Running SMB shares, plex server in jail, pihole on ubuntu vm.
Im looking to add Zoneminder with some IP cameras to my server, and maybe also some kind of steam library or cache later. So far it has been working well, haven’t noticed any proplems. However I’m a bit concerned if the cpu will handle the increased load.
I`ve been thinking of update in about 500$ category. Maybe Ryzen 7 1700, 2x16Gb DDR4 3000 CL16 sticks, some basic X470 mobo like Asus Prime. Would this be good idea? Or would it be better pay littlebit more for 2700 even when they both have 8c/16t? Any other options or suggestions?
hydrian: ECC would be a nice addition definitely and thats one of the reasons why I was thinking Ryzen. I guess in my use case lower ram speeds with ecc wouldnt be a problem.
mutation666: Im planning to add 1-2 purple drives for continous writes of zoneminder, current drives are ironwolf for storage. Only mirror because I dont need that much space currently, only redundancy. Case was designed ready for expansion, so I would like hardware to be also. Im located in Finland so prices are a bit higher and supply for used harfware is limited, but 1700/b450 is findable, ecc ram would require calling through some companies who recycle enterprice gear.
Adubs: Yea future proofing is what I’m going for. Buying hardware is best part of the hobby and experience.
To echo points above your CPU and system board choice are not going to hold you back, but if you are looking to keep the power bill down I’d look at low power CPU like an e series Ryzen or a g series “APU”. You can always beef it up later if you need more transcoding grunt.
Given your intended use cases you would be better investing in more disks for your pools:
for the IP cameras get dedicated ‘low and slow’ storage like WD purple. Definitely keep it separate from your other data as the cameras write data continuosly, you don’t want to churn the drives with read and writes at the same time regularly.
For steam cache this can sit in your main pool but if you are planning to run the library directly off the array then you may want a separate pool, possibly SSD based, and some traffic shaping or fast ethernet.
For the main pool, depending on age of your 4TB disks it may be time to start fresh with some RAIDZ goodness and get all the benefits of freenas. I did something similar and moved my old 2TB drives to be the pool for my IP cameras.
So far I haven’t seen any Ryzen E on used market here. New 2700E would be about 400usd so used 1700 for maybe 100usd would leave quite a bit of money for electricity bills. (Edit: undervolting 1700 or 2700 would be an option also) Havent done the math tho…
For steam I need to go for cache first because my main pc only has 1GbE to the switch.
Its not a problem for me to add more 4tb ironwolves and rebuild current mirror to raidz, as I have offsite backups I can use when rebuilding. Just need to update those.
Future proofing is an exercise in futility. Buy what you need and upgrade it if you need. A 3200g would fit here better than a 1700 would imo. Unless you were given the 1700 you’d be better off with something smaller but in a way faster.
Unless you’re planning on making use of bhyve and/or a bunch of jails, I don’t see why a 1700 is a good buy. A single steamcache isn’t going to stress this server. It’s a waste of cores.
Yea in my mind it wouldnt be worth buying new cpu+mobo+ram and gaining only computing performance, going from quad to quad. Might as well add few cores and ecc while paying about the same amount. 1700 maybe has lower single thread performance than 3200g but both are hefty upgrade in that matter for A10-5800k. Right?
Like I wrote Im already running fileserver, plex server, bhyve ubuntu vm, and planning currently to add zoneminder jail. I have a feeling that adding cores is a way to go if I want to have headroom for other vms or anything else in the future. Might not be urgently needed, but in the next upgrade cycle anyway when getting rid of FM2 stuff. Maybe I wait for next summer Ryzen 4000 AM5/DDR5 and try to then grab reasonably priced used 3700 with mobo+ram or something similar.
I don’t personally feel like ecc is an absolute necessity. If it was an Enterprise setup then sure but you’re probably not buying a consumer part for that either.
That a10 would get stomped by a dual core at this point. I run a quad core on my nas without issue. If you’re buying into cores just because more cores then sure but I’m fairly certain buying more than 4 cores for your setup is buying because you want, not because you need… Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If you want to spend more money, it’s certainly yours to spend.
We need to remember im paying roughly 100e for mobo and 200e for ram, in addition to the cpu price.
3200g would be about 390e and seems to be about 55% faster in single core performance and 99% in 8core load. Imo thats not so much for the price. I guess part of the price is going to vega graphics which wont be used anyway.
1700 would be about 400e, and would be +48% and +246%
3600 would be about 500e with +92% and +278% gains so I guess this would actually be the best upgrade.
Performance % I looked from cpu.userbenchmark.com. They might not be 100% real world representation of my load, but gives a perspective. All of these are 65w tdp so im guessing the powerdraw in idle is roughly the same with same mobo and ram. G model would benefit little from not needing discrete gpu, but those can be found for very little money. Some old passively cooled GT520 is fine i guess. At the same time I would lose ECC. I have no idea how useful it would be, havent had any problems with current setup and basic hyper x memory. Normal memory i could get faster for same price so i guess its a matter of reliability vs max performance. Maybe pay littlebit more for faster cpu and gain performance to sacrifice for ecc?
None of the CPU performance metrics are that important as your loads will never max it. Your best bet is to minimise spend on the CPU and put more into ram and storage (Inc controllers). Remember you want 24*7 stability so actually less performance is better as it will run cooler. I like the idea of undervolting the 1700. Spend more on the motherboard if you can as having extra stability and more IO options may be worth spending the extra €.
Unless you are using the GPU for Plex acceleration you would be better off running headless and keeping power levels and heat out of the chassis.
Yeah i was actually looking at x470 taichi or something similar from asus. I read that asrock gives a lot of options in bios for consumer ryzen, including unbuffered ecc support for all boards, while other manufacturers seem to lock features out from lower end boards. My current main pc has gigabyte x470 aorus ultra gaming, and there for example ecc is not supported. My personal experience is quite limited tho… I only have one asrock fm2a88x-itx+ at the moment and no other a88 boards to compare to. Bios is definitely better with more options than lower end asus a85.
That is always the answer I am expecting from someone when I bring it up. And that’s fine. It’s still true though and a piece of information that should be included if you recommend a part like that.
Completely useless up to the point when it might save your data.
I will always go ECC for NAS setups because storing data and keeping that data intact is it’s only (or at least main) purpose.
One extra layer of protection vs. saving a couple bucks in overall cost?
Not even a question for me.
It is recommended for a reason. ZFS is relying on the data in RAM to be correct. If that isn’t the case anymore, not even ZFS can help you.
It’s not necessary to run on winter tires to drive in the cold. It is recommended though because it might save your ass and in the overall cost of running a car it is not that big of a deal. Same thing here.
Look, you can live as dangerous as you want and I can go chicken every time and we might both be fine. The main thing I wanted to get across is that the choice for or against ECC should at least be given. Otherwise recommending a chip that simply doesn’t support it without mentioning that … is just bad advice.
Ironically I went for ECC in my latest freenas rebuild because it was the cheapest way to get 64gb ram. Got a sweet deal on some used RDIMMS that were compatible with my x79 board. But before that I ran for years on normal unbuffered cheapo dimms on my sandybridge system. I’d never recommend spending extra on ECC, but if it is price equivalent or gives you options then go for it.
Im located in Finland so prices are a bit higher and supply for used harfware is limited, but 1700/b450 is findable, ecc ram would require calling through some companies who recycle enterprice gear.
