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1

I’m looking for some advice on building a NAS (PC). I’m considering upgrading my CPU and motherboard. Currently, I have an i7-3770K with an ASUS P8H61 motherboard. However, I believe the onboard graphics are no longer working.

I’ve been looking at an i5-12600KF and an Asus Prime B760-PLUS. Would this be a good choice for my needs? I plan to use the NAS for data backup, transfers, virtual machines, etc. (I’m also open to AMD alternatives if they would be a better fit.)

Spare Equipment I Have:
Power Supply:TX650
RAM: 16GB DDR3 (I don’t think this will work with the Asus P8H61, though.)
Storage: 2 SSDs, 2 HDDs
Network:2 × 10GbE NICs
GPU: RX580
AMD PRISM COOLER

I’m considering connecting my GPU, NICs, and eventually a SATA expansion card. Would this setup be viable?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

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Afaik, GPU Is not integrated in the mainboard, Is in the CPU; most of time, not work due to BIOS missconfig. Give It a try, using the rx580 Is a totally waste of money

Basic usage + light VM, yes. Unlucky 16gb RAM are a poor choice

Those HD are CMR?

Don’t know what you need the dedicated GPU for, but for expansd SATA ports you need an HBA (It mode) and not a SATA multiplier

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  1. Why would you replace your motherboard? The graphics are a part of your CPU.
  2. Why do you believe the onboard graphics aren’t working? I’m sure it’s possible, but I’ve never heard of iGPU breaking while the rest of the CPU is functional.
  3. What ‘SATA expansion card’ are you considering? Just want to ensure you’re not making a mistake…

I think a CPU with iGPU is a better choice for a NAS that needs graphics built from consumer parts. I wouldn’t want to give up the PCIE lanes for a discrete GPU.

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@Jorsher

  1. I had the gpu spare and thought it might help with transcoding etc, if on board will be fine i will use that.
  2. I cant get an output i have tried 2 vga to hdmi cables and mutiple monitors and get no output. I have checked the motherboard but see no options for checking if its disabled the cpu (gpu)
  3. I havent looked yet, but it was just going to be an amazon search.
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I have had a look at the BIOS but i cant see any options. The gpu is from an old machine so was thinking of using it but if its not required i wont.

16gb Ram - just from an old pc, so i can look to increase but this is just to get things working.

both CMR

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  1. Onboard should be fine for encoding. I used an old e3 Xeon with iGPU for transcoding for a decade without issue. What model GPU do you have? It’d be hard to find one that doesn’t support h264, but I’m sure there are plenty floating around that don’t support h265.

  2. Hmm. I googled ‘asus prime b760-plus user manual’ and found it here: https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-b760-plus/helpdesk_manual?model2Name=PRIME-B760-PLUS

I opened it, ctrl+f “graphics”. Page 57, Advanced > Graphics Configuration. Make sure it’s set to CPU. Searched some more. Page 80, Boot > CSM Compatibility. Says it needs to be disabled if you’re using integrated graphics.

  1. Make sure you check here before committing to a SATA expansion card. You should stay away from anything called a ‘SATA expansion card.’ Instead, look at ebay or similar to look for an HBA and get a SAS->SATA fanout cable. This typically can be found for $20-40, will give 8 or more additional SATA connections, and is reliable – unlike things typically labaled as a ‘SATA expansion card.’
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Did you try also removing the dedicated one?

I wouldnt personally put more than 16gb into an h61 mainboard… And afaik you shouldn’t have more than 2 slot.
For sure test those stick with memtest :wink:

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ah okay thanks,

I havent got the asus yet but ill keep this in mind. and i will keep in mind about the sata.

Thank you

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Yeah i removed the GPU.
Should have more thatn 2 slots of ram?

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I never see 16gb DDR3 sticks honestly. Max 8gb each (so 4 slot are need to reach 32gb).
But as i say, h61 chipset has a maximum of 16gb anyway.

In advanced mode, go in Advanced > System agent configuration

Initiate Graphic Adapter [PEG/PCI]
Allows you to decide which graphics controller to use as the primary boot device.
Configuration options: [PCI/PEG] [PEG/PCI]

And try to switch between actual option and other available

11

I’m looking for some advice on building a NAS (PC). I’m considering upgrading my CPU and motherboard. Currently, I have an i7-3770K with an ASUS P8H61 motherboard. However, I believe the onboard graphics are no longer working.

  • You should try to just buy a new (used) CPU. The “k” one is absolutely unncessary for such use case, so I recommmend to buy a normal i7 3770 (without th “K”)
    or, if you want to save some power, try to find the low power variants (Its the “T” tag.) On eBay these are for literally pennies.

“I’ve been looking at an i5-12600KF and an Asus Prime B760-PLUS. Would this be a good choice for my needs? I plan to use the NAS for data backup, transfers, virtual machines, etc. (I’m also open to AMD alternatives if they would be a better fit.)”
How many VM-s are thinking of?
Your motherboard only has 2 RAM slots and only supports 16GB RAM maximum.
I would say, that these capabilities are only allow you to run multiple targeted VMs ( Like a Pihole, firewall, home assistant, etc) and Maybe one Linux VM with max 4 GB RAM assigned.
Everything more than that would make your life harder.
(Honestly, with this config I would not bother with any VMs… Tha Hypervisor of TrueNAS Scale v23 was really broken (they might have fixed it by the v24 release, I did not try this, so if anybody can confirm that happened, would be nice) and to use it was really painful. (I am in the process of moving my TrueNAS from bare metal to under Proxmox, because of this. )
I dont recommend to buy the K or KF CPUs. YOu dont need the tuning possibilities for this application, and having that on-CPU GPU is a really big help for troubleshooting yout system.
If you want to run multiple VMs, I would rather go for more CPU cores than the tuning capability. (so, like the i7 12700 (non k) )

Spare Equipment I Have:
(unfortunately, you did not detail, what your current config is.)
Power Supply:TX650
It is always useful to use bigger PSU.
RAM: 16GB DDR3 (I don’t think this will work with the Asus P8H61, though.)
(It SHOULD work, since that MoBo is DDR3 capable, but you only have 2 slots that means, it only makes sense, if there is currently only 8 (2x4) GB RAM is in the PC. If it has already 2x8GB, you will not benefit anything from it.)
Storage: 2 SSDs, 2 HDDs
It they are the same size SSD-s and HDD-s then you can use them as mirrored devices. (they not necesssarily have to be the same manufacturer)
If they are different size, you will only be able to use both with the smaller size)
Network:2 × 10GbE NICs
That is nice, however, I am not sure, your current config will be able to provide that speed on the HDD speed side.
But I guess, the speed will be higher than Gbit for sure.
GPU: RX580
As others also stated, I dont really see any points to use it.
AMD PRISM COOLER

I’m considering connecting my GPU, NICs, and eventually a SATA expansion card. Would this setup be viable?
The setup would be, but your current MoBo does not have the necessary number of PCIe slots for that.
You didnot detail, which version of the P8H61 you have. (Number of PCI/PCIe slot)
So, my conclusion is that this config is OK to use as only a NAS (Maybe some really light VM loads.)
But I would only use it for purely TrueNAS only.
If you decide to replace the MoBo and CPU, you should take one with 4 Memory slots, to be able to support al least 64GB support (it will allow you to upgrade later) and athe most possible number of at least PCIe4x slots. (if you want to use all those additional cards.)
I would go after the most available sATA ports on the MoBo (gamer MoBos, however more expensive, have usually 6+sATA ports), rather then using add-on sATA cards.
Also I dont recommend sATA cards, but HBA-s instead. (they have to be flashed to IT mode though…)

Thanks in advance for your advice!
[/quote]

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Thanks fot the advice, found it, seems to enabled, so its either the cpu or vga port. So i think ill upgrade.

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Thank you for the feedback. IM going to look at upgrading the CPU and MOBO. I have decided to try and get an AMD CPU.

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Probably upgrade Is the better choice, avoiding headache later. This problem on the VGA can be really nothing important ( like the port Is phisically broken), or the beginning of something worst will happen to CPU/mainboard.
You can always resell old parts you don’t need to increase the budget!

In your place, i would evaluate some server grade used parts: going some generation behind price are very affordable, and Hw will fit a lot better than repurpose new desktop parts

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That is a good idea.
Buy ECC RAM for this application!
And maybe an AMD CPU with built in GPU (It is called APU at AMD).

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…minding that AMD APUs do NOT support ECC RAM unless they are “PRO”.
But desktop 7000/9000 CPUs now include an iGPU and generally support ECC.

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I am not sure about server grade parts…
If he is a beginner in this field, it could be really intimidating to find out anything about it.
I use Cheap Chinese Xeon motherboards with Ivy Bridge to Haswell generations (LGA2011 socket.) They got really dirt cheap in the last about 1 year. (I bought an E5-2696 v2 for less than 50 EUR a month ago, and you can easily buy 128GB DDR3 ECC for around 100 EUR. Also a suitable X79 MoBo for like 56 EUR. All this together is the price of a cheap gaming motherboard for the current consumer grade machine.)
But, this is not everybody’s cup of tea I think.
The only things missing from those are the IPMI and the buili in VGA.
But I bought like half a dosen of those cheap, PCIe 1x VGA cards with zero 3D support. I only use them during the OS install.
After that I usually switch over to SSL, WebUI or X2go, depending on the application.

18

OK, thank you for the correction.
I never checked out this in detail, I only heard that AMD supports ECC in general.

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I have considered in the past those parts, as you mentioned nor for the ecc support and for the affordable price… But at the end i was a bit scared about power consumption, most of mainboard have only 4 SATA and just 1 Pci-ex slot… What could be the game changer for me was the possibility to run headless, but couldn’t be sure of that, so i opted for something else.
But if i understand well from you experience, they can!
Also, the integrated Realtek didn’t give you any problem? Didn’t you replace It with an Intel one?

Just for say, actually on AliExpress there Is a 1356 xeon V2 with mainboard - 16gb ecc RAM at 45€… At this price, IMHO someone that want build a cheap backup Nas should really consider It.

Hardware i have in both my Nas isn’t much different from desktop boards… But probably because are more “workstation” than server oriented… Btw for my use case are perfect, i don’t have ipmi and honestly i don’t miss (1 can run headless, i put a VGA on It on need, the other have and aspeed integrated VGA that can run Windows too :smile: )

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I think, the 1356 socket is really outdated by now.
YOu should aim for the lga2011-3 socket instead. (the Xeon v3 and v4 CPU-s. They are 3-4 genertions newer.)