1x16GB vs 2x8GB (2 identical but separate 8GB dimms) Unbuffered ECC for Scale

TrueNAS General
1

Hi.
I’m soon switching from my old prebuilt NAS to a DIY TrueNAS Scale machine and was looking for memory and found out that 2x8GB DDR4 Unbuffered/Unregistered ECC is basically non existent where i live and shipping from sites like eBay costs a lot. The cheapest 16GB setup i found is a 16GB Kingston 3200MHz stick for a 40% markup over non ECC memory which is pretty good but wondering if i should risk buying 2 identical but separate 8GB dimms to maybe have dual channel (Mobo only have 2 DIMM slots).
I’ll only use my NAS for monthly backup of a drive in my PC and want to run Jellyfin server (without transcoding).

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
Mobo: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/AC
Memory: 16GB Unbuffered ECC
PSU: Be Quiet! SFX Power 3 450W Bronze (SFX PSUs are also pretty rare)
Case: Jonsbo N2
OS drive: MSI Spatium M370 256GB M.2 NVMe
Drives: 4x4TB WD Red Plus (way more than i currently and probably ever need so pls don’t bother me about the mobo only having 4 SATA connectors or not having and LSI card)

2

Not looking at the exact details, you could also consider one 16 GB stick.

3

“The cheapest 16GB setup i found is a 16GB Kingston 3200MHz stick”
Please read the post.

4

I would lean on the side of the side of getting one 16GB stick, that way you can expand later.

yes, it will technically be slower due to a lack of dual channel, but how much that will affect your workload as a NAS is unlikely to be significant imo.

1 Like
5

I did read the post, but what I understood is whether or not you would go ahead and buy 2 stick of 16 GB as you are considering dual channel.
I now understand, I wasn’t focused on the title of the post.