Need help picking cpu and motherboard

TrueNAS General
1

Hi, I need assistance choosing the CPU and motherboard for a NAS that I plan to create using TrueNas and ZFS . It’s only going to be used for storage; no Docker or virtual machines. The only applications that will use this NAS are jellyfin (up to 4 clients), git, perforce, nextcloud, immich, and duplicacy (5 devices) from my other server. I only have 1 gig of networking. Thanks.

EDIT: preferably using intel cpu and available brand new. I can’t buy on ebay. Thanks

2

You killed most cheap server-grade options we usually suggest, but there are a few things you can work with… what’s your budget?

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This is a great low power file server oriented board. Up to 22 SATA drives. Has SFP+ for the future. Etc. But large.

4

Great board, but good luck finding that new! :stuck_out_tongue:

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In stock at around $550 or so…

6

Lucky 'mericans!

7

In the EU, ask Anafra if they can actually get hold of one…

8

thanks for the suggestion, my budget is around $1500 cad (so around $1000 usd) for the whole build, not including the hdds. What would you recommend that’s not a server grade. I’m from Canada and most supermicro motherboard is always out of stock here.

9

If you can’t find Supermicro, go for server boards from AsRock Rack, Gigabyte or Asus…
There’s no point avoiding “server-grade” hardwarea when building a server—and you have a comfortable budget for it.

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Apologies for being ignorant but wiredzone wont ship to you??

11

Yeah, this stuff isn’t typically hard to get at all, it just doesn’t show up next to 31337 G4M3R nonsense very often, which obscures its real availability.

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You can buy Supermicro from Newegg.ca, or possibly directly from Supermicro US:
https://www.newegg.ca/p/pl?d=supermicro

13

That’s not to say the board is the perfect one, it’s simply a choice if all you want something file server oriented with lots of expansion room.

If a more performant board is needed or you want to be able to upgrade the CPU at some point, there are other choices. This is simply a suggestion I like for a file-server oriented application that matches a low core count with a high clock speed for good SMB performance.

14

For something that is very very flexible, look no further than the x11spm-tpf which offers a removable CPU on board SFP+, several PCIe slots and so on. Price point not that different (but likely higher) from the other file server board, depending on what CPU you choose.

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Much higher performance could be obtained form a X11SPM or a X11SRM, but higher power and complete overkill for a simple file server.

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Those platforms are my go to suggestion for the folk who are convinced they need a super computer. :smiley: There are more options out there from SuperMicro and others that are file oriented but which use smaller CPUs. The company develops motherboards for pretty much every addressable market.