High storage blockchain build

[emvn]

Budget (including currency): 3000-4000 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Blockchain

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

Hey all,

 

I'm putting together a build for a somewhat unusual build. This is going to run archival and tracing nodes for various EVM compatible chains (eth, eth2, fantom, polygon, bsc) and might expand into avalache and a few others later. These nodes take a considerable amount of time to sync, and that workload is primarily limited by i/o writes to storage. I've done quite a bit of research on different components, but having a bit of trouble tieing everything together as this seems somewhat unusual, and don't want to make any dumb mistakes. The main questions I have are around the right configuration of motherboard / adapters./ drives would be best.

• Start with 8-12 TB of PCIE Gen4 NVME drives. Would like to have the ability to upgrade to 16TB later if needed.
• Likely will go with an a 8 core intel i-7. Workload is benefits both from cores and clock speed. I've heard AMD has been doing great recently with some workloads, so if that seems more appropriate open to suggestions
• Integrated graphics card on the CPU is fine.
• Ideally would go with a micro-atx, but not strictly necessary.

Could anyone give some thoughts on what would be the best way to accomplish these? I could buy one of these: https://www.sabrent.com/product/SB-RKTQ-8TB/rocket-q-8tb-nvme-pcie-m-2-2280-internal-ssd-solid-state-drive-sb-rktq-8tb/, but it's much more expensive than having a few 980 Pros (if we can find a way to put a bunch of them on one board).

 

Price isn't the biggest issue, although would want to come up with a reasonably cost-effective solution.

[Dreckssackblase]

I would actually suggest you to go AMD instead of mostly, but mostly because the higher amount of PCI-E lanes they ususally give you. If you want to use PCI-E 16x to 4x NVME add in cards, then you have to make sure your board supports PCI-E Bifurcation so all the drives can be used at full speed. So you'll likely have to go with z-series or HEDT / Server boards for that. While pricey a 3955wx and a compatible board would get you tons of PCI-E connectivity if you want to upgrade storage even further down the line.

 

Edit:

to further answer your questions. Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 or similar add in cards could be used to use multiple samsung 980 drives instead of the sabrent ones you posted. (which are gen3 drives btw)

[emvn]

22 minutes ago, Dreckssackblase said:

I would actually suggest you to go AMD instead of mostly, but mostly because the higher amount of PCI-E lanes they ususally give you. If you want to use PCI-E 16x to 4x NVME add in cards, then you have to make sure your board supports PCI-E Bifurcation so all the drives can be used at full speed. So you'll likely have to go with z-series or HEDT / Server boards for that. While pricey a 3955wx and a compatible board would get you tons of PCI-E connectivity if you want to upgrade storage even further down the line.

 

Edit:

to further answer your questions. Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 or similar add in cards could be used to use multiple samsung 980 drives instead of the sabrent ones you posted. (which are gen3 drives btw)

Thanks for quick reply. Yeh I linked the wrong one, they have a Gen 4 8TB M.2 but it's like 2k, which is about double what you'd pay with 4x 980 pros.