Hi all,
I’m building my first NAS/home server and i’m searching recommendations for a mATX motherboard and CPU (with integrated graphics).
I’ve chosen the Sagittarius 8-bay as a case, which has limited CPU cooler clearance (i decided to use a SFX instead of a ATX PSU to gain a little bit more space for the cooler).
I will put inside a two slot GPU and for storage I’m going to use a couple of 16Tb Seagate Exos (sata), a couple of 1Tb HDDs and a 500Gb Sata SSD.
As OS i will go with UNRAID (it’s easy to get started, maybe in the future when i have more confidence move to proxmox + truenas).
Hardware Requirements:
mATX motherboard with at least 2 PCIe slots (one for GPU, one for SATA controller) and IOMMU support
CPU with integrated graphics for transcoding
Compatible with compact cooler
Intended Use:
Jellyfin
Home Assistant
Nextcloud
Immich
Tailscale
Local AI (LLM for Home Assistant, occasional Stable Diffusion)
VMs for experiment with stuff (there will be at least a couple of VMs with minimum two core each)
Looking for a good balance between performance and idle power consumption (i’m in Europe and unfortunately electricity is expensive) . Anyone have experience with similar setups?
Thanks in advance!
P.S.: Recommendations for coolers are also welcome.
Welcome to the forum, that sounds like it’ll be a nice setup.
I just recently completed my home server upgrade/build that utilizes an ITX motherboard and a socket LGA1200 CPU. I went with an i5-12600, a six core 12 threaded chip that has excellent single thread performance, coupled with a solid iGPU for transcoding. The cooler is a Thermalright AXP90 X47, which is a 4 heat pipe low profile copper cooler and it’s only $34 from BezosMart. I’m not sure what the height limit is for that case and PSU you’ve selected.
Thank you for sharing your build experience! The i5-12600 seems like a great choice and I appreciate the cooler suggestion as well - the Thermalright AXP90 X47 looks like a solid option for a low-profile setup.
However, I’m specifically looking for recommendations for a mATX motherboard since I need the extra PCIe slots. The ITX form factor would be too limiting for my needs. Would you happen to have any suggestions for a compatible mATX motherboard?
I don’t have any experience with IOMMU, therefore it’s difficult to recommend a motherboard with that functionality but it seems most pro level boards might employ it. Additionally, since you don’t explicitly indicate what CPU (or generation) you want to run, it’s also difficult to recommend anything.
If you haven’t already checked it out, PcPartsPicker will be your friend for filtering motherboards based on your needs.
I’ve been watching and slowly planning too. I think one important thing is the intention to run some application VMs in addition to just NAS features. If you wanted just NAS then it would be silly to go with more powerful CPUs.
I think I am in the same boat as you with planning.
Because I am silly and willing to spend more than I should, I am thinking of using one of the more modern Ryzen non-X variant CPUs on a consumer MoBo that can handle some server type features such as ECC ram and give at least six sata ports.
Maybe Taichi Lite and a Ryzen 9 7900(non-x) 12c/24t processor. If I would need more PCIe slots there are more capable MoBos up to something like the ProArt. But I would rather stick with the more economical on the MoBo front if I could. Sata ports could be a factor on the board choice unless I want to use a pci sata board.
Thanks everybody for your suggestions!
I decided to go with the i5 12600 ( I bought a i5 12600K because here is cheaper but i will reduce its power to 65W) 6P and 4E core are ok at the moment for my application and Thermalright AXP90 X47 (full copper version) for the cooler (i looked around online and i think it’s the best for the space that i have)
As for the Motherboard i decided to go with ASUS TUF Gaming B760M-E D4, it has enough PCIe slots and it comes with 2.5Gb ethernet.
So my full build will be:
GPU: GTX 1060 (using this because i already have it and it was lying around doing nothing)
HDDs: 2 Seagete Exos x18 16Tb, 2 1Tb
SSD: 1 500Gb Samsung Sata
PSU: be quiet! SFX Power 3 450W
OS: Unraid
Case Fans: ARCTIC F12 PWM PST
As for the controller to have the 8 Sata outputs, I’m still thinking about what to choose. If you have any suggestion let me know!
I decided to stick with the i5 12600K because here in Italy Ryzen APU are more expensive.
I’m still waiting for all the components to arrive (in particular the case because it’s from China). As soon as I complete it I will share the photos too.
I’m curious why you decided to actually get an external GPU. The iGPU of the i5-12600 should be fast enough for basic stuff (similarly for the Ryzen APU’s - plus the Ryzen APU’s come with a low-ish profile cooler). I feel like you can probably skip the additional GPU.
For your NAS/home server build, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G paired with a B550M motherboard (like the MSI B550M Mortar or ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-PLUS) offers the best balance of performance and power efficiency. The 8-core CPU with integrated Vega graphics handles transcoding well while providing enough processing power for VMs and local AI tasks, all at a reasonable 65W TDP.
Your storage configuration looks solid. Just ensure your motherboard has enough SATA ports or plan for that PCIe SATA controller. With UNRAID’s flexibility, you’ll be able to easily manage your drives and containers for Jellyfin, Home Assistant, and other services while keeping power consumption reasonable through CPU power management features and proper VM resource allocation.
Hi @erple2, I decided to use an external GPU because I already had it and unused and wanted to have the possibility to passthrough it to a vm while dedicate the iGPU to UNRAID and the containers that it will run like Jellyfin.
@RasulGreen and @erple2 Regarding the decision to use Intel i5 12600K and ASUS TUF Gaming B760M was made because when buying components in my area it was cheaper than going with a ryzen APU. Also, intel iGPUs are better supported for transcoding.
I finally built my NAS/Home server.
To connect alle the 8 HDD bays i decided to go with Fujitsu 9211-8i 6Gbps HBA LSI unlocked to be used with True Nas and Unraid.
At the moment is not operational because i had to RMA my seagate HDDs, so i have no storage .
Here are some photos of the build (The cable management is not the greatest but nobody will see it once it’s close ).
The finish of the case is not the best ( then again, it’s not a very expensive case) but I can live with it.
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