First TrueNAS build - hardware review

I’ve got an older 4 bay synology (918+ 8G ram- currently 2 mirrors of 2x12T drives and both volumes almost full) and while I’ve been very happy with it, I’m not happy with Synology’s newer consumer offerings. TrueNas scale seems like the way to go to me but I could use some help reviewing my overall plan and taking any hardware suggestions.

This will be for home use, most plex and some other light containers. Maybe 1 linux vm that’s mostly idle. I’d expect to transcode no more 2 streams at once but would like quicksync for that. It will live in a wall mount 20" deep rack.

Bulk media and workstation backups will go on 4x 26T spinning disks in raidz2. I think at some point in the future I can expand this by adding 2 more disks? I’d like to put vm’s/containers on like 2x 2Tnvme’s mirrored. Boot off random small ssd.

Due to the putting it in my short wall rack, I’m looking at micro atx boards. ECC sounds like a good idea since I will be storing my data on this unit as well. 32G minimum, 64G depending on price. Plenty of sata ports is preferred on board to avoid needing a hba. 10G port or sfp+ cage too, it’ll be plugged into my existing 10G network.

I’m looking at boards like the E3C246D4U2 and they still seem quite expensive for something that’s getting a bit old (not to mention several quirky behavior posts about them) and imagine there’s some less power hungry newer options.

What should I really be looking at mobo/cpu/memory wise for this build?

I recently picked up a slightly different version of that same motherboard to upgrade my TrueNAS server and have been VERY happy with it. I picked up the E3C246D4U2-2T, a E-2174G CPU and 64 GB memory (expanded after purchase to 128 GB) for $325 used. Pretty good upgrade from what I was previously running. Keep your eyes open for used stuff and you can find a deal out there.

Why do you think that a E3C246D4U is “power hungry”?
A board with IPMI and a 10GBase-T NIC will use somewhat more power than a consumer board, but you get what you pay for…

The corresponding X11SSH board retails for double the price of these E3C246D4U2-T, without 10G, when you can find one.