t there on the N400?

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92

How about this X11SCA-F for $100: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295930094644

It’s an upgrade from the X11SCQ. It supports ECC memory and has IPMI. and the above linked seller seems to ship worldwide for free. Be prepared to wait 3 or 4 weeks for delivery though.

If you don’t really need or want the server oriented features you could try looking for a more consumer oriented motherboard. They will probably cost less and more widely available used, and may also be a bit more user-friendly to set up.

The Supermicro motherboards are great, but they are targeted at the professional / enterprise market and don’t put much of effort into user-friendliness.

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94

I apologize if this isn’t the correct forum thread to ask this question. I ordered the X11SCA-F Supermicro X11SCA-F as suggested above. Currently I am running 8 disks and 2 SSDs with the help of a Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA to supplement the ports on my current board, which is a Supermicro X9DRH-7TF.

The question I have is that on my current board I have the two Ethernet ports aggregated. On the new board, which has two ports, the manual states “one IMPI LAN shared with LAN2 on the I/O back panel”. Does that imply I can aggregate the IMPI port with other Ethernet port (LAN1) while still being able to use IMPI?

This is also the first board I have had with U.2 port on it. I looked and don’t think so, but is there a way to connect any of my SATA drives to the U.2 port to potentially eliminate the need of my HBA card?

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This is the board and seller I ordered and it arrived yesterday (2 weeks). Going to do server swap this evening. Motherboard looks in great condition upon arrival.

96

You should still be able to aggregate the 2 ports. You can use the shared port for IPMI and as a regular Ethernet port simultaneously, there might be some performance penalty especially if the BMC is using some, probably small, amount of the bandwidth.

Personally I prefer to keep all my management on a separate VLAN as BMCs generally don’t have a great track record for security. Vendors are often slow to update the firmware and it has total control over the rest of the system. I picked up a cheap 1x PCIe 2.5Gb Nic and dropped it in the 1x slot and that is what I use for the primary OS.

The U.2 port won’t work with SATA or SAS drives. It is for connecting NVME drives so you would use it for cache drives. It is functionally equivalent to the M.2 slots. On the X11SCA the U.2 slot shares PCIe lanes with one of the M.2 slots so populating one will disable the other.

The M.2 form factor is mostly targeted at cheap consumer drives and has quite a few drawbacks especially in terms of thermal management. U.2 drives are more widely used in enterprise so they tend to much higher quality when it comes to consistent performance and durability, the 2.5" form factor also provides a lot more thermal headroom. Check out the Intel DC-P5410 or similar drives.

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97

Could you share what kind of ECC memory you got for that price? At least the only one on the QVL (MEM-DR432MD-EU26) is $245 USD.

98

Sure I got a pair these Micron MTA18ASF4G72AZ-3G2R DDR 3200 (CL22) 32GB sticks:

https://www.crucial.com/memory/server-ddr4/mta18asf4g72az-3g2r

I just bought them new direct from Micron’s website. At the time they were $65 each; They must have been on sale.

I had been hoping to save some money by getting used DDR4-2666 but everything I found at the time cost more than the new Micron DDR4-3200.

They may not on the QVL, but they worked just fine for me. Stuff on the QVL is guaranteed to work, but I’ve never had any issues using ram not found on a given boards QVL. I think that really only matters if you want to receive support from the motherboard manufacturer.

100

RAM does not need to be on the QVL or compatibility list. If it’s within spec of what the motherboard requires, 99% chance it will work just fine!

101

Thanks, looks like the CRUCIAL10 code drops them another 10%, so pretty close to what you got them for. I’ve had issues in the past using a higher spec’d TEAMGROUP set of RAM, so it’s good to hear that you’ve had success with this.

103

I’m trying to decide between the following builds. It’s mainly for homelab, NAS, Plex transcoding purposes. I’m totally new at this.

Build #1: (MB has IPMI, 2x10Gb RJ45, ECC compatible)
AMD EPYC 7302P CPU: AMD EPYC 7302P CPU for sale | eBay $137 (used)
ASrock Rack ROMED8-2T/BCM Motherboard: https://geni.us/fOOYW $754
Micron 3200MT/s CL22 DDR4 32GB RAM x 4 (128GB): https://geni.us/AOlqUq $276
Sabrent 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD: https://geni.us/A1zInMb $60
Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler: https://geni.us/QXAjAHc $100
Seasonic PRIME Platinum 1300W PSU: $304
Samsung 500 GB SSD: https://a.co/d/aajeH1Q $50
Seagate Ironwolf Pro 16 TB x 5: https://a.co/d/iixmAFp $210 x 5 = $1050
Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL Case: https://a.co/d/50KxAjA $220
OR
Rosewill 4U 12 Bay Hot Swappable Rackmount Case: https://a.co/d/iMCe3et $310

Total without storage: $1901 (Fractal Design Case)
Total without storage: $1991 (Rosewill Rack Case)

Build #2:
Intel XEON E-2226G: https://a.co/d/6vfddE7 $320
Supermicro X11SCA-F ATX motherboard: https://a.co/d/gxHaHlL $363
HBA: LSI 9300-8i: https://a.co/d/4umZIZT $93
10Gtek 10Gb PCI-E NIC Dual RJ45, Intel X540: https://a.co/d/hlrpaHG $75
PSU: Corsair RM850x: https://a.co/d/brzN3GH $185
Micron 3200MT/s CL22 DDR4 32GB RAM x 4 (128GB): https://geni.us/AOlqUq $276
Sabrent 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD: https://geni.us/A1zInMb $60
Cooler: Do I need one for this?
Samsung 500 GB SSD: https://a.co/d/aajeH1Q $50
Seagate Ironwolf Pro 16 TB x 5: https://a.co/d/iixmAFp $210 x 5 = $1050
Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL Case: https://a.co/d/50KxAjA $220
OR
Rosewill 4U 12 Bay Hot Swappable Rackmount Case: https://a.co/d/iMCe3et $310

Total without storage: $1642 (Fractal Design Case)
Total without storage: $1732 (Rosewill Rack Case)

Thoughts? Anything I’m leaving out? I think I need SATA cables. Will Build #1 fit in a Rosewill 4U rackmount case? Does the exact memory type matter for either of these motherboards?

104

You mentioned that the Supermicro X11SCA-F ATX motherboard is a close second “as far as recommendations go.” What was the first recommendation?

Also, is there a chip that supports ECC that you would recommend to go along with the X11SCA-F? I would like to build a NAS but also want to be able to transcode 4K for Plex.

105

Interesting builds ideas.

Build #1 - AMD EPYC

I don’t know very much about your use case, but nothing you have mentioned so far would make sense for the EYPC build. It would only really make sense to go with the EYPC platform if you were planning on running a ton of VM’s and needed oodles of RAM and PCIe lanes, but the build you specified only has 32GB of RAM and a single NVME drive.

For less than the price of just the EYPC motherboard you could build a Ryzen server on the AM4 platform with a 5950X that would get you the same 16C/32T but with 50% higher passmark and 33% lower TDP. Even that would be extreme overkill for a home server / NAS.

You also mentioned video transcoding so you would additionally need to get a GPU for the EPYC build. As sweet as an EPYC server would be, unless you have some extreme use case you haven’t mentioned, you should probably rule out Build #1.

Build #2 - Intel Xeon (Coffelake)

Build #2 looks more in line with a high end NAS build, although prices listed are quite high. Where are you located?

If you can purchase used parts shipped from either the US or China then you can probably build your core system for much less than what you list above. If you live somewhere that you can’t purchase things from US or China then it might be worthwhile finding someone who could forward you parts, or possibly just finding another avenue. On these forums folks often recommend used enterprise gear, but that is mostly because, in the US, used enterprise gear is very inexpensive.

E-2226G: $320 is quite a price premium to pay for a 6C/6T CPU. For what you described an 8th or 9th gen core i3 CPU will get you an equivalent iGPU, ECC support, and would have plenty of compute to handle most NAS / Docker duties and they are typically available used for well under $100.

X11SCA-F: There is a seller on Ebay selling these from China for $100 obo. Several folks on these forums have purchased one from this seller including myself and as far as I know nobody has had any issues.

RAM: The Ram you linked is is Registered ECC DIMM (RDIMM). You can’t use those on the X11SCA-F. For that motherboard you will need Unbuffered ECC DIMMs (UDIMM). Unbuffered ECC RAM is typically more expensive than Registered ECC RAM, although still much cheaper than you listed. I would expect a 32GB ECC UDIMM to be around $75.

PSU: Possibly consider a lower wattage power supply. A Corsair RM650x would run about $100 new and would be plenty for the build you outlined.

HBA: The HBA listed is a 12G SAS card but your drives are 6G SATA. That should work without issue so long as you have the correct cables, but you could probably find a much less expensive HBA, the one recommended in the guide is $9 used.

Cooler: Yes you will need a CPU cooler compatible with socket LGA 1151 motherboard / cpu.