I tried to keep it short, refined it over last 3h, but my brain refuses to remove more to not lose context. So… I’m sorry and happy reading :V
Let’s start with the most important thing:
Budget: < $200
I basically need only a Motherboard + CPU and I prefer to buy used parts. But my brain got lost in deciding what’s the best option under the requirements without going overkill - I am one of those indecisive and forever postponing people, so please help
What I have:
ASUS H110i-PLUS
Celeron G3900 (I know)
1x16, 2x4 GB DDR4
INSPUR 9207-8i 6Gbps HBA LSI
1x SATA SSD for system, 1x SATA SSD for some cache, 4x HDD (planning to add at least one more)
TrueNAS Scale
2x16 DDR4 SODIMM (obviously not in the system, just throwing in as an option for consideration)
Running mostly Syncthing, NextCloud, 2 Storj nodes (this covers some electricity cost, so I want to keep going).
Current CPU is too weak to run this (mostly due to I/O), TrueNAS craps on me often, so I want to upgrade.
What I need:
CPU:
– Low power consumption (24/7 operation)
– Probably 4/8 or 6/6 c/t configuration
– Preferably with iGPU, but with a proper board I can throw in a $10 GPU instead
Motherboard:
– uATX seems the only viable way
– 1-2 M.2 NVMe slots (more for availability/convenience rather than speeds)
– 2.5 GbE on board (not very likely to find one, I think) or a free PCI-e x1/4 to put expansion card in the future
– [Option] 4 DIMM slots (if I keep using ZFS - it eats a lot of RAM)
– [Option] 8 SATA ports on board, ditch the HBA card to get away with a single x16 PCI-e 3.0 and some x1/4
– [Option] 2x8 PCI-e 3.0 instead of 1x16 in case I want to throw in a GPU later (or immediately due to no iGPU - could buy some “just working” crap), while keeping the HBA card
No need for RAM, drives or other stuff.
I consider going ultra cheap: get an i5 6400-6600T and call it a day. But that feels like a band-aid solution and I’ll be dropping another request here within a year
Otherwise… I am open to (and heavily rely on) your suggestions.
Most likely will come down to a good board covering most needs and pairing it with a “good enough” CPU. I can buy NEW H510 + 11400 and be on the edge with money, but I’d rather get your insight and scout for used B (or even C) chipset board and get the same or a bit worse CPU (or its T variant). And to be clear: I am fine with AMD if power consumption at relatively low utilization is comparable.
Location: Poland
Retailer: Used parts OR some exotic (but proven to work) solutions from Aliexpress like those ERYING boards with mobile chips and SODIMM slots
Is importing from Germany acceptable? I would take a look at this:
AM4 is slowly fading away now but is still alive and offers a perfectly viable experience still. Although, I would also get this in the mix if budget allows;
That is enough computer to stay afloat until AM6.
2.5GbE on a $100 board exist but is not ideal. I also recommend consolidating smaller SATA drives to a big one. If you want 2.5 GbE the €130 Aorus B550.Elite AX is a really nice board but way over budget.
Yes, AM4 is what I am looking at on AMD side at most. And in that, more likely 3000 series. It just has to get the job done. It’s not a daily driver for me directly - it just has to run in its corner and once every couple of months have me play a bit with a Debian VM or something like that.
Having said that, 5000 series seems to be a bit of an overkill. And in general I think I would prefer Intel just due to better power management, unless that’s solved for AMD on linux. The thing has to run 24/7 so the ability to go into deep P- or C-states is rather important. Even G3900 can do that to some degree, albeit it fails to deliver performance when needed.
That’s why I was looking for lower clocked and lower TDP (I know it’s not 1:1 power consumption) CPUs.
I’ve updated the “What I need” in my post to be more precise.
Sorry for being chaotic
It’s done more for a separation of concerns. I have OS on one, some Storj databases for faster cache on the other. I had some older SSD laying around so just plugged that in to offload HDDs a bit. I have a spare NVMe drive so the storage side is mostly covered for now.
No problem with importing, but might be harder to find private people to send things over. But I am in no big rush, so listing good parts to scout for is enough. Like that MSI board has most of what I need (I would opt for non-WIFI version though), so getting it or its 350 counterpart and pairing with 3000 series Ryzen would be a good option (if power consumption is fine).
I highly recommend looking at ryzen 4000 series or 5000 series. The power efficiency is better on those two. If I recall correctly, especially when at low power usage.
“Wolfgang’s channel” on youtube has some great videos and recommendations for keeping power low. His 11 month old video about his $250 Ryzen Pre-Built is a great example at the power efficiency that ryzen can and does have.
If you do go Intel, make sure to stay away from anything over 12th gen, and you’ll probably want to keep it to 10th or 11th gen if your focus is efficiency while still having strong cores.
Craft computing has a video on trying to use them in his personal server. They seemed to be not the best. TechYesCity also did a video on it mentioning that the powder delivery is bad.
Maybe they’re better now, I have no idea. The stuff I watched was from about a year ago.
I know about Erying in general, but need to find a good variant that’s roughly tested to not be 30+ watts at idle. This specific page is not loading for me (region blocked it seems), but other ES-based combos don’t see to be very efficient. But if there is a unicorn… I want it
Will try to find more recent videos about them.
It has N5105 CPU, which is not the fastest, but beats my current Celeron, which might be enough to keep current things going without sweating so hard. The biggest advantage is that it’s just 10W TDP. And I have SODIMM sticks for it. Sure, I lose the PCI-e capability and any hopes to run anything more on it, but the slim and efficient approach is tempting. And it has 2.5 GbE. FOUR OF THEM xD
So for now I am considering:
B350 + 4600G (might need to update BIOS though)
Intel 11th gen (need to research which parts specifically)
That N5105 board
Thank you all so far. I need a moment to throw things into a spreadsheet and let my brain look at numbers.
Of course still open to suggestions and discussion
