New Build Help 2025

TrueNAS General
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Hello everybody.

So my journey starts again on a new build I would like to start for my TrueNAS setup. My main goal here is to create a build for my small business with a 100/10 connection (hopefully more in the future) that will be running SMB and hopefully some virtualization (Plex, Jelyfin) and VMing (to access the NAS and run apps). My main goal would be to do this with a low idle power consumption (maybe 40-70w with 4 disks). I came up with a build but I would like to change the CPU + Motherboard because I would like to buy new parts only. I don’t want to get into specifics, but it is mandatory if I would like to pay less for those parts. So the options would be for me to go either really cheap on used parts or buy new but more expensive ones if I would like.

My current build right now is the following:

Thermalright AXP90-X36
Kingston Server Premier 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 CL19 Memory (€65.61)
Kingston Server Premier 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-2666 CL19 Memory (€65.61)
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB (€112.03)
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB (€112.03)
Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5900 RPM (€102.00)
Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5900 RPM (€102.00)
Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5900 RPM (€102.00)
Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5900 RPM (€102.00)
Cooler Master V550 Gold V2 550 W (€92.02)
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G (€124.00)
Gigabyte Mainboard MC12-LE0 Re1.0 (€209.90)
Asus PCIe M.2 Hyper (€67.17)

Any ideas on what I could go for? I am located in Europe.

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if you are wanting to change MB + CPU, then I would recomend the same setup I am using.

Gigabyte B550M DS3H
AMD 5700G or the 5600G

I do not know what case you have, so I dont know if the CPU fan is needed for low profile case. Anyway if so it WILL work with the cpu I gave you.

Why the asus m.2 hyper? If it is for the samsung SSD’s the B550M has 2 nvme onboard already, if you want it for expansion, then you can do that as well.

Everything else will work just fine. My idle load with 2 more 2.5 ssd’s and 6 hdds is 64 watts +/-

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That is not the first time I’m reading about your multi-case setup. It’s very interesting. Do you have an in-depth post/article about it? Would like to see how it looks, how it’s been assembled and other stuff.

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I have had several people ask, so perhaps I will make a post explaining everything.

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Do not forget the photos, please :pray:. If we wanted to read, we would go to the library.

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Thanks for the input! Does this combo support ECC Ram? What RAM sticks should I select for that?

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Most ECC DDR4 UDIMM 2400-3200 ram will work, up to 32gb per dim.

I prefer crucial, but I am also ran a-tech with no issues. You need UDIMM for ECC, RDIMM does not work.

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Mind that APUS such as the 4650G can only bifurcate x8x4x4, so support only 3 M.2 in a Hyper M.2 (or the plain equivalent carrier cards).
Otherwise good list. But paying 100 E for a 4 TB spinner… I’d go either full SSD, or for >10 TB drives.

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Low power? Maybe consider 2.5"

Cheaper? Why not 2nd hand disks? It’s ZFS, and you’ll have a backup anyway.

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Thanks for the advice man. Sadly as for the storage thing, I can’t really go any higher with 4 drives because my budget is limited right now.

Anything you could recommend me for the CPU + Motherboard other than the one @VersionZero recommended me. I would really like your input here. Every opinion counts!

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2.5" wouldn’t really worth the 50% price increase just for the sake of power consumption. I would just go for the 6TB 3.5" if I were to spend 50 euros more for each disk.

As for the 2nd hand disks, as I said in my post, I would like to go mostly if not all new. So new drives are the only option here since they cost half my build.

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I favour genuine server boards, so the MC12-LE0 looks like a good pick. At around 50-60 E last year, it would have been a clear winner.
In the same 200 E price range, there would be the AsRock Rack E3C246D4U2-2T (8 SATA, and 10GbE) with a Core i3-9100. But your conflicting requirements for “new” or “really cheap used” may not accomodate “new old stock through eBay”.

The Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 is very cheap, especially as it comes with its CPU, but its lack of expandability (8 SATA + 1 M.2, and a quirky SFF-8654-8i) may be an issue for the virtualisation part.

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Thanks man! Those could be some really good choices if I could find them for cheap. Any ideas on what CPUs I could pair with the MC12-LE0 (apart from 4650G) that I could probably find new and have low idle consumption and ECC support?

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Lowest idle power: An AM4 APU. PRO version to have ECC.
Otherwise, most desktop AM4 CPUs (except a handful of 5000, I think) unofficially support ECC, but these have higher idle power.

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Thanks a lot!

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Isn’t that the MJ11-EC1?

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Correct (and corrected post)!
The one that is available for cheap is the crippled -EC1 version. Which is fine for a pure storage NAS at 1 GbE (especially with CORE, as SCALE requires extra trickery to disable PCIe ASPM with a GRUB option) but is less suitable for a hyperconverged server.
The -EC0 and its regular, bifurcatable, x16 slot would be a better board but I have yet to see one for sale somewhere.

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Aren’t those Ironwolfs smr hdds? They won’t do for a nas.

What would you have for boot drive?
The Samsung evo’s are for the containers and VMs? They will get wear pretty fast by zfs. Switch to used enterpise ssds instead.

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No SMR in the Ironwolf line.

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