Looking to Upgrade Hardware

[senrab]

Hey everyone!

 

I am looking at upgrading my current unraid server's hardware. I am starting to notice its age. 

 

I am wondering if a MSI X570-A Pro would be a good motherboard. 

 

I have a brand new one and thought I could start with that and then put a Ryzen 7 5800x and go from there. 

 

Would that motherboard work alright or should I look at a different one. 

 

Thank you!

[Hoopster]

22 minutes ago, senrab said:

Would that motherboard work alright or should I look at a different one

unRAID is very hardware agnostic.  It works on almost anything and certainly that MB/CPU combination is supported.  Hardware choice for many comes down to what you want the server to be able to do; NAS only? NAS + Docker + VMs + several plugins?  Something in between?  Does it need to be able to do hardware transcoding for Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, etc?  Do you need ECC RAM support (not required by unRAID)?

 

Decide what you want the system to do and then choose hardware that supports that.

[senrab]

50 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

unRAID is very hardware agnostic.  It works on almost anything and certainly that MB/CPU combination is supported.  Hardware choice for many comes down to what you want the server to be able to do; NAS only? NAS + Docker + VMs + several plugins?  Something in between?  Does it need to be able to do hardware transcoding for Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, etc?  Do you need ECC RAM support (not required by unRAID)?

 

Decide what you want the system to do and then choose hardware that supports that.

Thanks for the reply!

 

I currently use my server for storing my files and Plex. I have docker installed and a few of the "recommended" plugins for unraid. 

 

I don't see myself doing much more with it at this time but I guess I never know. Future proofing a little is never a bad thing. 

 

As for ECC Ram, is that recommend? 

 

Thanks again!

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, senrab said:

As for ECC Ram, is that recommend? 

Depends on who you ask.  I use server motherboards and CPUs that support ECC RAM.  Since it is supported and my servers run 24x7, I choose to use it.  UnRAID does not require the use of ECC RAM for anything the server does.  I would say most use non-ECC RAM and probably have very, very few problems that ECC would have corrected.

[JonathanM]

7 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

I would say most use non-ECC RAM and probably have very, very few problems that ECC would have corrected.

I prefer zero errors as opposed to very very few. Whether the extra cost is worth it is an exercise for the reader.

[senrab]

17 hours ago, JonathanM said:

I prefer zero errors as opposed to very very few. Whether the extra cost is worth it is an exercise for the reader.

 

Cost isn't really a concern, as this is for my data so its important. 

 

I am curious though, what kind of errors could I potencially see with non-ECC RAM?

 

Thanks!

[JonathanM]

RAM errors can do very random stuff, best case is unexplained crashes, worst case is persistent silent data corruption. All your data passes through RAM at some point.

 

With typical ECC, single bit errors are caught and corrected with a notation in the motherboard's hardware log, multi bit uncorrectable errors should trigger a complete lock so no further damage to your data can happen.

 

Memory issues are usually rare, but not rare enough to be ignorable.

[senrab]

50 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

RAM errors can do very random stuff, best case is unexplained crashes, worst case is persistent silent data corruption. All your data passes through RAM at some point.

 

With typical ECC, single bit errors are caught and corrected with a notation in the motherboard's hardware log, multi bit uncorrectable errors should trigger a complete lock so no further damage to your data can happen.

 

Memory issues are usually rare, but not rare enough to be ignorable.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Do you know of a good AM4 board that uses ECC RAM? 

 

I was hoping to go with a Ryzen 7 CPU because I currently have that in my gaming PC. I was thinking of upgrading that to a Ryzen 9 and move the Ryzen 7 into a new Unraid server. 

[senrab]

Actually, looking at the MSI board that I have, it says it supports Non-ECC, ECC (Non-ECC Mode) Unbuffered. Would that work or should I just go get a different one? 

 

Thanks for the help!

[JonathanM]

26 minutes ago, senrab said:

, ECC (Non-ECC Mode)

Sounds like it doesn't actually utilize ECC.

 

Honestly, I've not had any experience with ECC and AMD, and since the memory controller for all the modern platforms I'm aware of is in the CPU, I think you need to focus on the processor ECC implementation first, then make sure the board you pair it with has the event logging and wiring to support it.

 

I remember reading somewhere that even though some AMD chips will allow ECC to be used they don't actually do the ECC functionality. It's tried and true tech on the Intel side, using workstation or server grade motherboards with Xeon chips, and a few rare exceptions for some i3 CPUS for some reason. I'm not aware of any desktop chipset boards with ECC.