New NAS Build: consideration about chipset throughput / controller cards

Would you upgrade your network to 25 Gbit for the same cost you have today with your 1 Gbit ?

  • There is no provider like that (haha thats a trap; init7.net)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • NO, I have ISDN and I will stay on it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    12
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Frownwarrior

New Member
Aug 8, 2022
1
0
1
Hello together

It's my first time here in the forum therefore I am not sure if my question belongs to the mainboard or to the HBA area.

My current old NAS consists of the following components:

I7 3770k, Asus Saberthooth Z78, 3x WD RED 4TB, 3x SSD, OS: OpenMediaVault

and has some software problems and is no longer available online.


Now I had the opportunity to benefit from a great deal.
7 brand new WD Red 4TB harddisk for the price of 35€ / disk. (YES per disc!)
So I have 7 new hard disks. (I have not yet checked them in detai, but I think they are SMR models but for the price I really do not care).

Since the effort to solve the software problems on my current NAS, (for me as a total noob), are very high, I decided to build a completely new NAS and use the old one as a backup.

The old NAS had relatively few hard drives, I did not think much about the data throughput of the chipset. But now it looks different with 7 disks. (possibly also 8)

I want to keep the costs as low as possible and try to buy used hardware wherever I see it as uncritical.
But with the motherboard it is difficult.

I have looked at the following motherboards:

AsRock x570 Pro4
AsRock x570 PG Velocita
AsRock x570 Steel Legend

All of them have 8 Sata ports which are directly connected to the chipset.
I know that in the past there were tests on platforms like Z87, where it was shown that the maximum data throughput was already reached with 2-3 SSD.

Of course, the new NAS only has hard drives, but I also intend to use 1 to 2 Nvme SSD as cache or OS.

In addition, there is probably also a video card in x8 Mode or maybe x4 (something very simple, in the old one is a 750ti in it, because it does not consume additional power. From time to time I run game server over the NAS, where some needed a graphics card e.g. ARK).

I will also upgrade my whole home network to 25Gbit next year. Since the NAS will also be used for downloads and home office, this will surely be one of the first systems to get a 25Gbit connection.
I want to use ZFS as my experience with it has always been positive.


What are your experiences?
Does anyone have a similar setup?
Does it make sense to connect everything to the chipset?
Do I need to install a controller card and if so, which one? (I don't want to install a RAID controller that costs $1000.-)
Are there other platforms that are better suited? (price/performance)
I don't want a rack server because the NAS is in the office. #Noise pollution.

Thank you in advance for your helpful inputs.

-Frownwarrior


ps. just for fun I made a poll... :D
 

RolloZ170

Well-Known Member
Apr 24, 2016
5,159
1,549
113
All of them have 8 Sata ports which are directly connected to the chipset.
I know that in the past there were tests on platforms like Z87, where it was shown that the maximum data throughput was already reached with 2-3 SSD.
that depends on the CPU->Chipset connection.
the X570 is connected by 4x PCIe4.0 (16GB/s)
Z87 was DMI 2.0 with 4x 2 GB/s
you see the X570 has eight times the bandwidth than the GOOD old Z87
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
For 7 HDD + ZFS 25Gbit seems even like it would go unused, don't see any reason at all for 100.

Why not just go 10?
 

newabc

Active Member
Jan 20, 2019
465
243
43
X570 chipset has lower random write performance than B550. (They are designed by different companies.)
But if the sata ports connect mechanical HDDs, they are no differences.

Asrock's b550 Taichi has a 2.5Gbps Intel NIC, 8 sata ports(4 from b550 chipset and 4 from asm1061 chip), 2 m.2 slots (1x 2280 and 1x 22110) and 3 pcie x16 slots(But they will work as x8 if all 3 slots are used). The x570 pro4 is a gigabit Intel i211 NIC. I think when the 25Gbps NIC is using, the on-board NIC is used for management only.

I think 22110 nvme m.2 enterprise drives are easier to find and also have better performance than the 2280 ones.
 
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