(Ryzen based) Cube-(NUC like)-PC with 10Gbit/s Networking?

[Reudinger]

Hi, I was not sure which category fits best for my question, so I will just put it here.

 

I want to replace my over 10 years old server (I think a Nehalem CPU is still doing its thing in there). In 95% of the time the machine is just idling around, and the VMs running on it are just "available", so I dont need sooo much cpu power. I thought something like a NUC would be perfect as a replacement. At the moment this machine houses my NAS and my HDDs too, but I want to replace this VM with dedicated hardware (something like a qnap ts-332x).

I would really like to go Ryzen based with the VM-host replacement, because I just get more for my money.

 

And now the most important point: I want to have 10Gbit/s network speeds between the NAS and the VM Host. From my knowledge there are no NUCs or NUC like PCs with 10Gbit/s Networking on board.

A solution would be to get a Thunderbolt 10Gbit NIC and an Intel NUC. Another solution is the ASRock X570D4I-2T, but thats a Mini-ITX Board with a much larger footprint than a NUC or any other cube pc. I dont think these solutions are perfect.

 

Any ideas or opinions on that?

[mariushm]

You can get a 10gbps network cards and use a small riser cable to plug the network card in the pci-e x4 slot and lay the card flat above the pci-e slots to use less volume.

 

A network card with a SFP+ slot is cheap, under 40-50$

Here's some examples, from $35 to $50 :

UNIXSurplus.com: Buy Cheap Refurbished Solarflare SFN6122F SFP PCIe

UNIXSurplus.com: Buy Cheap Refurbished Solarflare SFN7002F SFP PCIe 10 Gbps

UNIXSurplus.com: Buy Cheap Refurbished Solarflare SFN7022F SFP+ 10Gbps

UNIXSurplus.com: Buy Cheap Refurbished Solarflare SFN7122F SFP+ NIC

 

They're pci-e 2.0 / 3.0 x8  but they'll run on pci-e x4 or even pci-e x1 (of course, x1 is good for only around 950 MB/s so less than 10gbps and you probably don't want that)

 

So get a ITX/mATX motherboard and a 2200g or some other ryzen with integrated graphics, or something like 1600 AF (very good performance for money) and use some cheap 5-10$ video card in a pci-e x1 slot just to have some graphics.

 

example riser cable if you want to keep the volume low : https://www.amazon.com/SinLoon-Express-Extension-Compatible-Graphics/dp/B08PTTR6KG/

 

If you need RJ45 10gbps port, you can buy ethernet SPF+ transceivers, but they're around 20-30$ each

[jaslion]

7 minutes ago, Reudinger said:

 At the moment this machine houses my NAS and my HDDs too, but I want to replace this VM with dedicated hardware (something like a qnap ts-332x).

Honestly for home stuff and even business stuff I will always prefer to stick with a windows or linux based solution as those dedicated ones have not once been stuff I would call good.

 

As for ryzen small systems they do exist yes but none I can find with 10Gb Ethernet.

 

Honestly just get a bigger case like an itx setup. Because the moment you start doing external pcie stuff you might as well just get a box that contains all instead of extra cable clutter and cost. You will never have JUST the size of a nuc always a pcie extension thing with the intel solution which is never small.

 

I would honestly recommend a nr200p dump the ryzen in there and put it on a bookshelf or something it's very small. Or if you decide to not go with splitting the hardware (I recommend not getting a dedicated closed off nas system) just use the case you have again.

[Pixel5]

how many HDD´s do you have in there and do you need anything else then 10G networking?

 

Because that network speed will be meaningless unless you also get NVME SSD´s in there.