Ultimate Budget NAS / Homelab - Parts Guide

[@settlece]

Hay Jim another banger

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks!

[@MartinHiggs84]

Just 2 thoughts from me depending on budget. 1. Icy Dock FatCage 3 bays fit 3.5" drives takes 2 x 5 1/2" bays. Easy for them to add hard drives and you remote configure if ever required. 2. Cheap UPS I live in UK rarely a power cut but worth it for a safe shutdown just in case.

[@bluesquadron593]

Yeah, the ups is a must for a system set to run 24/7.

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks, that's a good suggestion.

[@MartinHiggs84]

@Jims-Garage thanks 😊 others already said but mirrored boot drive is added bonus.

[@JK-ul3py]

Was researching last night about backups and this came up today in my recommendations. Greeeaaat!

[@trimceski]

For just couple of hard drives you could go with 8L AsRock DeskMeet X300. It support ECC RAM up to 128G and costs around $170 including 500W 80+ bronze PSU.

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. Guess storage will be an issue?

[@trimceski]

​@@Jims-Garage You are limited to two SATA hard drives and one NVMe gen 3 but I guess the price point and the form factor are good compensation for that, especially when you're on a budget and two hard drives are more than enough for the client.

[@zippi777]

Hi Jim, I'm anxiously waiting to see the next episode....and Happy New Year!

[@Jims-Garage]

Already recorded, just need some time to edit

[@chrisumali9841]

Thanks for the demo and info. Happy New Year Jim. Have a great day

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks, you too!

[@robertpiper6860]

Just be careful when buying the 5650g! A lot of them on the second hand market actually are vendor locked, because they came out of Lenovo products. I ended up going with a 5600. I had an extra GPU lying around that I had lying around for set up, and I might pick up a 5650g later.

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks, good point.

[@praetorxyn]

Would be good to have an updated NAS build now since all AM5 CPUs have integrated graphics :) Case is the hardest part though, especially if you want hotswap. Gold standard is HL15, but that's very pricey and requires a rack. The only other choices really worth considering are the SilverStone CS382 which IMO has a better design but supports mATX max, and the Jonsbo N5 which supports E-ATX but has things I don't like about it.

[@Jims-Garage]

I'm currently looking into server cases. The HL 15 is good but nothing new or groundbreaking. There are cheaper alternatives out there that do the same or more. Will try to cover it in future.

[@praetorxyn]

@@Jims-Garage What sets it apart are the toolless caddyless hotswap bays and the heavy rivetless stainless steel construction. Whether it's worth paying for those things is subjective.

[@BPL-Whipster]

It's also worth pointing out for future reference, Asrock Rack make itx boards with ipmi, integrated processors and ecc support.

[@Jims-Garage]

Yes, good point, I currently use one for my NAS. The same applies regarding APU and ecc, though ipmi typically fulfils that requirement (the rack mobos also tend to be a little pricier).

[@ZafodB3]

Digging into this a bit, one concern I have/had is the Ethernet port. Most Intel boards will have a 1Gbs or a 2.5Gbs LAN connector and some have one of each. On page 10 of the User Manual for the ASRock BB550M Pro4 mother board shows that the lights on the LAN RJ45 jack will tell the connection type 2.5 Gbs, 1 Gbs or lower. I assume this is a multispeed port? Important since I currently only have 1 Gbs ports on my Router and the entry to 2.5 Gbs is a bit steep at ~ $750.

[@Jims-Garage]

If it helps, everything was recorded at 1Gbps as I only have 1 and 10 😊

[@0ChAnTi]

hello James, love your videos. Will you measure idle consumption of the final build?

[@Jims-Garage]

Yes I will, it's something I'm keen to understand as well. I'll be building and recording this evening as the final parts have arrived

[@Jims-Garage]

It idles at 23W

[@0ChAnTi]

@@Jims-Garage Thanks,that's not bad. Saw a different video about a 4650ge that was dropping below 20 in idle. I am curious to see your next part.

[@nadtz]

I was thinking about building something similar but in the end the pro CPU's don't have enough PCIE lanes. If I got a board with 10gb the motherboard price goes way up and if not not enough PCIE slots. Luckily my power is cheap so I'm probably going to go with a 2nd gen Epyc (second hand) but I understand the thought process here having gone through the same back and forth myself.

[@Jims-Garage]

If power isn't an issue then second hand enterprise makes a lot of sense. 2nd gen epyc would be a great choice (or threadripper).

[@nadtz]

@@Jims-Garage Threadripper is also an option but I am trying to be as power conscious as I can and TDP vs performance vs cost I think Epyc comes in a little better with the lower TDP and core count for a NAS. If I were going more 'hybrid' with VM's also on the server and wanted as fast as possible then Threadripper would be more of an option but I'm still stuck in the old school mentality of separating storage from compute/virtualization. I'll have another server for VM's/compute.

[@monish05m]

wow, what an insightflu video, also just in time for my own nas/homelab build, thankyou. One question, does the 550m support IOMMU if lets say I get a proper GPU rather than the CPU-APU?

[@Jims-Garage]

It should do but it's best to check on Reddit etc to see what the actual groups are. It varies between manufacturers.

[@cig_in_mouth3786]

Waiting for operating system, i think install proxmox and virtualize the nas passthrough sas card (it mode) and that proxmox should have tailscale so i can trobleshoot it. But never done for someone so no experience 😢. I can't replicate same setup with that price because here refurbished market is flaky at best.

[@Jims-Garage]

I'll be doing the configuration video soon. I'm still deciding 😂

[@javiesteban4510]

Cool, these videos should be perfect for me. Now I create a nas/server with xeon processor and ecc memory.

[@Jims-Garage]

You can pick up old xeons relatively cheaply. It's a good option if you're ok with older kit and higher power consumption.

[@try-that]

Looking forward to this. I went 5600g/64gb non ecc. I run OMV6 on it, with the Compose and KVM plugin it can do docker, VMs and LXC's. My homelab is nothing special, but I do fancy having a go with proxmox, so I might add a intel network card and a sata card, of course if the price is right. I was looking forward to Truenas scale, but for my simple needs it seems to much hassle, I'm happy with ext4 file systems. Plus Truenas doesn't seem as good as OMV does when it comes to docker (personal opinion) especially as I say with the Compose plugin, But I might try proxmox and was even thinking of trying a VM with Cockpit for creating the NFS shares, and using Dockge for the docker setup rather than Portainer, and dropping OMV There are so many choices for homelabbers who want to stick with opensource 😀

[@Jims-Garage]

Totally agree. Sounds like you have a great setup.

[@PCMagikHomeLab]

there is one minus of APU, version of pci-e nvme drive, only 3.0, but ryzen cpu's has pci-e 4.0. I've ryzen 7 5700x headless server with 128GB RAM ECC on X570 ATX board and consum in ide 30-36 Wats :)

[@Jims-Garage]

That's great, I assume your motherboard supports headless mode?

[@PCMagikHomeLab]

@@Jims-Garage ASRock x570 pro4, normal user motherboard

[@BPL-Whipster]

I have built systems like this to import customer data into my hosting platform, inspired by the azure data box. I also run 1u versions built on supermicro as onsite backup targets to ingest veeam backups before any onward forwarding. TrueNAS core and native zfs is great - not too take away from Scale.

[@Sfeclicel]

doesn't the system have it’s own error correcting algorithms, how it is possible to be able to upload something and arrive corrupted on the nas without ecc memory?

[@Jims-Garage]

Too much to get into in a comment but read up on bit flips. Without ECC there's a minute possibility of a 1 changing to a 0 and vice versa. That creates data corruption, ECC prevents that.

[@Jims-Garage]

Too much to get into in a comment but read up on bit flips. Without ECC there's a minute possibility of a 1 changing to a 0 and vice versa. That creates data corruption, ECC prevents that.

[@Jims-Garage]

Too much to get into in a comment but read up on bit flips. Without ECC there's a minute possibility of a 1 changing to a 0 and vice versa. That creates data corruption, ECC prevents that.

[@rammsteinfen1]

Oh nice, i actually have the same build as a home server. Didn't know what is ECC support and by luck i have it. I am not sure about my ram cuz its different and i dont think it have ECC. I Dint find info on internet. I have Kingston FURY Beast Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL17. Looking forward for the next episode

[@822437]

Whats the expected power draw for this build?

[@Jims-Garage]

It was idle around 40W, 100W stress test.

[@822437]

@@Jims-Garage thanks!

[@Jimmy_Jones]

Where did you source the CPU on with warranty? Is it a vendor everyone can access?

[@Jims-Garage]

Yes, bargainhardware. I might have plucked the last one as it has disappeared now. There are some on eBay.

[@luwk]

Witch nas operating system you are going to be using

[@Jims-Garage]

Still undecided, TrueNAS scale or core. I may virtualise it...

[@bluesquadron593]

Did I get it right that you went with a single ssd/nvme as boot disk? Maybe that could have been a mirrored set?

[@Jims-Garage]

Ideally it would be, but I'm working to a budget. The machine will easily accommodate if you can stretch.

[@ivanmaglica264]

ECC is not just for data integrity, it's also for system stability! Bit flips happen in OS memory space, too. If bit flip happens in area where kernel lives, system crash is guaranteed.

[@InsaiyanTech]

Honestly great build it’s funny I was going to do this exact build but I went for the 5700g instead and didn’t do the ecc memory route since I already had 128g of ram in a old Build and I wanted to reuse it

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks. Yes, it's always a balance between making use of what you have and new and shiny. That sounds like a great build.

[@InsaiyanTech]

@@Jims-Garage ya honestly that’s the hardest part is balance between what you have or if you want to buy. I would like to see how low you can get wattage of the build like efficiency that’s what I’m trying to learn next since it will run 24/7

[@rickbhattacharya2334]

I personally think a R5 1600 or 2600 new or used 16 to 32 GB memory A cheap matx a320 or b350 Mobo new A gt 1030 or anything cheap gpu new or used 256GB m.2 SSD new 4TB HDDs as per needs new 450 watt PSU new Cheap matx case new or used

[@Jims-Garage]

That's a good second hand build for sure. Ecc might be an issue though for a NAS.

[@bluesquadron593]

As Jim pointed out, his main thinking was to have ECC. So anything else is a completely different kind of build.

[@YM-xz6xt]

There are plenty of second hand ryzen 5 pro 2400G at similar price as the 1600. That would offer ecc.

[@Jims-Garage]

@@YM-xz6xt great point ☝️

[@Ali-Bee]

Hmmm.... My tip doesn't let you rummage in the electronics anymore. (HAZMAT don'tchaknow!) and all electricals are contracted off to a specialist EEE waste provider (remover?) I did manage to get a Zalman full tower case many years back when someone literally dropped it off in front of me! was absolutely gutted when I was cockblocked from taking the fully boxed Amiga 500 and A590 HDD when they first introduced the e-Waste ticket requirement for taking electronics though :(

[@DoubtingThomas333]

The best thing to do is Reduce Reuse Repurpose And then only ♻️ if all of the former are exhausted. Be the change you want to see in the world.

[@mkunikow]

What about Gigabyte MW34SP0 ECC + Intel not Xenon required . Check video Gigabyte MW34SP0 Motherboard Review Level1Techs

[@Jims-Garage]

Sure, as I mentioned in the video it's a w680 chipset. It's also nearly £500, the same as this entire build...

[@mdd1963]

What on earth is a Xenon? :)

[@mkunikow]

Sorry I mean Xeon :)@@mdd1963

[@YM-xz6xt]

That will be a great build! Looking forward to see the next episodes! Last year I was hesitating to make a similar build with a ryzen pro. I finally opted for a 3 node intel nuc cluster and 2 synology nas. It draws 8 to 10 watt per node and 15 watt per nas (with crucial SSD's)

[@Jims-Garage]

That sounds awesome 😎

[@raymondbeytrison1080]

really nice. nuc model and nas model ? Ceph ? tx !

[@YM-xz6xt]

@@raymondbeytrison1080 The 3 nuc's have each 1 nvme for the OS + 1 SSD for storage. The SSDs are indeed in a Cepth cluster. I know the 2.5g network is maybe light for a ceph cluster but for my usecase it works fine. I run a virtual firewall, adguard, nextcoud, plex.. a few websites, a small kubernetes cluster, 2 docker VM and a few other stuff. The first Synology nas is there for daily backup and shared storage (also on 2.5g). The second Synology is really for backup and do not run all the time. It also serves as encrypted cloud backup for family (as they also do for me with their nas).

[@YM-xz6xt]

@@raymondbeytrison1080 The nuc's are nuc11tnhv50l

[@YM-xz6xt]

@@raymondbeytrison1080 It is the nuc11tnhv50l

[@JasonEala]

oh yeah... i'm trying to repurpose my old i7-2600K. gonna make a test server and try to learn promox and networking. Thx Jim for your educational videos.

[@Jims-Garage]

Nice 👍 that should work. Very old, just make sure that it has virtualisation support. If not, run bare metal Linux.

[@SpookyLurker]

My Ryzen 2700x supports ECC memory..

[@Jims-Garage]

It does, but it doesn't have a GPU

[@rabahfdoul4844]

And how about the OS?

[@Jims-Garage]

As discussed either Proxmox or TrueNAS. More videos to come.

[@bluesquadron593]

He literally said, not yet decided.🙄

[@shaunwhiteley3544]

​@@Jims-Garageany thoughts on using Unraid? 5700G running 24\7 NAS, home assistant, a few docker containers. 21 watts, goes to 45 watts ish when running Windows vm.

[@bluesquadron593]

@@raulgil8207 I don’t see how this would be an option. The only case when it can be up to be an option when your data is not important. Also you feel comfortable using an illegal software for hosting all your data… To me there is no upside.

[@cig_in_mouth3786]

​@@raulgil8207yes, I am running in my homelab as production and worked great but creating KZbin video, I dunno about legality.

[@mdd1963]

Unless your existing case is pathetically small, who doesn't have at least a pair of internal drive bays they could not mount a pair of mirrored (via Storage Spaces or thru DIsk Mngmt) drive in? :) (If needs for storage that small, I'd question needing the expense of another PC/NAS/Server to be built at all... unless you just want it as a tinkering system, which I perfectly understand...!)

[@mdd1963]

Granted, if one is going to need 8-10 drives, you are going to need a separate box normally! (Some large full tower cases had room for 10 internal 3.5" drives!)

[@koloblicin4599]

Haha, just pick up a case from the trash he says, while I have delayed my build for month now, bc I can't have my ideal case 🙈😅 apparently it's inconceivable to want easy access to 4 HDDs and 6 SSDs in a SFF (

[@Jims-Garage]

Trust me, there's no ideal case. You always want more 😂 just get it up and running and worry about the case later IMO

[@PCMagikHomeLab]

Gosh, You're really crazy, just like me in that homelabing :P I'm just wonder how big is Your lab.

[@Jims-Garage]

Haha, every homelabber needs to be a bit crazy 🤣 check my homelab tour video, it's pretty humble to me honest

[@shephusted2714]

people, but especially businesses really need 2 nas....

[@Falcon5ive]

This could have been a blopgpost or just an audio, there is NO value of this being on YT without an actual product. Amazon reviews are more helpful than this waste of time. Please have some respect for your audience's time, if you ask 17 mins of someone's time, it better be worth it or that person won't hear you ever.

[@Jims-Garage]

Thanks 😂

[@somfierce]

U ok?

[@dansanger5340]

It's very useful for me looking at various ideas for builds on KZbin. If he put it elsewhere I never would have seen it.