NAS Update

Good morning all,

I am a new subscriber to Level 1, and this is my first post.

I am thinking about upgrading my NAS for no real reason other than I like messing with stuff. This NAS is primarily a personal Plex server (my folks watch a couple things a year and that’s it) and onsite backup for my desktop, laptop, steam deck. I use google drive for offsite backup of photos, documents. Future use case would be for steam cache and to integrate my security system and get off my DVR.

Peculiarities of my setup:

I built this current NAS from my 2018 gaming build. I started in a Fractal Meshify C, but have moved to a Meshify 2 XL just like my desktop so it fits in my server location. I have a old CAT-5 prewire in my townhouse and my fiber entry is in my laundry room with space for the chassis on top of the cabinets and an exhaust fan with temp control if it gets hot. I have debated pulling cat-7 to my office to locate the server there or punching a hole to my closet and locating it there, but at this point I’ll lift it up and down once a year to do maintenance and I have a keyboard and mouse etc. down low to maintain. I also run Unraid with a parity array.

Current:

Server Parts list

  • Storage screenshot is attached at the bottom
  • Idles at 90w with disks spun down and fans slow
  • Intel RAID Storage Expander RES2SV240
  • ATT 1Gb fiber
  • ASUS RT-AX88U PRO AX6000 with dual 2.5Gb networking

Updates this weekend:

  • Custom HDD cables for chassis to remove SATA power adapters
  • 9306-24I BROADCOM SAS9306-24I LSI to remove the old HBA and expander card

Future Updates under Debate:

  • Relocate the x670E MSI Carbon motherboard with Realtek® RTL8125BG 2.5Gbps LAN from my desktop to the server to use x8 lanes for GPU and the 9306.
  • Replace the processor with a 9900x, and keep my 7800x3d in my desktop with a new x870e board.
    • Desktop Parts List
    • THIS IS MY REAL QUESTION: is this chip worth it or should I stick with intel for lower power?
  • Sell the 32GB memory in my desktop and upgrade to dual rank 96GB dims, get 64GB Dual rank ECC kit for the server. I just use my desktop for gaming and know this is dumb.

Budget

~$1200 for server chip, desktop motherboard, server and desktop memory.


Welcome!

I just got one of these HBAs this week. I tried running it without a fan in a cramped Jonsbo N3 but it got too hot for my comfort. I’m planning on designing a 3d printed blower adapter using one of the ubiquitous 5410 blower fans to cool it.

I suppose it depends on your workload, but with that many drives in it, I don’t think the difference in idle power consumption between Intel and AMD is likely to be noticed.
I went with AM5 for my home server because the 30 spinning drives drown out the relatively small difference in idle power consumption between AMD and Intel.

Thank you! I have my drives spun down a lot. For the HBA I have a noctua 60mm pwm fan screwed to the heat sink. Hope it will work.

From my reddit thread in the Unraid forum the guys are thinking that the upgrade is a bit worthless since I only have a 1Gb pipe, and I usually only run (2) max simultaneous transcodes since what brought this up was really:

to get x8 PCIe 3.0 on the HBA interface instead of 4x PCIE 3.0. This is not a great reason lol. The Carbon has x8 PCIE 4.0 on top and bottom x16 slots.

If I do update it may make sense to go intel use the igpu, sell the 3060Ti and use the x16 slot of a cheaper intel board for the HBA.

This should be more than enough to keep the temperatures cool.

If you’ve got a router/switch that can do 2.5GbE, then other devices on your local network can still benefit from the faster network speed even if your internet connection is slower.

While it is more rare than with AM5, I think there are some LGA1700 motherboards that can do x8x8 bifurcation on their x16 physical slots, might be something to look out for.

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Got some advice from Reddit on turning on ASPM and enabling C States instead of having it on auto and dropped to 72W. I should be able to drop another 10 with the HBA change removing the expander board chip power. Ill probably just leave this old intel chip in there.

I finally got my MSI carbon mobo installed from christmas lol. seems to be working great.

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Nice!

If you ever wanted to go single slot cooler on the hba and have a 3d printer, here’s the model I came up with:

9306-24i baffle v3b.zip (218.4 KB)

it uses a GDB5410 fan

That’s awesome. Not an addiction I have started yet, but I see it’s utility in car/pc parts.