Planning home server upgrade/consolidation

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1

Problem

I am experiencing stability issues on a few of my home server systems and I plan on consolidating them all into a single host.

The main server throws a bunch of PCIE related kernel panics every like half a year
The media server crashes randomly every few days to few months

Current Server Systems

Main server

(A few Minecraft servers + some self hosted Discord Bots)

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
ASRock B450M Steel Legend
DDR4-2666 48GB (16Gx2 + 8Gx2)
Nvidia GT210 (for display output)
Kingston KC400 256GB SSD (OS + Application files)
HGST 1TB 5400RPM HDD (Backup Files)
Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM HDD (For a web map)
AcBel 300w OEM PSU
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

NAS

(Storage Only)

AMD Ryzen 3 3100
ASUS B450M-A II
DDR4-2666 8GB ECC (8Gx1)
Nvidia G210 (for display output)
2x Cheapo 120GB SSD (Mirrored OS)
2x Toshiba 16TB N300 HDD (Mirrored ZFS Data)
TPLink 2.5G Ethernet Card (RTL8125 chipset)
FSP HEXA 85+ 350w PSU
TrueNAS SCALE

Media Server

(For Jellyfin Only)

Intel Core i5-9400F
ASUS B360-F
DDR4-2666 8GB (8Gx1)
Intel ARC A750
2x Cheapo 120GB SSD (one for OS, one for Temp files ex. transcodes)
FSP HEXA 85+ 350w PSU
Ubuntu 23.04

Windows Box

(Random Windows Junk)

AMD Athlon 3000G
ASRock DeskMini A300
DDR4-2400 12GB (8G+4G)
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB SSD
Windows 10 LTSC 2019

Linux Potato

(Never bothered to replace it so its still here, runs a few scripts)

AmLogic S905X (I think)
768MB RAM
32GB Fujitsu MicroSD
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Replacement plans

Things to keep in mind

  • The replacement is happening ~2 months from now so there is plenty of time to plan it
  • Things are going to be in Taiwan which means the usual regional differences in parts availability and pricing.

Plans for replacing it

I’m not really sure what to get as AM5 isn’t mature yet, and AM4 parts availability isn’t exactly ideal.
AM5 is also bloody expensive so I’d like to stay on AM4 if possible.
Intel is a no-go since the higher end parts don’t support ECC memory.

Early plans

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (They are going for $130 a piece brand new locally on a one year warranty)
Thermalright AK120 tower cooler (subject to change depending on availability)
48~64GB DDR4 ECC
ASUS B550 ProArt Creator (The hard part, since this board isn’t exactly widely available)
Geforce G210 (Carried over from NAS)
Intel ARC A750 (Carried over from Media Server)
2x Cheapo SSDs (Boot, carried over from NAS)
2x Toshiba 16TB N300 HDD (Mirrored ZFS Data, carried over from NAS)
2x 500G/1TB P5 Plus SSDs (Mirrored ZFS For application data and VM Boot Drives)
Some FSP HEXA 85+ or SeaSonic Focus GX PSU

I’m still thinking about whether I want 2 more cheapo SSDs for another scratch vdevs to store temp files that I don’t care if they disappear.

I plan on carrying over the TrueNAS configuration from my current NAS and use it as a hypervisor.
Jellyfin will be in its own VM (Probably Ubuntu 23.10)
All other things will be on 1 or 2 Linux VMs (Probably Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
I will have another Windows VM for the Windows junk that I need to run (Probably LTSC 2021)

Concerns I have regarding the configuration

  • I’ve never swapped MBs on TrueNAS SCALE so I don’t know how it would go. I read that I may need to mess with network configs, but I’m not sure.
  • How do I have different VMs share the same CPU resources?
  • I’ve had applications behave weirdly in Windows VMs on ProxMox before
  • I’ve had Linux VMs Randomly freeze on ESXi before (On someone else’s host, could be mitigated by giving 4 vCPUs and 16GB RAM)
  • The 2 M.2 slots are at different speeds and I don’t know if ZFS will play nicely with the 2 drives being at different speeds
  • Motherboard Avalibility

Motherboard criteria I’m looking for

  • Has ECC support
  • Has at least 1 onboard 2.5G LAN port
  • AM4 platform
  • Has 4 DIMM slots
  • Not MSI
  • Enough expansion to plug in all my cards

The Case

I haven’t decided on this one yet, but needs to meet the following

  • Fits all components without resulting to angle grinders, double sided tapes etc.
  • Won’t vibrate like a sex toy when the HDDs spin up (cough cough Cooler Master and FSP)
  • Has Proper mounting for HDDs (cough cough FSP)
  • Silent (This is going to be sitting in a bedroom)

The 2 I’m looking at are Fractal Define 7 compact and Fractal Mesihfy 2 compact

2

No idea on availability and affordability in TW, but you may want to investigate the Asrock Rack and Gigabyte Server AM4 solutions (mainboards) for your new build. These have IPMI, which allows you to remotely switch the server on/off or reboot the thing. They use standard AM4 Ryzen CPU’s but as they have IPMI (and thus a VGA output), you won’t need a GPU in the system just for video. Have a careful look as some boards may not support ECC, I’m not sure which (if any, I might be mistaken, but just a heads up here)

Alternatively, these brands also offer slimmed down EPYC systems with low-core count EPYC CPU’s integrated. Having said that, most will not suit your need as they’re mITX boards so lack expandability, or are significantly more expensive then an AM4 solution.

HTH!

3

Can you point out a few models that I should look at? I’m not familiar with their server offerings

4

AM5 works fine in general, what issues are you concerned about?
I would look at a plain Fractal Design 6/7 or XL case.
I would probably go for another software solution but whatever floats your boat.

5

Memory issues and the CPUs might burst into flames on their own. (I’m not sure if this is completely fixed yet, hopefully yes but Idk)

6

Not sure what you’re referring to? Memory issues are more or less a non issue unless you do overclocking on a somewhat recent AGESA version. If you’re referring to the CPU issue it was mainly related to high voltage and X3D variants?

7

General instability. I’ve heard quite a bit of horror stories.

There are reports of non X3D parts blowing up

8

You can turn * into a dumpster fire if you want to. You have several users including myself running AM5 with/without ECC memory here including myself.

9

Went with compact because I would like something that’s compact if possible.

10

“Intel is a no-go since the higher end parts don’t support ECC memory.”

Not true, you just need a motherboard with a chipset that allows for the use of ECC. I’m running a Supermicro X13SAE-F (X13SAE-F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro) with a 12700k and 128GB of ECC DDR5 as a home server - game servers, docker host, truenas VM - essentially what you’re planning on doing.

It’s been exceptionally solid.

Not as cheap as an AM4 solution, but I’m not sure I’d discount an Intel option entirely, and it’s legitimate server/workstation grade kit.

If you stick with AM4, I’d consider an Asrock Rack motherboard for validated ECC support. If you get a board with a BMC you wouldn’t need the GT210 either. Good example is https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U-2L2T/BCM or the older https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X470D4U2-2T which is often available on eBay etc.

11

I’ve done some research on local pricing availability and the conclusion is as follows:

ASRock Rack is a no
ASRock Rack products here are a complete pain to source. Individuals have to source them from questionable places and likely without a warranty.

Intel is a No
Intel requires W680 for ECC on 12th/13th gen. A ASUS W680 board alone costs more than my original planned CPU and board combined. Supermicro boards cost twice what ASUS costs, and other vendors don’t really exist here.

12

I would keep that NAS, but consolidate the rest. Reason being that you want the NAS as a 24/7 always on just works system. This then gives you the freedom to do whatever shenanigans to your main server as you please and it will not impact the high availability systems.

I almost always recommend you go with a separate NAS, Router and homeserver as that urge to tinker is way too strong in most of us geeks and then you just want to tweak that one more thing that breaks everything for Two Weeks™. :slight_smile:

Here is a PC Part Picker of your system (with modified pricing and placeholders for disks and G210):

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800X $210.49
CPU Cooler Thermalright Assassin King 120 $24.99
Motherboard Asus ProArt B550-CREATOR $199.99
Memory Patriot Viper Steel 2x32 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $99.99
Storage Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 -
Storage Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 -
Video Card PNY VCQK420-2GB-PB Quadro K420 -
Video Card Intel Limited Edition Arc A750 -
Power Supply SeaSonic FOCUS GX 750W $95.66
Total $631.20

A pretty decent deal, feel free to check the Asian PCPartPicker for similar items.

I would like for you to hear me out on AM5 though. Here is a similar cheap-ish new system using a Ryzen 7700. This is going to draw half the power while performing just as good as the 5800X. It is a bit expensive, true, but not prohibitively so. I only include the parts you will need to buy, anything is replacable.

Regarding ECC, the system DOES support it, but I added a random memory at roughly the same price point as 2x32 GB of DDR5 ECC RAM, so you would need to replace that.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 7700 $295.00
CPU Cooler ARCTIC Freezer 7 X $24.98
Motherboard Asus PRIME B650M-A AX II $149.99
Memory Crucial CT2K32G52C42U5 2x32 GB DDR5-5200 CL42 $209.99
Power Supply SeaSonic FOCUS GX 750W $95.66
Total $775.62

The only difference is the $100 spent on the RAM, otherwise they are the same. Of course, YMMV. Most B650 and X670 boards from Asus support ECC and I would probably go up a level extra for ECC, but it is worth considering what you are getting here.

The 5800X system is still a marked improvement of what you have, so not bad, but if you reach just a little more AM5 gives things like a built in iGPU, not to mention a five minute swap for the latest Zen 6 CPU in 2026. :slight_smile:

As a final note, with 1TB SSD NVMe drives with DRAM reaching below $50 in most places now, holding on to old SSDs at 256 GB and below just doesn’t make much sense anymore. Let them go. They have served their useful life.

13

I rarely mess around with the services on these systems so I don’t think this is going to be much of an issue. I usually do the messing around on my own PC then move it over once the messing around phase is done. Even by then, the services are going to be in VMs (or containers if I figure out how to use them).

5800X is going for ~$130 a piece from local retailers and this is why I went with it (albeit with 1 year warranty instead of 3)
The ProArt B550 goes for $170 locally
This price makes the 7700X (we don’t have 7700, 7700X costs around $350) itself more expensive than a 5800X plus a B550 ProArt.

I’m carrying over my boot drives mainly because I already have them lying around and would like the NAS OS to sit on their own drives rather than share the drives with other things that might do quite a bit of writing. As I already have the OS installed on them I don’t see a need to replace them.

The Crucial P5 Plus 1TB drives that I plan to use for the application storage in the upgraded config goes for ~$60 a piece.

14

You might want to look up that whatever setup you go for regarding AM4 actually supports ECC properly (including signaling). This seem to be specific per board.

15

Ok, this reply got longer than it should have, my apologies. The TLDR is, you’re not wrong here, just want you to consider more angles than just the cheapest bang for buck hardware. :slight_smile:

First, I would like to say that if you pay for cheapest possible, you often pay twice, but hey, your money, time and hardware.

I would reach for the extra $250 myself, but I fully understand if the budget does not allow it. Actually, I would increase for another $150 for a 7900 with a beefier motherboard for upgrade potential, too.

My favorite theoretical setup at the moment is something like a 6-bay Asustor Flashstor for $449, 16 GB RAM for $50 and adding three $150 4TB Crucial P3 SSDs for now. That is $950 for 8TB of redundant flash-only storage or ~$120 per TB. Not bad, considering, although a 6 bay Synology with 3x16TB HDDs would be something like $40 per redundant TB for quadruple the capacity but cost around $1300. So SSD storage got some distance to cover still.

Pairing this, I would build a 7900 system with ECC support for ~$1000 more. Total costs, $2000 if buying it all brand new, with upgrade paths in a few years. Let’s assume I upgrade once to a $400 24-core chip at around 2026, plus buy a few replacement SSDs for $600 total, and this setup otherwise lasts me around 7 years. That is $3000 spent on 7 years or ~425 per year.

Another thing that is important is power consumption, the two systems I outlined above would if stressed push around 110W and regular use combined would be around 40W-70W. Every watt saved will mean .75 kWh less in electricity bills per month, or 9 kWh per year. So a decrease in 50W is saving you 450 kWh a year, that translates to $50-$100 saved in electricity bills per year.

Not saying this trying to discourage you, but to let you make a sanity check and consider where you want to be in 2030 for this build. The 5800X system is pretty good value right now too, just worried it will show it’s age much sooner than the AM5 system. Ultimately this is your choice though.

[edit]Here are the two builds of my “ideal SOHO setup” as of Oct 2023 for those who are curious, courtesy of PCPartPicker. This is tangential to OPs use case but I figure other people reading this thread might want some ideas. As with all my PCPP lists, I am throwing it in here to show my way of thinking and as an anchor for the discussion, please do not take this as gospel. :slight_smile:

Asustor Flashstor All SSD NAS

8TB redundant storage, can hold up to 80TB redundant storage with modern technology though this will cost an arm and two legs at the moment. Only real drawback is the lack of ECC, everything else is surprisingly cheap and by 2027 16TB SSDs should be well below $300. Also, a maximum power draw from wall of 23 freaking watts is just icing on the cake.

Type Item Price
NAS Base Asustor Flashtor 6 FS6706T (Diskless) $449.99
Memory Mushkin Redline 2x8 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 SODIMM $37.99
Storage Corsair MP600 CORE XT 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 $159.99
Storage Corsair MP600 CORE XT 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 $159.99
Storage Corsair MP600 CORE XT 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 $159.99
Total $967.95

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 Server with ECC support

This one could perhaps use some extra storage, but since we have the NAS for that, no real need, just use network mounts. Other than that, 12 cores, 24 threads, room to add a GPU for encoding and AI, room to add two expansion cards, ECC support… I think it ticks a lot of boxes. Again, power draw is also impressive with an idling of roughly 20W-30W and at most 90W for the whole system.

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7900 $409.00
Motherboard Asus TUF GAMING B650M-PLUS WIFI $209.99
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 2x32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 (ECC PLACEHOLDER) $209.99
Storage Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 $39.95
Case SAMA IM01 $55.97
Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 - TT Premium 650W $89.99
Total $1014.89

Feel free to disagree and I fully understand if the above is outside the budget for you. :slight_smile:
[/edit]

16

Since you are going to keep using your existing hardware for 2 months I recommend some maintenance so you can determine if you want to keep anything from the old set.

Pull the heatsinks and put down new paste.

Reseat all of the plugs (rubs off corrosion) ie all drives, power and data connections.

On all cards and ram and sata use a pencil eraser on the contacts. Just rub it back and forth across the contacts 2 to 4 times. If you see any visible corrosion you may want to spend more time on those pins.

Several times I had people scoff when I took a pencil eraser to their contacts only have that completely fix their problems.

If your location is high humidity in the future you may see if gold plated dram and PCIe connectors are an option.

1 Like
17

I just looked up local availability for DDR5 ECC UDIMMs. The only vendor from proper channels for end users is V-color, and a single 64GB 4800MT/s kit is going for $400. It will cost $450 if I want a 5600 kit. DDR4 ECC UDIMMs cost about half. I think I’m passing on DDR5 unless there are significant price drops in the near future.

I am perfectly happy with the performance of my current hardware, and a 5800X is already a significant upgrade from what i have now. When the time comes that I need more computing power in a few years, I’d buy another box to complement it then if I’m lacking single thread performance. Alternatively, I could pick up a used 5950X for some bargain price and go that route.

I would’ve gone this route for my NAS if it had something that’s not an Atom CPU.

I’m doing it in 2 months because I don’t have physical access to them and won’t until mid December. The machines already went through a round of PMs in May.

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18

With that pricing picture I agree with you, in the US it’s like 64 GB of ECC DDR5 for $210 and 64 GB of regular DDR5 for $150.

Technically, it is a Celeron, and while weak it is more capable than you might think for a NAS CPU, but fair enough, not going to press the issue. :slight_smile:

My suggestions above are suggestions and a concrete way to explain my line of thinking, whether your situation is applicable to that, or not, is entirely up to you to judge. Of course, it is always an extra challenge if you do not have access to the US market, but at the end of the day, you do what you feel works best with whatever means are available to you. No hard feelings. :slight_smile: