CPU/Mobo recommendation for 'new' TrueNAS ZFS build

Hi all.
Currently my main server is a 4U 3700X/64GB server running ESXi with an internal HBA passed through to a FreeBSD VM for my NAS with 8x8TB drives in RAIDZ2. It’s my main VM host aside from that. I’ve been wanting to break the NAS out to it’s own physical hardware for a long time. Before this the NAS was virtualized on a R720 with a DS4246 attached via external HBA but I had to downsize/move across country. Now that I have the space…

I’m considering building something 2U or so and can’t decide on Intel or AMD. I’ve been very happy with my 5900X after being with Intel for 10+ years and have been out of the Intel game. Naturally the Ryzen 5 5600G looks appealing. Most of my file transfers will tend to be SMB so Intel may play better here. I have (2) DS4246 shelves that will be attached to this server, along with 8x1TB SSDs for flash storage. Any suggestions on which route for CPU/Motherboard choice I should go? Thanks for reading

Edit: Forgot to mention use case. Bulk of the spinners will be media storage, along with actual ISOs and countless various other files (backups, pictures, temp storage, who knows - not important). Flash storage will be for VM backend stuff where NVMe is too small (web server, probably NVR).

Hello and welcome!

Storage server doesn’t need much CPU horsepower. Compression is really the only major burner on CPU cycles, which probably isn’t a thing when talking media storage.
AsRock Rack has some Ryzen server boards. With IPMI, on-board 10Gbit NICs and ECC support. There is even a variant with OCulink ports. Really everything you want for a server. Price and availability may vary on your local market.
I’m running the X570D4U-2L2T and we have threads for most of the AsRock Rack boards here in the forums. Feature set is unmatched, but they aren’t cheap.
But I actually payed more for my (low-midrange) x670e board than for the AsRock Rack board with 10Gbit. Different times today. So they aren’t that expensive by today’s standards.

This is a fan favorite for Ryzen server builds because of the iGPU and low cost. Keep in mind that standard APUs from AMD don’t support ECC memory. Having a display option without IPMI is a nice thing.

I’m running with a 5900x in my server, set to ECO mode. Keeps the temps and power down and is just a workhorse. 24 threads is pretty much overkill for TrueNAS, but I use compression and the VM doesn’t have all cores assigned, so this works just well.

I have no experience in running NVMe pools and can’t say what difference in CPU usage there is. I imagine compression while running NVMe and 25G+ networking and workloads may require more than 6-8 cores. I know that my quad core laptop does lz4 compression on a single NVMe just fine.

If you got the space, get some 4U chassis. 2U is very limited in space, making small diameter fans with high rpm necessary. 4U offers many more options for CPU cooler and 120mm fans for the chassis, aside from having more space in general.

Just throwing out another idea, but have you considered turning the current ESXi host into a dedicated TrueNAS and just upgrading your ESXi host instead?

And this is just a curiosity question that’s irrelevant, but what are you doing for VM storage? I had a virtualized TrueNAS once that I tried to also use as iSCSI storage for the VMs I was running on ESXi. I definitely made ESXi mad every time I booted it up.

Thanks for the welcome - been meaning to post here :slight_smile:

I figured that was the case. Originally I was planning to do an i3 when the 5600G caught my eye. ZFS LZ4 compression is basically free, and short of using an Atom @ 10Gbps encryption shouldn’t be an issue for anything modern i3/Zen and newer. While I’d love to use an ASRock Rack board it’s slightly out of the budget for this build as IPMI isn’t a hard requirement for this machine. Really would like to however - I may actually go that route to have a more proper setup pending impulse haha

The iGPU would save me a lot of headache. The current 3700X server has no GPU and the few times over the years I’ve needed to poke the BIOS or whatever else it was annoying to work with.

The 5900X is in my main desktop actually - it won’t become a server CPU anytime soon especially with how much time I put into curve optimizer - been spotting 5900X/5950X CPUs for shockingly cheap lately. Any NVMe drives will stay local to their respective server for maximum speed. The NAS server will be there for bulk storage and slightly faster flash storage over 10Gbps LAN (ideally).

Big upside to the rack being in the garage on the first floor - you only hear it when you go out there :slight_smile: - 2U would make quite the cramped space. I already have a Thermaltake low profile cooler capable of 65W TDP which will fit inside a 2U chassis - it’s mostly the expansion cards I gotta watch out for. 3/4U might have to be a thing.

I feel like the 3700X would be wasted as a NAS CPU. I have no plans for this server to be anything other than a NAS. Any VMs/containers will be a separate server. The board on the other hand has all the expansion I require - and may very likely become the NAS motherboard. It’s a GIGABYTE B550 AORUS PRO AC - generous amounts of PCIe for a desktop board. Pending how I go about this - may get a 5600G and stick it in this board with 64GB of RAM and figure out a case from there.

At present for my VM storage - it’s been a local datastore directly on the server. Originally it was a hardware RAID card with 4x400GB Intel SSDs but I recently retired those for 2x1TB NVMe drives. I’m planning to switch to XCP-ng from VMware/ESXi for my main home server. While I love VMware - I’ll leave that to my R720/R620. Been wanting to play with other hypervisors for a while and XCP-ng seems to be pretty great.

Thank you both for your replies. Going to be poking around the Internet tonight for some deals and starting to build some lists. As it sits - all 3 of my expansion cards could fit into a 2U case as they have half height brackets…somewhere…in a box but I’ll think about it.

I mean, so is a 5600G. :stuck_out_tongue:

6c/12t and iGPU :stuck_out_tongue: - this is kinda why I’m still considering Intel. I have a feeling 4c/8t low power will be perfect for this build.

All modern Ryzens support ECO mode, so you can get your 65W TDP for any Zen3/4. With IPMI, iGPU is irrelevant unless you need to encode stuff with it.

For something like TrueNAS, you might want to try playing with serial consoles.

An option as well could be a 7600 - they are starting to come down in price though still a few bucks more than equivalent AM4:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 7600 $219.99
Motherboard Gigabyte B650M DS3H $149.99
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 2x16 GB DDR5-5200 CL40 $89.99
Total $459.97

Compare this to AM4, a bit pricier but not unreasonably so:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5600G $137.99
Motherboard Gigabyte B550M DS3H $108.99
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $59.99
Total $306.97

And heck, lets look at the 13100 system too:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Core i3-13100 $109.99
Motherboard Gigabyte B760M DS3H $119.99
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $59.99
Total $289.97

So, up to you if you want the big boi or not, but I would say it is a bit too pricey but not a pipe dream anymore.

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The z390 Taichi was nice. Tons of SATA and 3 NVME. You could put a cheap 8th gen i5 in it. It should do everything, and if you keep an eye out, it will be cheap. They do an x570 as well though, if you want AMD. I think they are $230-270. It will rtake that 5600G.

I personally like the Synology setups, even though they cost a small fortune. They just work. The multiple NIC’s are nice as well. That said, they are foolishly expensive. I currently have five 2tb hard drives shoved in my machine for cheap storage, so I am clearly not one to talk, but having worked with semi-pro NAS hardware, it is really nice. I would be searching for a cheap old atom-based cold storage board with a gazillion SATA ports, but I suspect you need something more sophisticated.

I would be hunting down something used like this:

It might be useful to be able to out in a pair of PCIe x8 cards e.g. one HBA so you can attach the disk shelves, and another one for a cheap 40Gig nic.

The particular Intel and AM5 boards just don’t have the slots – and are a bad choice… but there’s filters on PC part picker and there’s boards that do feature the slots in similar price range.

The big question in my mind is do you want a network console?

Maybe add a PiKVM, or maybe add something like this:

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=PAUL

…or

Maybe grab an ASRockRock board with a KVM already integrated?


The C2750 is just ancient, and other versions are pointlessly expensive for the performance… avoid the whole product line these days.

Oh, for sure. I was trying to do an apples-to-apples comparison, if you need something better than the DS3H, which to be fair is a pretty basic consumer board, then go ahead.

Thank you all for your insight into my question. Ultimately I decided to go with a Ryzen 5 5600G. From what I can tell as mentioned earlier eco mode should accomplish what I need and I know the platform much better than Intel’s current offerings. Onboard video is a must - it was the biggest shortcoming of my 1st Ryzen based server. Managed to snag the CPU used for a decent price - already have a HSF, picked out a MSI PRO B550-VC (4x 16x length PCIe slots, 2 NVMe, 8 SATA) and have 64GB of DDR4 3200 ready to go. Thanks again

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