Hello, I’d like to know the best way to figure out RAM compatibility and which of the Asrock Rack X470 or MSI MAG B550 Tomohawk will be more reliable as a NAS/VM.
Freenas virtualized on top of a hybrid of a hypervisor like ESXi or Proxmox sounds good compared to the management for ZFS and ECC from unRAID.
I can exchange my motherboard for one with ECC. I’m not sure which one, other than the Asrock Rack X470, since ECC RAM compatibility documentation is lacking from manufacturers.
If I find a B550 that supports the RAM that I want then how do I know if the memory features are being utilized? What will I be missing out if I get B550 or X570 instead, while making sure to have an Intel gigabit NIC?
Asrock Rack has several boards for that purpose, not just that old x470D4U. Check the forums …x570D4U-2L2T and X570D4I-2T being very popular here. If you want a server board without going EPYC or Xeon, there isn’t really much choice. Asrock has 10Gbit NICs, IPMI, excellent IOMMU groups and ECC just works. All you want for a (virtualized) NAS.
Other than checking memory QVL list and asking support, you don’t get much else information from manufacturers. I certainly didn’t want to do the try&error game or rely on 2yr old reddit posts with 700€ worth of memory.