TrueNAS: Intel vs AMD

TrueNAS General
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Probably many techs have their fav vendors. I have long standing vendor preferences. eg AMD > Intel.

I cannot provide a long logical list why not, & I was supporting AMD on the desktop way before the Ryzen & Epyc emergence.

I’ve been quite fascinated by the Intel Gen 13, 14 stability / temp problems.
There are many other negatives I’ve read/heard re Intel, both political & technical.

I’m running TrueNAS Community very happily on a HomeLab.

If I do manage to run larger servers, I would like to think about supporting the company behind TrueNAS & think about their Enterprise Hardware. However Enterprise Hardware offered does not include AMD. Seems their hardware is based around Intel.

That being said, Community builds (that my Brave Browser AI reports to me) include very successful Threadripper builds. Threadripper is a good combo/compromise betw Ryzen & Epyc.

I suspect Threadripper would be an interesting CPU for a TrueNAS build.
I suspect Epyc would be an interesting CPU for a Proxmox build.

Will Enterprise Hardware become more CPU agnostic, or does TrueNAS consider Intel a strategic partner?

Help me refine my NAS build ideas
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The CPU is not that important for a good NAS. It’s the things around.
A pure NAS intended as a pure storage device doesn’t need much computing power. It needs:

  • good NICs
  • good storage interfaces (SAS, SATA, NVME)
  • many PCIe lanes to support this
  • Remote Management (IPMI)
  • ECC Memory

It’s the difference between desktop/workstation systems and server hardware.
And you see: the CPU doesn’t show up in my list - at least not directly. There are dedicated chips for use in a NAS - e.g. the Intel Cxxxx series. Low power, built-in Dual 10G Ethernet, built-in 12-channel SATA. No wonder why companies like Synology use them.

EPYC systems are often used for NVME only storage. With 128 lanes each a Dual-CPU system could have 64 NVME disks.
Example

Bottom line: you are focussing the wrong parts.

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We use both Intel and AMD in our TrueNAS Enterprise products, depending on what the goals of the system build are and what we’re trying to connect to (both internally and externally)

It starts to become more important as you’re chasing the higher levels of performance, especially when you’re considering single-client (consider Amdahl’s law in relation to multithreading) but yes, there’s often other factors for a home build that will kick in first and influence the choice of CPU.

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I have a strong contrarian streak in me. I think it’s the way the underdog tries to innovate that always intrigues me. A couple years ago it was AMD’s chiplets and higher core counts that I found interesting and I have a bunch of those systems currently. However, I’m super interested in Intel’s BIG/little thing and want to play with it more, but just haven’t wanted to drop the money on it. That and my 5800X3D is still really good, so I feel no need to upgrade.

In the business context, I’m team value for money. Whoever gives me the most bang for the least of my bucks is the one that usually gets those bucks.

Though with welders, I’m increasingly shying away from the cheaper stuff and shifting to the larger names of Lincoln Electric and Miller. Value for dollar isn’t just at the time of purchase, the machine longevity needs to be considered too. That and availability of replacement parts when that machine gets older. Good luck getting parts for the mystery welder that’s 30 years old, but you need something for a Lincoln you can probably get it. Won’t always be cheap, but you can get it.

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I started off years ago, preferring AMD primarily from an Under-Dog perspective.

As I said, I’ve preferred AMD since before the Ryzen & Epyc generations.

I was sad that Intel dominated the server space so completely.

Then the balance tipped & Epyc started completely dominating the server space. It’s been fascinating to watch the emergence / maturing of AMD. They were “left in the dust” previously.

However, I’m NOT referring to HomeLab NAS build here. I would NOT build a HomeLab TrueNAS using Threadripper. There would also be zero need to use Epyc in a HomeLab Proxmox. I’m thinking in terms of a small data-center, built for performance, not tinkering.

I currently have a HomeLab, installed TrueNAS on QNAP hardware, TS-873A, which does include an embedded AMD, can’t remember what model.

I’m aware that the processor is probably last on the last of components, and for many components, I would not have a preference for make/model/etc. However, as it happens, I’ve developed a personal aversion to Intel, for all sorts of reasons, so for my personal builds, or purchases, some sort of AMD cpu, even smaller embedded, is a requirement. From a technical perspective, Intel may actually be technically better, wrt speed vs elec use (economical) [N100, N150 in MiniPC’s w no AMD equiv?]. So my choice would actually then be personal, rather than logical. Occasionally I guess that happens in IT, especially if one doesn’t have a boss who one has to convince!

This is why I bring up the topic at all.

My Brave Browser AI informs me that TrueNAS Community has been used with Threadripper very successfully. So I do know TrueNAS is technically CPU-agnostic.

However, when I look at the history of iXsystems, even on the corp History | TrueNAS - Open Enterprise Storage page, there is a very strong partnership with Intel.

I note @HoneyBadger does include that Enterprise Hardware is not limited to Intel, so any request from mine in the future, could theoretically be accommodated.

I appreciate the contributions in this thread from everyone.

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Brave Browser AI response re AMD low power CPUs wrt NAS builds –
(I don’t even know the names/models of any of these, so can’t comment myself).

For low-power NAS builds, AMD offers several embedded processors designed for ultra-compact and energy-efficient systems. The AMD Ryzen Embedded R1102G and R1305G SoCs are specifically engineered for this purpose, featuring a 6W or configurable 8W–10W TDP, respectively.
These chips include two Zen cores with or without simultaneous multithreading, AMD Radeon Vega 3 graphics, 1 MB L2 cache, 4 MB L3 cache, and dual 10 GbE ports, making them suitable for small but capable NAS systems.
The R1102G is particularly noted for its low TDP and reduced DIMM support, which simplifies system design and lowers costs.
Both models are available for a 10-year production cycle, ensuring long-term availability through 2030.

For more recent 2025 recommendations, while not embedded, the AMD Mendocino (Ryzen 7000U) series provides a good balance of low to mid-tier performance and power efficiency, though it has a slightly higher power draw than the embedded options.
The AMD Ryzen 5 4750GE is another low-power option noted for its very low idle power consumption and ECC compatibility, offering strong multi-core performance and better watt-for-watt efficiency than some Intel counterparts, though it may have a less common integrated GPU.

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I flop back and fourth between Intel and AMD. When I build a computer system, there are a lot of factors that need to be ironed out and I need to see which CPU provides both the physical/electrical connections and the heat range, and horsepower desired, plus you have to determine the motherboard at the same time. And of course the cost of the CPU and the motherboard is a factor.

I’d like to see a Cyrix run system :slight_smile:
They made very good and inexpensive CPUs and Co-Processors back in the day. These were the days when a CPU did not require a heatsink.

What about an IBM Power11 CPU, why not? We are doing ARM.

But seriously, I make my decision based on what I need and what is available at the time that fits those needs.

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Just to be clear we’re presently using AMD in several appliances - there’s no “support is coming” - support is here now. :wink:

If it’s x86-64, TrueNAS will run on it - and if you want to get experimental, ARM64 as well.

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Is there anything ARM that supports a bunch of HDDs bays?

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Anything you want, as long as you can add a HBA connected to your backplane.

Do not confuse “ARM in Raspberry Pi” with “ARM in Ampere” or “ARM in Grace”…

(By the way, I suspect that contrarians and underdog lovers should now throw their support behing Intel over AMD. EPYC 4000, 8000 and 9000 have taken over Xeon E and Xeon 6.)

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I’ve gone from Underdog Lover, to basking in the sunshine, salivating at the idea of running an Epyc.

AMD gave the IT world a real treat… so many cores were not possible previously.

PS: I suspect the current <7nm chips, will become sub 1nm, ie 500 picometers… fast, w much less power draw. Very interesting engineering in our generation, or next generation. (Human generation, not chip generation).

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I’m currently using multiple deployments of Truenas from Truenas on a Threadripper 5xxx series to on an Intel N150. Connectivity matters. For the bigger installs (tons of data) I have used Threadripper because I can find the combos of past generations (even new) reasonable priced and deploy hundreds of Tb easily over 10Gb/20Gb with IPMI at the ready. On a Threadripper I also get the benefit of installing a four way-NVME card (bifrucation) With I make into it’s own Z1 pool for scratch data.

On the N150, it’s about power consumption and tiny settings. One thing that has hurt Intel in this is that AMD’s high-power options don’t draw high power. I have a few AMD 7600X Ryzen builds running Truenas in 4U and they are fine, but Intel similar would pull too much power to be worth it for a constant on device.

As always, YMMV.

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Appreciate your insight.

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For my personal use, I started using AMD for gaming - a full tower case with a Ryzen CPU. I thought so highly of that, that I went with AMD for GPU as well - especially considering how friendly AMD is towards Linux.

I usually buy a Dell laptop every 2-3 years (tax expensed), and it’s usually the latest and greatest intel. But man have the latest ones really annoyed me. About 3 laptops back the Dell laptop had issues with USB-C outputting Display Port to my Gigabyte monitor.

I gave that laptop to my brother and then bought another one. Was a little bit better, then after about a year - it had issues. In the end I had to run it via HDMI and that meant having to buy a KVM, as I couldn’t then use the KVM in my monitor.
Thinking I just got unlucky I bought another intel laptop. Again it was fine to begin with, and then started dropping my screen out more and more. I knew it wasn’t the screen as it was doing the same thing at a remote location with a USB-C dock there.
So I said - ENOUGH!! I then bought a AMD Ryzen AI Pro 9 HX laptop and it has been rock solid. So I’m never going back.
So games rig - full AMD
Laptop - full AMD
Whatever server gear and NAS gear - if I can get my hands on AMD stuff I will certainly preference that over Intel.

I don’t know if it’s Intel fabs not delivering the quality they should, or if it’s intel’s designs, microcode or what, but i just feel like that Intel are doing a Boeing, in that the quality just isn’t there anymore. Too many issues. That’s my hot take anyway. I have shares in neither, and am not shilling/astroturfing. It’s just been my (rather limited) experience of Intel vs AMD. AMD seems like the better of the two these days.

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My two cents worth…

For TrueNAS, you are building a server, not a desktop. If you are serious about ensuring that nothing happens to your data, you want to have a motherboard that supports ECC memory with a CPU that supports ECC memory, and, of course, ECC memory.

For my recent rebuild of my TrueNAS server, it was the motherboard that dictated the CPU choice, and I have a i7-14700K running in that server. Is it overkill for what I’m doing? Probably, but it only cost me $300.

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I man after my own heart.

I haven’t had your own struggles.

I’ve stayed away from Intel since long before any known technical issues.

Before buying my latest PC (Ryzen7), I walked into a local PC store, thinking I’d try to support the guy. I asked him whether he dealt with both Intel and AMD. He replied theoretically both, but he considered Intel to be more stable. I knew that was a lie, possibly suggested by Intel. A year or so later, actual reports started to hit the press, about actual Intel instability. My response was “poetic justice”.

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Episode of TrueNAS T3 Tech Talk covering ECC Memory use in TrueNAS… Pro & Con.

From what I remember of this episode, TrueNAS internally considers ECC to be a personal preference… Bc there are other data integrity safeguards implemented by TrueNAS.

Again, if I remember correctly, one of those Data Integrity aspects is a checksum implemented in the write cache.

This episode was an eye opener to me.

BTW, i’m likely to fall in the pro-ECC camp.
However, I would demand that from an AMD-cpu board.

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@geerlingguy is your ARM expert!

Great ARM content on their Youtube

Their TrueNAS on ARM