NAS/Home Server (Unraid) - motherboard selection (AMD)

[WinNT]

I've been planning to build a Home Server and NAS machine (Unraid)

I don't have parts to reuse for this build and I'm planning to run containers and VM beside NAS.

 

Looking at the current market state, Intel is not option, especially after seeing how 11th gen is positioned. Here are the parts I have on my list:

• CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X or Ryzen 7 5800X. Given my use case, the core counts matter, so I'm going with an 8 core one.
• RAM: 32GB 3600MHz
• GPU: GTX 1650 (for transcoding, I might add a media server)

The rest of the parts are what you'd expect 2 SSDs (1 Samsung and 1 WD), a bunch of WD Reds, 650W PSU, etc.

 

For the motherboard, I did research and checked PCIe bandwidth sharing of many B550s and X570s and I have the following 2 in mind (I personally prefer Asus, but happy to hear other suggestions):

• Asus ROG Strix B550-E
• Asus Pro WS X570-ACE

 

Pro WS X570-ACE

• Pros:
  • Remote Management
  • A mini SAS (U.2) port that supports up to 4 more SATA devices, in addition to the 4 ports it has (I won't have to get an HBA card from the beginning)
  • 3-way x8/x8/x8 PCIe
  • I tested Pro WS MBs before and they do really well in 24/7 environments.
• Cons:
  • Only GbE LAN, no 2.5 or 5 Gbps.
  • No Wifi (I know I will use LAN eventually but for convenience)
  • No BIOS FlashBack 

I've seen so many posts online about people having issues with it.

 

 

Asus ROG Strix B550-E

• Pros:
  • Cheaper
  • BIOS FlashBack
  • Wifi
• Cons:
  • 2 SATA ports (out of 6) will be disabled if I added a 2nd NVMe SSD 
  • Fewer PCIe lanes 

It also has a Thunderbolt header (not sure how reliable it is).

 

 

In this video, Linus used the ROG Strix B450-F and said the motherboard manages to boot in headless mode. I wonder if the B550-E does this as well, I searched online but didn't find much. Anyone knows if it does?

 

 

 

I'm also considering the ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T but still exploring shipping options and checking customs cost.

 

I appreciate input and insights on:

• The 2 mentioned MBs and if anyone has got an Unraid setup with any of these.
• More MB suggestions for running such Unraid setup.
• If there are known IOMMU issues with the B550-E as I plan to use the GPU in a Win VM.
• Any suggestions in general!  

 

Thanks in advance!

[Electronics Wizardy]

12 minutes ago, WinNT said:

I don't have parts to reuse for this build and I'm planning to run containers and VM beside NAS.

 

what vms nd containers do you want to use?

 

13 minutes ago, WinNT said:

A mini SAS (U.2) port that supports up to 4 more SATA devices, in addition to the 4 ports it has (I won't have to get an HBA card from the beginning)

that is a pcie slot , you can't use sas or sata drive in that port. Single pcie drive only

 

Id really look at the intel parts here. They have a igpu which can be really nice, and are often cheaper. for simmilr performance.

[WinNT]

25 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

what vms nd containers do you want to use?

There are many, home assistant, CI/CD, ML stuff and others. 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

46 minutes ago, WinNT said:

 

that is a pcie slot , you can't use sas or sata drive in that port. Single pcie drive only

Actually I checked the manual and it says it supports up to 4 SATA drives as it’s a mini SAS connector. 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/Pro_WS_X570-ACE/E15611_Pro_WS_X570-ACE_UM_V2_WEB.pdf 

 

For the GPU it’s not really a problem as any card would do. I’m doing research for Intel parts that would get me the same perf and TDP as this, but 11th gen is not promising.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

 

1 minute ago, WinNT said:

Actually I checked the manual and it says it supports up to 4 SATA drives as it’s a mini SAS connector. 

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/Pro_WS_X570-ACE/E15611_Pro_WS_X570-ACE_UM_V2_WEB.pdf

 

No its 4 sata ports on the borad, and. u.2 connector. That u.2 connector is pcie only, no sas/sata ports on it.

 

2 minutes ago, WinNT said:

For the GPU it’s not really a problem as any card would do. I’m doing research for Intel parts that would get me the same perf and TDP as this, but 11th gen is not promising.

11700? 10700? Both are pretty cheap now, and about the same speed as the 3700x/5800x

 

TDP won't matter here, as the cpu will probably be idle most of the time.

 

2 minutes ago, WinNT said:

There are many, home assistant, CI/CD, ML stuff and others. 

 

Id probably go proxmox then, as it handles vms and containers much better than unraid.