The Ryzen 7945HX Mobile is an INSANE Server CPU - Minisforum BD790i in a 45Drives HL8

[@ZeronicMatrix]

The GPU Spec for the 7945HX is wrong, it only a 610M and only 64GB of RAM Per Minisforum Spec sheet. I run the same board with a 10G Card for a pair of Proxmox Nodes.

[@CraftComputing]

...I think I unconsciously typed that, as I'm so used to the 780m for APUs. I KNOW it used the 610m. Consider this my asterisk.

[@ghomerhust]

@@CraftComputing ********************************************

[@zak-rq]

It supports 96 GB RAM (2 X 48GB)

[@리프로-y7v]

it unofficially supports 96gb

[@rj7855]

Correct on the igpu, but 96gb works fine.

[@DarkSideAvatar1317]

BD790i owner here , some technical info you might want : - PCI bifurcation modes are : 8x4x4, 4x4x4x4, ( PS: upgrade to latest bios if the option is missing, i know i had too ) :) - Internal fan controler is from ITE and supported on Linux if you load the it87 module - If you cant figure out how to disable Secure Boot , it's because you need to set up the Admin Password in BIOS first - if u need a second NIC , the Wifi card is on an M.2 slot, i changed mine , the bandwitdh is ok , i get like 2.2Gb/s on it in real life with a cheap M.2 to 2.5GB card - Pretty much works with unraid out of the box ( PS: if you plan on adding an intel arc card , upgrade unraid to 7.0.0-beta for the best experiance) Got any more questions ? Feel free to ask :)

[@RaytheonTechnologies_Official]

Why am I sad all the time?

[@JokingChickenn]

Have you also tested it wit truenas scale?

[@arjungupta3531]

Should It really be considered if I don't have space or cooling constraints? Planning to run PROXMOX with ~6 light used windows VMs

[@benjiro8793]

Like to point out there is also a cheaper BD790i SE version now, with a few things removed, but 150 Euro Cheaper.

[@bjackman16502]

So running in 8x,4x,4x you would have 8x for GPU, 4x for an HBA, and 4x for a 10 gbps NIC - sick

[@SpatzDerBadezusatz]

Be careful! The M.2-to-8-SATA adapter uses an JMB585, which offers 5 SATA ports, and one of the SATA ports is connected to a JMB575 port multiplier. This means 4 of the 8 SATA ports on the M.2 adapter share the bandwidth of a single SATA lane. Furthermore, the JMB585 does not support ASPM in Linux, which results in higher idle power consumption. A good alternative is the ASM1166, which offers 6 full bandwidth SATA ports, and supports ASPM.

[@JokingChickenn]

Exactly! You only get 6 ports, but at full speed and no wierd trickery

[@giornikitop5373]

it might not matter much when you're dealing with mechanical drives. even the fastest sequential r/w in hdds, will not reach sata2 speeds. but the asmedia does seem like a better option, especially if your m/b already has like 2 sata ports.

[@Yiveytube]

@@giornikitop5373 That and the fact that TrueNAS/unRAID etc doesn't like using SATA multipliers. So the JMB575 might become a problem. YMMV.

[@DarkSideAvatar1317]

I got one of those JMB505 m.2 cards i can confirm the performance isn’t the best but good enough for the price

[@DrDingus]

Figured this one out the hard way. ZFS does not play well with this adapter or any with the multiplier. It was throwing constant errors with zpool.

[@Promit]

The slightly lower spec 7940HX SE is also up there for quite a lot less money, and there's an additional discount code if you search. Incredible option for two hundred less dollars.

[@JokingChickenn]

Wut…. Why is that so much cheaper, there must be a downside I am not seeing

[@macheerouistrash]

​@@JokingChickenn it uses a lower binned CPU that only have 200mhz lower peak turbo, PCIe gen 4 for the M.2, so no more ssd cooler and it doesn't come with a WiFi card. That's the only difference if I recall

[@arjungupta3531]

@@Promit yeah slightly lower clock and a fking SSD heatsink is too little for extra 200 bucks

[@pixel_vengeur391]

I see the 790i SE listed for about $400... Where do you find it so much cheaper? :/

[@Yiveytube]

@@pixel_vengeur391 On MinisForums own webstore the prices differs $200. BD790i cost $539 and the BD790i SE cost $359.

[@michaelbyrd4004]

Yaaaaaaaasss!!! I have been waiting on a review like this on this combo. I've been considering buying it for the past year. I have no real need for it but whatever, I want it. It is unique amongst all the other stuff. Thanks for the video.

[@drew4410]

Have I missed something. Where is the beer on his desk and his impressions of it at the end???

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

Don't drink and build computers. 😁

[@MorkaiAU]

​@@JohnADoe-pg1qkyou must be new here 😅

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

@@MorkaiAU No, but I'm not really interested in live videos of people building their computers. And I'm not particularly interested in (American) beer, also because I certainly can't buy it here.

[@chimpo131]

​@@JohnADoe-pg1qklol git fakqd

[@sativagirl1885]

@@JohnADoe-pg1qk drink now, think later

[@zr0dfx]

M.2 to PCIE 4x with an LSI 9300 8i hidden away somewhere in the case. Should work fine with 4 lanes 😊

[@ibex485]

Beat me to it. Hot glue fixes all mounting problems, right? :-D

[@Smooj]

This is the way. Or even put the GPU on the 4x, you don't need the bandwidth for transcoding.

[@JokingChickenn]

Very nice idea

[@b127_1]

Yeah this. M.2 is just pcie in some other form factor. I'm running a mellanox 10g sfp+ card from one of my itx boards m.2 slots and it's been rock solid.

[@Nightykk]

Just remember that the LSI card would most likely need some air running over it.

[@heyitsjel]

Following up on this for anyone who is also interested in the BD790i SE (the 7940HX, 16c/32t, but runs at 5.2ghz instead of 5.4ghz): I'm happy to report that: 1) You can use M.2 to pcie adapters without issue - currently have a Mellanox CX-3 running at full speed off one of the M.2 ports. 2) The wifi socket (M.2 2230 Key E Slot) will handle nvme's no issue - have a Samsung 980 Pro running off it at 16GT/s x1 lane (boot drive for TrueNAS) ie. Gen4 x 1 lane 3) Bifurcation is still fully supported on the main x16 slot (ie. x16; x8x8; x8x4x4; x4x4x4x4), just as for the BD790i. In my setup, I've been able to jam 6x Gen4 nvme's (5x Gen4 x4 lanes; and 1x Gen4 x1 lane), and 1x 10g NIC into this tiny setup. Not a bad little all-flash NAS!

[@opshlds]

Super excited for these projects. As a newb in the homelab scene, I love all the potential projects I have at my fingertips. Just wish the wallet didn't groan with every video I watch on the topic of self-hosted homelab goodness! Cheers!

[@erickgruis106]

You killed that m.2 card when you plugged in the connectors. You have to plug them in first and then install it in the slot so you don't over-flex it. Mine came with some instructions that warned about this.

[@CraftComputing]

It wasn't going to live long no matter how I installed it.

[@bartekr5372]

Given the case construction this m.2 card would be dead sooner than later. TBH such points in manual are just evidence that manufacturer is fully aware that product is flawed.

[@LtdJorge]

The PCB should be thicker.

[@patricksheffield2874]

I was going to say the same thing. I groaned when I saw you plug the cables in and the board flexed so much. I did build a NAS with one of these controllers (and added some rPi heat sinks), but the relationship between the drive backplane and motherboard meant the cables were not constantly flexing, so I could ensure there was no stress on the controller board. Personally I would (as others have suggested) investigate an M2 to PCIe adapter. I have used one to add a thunderbolt controller to this motherboard’s cousin - the AR900i - when the main PCIe slot was occupied by a gfx card.

[@bartekr5372]

@@patricksheffield2874 Have you seen any m2 pcie expander boards (including pcie switch) so far? Given the bifurcation is hard to get such piece of hardware could be particularly useful for hdd builds.

[@maslygan]

@5:18 Doug DeMuro would be proud!

[@deneguil-1618]

Love to see minisfoum getting in on the embedded motherboard business. I'm really hoping they make a Strix Halo version of this board in the future. I'm planning on making a custom couch console and this would be perfect for it

[@ghomerhust]

that board kit is friggin ridiculous horsepower for the money

[@raven4k998]

vulture is the everywhere cloud so get vulture today and enjoy the hyper scalers today😮😮

[@HoJoGoGo]

I've seen mention that a BIOS update allows for PCIe bifurcation on the x16 slot, which could be very useful to put 4xNVME drives on it, and use one of the M.2 slots for 10gbe, or with a M.2 to PCIe adapter to host the ARC A310 for video encoding.

[@VoldoronGaming]

I now know what I will be using for my daughter's new computer. That motherboard/cpu combo, 64gb ram and a 6750 XT in a Cooler Master NR200 SFF case. Will be using the secondary M.2 slot with an M.2 to sata adapter. I am so glad I came across your video Jeff. This is an amazing piece of kit.

[@JokingChickenn]

Agreed! Amazing price to performance and low power!

[@LtdJorge]

64GB? What is sheplaying, minecraft? 😂

[@mdma1337]

thank you for this Video! Been searching for inspiration of my first HomeLab/NAS and I think I found just what I needed. Keep up the good work and quality videos. Much love from Germany

[@mdma1337]

ok I just watched until the end :D maybe need something different..

[@frankwong9486]

That m2 controller and m2 slot holder need some reinforcement, maybe 3d print a reinforcement bracket / support for it ?

[@mndlessdrwer]

On a side note: I personally prefer having a taller rather than a wider enclosure and I also generally prefer to have the drives accessible from the outside without needing to lift the lid on the enclosure. Activity and status lights on the drive trays is also always a good thing, even if they're just using light pipes from LEDs in the storage backplane. Sometimes, having the entirety of the drive sled be dumb is a very good thing, as it means one less point of failure. With the falling cost and increasing reliability of NVMe storage, I'm more looking forward to companies like 45Drives releasing an ultra-compact storage array that utilizes little sleds to load consumer or enterprise M.2 NVMe storage into a PCIe midplane with appropriate RAID controllers or direct pass-through for JBOD. Even if the drive sleds include additional thickness for cooling the M.2 drives, you should easily be able to cram two rows of 8 drives into an ITX mini-tower, though you may have to use a PCIe multiplexor to split the PCIe Gen5 down to PCIe Gen4 in order to get enough PCIe lanes for all of the drives, since ITX doesn't generally feature more than a single PCIe x16 slot due to space constraints.

[@pyroslev]

I didn't know I need that M.2 adapter. But now I know I do. Even with the 'failure' it is something I will keep in mind for a future NAS build.

[@Noob2Ever]

Imagine two of those bad boys in a single 2U chassi with as a cluster, thats the dream right there for me.

[@CraftComputing]

Seriously, that's a ton of compute.

[@Noob2Ever]

@@CraftComputing indeed, as someone who are just stepping into this, starting with my new desktop pc being rackmounted and now looking into homelab options to put in the rack.. it is tempting to have it as a goal to save up to.. gotta fill that 15U somehow :D. Forgot to add that it sucks there is no Swedish or Scandinavian reseller, and Minisforums EU page despite being set to English is almost all in German.

[@benjiro8793]

@@Noob2Ever A yes, conquering Europe via the backdoor 😁 Just use your browser build in translator. Minisforum always has a lot of issues with their website.

[@arjungupta3531]

@@CraftComputing you can probably fit 12 of the boards in a 2U chassis I hope *someone* makes a video about it😉

[@LtdJorge]

@@arjungupta3531now THAT is a blade chassis.

[@zrizzy6958]

watched the entire vultre ad, it was awesome

[@VeritronX]

if that m.2 adaptor gets replaced, you could probably solve the problem by using an m.2 extension and putting the adaptor in a 3d printed casing instead of mounting it on the motherboard directly

[@ipoopmuffins]

this is like the 2nd or 3rd youtuber ive seen put an m.2 to sata card in and then jam the cable into it without supporting the back of it and bending the hell out of it lol. not sure if thats what killed it but i really wouldnt doubt it.

[@MrBobbybrady]

Have 2 Proxmox hosts using these boards, and they are absolutely a beast. If they but 10 gig nics on this board it would be untouchable.

[@TheMongolPrime]

I'm so curious if the wifi card could be replaced with some other cursed replacement. Maybe there is an upgrade in it's future?

[@CraftComputing]

I did consider that. There are some m.2 2232 SATA controllers. Maybe even move the boot drive to the 2232 slot, and run a pair of 4-port controllers on the m.2 2280s.

[@openstandards]

I believe it can looking to put an AI card in my system.

[@zachb4047]

@@CraftComputing I know they make wifi to 2 x SATA boards. Could maybe use that for a dule boot on some small 2.5 SSDs.

[@Terran.Marine.2]

Maybe a second Ethernet connection?

[@DW-xt6nt]

@@CraftComputing Could even go to PCie to NVME see options in ADT Link "M.2 WiFi Extension Cable", interested if you try. Thanks for your content!

[@diduknowthat]

If you tune the fan curve in the bios up a little you can get the 7945hx to stay pegged at 100 watts all day long running Cinebench R23.

[@dorinxtg]

Thanks for the video If I may suggest something: get an m.2 to a PCIe riser and install it instead of the m.2 SATA solution and then install the A310 on the riser Then you can use a good PCIe hba solution like the LSI 9305-8i which supports hotswap IIRC

[@Interbert]

I got the Minisforum BD790i with Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Fan, RX 6750XT, crucial T500 512GB ssd and 32GB ram running Ubuntu. And love it as daily driver.

[@ecu4321]

What temps are you getting at idle, avg and peak?

[@Interbert]

@@ecu4321 21C at idle, 43C avg and peak 83C. for now open air till Termaltake releases the TR100 case.

[@CatalystReaction]

redo this video with some foam padding under m.2 controller + angled sas connectors + preinstall the cables on the m.2 controller before slotting it into the motherboard. p sure u killed it when installing the last cable... the flex was insane

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

I don't know if angled sas connectors are helping because of the 90 degree rotation while closing the case cables and controller have to be stabilized in two positions.

[@TheRogueBro]

I was thinking maybe a 3d printed bracket?

[@LUNATIC75]

That's the second video in a week where I've seen some sort of funky and obviously rather flimsy NVME adapter board being assaulted.

[@vilimmikic5781]

Watching him plugging in the 2nd sas cable was just painful. Not even a little bit of support with his finger underneath

[@Justfun-nk3vj]

There are other such adapters with a reinforced PCB. And, as someone previously pointed out, choose an adapter with an ASMEDIA controller, J Micron controllers suck they often get very hot and throttle the already poor performance even more.

[@ronsafranic5177]

Fantastic Video! I have been waiting for months for someone to do a video with that Sata controller on that motherboard! I was so close to purchasing that motherboard controller combo but you just changed my mind! A couple of Ideas on how to get a Sata controller to work with this combo. There are several different products on the market to enable converting a M.2 port to a PCIe slot that could then hold any kind of PCIe Card you want most obviously an inexpensive SATA Controller. It looks like there is room to attach the card and slot adapter to the side of the Drive Enclosure! Some kind of 3d printed bracket would be ideal. Cooling would be a concern however the bracket may need to house a fan as well. My second idea is similar but would either be USB4 or Occulink adapters to a card supporting a PCIe slot. Once again thank you for doing videos that actually make a difference instead of just being a talking head with no actual hands on. (You have also turned me on to some really good beer!)

[@dktol56]

I have several of the M.2 SATA adapters with different chipsets and SATA connections. Those with the ASMedia ASM1166 chipset (supports PCIe gen3 X 2) have 6 vertical SATA ports mounted vertically. They seem to be the most fragile, and you always want to insert the SATA cables before mounting the M.2 card in the motherboard slot. Silverstone has a 5 X vertical SATA port M.2 board based on the JMicrom JMB585 chipset (also PCIe gen3 X 2). I don't have one, but it appears to be mechanically re-enforced with a metal heatsink, so flexing seems less likely. My favorite is a board based on the ASM1064 chipset (PCIe gen3 x 1), supporting 4 SATA ports via a single horizontally-mounted SFF-8087 connector. The horizontal mount stiffens the board, so I don't see much flexing when plugging/unplugging the SFF-8087 cable. Too bad the Minisforum mobo doesn't support a third M.2 slot, or you could use 2 of these to support the 8-bay backplane.

[@kelariusable]

I believe that the built in iGPU on the CPU supports video encoding, at least well enough for Plex probably. You might try it out and see if it works, assuming it does use that for encoding and stick an HBA in the PCIe slot. Alternatively I believe the PCIe slot supports bifurcation so you could always just grab a riser card and see about modifying the case or something to allow for both the video and an HBA card. I bought one of these last week and set it up on my test bench for a future project and so far I love this thing. A couple of performance notes I wanted to point out, the heat sink is using thermal adhesive stock from the factory, take the heat sink off and replace it with something better for a performance boost. Also, I had better luck with my 120 Noctua fan turned around to pull air through the heat sink instead of pushing into the board, there’s a lot of things in the way on the board side so you might have better luck that way but YMMV. I was personally able to maintain 100w total package power for over 30 minutes myself with those modifications.

[@byondead]

I built something very similar recently with the same idea of using those nvme to SFF-8087. I had a old SANSDigital towerraid case (8 drives with two external SFF-8088 connectors) I had lying around for years and wanted to build an openmediavault server out of it. I Bought and fitted a CWWK P5 with the 4x nvme top board. While waiting for this main board to arrive, I had already received the sff-8087 nvme adapter. I thought I could start playing around with it by buying a usb-c to nvme and try running it externally on a separate machine. That's where I found out about the hotplug issue like you saw. Same thing for me, I don't mind shutting down for maintenance when changing drives. But it was getting unreliable. I think that thing just gets too hot. I had some tiny raspberry pi heatsinks lying around and added it to it, but wasn't satisfied. At the same time I bought that dual SFF-8087, I had bought also two single SFF-8087 nvme adapters. They have the same hotplug issue, but atleast they seem rock solid. You may think of ordering some single SFF-8087, but you would have to remove that nvme drive, and that fan might get in the way now....

[@dktol56]

The SFF-8643 to SATA X 4 cables provided by 45Drives are reverse-breakout cables - the SATA plug into a storage HBA or ports on the motherboard, and the 8643 plugs into a SAS/SATA backplane. Most of the cables sold on Amazon are forward-breakout where the 8643 plugs into the HBA/motherboard. They are not electrically equivalent, as I found out the hard way when my SATA drives in the backplane refused to spin up. Guessing some signaling lines are reversed between the two, but they look absolutely identical (that sucks). On the other hand, SFF-8087 and SFF-8643 seem to be equivalent, so SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables can go both ways. Hopefully others can avoid this annoyance when purchasing breakout cables.

[@markschutt4264]

You can squeeze more power out of this with a -30 undervolt and bumping the boost clock override up another 200mhz. That also brings the temps down a fair bit. To ensure max clocks I replaced the thermal compound which was dried and cracked to ptm7950, no more throttling down. Finally to maximize the cooling I flipped the fan mounting bracket with the fan screw threads up and tossed on a cougar mhp 120mm fan that is 25mm thick. Very very quiet and cools like a monster.

[@reviewaccount469]

I don't know if the case has any other card slots, but you could get an m2 to PCIE 4x converter and add another PCIE card in there.

[@rickhendricks6458]

I was inspired by your channel to build a Erying i12900HK build last year, and in ti I used a six SATA port ASM1166 M.2 card to drive six of the eight drives. It's continuing to do the job here and could be a good fit for you.

[@DJSammy69.]

WOW!! Epic performance in little package!

[@m4nc1n1]

I bought that Minis and paired it with a 3070 in a SFF. Thaty chip is a beast!

[@xskyaflake]

I'm running a BD790i as my desktop PC (paired with an 4070 Super and 64gig ram). Amazing back for buck.

[@akegca]

One more thing it is not dead is you mentioned you must use the sff to sata cables with this card to initialize it with the system, and install 2 drives only on each port, only then it will work after that you can use whatever cable you want

[@T3hderk87]

*Jeff starts the build sequence* All I hear are angry Bill O'Reilly noises in the background!

[@mikebroom1866]

That M.2 adapter is my very specific brand of jank. HIT ME.

[@andys3dworld]

probbaly mentioned already somewhere down in the comments; but you could run an nVME extension cable off the board, and mount the sata adapter more rigidly in the chassis where the cables wont flex as much. little bit of 3d printing could make a nice internal mount somwhere in the case for this.

[@arjungupta3531]

@@andys3dworld idts it would flex that much with a foam piece underneath and with a screw instead of that plastic mounting post

[@Byahn-Provelocity]

Passthrough for the Intel Arc A310 is critical. I really want to toss a couple in my own home servers, but so far, quadros are the only thing that works... MORE INTEL GPU STUFF PLZZZZ!

[@paulbeers4105]

I’ve done passthru with an a310 in Proxmox to a Plex VM running Ubuntu 24.04 and had hardware transcoding work just fine (same card the Sparkle eco a310) on a full length 16x pcie slot but only wired to 1x PCIE. Amazing what a $100 card can do with limited bandwidth and no additional power beyond the PCIE slot.

[@paulbeers4105]

I’m replacing all of my old quadro p400s with these

[@tanker242]

What's the idle power usage of this board/chip? That's something I'm super curious about since majority power usage of a home lab is from just being idle. I understand having various graphics cards, hard drives, and other components will increase the idle, but just for the CPU/ram and board itself is what i want to know. I'm curious since desktop counterparts usually hover around 30 to 60 W from the wall.

[@CraftComputing]

I didn't check idle draw from the wall, but the CPU did clock down to around 7W at idle.

[@guinan6631]

You’ve discovered why this board has not gone crazy in the home server world. You can choose GPU, SATA or 10Gb networking but can’t make all 3 happen. GPU would be OK if you could use the internal GPU but AMD is limited? PCIe slot then could be HBA or 10Gb card? Use the m.2 for m.2 to 6xsata adaptor (they are usually reinforced already) ? Give up having nvme for your TrueNAS install disk (a waste of lanes anyway) and use a cheap SATA SSD on the HBA? However you slice it there are too many compromises to use this in a server.

[@randomher089]

You could 3D print a strain relief that is mounted between the motherboard and the case, using the stand-off to hold it in place. That's the easiest way I can think of to keep the strain off the M.2 and avoid having to modify the cage that I can think of. I'm planning something similar to this build in a 3D printed case so I'm really hoping you can get that M.2 to sata card working!

[@akegca]

It seems like it has a system bios on it or something what is even more surprising to me was it actually supports to boot from port one !!

[@fourpointsix5577]

if you use some self-adhesive (or added double-sided tape to non self-adhesive) HDPE foam under the M.2 adapter card, that will help alleviate any unwanted movement in the card.

[@adamgarlow5347]

Id be interested in seeing some high availability home lab experiments made out of the BD770i as its much cheaper and still has a high core count cpu

[@richardnpaul_mob]

And they just launched an SE variant of the motherboard which is still 16 cores but $349 I believe. Yes some bits have been cut down but it's insane value

[@mos7wan7ed_yt]

You can get M.2 to SFF-8654 adapters, M.2 to SFF-8643, and M.2 to Oculink adapters and cable it to a PCIe x4 Slot conversion board. I haven't seen one that is PCIe 5.0. You still need to find a way to mount the conversion board and your PCIe SATA or SAS controller in the case. Probably doable with a 3d printer.

[@Phil-D83]

Ecc support?

[@HoJoGoGo]

Stick a self adhesive cable mount on the side of the Noctua fan to hold the cables, keeping them from flexing the card?

[@TBizzle102]

Why not do a M.2 -> PCIe 16x (4x electrical but fine for a HBA card) similar to the PCIe 1x to 16x adapters like in PC based mining rigs. Try to do a crazy cable management job so you have some space above the drive cage. Run the cable (ex. oculink/SFFxx something) from the M.2 adapter to the PCIe 16x board. Use almost any of the PCIe risers you have on hand (ex. from the Hyve 1U servers) so the HBA can sit parallel with the top of the case. Then just recycle those SAS cables from the SATA M.2 to the appropriate HBA adapter. That PSU should have the needed connectors to power the PCIe 4x board. Make a 3D printed bracket to hold everything together & circuit board barrier for the PCIe board as well. After that you should be good to go I believe.

[@yusky03]

Were you able to get ECC memory working on this board? As someone that has suffered through bad memory, corrupting all the data on my NAS before it kind of irritates me when people build NASs without ECC memory. It is like driving a car without a seatbelt and then saying, well, I haven't had an accident yet.

[@CraftComputing]

I don't have any DDR5 SoDIMM ECC, so I am unable to test.

[@yusky03]

​@@CraftComputingVideo idea. Going through all these Ryzen based platforms to see what supports ECC? I would personally like to see a bigger push from homelab youtubers when it comes to ECC. Maybe we can get more mini pcs and sbc supporting it in the future. Servers use ECC for a reason. You know this.

[@catsspat]

I'm 99.999999% sure it won't work. Just build a mini-ITX system using AsRock MB and EPYC 4004-series CPU instead. Or consider AsRockRack board, although I don't know what they offer these days. I have an X470D4U but have been disappointed with their on-going support. Even the regular AsRock (not AsRockRack) have more up-to-date support. Go figure.

[@jmaus2k]

You can replace the m.2 E key (wireless) card with a 2 port sata card. Although I didn't see any SAS options, they have a m.2 E to PCIE x1. You can also get a m.2 drive to PCIE x4 slot card. Then just use a standard PCIE SAS card. Another huge benefit to this setup is that is uses much less power than any desktop CPU it can compete with.

[@EyesOfByes]

549 Euros. Insane value. The fact that it has integrated GPU enables me to save a lot of money by waiting for a nice discrete GPU deal on eBay

[@cptcrogge]

As you have mentioned a stable copper heatsink or a VERY thick thermal bad below would fix the issue, no big deal.

[@leviathanpriim3951]

would like to see a Jeff and Wendell vid soon.

[@akegca]

If you have space in the case you can use Bifurcation if available and split the X16 to X8X8 using a riser cable and have your GPU in the pci slot of the case while using the LSI card internally and try to find a plce for it inside the case while using

[@triarii_00]

im genuinely spirsedse at the lack of sas port or even sata ports on mitx "nas" mother boards.

[@alistairblaire6001]

That m.2 SATA controller is fascinating. I already have a 5 port version from IO Crest and it’s a solid card. Currently running in my Pi 5 home server using an m.2 hat. M.2 PCBs tend to be very thin and it looks like that card needs some reinforcement somehow, but I’m sure that would be outside the spec.

[@nielsdebakker3283]

Do flexible nvme cable extenders exist? let the cable pick up the flex and not the converter board.

[@JokingChickenn]

55 watts for idle power consumption seems like a lot? Could you get that number down?

[@CraftComputing]

55W was during the CB23 run. At idle, the CPU was

[@JokingChickenn]

@@CraftComputing thanks for the reply! really appreciate it! 7Watts is really good! I have now purchased the motherboard on your recommendation!

[@thirdwheel1985au]

My first thought was angled SAS connectors on the HBA side. Not sure they make them angling to the right/left though. But yes, a little aluminium for strain relief would go a long way with that unit.

[@lars4065]

No support for ECC?

[@jttech44]

This would be an excellent use case for some right angle sff-8087 cables. They do make these, and it'd at least allow you to groom those cables horizontally and provide strain relief... because mannnn that's sketchy. Though, I guess those cards are only like 42 bucks, so.... buy two?

[@maciel310]

Not sure if you'd have the room in the case for something like this, but there are M.2 to PCIe riser cables, which would let you plug a normal HBA card into the board. Figuring out how to mount things might be tricky, but it would probably fare better than that m.2 board.

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

Next perhaps possible idea (sorry, I only watch the videos, I don't build computer systems): PCIe x16 card to 2x OCuLink, one internal + one external. External connection: external graphics card, internal connection: cable + adapter board PCIe with SAS/SATA controller

[@mia4md]

UFD Tech solve this when adding a graphics card to the Steam Deck. Find a M2 to PCIe extender/extension card, kinda like those use on GPU miners to help your google searching. Just read the description and ensure the m2 to PCIe has the proper EMI shielding and bandwidth for GBps for your GPU.

[@GorsiMidnight]

for the SAS M.2 controller... Use some appropriate glue and a piece of plastic or other stiff material. There seems to be more than enough space between the controller and motherboard. I know that looks strange, but if flexibility is really the problem, it should work like this.

[@mndlessdrwer]

AMD's mobile processors really are a great option for home servers with moderate performance needs. You get a sufficient number of cores with hyperthreading and the TDP is pretty low. It also has integrated graphics that you can leverage for improved graphical remote access session streaming. And, while they don't have as many PCIe lanes as the actual server processors, they still have more than Intel's mobile CPUs have had in recent memory. One of the other things that I appreciate a lot about AMD is that their take on the BIGlittle architecture is somewhat special in that their c-cores are, as the name implies, compact rather than cut-down. They just eliminated all of the extra space on the die that is ordinarily used to increase the package size for each core for thermals. So the IPC remains completely unchanged compared to their standard cores, but they can't clock them quite as high. Given the general efficiency of Zen4 and newer processor cores, this really isn't a bad approach at all. I'm kinda looking forward to when they decide to show off a small business and home lab variant of their Epyc lineup that just has a ridiculous number of Zen5c cores clocked just below 4GHz. I'm imagining a 64-core monster with a sub-100W TDP. For smaller businesses, a pair of servers with that setup configured in an HA virtualization environment would be more than enough for most applications. I'd actually really like to see HP or Dell make a 2-node workstation format business server with some extra redundancy and a built-in infiniband solution for node interconnectivity for failover. No need for complicated back planes, either. Just have the nodes install from the rear of the machine and put all of the connectivity on the face of the nodes. If it's done properly then you should be able to fit two PCIe slots and an OCP 3.0 slot in conjunction with at least one gigabit or faster NIC built into the motherboard, which is more than adequate for most small business needs. Other connectivity can be made through the midplane connection that also delivers power to the nodes.

[@Gearhead9415Gaming]

I mean a work around would be to buy a heat sink for a m.2 ssd and mod it to fit around the sata conroller stick thats all i can think of to make is stronger and keep your gpu

[@yagoa]

you know that the air needs to flow through the heatsink right?

[@blakeparry1983]

whilst the m.2 adapter does seem too flimsy, some of the flex could also be attributed to the plastic peg rather than a proper screw. Also still no mention of the lack of cooling in this case - none for the disks at all still.

[@mrdali67]

Another problem, if you are going to use the PCIe with a video card for transcoding and the little problematic m.2 to Sata board, is you are limited to the onboard single 2.5Gbe network. no more i/o's to add a 10Gbe. It might be overkill for a NAS of 6 spinners but would still add a bit more headroom to your system with a 10Gbe link to your network switch. Otherwise, you are perfectly right that the Minisforum board packs a good punch for a homelab server without breaking the bank and drawing huge amounts of power that eg. an old Xeon server that you may be lucky to find very cheap will do. I'll take the Minisforum any day over an old Dell/HP etc. Dual Xeon solution from 15 years ago.

[@matthewstout7974]

I would be ALL over 3d printing some kind of little block to sit under that sata card so the card doesn't have as much room to twist and torsion around.

[@TheRogueBro]

Hardware Haven just did a roundup of those tiny cards for Plex transcoding. The Intel was ok, but not the best from what i can recall

[@LuisYomba]

can you bifurcate the x16 slot ?

[@CraftComputing]

Unfortunately no. While I think it's technically supported by the 7945HX, there's no option in the Minisforum BIOS.

[@kawasaki19751]

With bios 1.05 you can. It's under Advanced then AMD PBS and then PCIe/GFX something. I have not tried it myself, but it is in de bios

[@hawk_7000]

Indeed. "Setup -> Advanced -> AMD PBS -> PCIe/GFX Lanes Configuration" has bifurcation options. I also have not actually tried using it, but I spotted the option.

[@CraftComputing]

Ah! I did see there was a 1.05 update, and I'm on 1.04. I'll take a look.

[@gabest4]

Those m2 slots... They could have put two short pcie slots there and gave you a right angle adapter board for the ssd and the sata hba.

[@ayenackaye2625]

Have you thought about getting an extension cable for the M.2 slot and putting the SAS thing into that? It would take the stress off the controller and stop it from flexing. You would have to buy a new one of those controllers and it would certainly be a bit janky, but hay I've seen you do worse😅

[@PuOop-j9l]

that's because you guys don't understand that hot swap on sata existed since sata1.0 and you need to manually instruct the controller to disable/shut down the drive before extracting it.

[@prashanthb6521]

Hi, 12:50 Use a soft material table top. Dont drag around the motherboard on hard surfaces like that.

[@CraftComputing]

The motherboard has a metal shield on the underside. No components were touching the table.

[@goldmax1412]

Although it will limit us on space in the case, but in theory you can put a miner's extender from m.2 to full x16 slot. And then put any sas controller you want into it. However, I am not sure that such extenders support pci-e fifth version. By the way, non-compliance of PCI versions can also cause m.2 controller not working.

[@savubogdan6326]

Have you seen the second edition board ? It rocks a 7940HX at around 200 less the performance of the cpu is similar. I would like to see a review on it.

[@martink5391]

@Craftcomputing You can get 6port SATA controller for M.2 M-key and a 2port SATA controller for M.2 A-key, meaning throw away the wifi card and put sata controller in its place. Also please pressuse Minisforum to make memory clock related settings available in the bios. The hard set 5200Mhz for memory is loosing user a good 10-20% of performance. We want to run 6000Mhz with hand tuned timings! The shame is they have it available on the intel motherboards, but not AMD...

[@pavelyankouski4913]

Absolute banger ^^. I like this guy ^^

[@cras2298]

Some great brain-power and experience on this thread. I am looking to move off an old Synology DS1512+ (still runs great, just time to move on) and use this build with TrueNAS Scale/VMs - no Plex or transcoding needed so no GPU card. To maximize throughput across all 8 drives, what would you guys recommend since that PCIe slot will be available?

[@TerminalWorld]

What is the CPU performance if you don't attach the fan? Or is that fan required?

[@CraftComputing]

The fan is required.

[@alc5440]

Stupid idea but I think it might work - connect the SATA card via an M.2 extension riser so it's free floating and doesn't get twisted by the cables.

[@RunTheTape]

I just saw the m2 adapter flex A LOT while you installed the 2nd mini-SAS cable. You should have put some thick rubber beneath it before installing the cables. You risked breaking pcb traces.

[@spotopolis]

That flex was brutal. I see comments all the time like "that gave me anxiety" or "that made me cringe". I always think they are being over dramatic. This one was legit bad though. I bet all that flex separated the solder/chips from the board. I would try again. Get another one of those adapters but do like what you said. before even mounting it, strap a heatsink or row of those vram heatsinks under it and even between the connectors on top with zipties. better yet, if you can design and 3D print a bracket for it that supports the entire thing against the motherboard, I think this build is still worth trying out. That motherboard is too perfect to not keep trying.

[@shadowtheimpure]

It's a wonder that we've not seen more ITX solutions with integrated mobile CPUs before now. The only reason my main server is built with Epyc is because of PCI-E connectivity. I NEED those 128 PCI-E lanes to give me flexibility.

[@bgdwiepp]

One of those m.2 to pci-e breakout cables and then a LSI pci-e 3.0 sas controller would be pretty decent if you its too flimsy to mount directly to the m.2 slot. I also hear the asmedia asm2364 usb 3.2 to nvme controller can actually do pci-e even though its specs don't explicitly state that - could see if you can stick an LSI SAS HBA on a m.2 pci-e breakout over usb3.2 :D

[@davidwilson5265]

I haven't run it in a prod setting, but technically you could use a SATA m.2 drive on a USB adapter, or an nvme, for the boot drive; kind of like a satadom. Then you'd have an nvme for the VM storage. Just backup the config frequently, and setup a relocation job from the VM pool to the primary storage pool.

[@abzzeus]

M.2 to PCIe x16 Graphics Card Adapter is what you want and use whatever SAS card you fancy - the only issue is then mounting it.

[@mastermoarman]

Is x16 slot bifurcation a possibility? Looks like you could use a oculink dual 8x riser card to remote mount a hba and videocard?

[@pierrebeauregard9022]

What about m.2 to to pcie rizer and then just use capton tape to shield it somewhere to the case. with that aproach you could byfurcatete the other m.2 and run 2 boot drive. Also wouldnt a taller heatsink or potentialy a watercooler fit in with some moddification to the back panel.

[@gari5961]

What homelabers need on AliExpress right now would be some 16x pcie5 to 2x 16x pcie4 or 4x 16x pcie3... If only that would be possible we would see crasy builds !