I already have my main nas working fine and considering building a backup nas to guard against hardware failures (Important data is synced to the cloud).
The backup nas will live in my small apartment until I find a remote place for it.
I really need it to have as small of a footprint as possible.
I am also pro-ECC. I prefer a board with IPMI.
My plan is either a mirror or a 3 drive raidz1. 4 SATA ports for that (boot+raidz).
My options are:
X10SDV which is extremely expensive in the EU. I pay .15-.20 euros per kwh.
MJ11-ec1 which consumes around 30watts idle.
Maybe a Ryzen pro and an itx board? That could have ECC support although no IPMI which I really like.
What would you do if you are in my place? Should i just bite the bullet and get the mj11? Just get the over priced x10sdv? Something else?
Have you looked at the ASRock Rack servers? https://www.asrockrack.com/general/products.asp#Server
They do seem to have a decent selection of Mini-ITX, more if your selected case can support a deep Mini-ITX. Many, (maybe all), seem to support ECC RAM if the CPU does, and again many seem to support IPMI. Their are Intel and AMD choices.
Now I can’t make any recommendations for you, as you mentioned power usage. Plus, specific boards might not be available in the EU or cost significantly more. However, ASRock Rack is work a look.
Yeah but they are also around the 230 euros mark with neither CPU nor RAM. That’s if I get them from outside the EU. Locally would be even more.
The price tag hurts
I also need something with a low profile. I plan to host it remotely at some point. I don’t want people to worry about its presence.
I guess I will go for the mj11. Not the best option but it’s what is available.
If you want a complete system with a small profile, and you don’t care about performance and don’t require ECC, then the TerraMaster line is worth looking into.
It will save you the hassle of building your own custom server with separate parts.
I use a TerraMaster for my offsite cold storage backup pool.
That much???
I have not measured mine, but I’d expect less (excluding drives of course).
Otherwise, keep an eye on X10SDV offers, you’ll eventually find an opportunity at reasonable price. Include A2SDi in your search, just in case…
You can even have IPMI… if you forget “affordable”. Even then it’s still:
Mini-ITX. Server. Socketed. Pick any two.
More computing power, which you do not need for a backup server, but I’d question whether a Ryzen PRO APU and chipset will beat a MJ11-EC1 on idle power.
And if you’re going to spend >400 € on a server board, you can as well go for an Atom C3000 or Xeon D-1500.
So an update: I ordered an mj11-ec1 and some RDIMMs. Let’s hope they will work.
There is also x10sdv-4c-tln2f for 150 euros off of ebay but well, epyc seems to consume slightly less power and gives 2 extra sata ports (no need for PCIE for a backup nas).
I might still pick up the x10 to replace my main x10ssl
Quick cheat sheet for interested readers:
X10SDV-xx-TLNxF: 6 SATA, 10 GBase-T and x16 slot which bifurcates up to x4x4x4x4 for a NVMe pool for apps/VMs as main NAS, or x8x4x4 for Arc A310 dGPU and a pair of NVMe; old but decent Aspeed 2400 IPMI
MJ11-EC1: 8 SATA but 1 GbE only and that’s pretty much it; very nice Aspeed 2500 IPMI (better feature set than Supermicro!)
X10SDV : too expensive, massive CPU for nothing. if this becomes just a backup NAS of your main NAS. then even a 2C/2C CPU would be enough. also Aspeed 2400 is too old => overkill & outdated
Ryzen Pro ITX MoBo : could be cheap, A520M-ITX/ac is an option; but you lack BMC/IPMI. if you ever place this Backup NAS in a remote place then you need BMC/IPMI rather sooner than later. => no BMC/IPMI is a NOGO
MJ11-EC1 : cheap to get, BMC/IMPI on board (Aspeed 2500 ), CPU 45W and 4C/8T still more than needed, just replace CPU cooler with something bigger more quiet and you are good to go. => best option imho
), CPU 45W and 4C/8T still more than needed, just replace CPU cooler with something bigger more quiet and you are good to go. => best option imho