Help choose MB and CPU for my first DIY NAS

TrueNAS General
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Hello,

I am new here. Would like to ask you help me choose right mb and cpu. I did read quite a lot, browsed eshops checked benchmarks however as I dont really do these things, cannot really see the connection between hw capabilities and sw requirements and efficiency (from NAS point of view - simply not buying something unnecessarily powerful (electricity hungry) or weak)

What I want to build:
I would like to have NAS which would sync with my notebooks (NBs) and mobile. If possible, I would like to have the files accessible online as well. Do not own TV, so if I would be watching anything, than it would be on phone or nb. Regarding software, I am really new into this, but from what I learned so far, I would try TrueNAS (because of ZFS) heard syncthing is great as well, so I would need as well to learn how to run apps in docker in TrueNAS. With that, I dont really know what else I would run on that, I thought about my own Rust server (if that would be good idea from the point of security to have it on NAS), AIs suggested me wireguard as mean of connection to my NAS from outside (didn`t dive into that yet)… Now I am not sure, what MB to use. Do not want to make the post too long, I have my excel with options I came up with form AIs discussions and what is available on eshops (middle Europe i3 14100T is what I am most inclined into vs China N305 SoC mb) (using AIs - more or less giving all models same prompt and seeing how they would corelate or not, as I dont really have people around me to help me with this).

What I already have:
CASE: I already have case - sagittarius was my pick eventually. I will manufacture dust filters otherwise it looks perfect to me. With that comes limits:
HDDs: 12TB RED Western Digital

LIMITATIONS:
55mm total height of CPU (if PSU is installed, as there are SoC MBs with adapters..)
mATX or ITX MB format
money - if there is reason to buy it I will buy it, I would like to buy something which will server me for some time…

What I want:
Help :smiley:
If someone please could help me, either steer my thinking into right direction, if I am not looking into whole this correctly or help me choose appropriate motherboard, cpu, or even PSU after those two are selected?

Thank you for your help!

Extra (background):
I got confused quite a lot, from what I read, many people (and AIs) commenting about C states how even sometimes those low power CPUs as N100 or N305 had trouble to go into lower C states… Then that it would be better to use actual branded MB (read on reddit that Gigabyte and ASUS have best BIOS for setting up things to achieve low C states easily) Then .. Although I found ASUS B760M PLUS WIFI II as best candidate (3x M.2 and 4x SATA) I learned that all those extra controllers etc would actually make electricity consumption higher and could block lower C states … Found one server like as well ASUS Pro Q670M-C-CSM (1x M.2 and 6x SATA) for similar money, not sure if that would be good / better idea to buy. I found it beneficial for sever M.2 slots as you could buy extensions, make SSD running system to be as well on RAID1 etc… but that all might not be worth it considering other benefits when choosing different MB.. I just got lost into not sure what to actually pick

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2 of the best boards, server grade, for a NAS are IMO still
Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F

Or the
ASRock Rack E3C246D4U2-2T
https://www.ebay.com/itm/397699841422

2 Likes
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Hello, thank you for your reply. Honestly, I couldn`t figure out according to what I should be choosing MB and CPU. Could you please expand your answer? What are the properties I should be looking for when choosing MB and CPU and why those two, you named?

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Server boards are made to be run 24/7. Gaming boards are not.

Server boards have features such as IPMI/BMC which allows you to remotly manage your server over the network as if you would have a monitor/keyboard/ mouse connected.

Server Boards support ECC RAM.

The 2 above mentioned have 2x 10G ethernet on board from Intel. Gaming boards often have crappy networking solutions from realtek.

The 2 boards come with 6 and 8 SATA ports.

Server boards have usually very discreet IOMMU groups, making it easy to pass through devices to VMs.

The X10SDV can bifurcate its PCI slot down to 4x4x4x4. So you could put a 4x NVME carrier card in there.

They are both older boards. But for a NAS you want it stable. You are not chasing FPS in a game.

As for the CPU: I like ECC support and low Idle power. TDP is not that important, as a home NAS will be mostly idle.
The X10SDV comes with a low idle power 4 core CPU on the board, but no iGPU.
The ASROCK Rack can take a i3 9100 (supports ECC and has a iGPU) or a Xeon E 22xx(G). G = iGPU

8 Likes
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Thank you very much for your replies. Yes, IPMI was something I liked, when I found out about it.

I guess, for similar money(used supermicro from China), it beats options I considered/found? with no ecc or no IPMI as

ASUS Pro Q670M-C-CSM

asus page link for the board

or this N305 from amazon?

N305 SoC

The board should fit into my case, ITX format is compatible with Sagittarius case, it has 55mm height limit for CPU cooler and Sagittatrius has 55mm limit height. AI suggested me to buy that mb with active or pasive cooler (if pasive add Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM) and if noisy, substitute the fan for that.(Sorry just don`t want to run into troubles so just want to confirm)

I found that board used from China on ebay. Brand new is pretty expensive :confused: Would you (anyone reading this and has experience) recommend buying that supermicro used board from China?

ebay Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F

Also it says it doesn`t have iGPU. Would that be a problem? From what I learned, it is good to have it for transcoding, but that is not requirement if you use proper player or when target machine supports the video format. I don`t fully understand the problem/necessity of transcoding. Would that be some kind of limitation or I do not need to worry for me to be able to browse and play media from my NAS if I would like to when proper software is used /I see jellyfin everywhere in the answers from AIs). Although I mostly watch things from streaming services/pages I guess I will be interested in videos/photos/files I have saved from time to time.

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In the thread I linked in my first reply, you will find a ton of info by me and also more experienced forum members concerning the X10SDV.

Me and @dan both ordered one from ebay china. Others chimed in aswell. Read everything.

No, you dont need a GPU if your devices support the video resolutions natively.

And you must strap a fan on the passive heatsink. Or the CPU will overheat instantly.

Only problem is the RAM prices. You need DDR4 ECC RDIMM. Got my 128GB for 170USD back in october '25 – now its 800 :face_without_mouth:. But 32GB should be enough.

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I personally enjoy having a gpu to transcode, works better imo & is basically a must for tone mapping hdr content for sdr playback.

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RAM price is an issue, but DDR4 RDIMM is proabably “less bad” than other options (except for DDR3 RDIMM).
The question is: How many drives do you plan to use? Up to 6, a X10SDV is ideal. For 8, a C2x6 board is more indicated.

1 Like
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Currently only 2 HDDs with 12 tb capacity. Probably later I will find use of more hdds. I am all new into this so this right now the scale I am thinking about. I bought 8 bay HDD case Sagittarius so I have a reserve space for more in the future.

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this is something I don’t really understand. What is transcoding and how much I really need to have it/use it in real use?

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I will read it, was a bit busy now. Thank you for your help!! I wondered would it be ok to use cheaper DDR 4 or DDR 5 rams for now? I read/understood that about it 8gb or 2x8tb should be sufficient for now

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You need to choose RAM that is compatible with the mainboard/cpu.

The two above mentioned need DDR4 RAM. The X10SDV needs RDIMM the AsROCK Rack UDIMM.

You dont need DDR5 for a home NAS. Even DDR1-400 RAM has a bandwith of 3.2 GB/s. So almost triple that of a 10G network.

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Transcoding is used either to consume less bandwidth when playing back content or when the device playing the content can’t support the native codec.

So it’ll either save your upload speeds from being hammered, or let you play content that some devices may not be able to run without it.

Another example is hdr content; maybe you want to play it back on a laptop that only has an sdr display, without tone mapping you’ll get trash tier washed out colors.

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What is a gaming board, one with RGB?

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I would consider anything without IPMI/BMC and with 2.5G/5G LAN, Wifi, Soundchip, RGB, no ECC support, “cool” name in the discription etc a “gaming” board.

Basically anything not from Supermicro, AsRock Rack or server Gigabyte. Plus of course Dell server/ HP server etc