Hello everyone, I’m getting ready to build my first server (with actual server parts) and want to make sure I’m not overlooking anything. This will replace my existing i7-3770 server and will use as a NAS and running data automation tasks.
Fairly sure that TrueNAS on non bare metal isn’t “recommended” setup but feel free to try
You might want to look at a motherboard that uses Intel NICs or Mellanox, not sure if Supermicro would be my to go choice either in general but some people swear by it.
Getting 6TB drives today doesn’t make much sense unless they’re dirt cheap. Look at 12-16TB Toshiba Enterprise HDDs instead
You might want to have a look at some Marvell 88SS1074 based SSDs instead such as Sandisk Ultra 3D which usually are a bit cheaper and performs well in general than the EVO series, stay away from QVO if you care about performance.
Why are you looking at a very old PCI-X based on controller? It’s not going to work at all and if you go with 16TB HDDs you can actually skip the controller completely.
I miss read the mobo manual. I thought I had SATA or SAS, not SATA and SAS. Also, I didn’t realize I could pass-through the Lsi 3008 on board controller. So, yeah the controller is gone now.
To me it looks like you want “THE ONE” server to rule them all (been there - still happens sometimes). Let’s just give it the best CPU there is, and then it’s possible to do it all - even two server OSs.
Feel free to go ahead, but it doesn’t look like a good deal to me.
Do you need the PCIe lanes provided by the Epyc CPU? (not by your description)
Do you need the RAM capacity? (not really by your description)
A Ryzen 5950x has as much horsepower at a pricepoint that you can build two servers (a TrueNas and a Proxmox). Together they don’t use more power than the system you propose. Together they offer twice the compute capacity of the Epyc.
Look for a AM4 server board (e.g. from Asrock Rack).
Good choice dropping that controller - it was a bad deal in any case.
I’ve had that thought, and put together comparisons between an Epyc, Ryzen, and Alder Lake. I’ve looked a buying a TrueNAS Mini X+ (or building a TrueNAS system) and building another compute server.
This build seemed like a decent compromise. I get a server powerful enough to handle both compute and NAS functions (a multitasker if you will). In addition, if I need more RAM, drives, or a GPU (or two), the system can support it.
However, if it becomes two systems, the extra PCIe lanes and higher RAM limits are necessary for my workloads.
Part
Epyc (The One)
5950X x2
CPU
$1,100
$550 x2
MoBo
$800
$400 x2
Power
$200
$100 x2
Case
$360
$360 x2
Storage
$1,500
$1,500 x1
Ram
$1,500
$1,000 (128GB compute; 64GB NAS) x1
Total
$5,460 (USD)
$5,320 (USD)
Checks out.
The 7313P build is nice, but you’ve persuaded me. Two systems, a NAS and automation server. Back to my comparison spreadsheets.
I’ll have to look at it then. I had doubts about the proxmox/TrueNAS Core, as seen in my earlier posts. But just using TrueNAS scale could work just as well.
Is there any benefit to going with the larger system or 2-3 system? I seem to remember something about Scale recommending the use of at least 3 systems for a cluster.
Before thinking about clustering a SCale deployment, I would go with single deployments that replicate data between each other, especially if you are not already versed in the technology
Scale is more than ready to run a home deployment NAS/homelab VMs, even a forbidden router with the hardware you listed in the original post …
Going multiple smaller systems vs one big one is more a philosophical choice than a technical one … two systems will be independent of each other, but will require more maintenance, you lose IPMI, you now need to back up two systems instead of one … choiches … choiches …
It is always a balance between budget (economical and lately power), expertise (Truenas and proxmox are two different products, so two different technologies you need to be familiar with) and willingness to spend time trying out stuff/risking to lose your data …
Only you can decide, I’m afraid …
Personally I have two separate systems, one scale (on an old supermicro Xeon platform) running home automation/docker/forbidden router and storage and one epyc platform running everything else (work VMs, gaming VMs, experiments … whatever) so that I can ‘play’ with the hypervisor without, say, breaking internet for the family or having the remotes for the gate stop working because I ran an apt dist-upgrade at the wrong time …
That works for me, but power budget is 60W for the supermicro, 150-350W for the EPyc server (two GPUS) and another. 2-300W for the network/switches/starlink dish/home automation things/raspberrires and whatnot, and another 80W for the backup truenas that gets turned on at 2am in the morning, copies snapshots from the primary and shuts itself down to save 2KwH/day worth of power …
I would never dream of running my NAS virtualized, but have been running my router/firewall on a VM since more than three years now … so ymmv …
This is one of those internal debates I’ve been working through. I think I’m leaning more and more to one system running TrueNAS Scale and setting up my old i7-3770 with some hard drives for an emergency backup. As my needs grow, I can always add another computer.
100% have a second copy of your data. Don’t even debate that. As for a third copy, really have a look at cloud options - I was surprised how inexpensive Wasabi was so we went in that direction and are super pleased.
You can literally get years of cloud storage for the cost of a decent 3rd box at which point you’d want to upgrade when you break even anyhow! Something to consider.
Thankfully backup storage is already in the works. I’m also putting together a NAS for my parents (165 miles away). Both systems will be in sync and I’ll also be using wasabi as well.
