wiki/new_nas_build_2023.md

NAS upgrade

Old NAS was that Supermicro embedded Intel Atom board that randomly has the cap fail and won't boot anymore. Still working, but the disk array is getting slow for the torture I put it through with beets to organize my music. Works fine for everything else (jellyfin movies, navidrome (subsonic) music, forgejo git, and other random services). I also want to move this in to a small music/desktop rack to save space and finally organize the cable mess. The current build is 3.5" metal drives so that won't fit in any useful case. Let's redo this with flash and see if we can keep things in a reasonable size and price combination (Icy Dock looks so nice, but makes the wallet cry).

Things that are probably going in the build

Motherboard

This is the secondary item driving the build. If we can fit in mATX we have more case flexibility. Can we get all our options with mATX though?

• https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=ROMED8U-2T

  • mATX, 10GBE, 3x PCIE 4.0, 8 DIMMs ($540)
  • Only Intel 10GBE controllers?
  • https://www.newegg.com/asrock-rack-romed8u-2t-support-amd-epyc-7003-and-7002-series-processors-a-bios-update-is-required/p/N82E16813140074

• https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=ROMED8-2T#Specifications

  • ATX, 10GBE, 7x PCIE 4.0, 8 DIMMs
  • Intel/BCM variants

CPU

Probably AMD. Arm with Ampere would be cool, but motherboard support isn't really here yet. Maybe next year. Ampere is probably better suited for a build server than a NAS though.

• https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/processors

• https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/microarchitectures/zen_2#All_Zen_2_Chips

• https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100008494%20601306856%20601318605%20600048874%20601342356%208000%20600048545%20600048544%20600252262&Order=1

  • 7252 8/16 @ 120W ($380)
    • https://www.newegg.com/amd-epyc-7252-socket-sp3/p/N82E16819113642?Item=N82E16819113642&SoldByNewegg=1
  • 7262 8/16 @ 155W ($560)
  • 7272 12/24 @ 120W ($630)
    • https://www.newegg.com/amd-epyc-7272-socket-sp3/p/N82E16819113641?Item=N82E16819113641&SoldByNewegg=1
  • Everything else is $900+

Drive carriers and HBAs

M2 NVME drives are really cheap right now for some reason. Could update to SATA flash, but if we can put together a NVME-capable system without a premium, why not take that huge speed bump? They're also way smaller as we want a bunch to make a raid. Kioxia 16-32TB drives are attractive, but there is a premium for their density rather than a discount and they're incredibly hard to source. Also, if one fails, you're out the full $1.500 instead of replacing a single $200 M2.

• https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/multi-nvme-m-2-u-2-adapters-that-do-not-require-bifurcation.31172/
  • PCIE 4.0 x16 -> 2 x4 M2
  • PCIE 4.0 x16 -> 4 x4 M2
  • Proper PCIE controller bridge M2 carrier cards.
  • Don't need PCIE bifurcation support.
  • Minor latency hit. We're not buying Optanes so it doesn't matter.
• https://www.microcenter.com/product/618566/asus-hyper-m2-x16-gen-4-card
  • PCIE 4.0 x16 -> 4 x4 M2 ($90)
  • VERY LONG!!! (27cm)
  • Might be a full height card? Seems to be 3U tall?
  • PCIE bridge card. Uses southbridge bifurcation.
  • Don't get the old PCIE 3.0 version.

Drives

• https://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntk=all&sortby=match&N=4294945779+4294818519+670+4294810863&myStore=true
  • 4TB ($225)

Cool toys that won't make it

These things are either too expensive or don't work at the right size but might be useful for someone else.

• https://global.icydock.com/product_363.html
  • Would love some of these. About $1.000 in. Also need a NVME HBA and cables ($100/pop?).
• https://americas.kioxia.com/en-us/business/ssd/data-center-ssd.html
  • CD8 series, 16/32TB 2.5"
  • Can't source direct and ebay has limited stock.
  • Markup for density.