GraemeT

Also, I believe you can only do an update to the ME firmware from within windows on this board. For the latest me update I had to create a bootable USB with windows and the me drivers installed in order to run the update. I ended up using WinToUSB https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/ (note not an endorsement as there are other ways to get windows installed on a usb drive)

Did you plug in the IPMI to the internal USB header? That is where it gets power from when the computer is off. The 6-pin is just for additional power for fans.

I am effectively using all slots on the ATX and all NVMe and all sata ports populated (using a slimsas breakout cable), IPMI in the 1x slot, HBA in the x16 slot configured for x16, SATA card in an x4 slot and 10gb NIc in the other X4. So seems like none of the lanes are shared between NVMe and the slots, just bifurcation being used for the X16 slot.

May be a little late, but I am running 2 of these in 1 channel at 5600MT/s by just selecting the XMP profile in the bios. Kingston KSM56E46BD8KM-48HM 48GB DDR5 5600MT/s ECC Unbuffered DIMM CL46 2Rx8 1.1V 288-pin 24Gbit Hynix M https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/memory/server-premier/ddr5-5600mts-ecc-unbuffered-dimm

You can either buy a couple of 8 port SATA PCIe cards or If I am reading the specs correctly, you can replace the cables to the backplane. The backplane has 4x SFF 8643 connections, so you just need to choose an HBA and to buy the appropriate SFF 8643 to the connections on the HBA. It is added expense, but I would get the HBA and avoid using multiple motherboard slots, the HBA is also likely more reliable as it is designed for enterprise server applications.

Which data cable set did you choose (A through G) as that will determine which card you could directly connect. But basically you will need a SAS HBA, I am using a LSI 9400-16i SAS card - but in a Fractal Define XL with direct cables to drives rather than a backplane.

Just a cheap SlimSAS to SATA off Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073F67WVN So far working fine. I have 4 SATA SSD on the controller to spread the bandwidth off the main Hard drive array on the LSI 9400-16i SAS.

Welcome. What you are thinking will work. The reason for choosing the W680 is for ECC memory support at a lower price. as for the specific questions 1. No need for an HBA if only 8 drives, I am using 20 drives, using 8 on the MB connections and the rest on the HBA. 2. I would never get a CPU without integrated graphics as it comes in very useful for troubleshooting if the graphics card stops working. Intel quicksync is actually pretty good, I would recommend trying that before getting a dedicated graphics card. For a NAS, idle power consumption is an important factor.

Thanks for the link to the guide, I somehow missed the ME section on the bios page and only found the Intel ME installers under windows 11.

And an Intel ME update is required, but Asus do not appear to have posted that on the drivers part yet. More fun trying to get a temporary windows version just to update the driver! 😢 Interestingly the 3901 BIOS (that I am running) which also includes the 0x12B microcode seems to have been removed from existence. Does anyone know what the differences are between 3901 and 4001 besides needing a version of Intel ME that has not been publised by Asus yet?

Just wanted to add to this very useful thread for this board. I have just set this board up and you can use the NH-D15S (one fan included model) it is different to the NH-D15 as it is asymmetrical vertically so you can install it and get 2cm clearance to the top x1 PCIe slot which is perfect for the IPMI card so as to not use one of the x4 or better slots.

I also ditched the VLAN setup - although now it is working I may revisit that!

I managed to get it working - 3 things that I did (Perhaps not all of them needed...) 1) Set the docker networking to bridge mode 2) Set a port forward on the router to forward the wireguard port to the configured port on the host that the container is mapped to (shown on the docker information when running) 3) Set a static route on the router to point IP Addresses in the wireguard range to use the unraid server IP as the gateway (Probably not needed unless initiating connections from the LAN to the client - but I am doing that for one client)

I have been trying this docker after upgrading my switches to use VLANs seems to have broken the built in Unraid Wireguard that was previously working perfectly!

I am having exactly the same issue... did you ever resolve it?