Motherboard replacement / upgrade for TrueNAS Mini X+?

TrueNAS General
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Hello All!

I have a TrueNAS Mini X+ that I love. I want to run Plex on it but the CPU is too old to support 4K transcoding. I have been thinking about just swapping in a new motherboard. I was hoping I could crowd source some recommendations? ECC is a requirement. Ideally I would just be able to swap out the motherboard and use the same HBA etc. that is in the system.

I also thought about dropping in an GPU but it is not clear it would be supported at Plex seems to require the Nvidia drives (not the OSS ones).

To IxSystems - I would buy a new system, but it does not look like you have upgraded the CPU offering here.

Thanks,

Sean

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Have you read Graphics Card Recommendation // TrueNAS Scale + MiniX+ - #43 by Jessendelft?

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Thanks. I am reading it now! Still thinking about changing the motherboard out if anyone has thoughts.

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I don’t know if there are any motherboard upgrades. You can read the articles on ServeTheHome as they mention newer MB & CPU models but they are making trade offs and losing some SATA connectivity. Newer models are more just for embedded appliances with low storage.
Newest to oldest.

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Looking for a recommendation for redoing my current setup
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As “mini-ITX boards for NAS applications” there are NO upgrades from X10SDV (Xeon D-1500, 6 SATA, PCIe 3.0 x16 slot) and A2SDV-H (Atom C3000, up to 12 SATA, PCIe 3.0 x4 slot). Anything newer suffers from design choices which go against storage uses.

Get a dGPU for transcoding.

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Possibly a E3C246D4I-2T
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C246D4I-2T#Specifications

or a X570D4I-2T
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4I-2T#Specifications

But i’m not sure if a proper CPU cooler would fit in the MiniX + case…

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Nothing an angle grinder couldn’t solve!

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I actually looked into this with my former Mini X+. You would need a motherboard like the ASRockRack E3C246D series, a very low-power Xeon like a E-2278GEL (35 W TDP) with QuickSync, and a very low-profile cooler, like a Noctua NH-L9i.

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…which is a potential solution for a home build, provided one can find the parts (AMD might be a safer option than a very specific, OEM-only Xeon E on a toothed-hen-rare mini-ITX C200 motherboard), but OP wanted to buy a new, updated, system.
So no luck here, and no upgrade of base hardwarein sight.

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Thanks all for all the input. I have an old 4 bay FreeNAS Mini and the current TrueNAS Mini X+. At this point I am thinking I might be better off on waiting, or just building a new system and selling the current systems on eBay to help cover the cost. The spinning rust cost is the biggest item now. I have 8x14TB drives in the X+. I wonder if the system would sell on eBay without the drives or the SLOG and L2ARC.

Going to look into picking up the Sparkle A310 card that was recommend and see how that works out for transcoding.

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thin client option for transcoding? - never done it..

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Along similar lines, here is the X570D4I-2T

Has onboard 10GbE, up to 9 SATA slots, etc. In a mini itx. If you need more data, add a HBA.

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