Hi, I was considering picking up an older Xeon server to use as a NAS/Linux Server but I have a spare Asus Crosshair VIII Formula x570 board and 3950x but I’m not sure if it has support for full ECC? I currently have 64gb of Gskill Ripjaws V CL18 3600mhz but I would prefer to use ECC. My plan is to run 6x 8tb drives in Raid 10 using a 2tb Crucial MX500 Cache drive. I haven’t decided on Ubuntu Server or TrueNas yet, instead of building a new system or buying an additional Xeon server I would like to use my old parts. If ECC is supported what should I go for as in speed and type etc? Thank you
Accordimg to the asus website:
“ECC support varies by CPU”
You will likely need to buy a Ryzen PRO CPU.
I did a few rundown of the memory and the QVL didnt seem to specifically specify ECC support for memory in the table columns even for the Ryzen 4000G series (the PRO CPU line).
If you truly need ECC I’d suggest running with the Xeon. For non mission critical stuff you should be fine with a non-ECC RAM. Dont overclock the RAM if you want it to be more reliable.
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Its basically to serve as a NAS, I currently use 2x Synology NAS (DS218+ and DS220+) which are ok but now I require more capacity and I’m quite limited by there only being two bays in each. Synology don’t use ECC and I’ve transferred over 5tb at a time and haven’t got any errors that I can see so I’m not even really sure if I need it but in forums people are always recommending ECC. I started doing research into Unraid and I found a few videos where people are saying ECC isn’t required??? I already have the 3950x and x570 board with 64gb of Ram so I thought hey I’ll get 32gb of ECC and be done with it but there wasn’t much info on anybody actually getting it to work as ECC on any of the x570 boards. I upgraded to the 7950x so these parts are spare, I can buy an old Xeon server but that’s another pit because I’m not sure if I spend $1000 if it will even serve my purpose? Most I find are SAS so that would make the 6x 8tb drives I bought a waste of money. I already made the mistake which is my bad of buying a Xeon server that only supports SAS… All I need is a better version of my Synology DS220+ for media backup, Steam cache etc. I also wanted to get out of it cheaper since I spent $1400 on drives already and another $500 on that server I can’t even use which yes was my bad. I have been educating myself in regards to servers lately so I kind of went in blind before, I’ve been thinking screw it just use what I have since I never had any issues witht he Synology NAS I’ve had for years now. Thanks for the reply mate I appreciate it.
A few questions for you to answer…
Is you data one of a kind?
What would you do if it were to become corrupt or lost?
ECC is used for workloads (storage too) where data loss or corruption won’t be tolerated. ECC is not the end all. It is highly recommended.
Ryzen does work with ECC RAM and does utilize it if the traces on the motherboard exist. Not all motherboards have them.
One more caveat - non Pro APUs do not utilize ECC. Beware the versions that are cut down APUs (like the Ryzen 5500).
Here’s a guide on how to verify functionality for yourself. You will need to have Unbuffered, Unregistered ECC DIMMs on hand in order to test this.
As for SAS…
You can use SATA & SAS drives with SAS connectors.
You cannot use SAS drives with SATA connectors.
Personally, I’d try using the Xeon server with the drives on hand.
Here is another resource:
**Edited for future readers.
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To answer your question yes my Data is very important to me and yes it is one of kind to me so I would prefer to have as many safe guards as possible to protect it. I checked one of my NAS just now and it only has 1tb of capacity left so that’s around 10.8tb used so I’ll have to act fast to expand.
I don’t have any ECC Ram on hand to test it since the server I bought is DDR3 ECC so I would have to buy a kit just to test it. I guess I will have to buy an older server again on Ebay or try to source one locally, what would you recommend? just need something with 16 cores, 32gb ECC and can support SATA.
Thanks for the sources I will look into them, I appreciate the respnonse.
Ok so apparenty this module: Hynix HMA82GU7CJR8N-VK - DDR4 2666MHz is supported by my board and I can get two for $240, I doubt the lower speed will make much of a difference for me considering its mainly for NAS dutie and running Ubuntu Server in a docker. There are actually a few supported known working kits ut can’t seem to find 3200mhz.
I’ve purchased modules from here:
You could look on eBay too:
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I am unsure if the DDR4 ECC compatibility means " your RAM stick will work" vs “The ECC functions correctly” kind of compatibility.
Consider using an AM5 platform because of the DDR5’s built in ECC functions? Again I’ve not read upon how it exactly works but IIRC I’ve read that seems somewhere between non-ECC and ECC in functionality, sort of something like an ECC-lite kind of feature. Still, it seems better than what AM4’s half measure ECC implementations work out to be.
Consider the difference of having your wedding pictures lost vs the company I work for might sue me for losing this data. The former hurts while the latter to me hurts more.
Consider upgrading to a more modern platform because of hardware vulnerability issues that cannot be patched and power efficiency issues.
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Thank you
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I asked ChatGPT and it gave me a list of supported ECC for my board that apparently work with full ECC support???
I have an AM5 platform, Asrock Taichi Carrara x670, 7950x, 2x 16gb CL32 6000mhz DDR5 but its my main system so I was looking to reuse my old parts.
Yes I get your point, my data is very important to me so I might just order the Hynix HMA82GU7CJR8N-VK - DDR4 2666MHz x2 16gb modules and try them out.
From what I’ve read, personally tested, & seen, on the AM4 platform, the ECC functionality is functioning on boards with the proper traces.
However, AFAIK, ECC reporting is not at all functional (errors will be corrected, but not reported).
The on-die ECC in DDR5 is not true ECC & is present only to increase yield - not to protect data.
Video by Dr. Ian Cutress
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