I am looking to build a new NAS for my plex media library and here are the specs.
CPU: Intel Core i5 13400
Mem: 32gb DDR5 SO DIMM
MoBo: Topton 8-Bay NAS Motherboard
Case: JONSBO N2 or N3
SSD: One for boot, one for read cache
HDD: 2x 20TB Seagate Exos (or IRONWOLF PRO had problems with ironwolfs failing on me in the past)
SFX PSU: Any decent cheap one
Cooler: Any decent low profile cheap one
I am really looking to reduce the size of my massive fractal define R4 case with over 10 year old parts (i7-4790k etc)
I was wondering what would be best:
Switching to AMD AM5 for ECC capability but lose quick sync?
I hated buying the same size HDD over and over again for truenas, should I now go with unraid?
If I go with unraid - does it support SSD caching like ZFS on truenas?
I’m a big fan of the Jonsbo N3. I was able to fit a mini-dtx motherboard in mine so I can have an HBA and a GPU at the same time. Also it’s got a backplane that has activity LEDs of the appropriate brightness while the N2 doesn’t.
Be careful with ECC support on AMD, a good portion of the AM5 motherboards that claim ECC support don’t actually do what you are expecting when you hear that they support ECC; then again, with DDR5 side-band ECC support isn’t as important as it once was since on-die ECC is included by default. The on-die ECC won’t warn you of a failing DIMM though like “real” ECC does.
Also idle power is pretty bad with the chiplet AM5 CPUs. In the past we could run socketed monolithic APUs to fix this problem but it appears that AMD has disabled ECC support for all the more recent socketed APUs.
Completely agree with everything you wrote, except the “PRO” APUs do support ECC (e.g. Ryzen 7 PRO 8700G)
I believe Exos/Ironwolf Pro are basically the same hard drive with different firmware prioritising noise for NAS over raw performance. Consider also toshiba enterprise drives, mine have been working great and they are the lowest cost in my area. They are a bit noisier than the seagate ones though.