The goal is to move to a smaller footprint - I'm downsizing from my Antec NineteenHundred full server case and reducing my array size from 19 drives to 12 drives - just removed drive #13 yesterday and the final (hopefully) parity rebuild is in progress. Will be moving to a physically smaller setup, but I still run 20 or so docker containers (no VM's at this time, but it is possible) including Plex, Jellyfin, Arrrs*, Nextcloud, VSCode, Traefik, Nginx, and others - so I want to keep as much of the muscle as I reasonably can.

Looking for opinions on 2 ideas I have as the basis for my rebuild - 

1. Using the i9-13900 as the basis for the build
   1. Will work on mATX or ITX form-factor
   2. iGPU (HD770) included
   3. 65W TDP
   4. Impressive performance
   5. Plenty of cores
   6. Kinda pricey (~$550 for cpu + ~$250-$500 for mb + ~$250-$500 memory)
2. Using the Ryzen 9 7945HX
   1. Minisforum BD795m is available, other options/makers have the 8845 and 7940 available
   2. iGPU included (Radeon M610)
   3. 55W TDP
   4. Impressive performance
   5. Plenty of cores
   6. Kinda a bargain (~$400 currently on Amazon + $250 memory)
   7. Need to buy new drives to take full advantage because I don't own 2x NVME
   8. These CPU's are only available as MB+CPU units
   9. Single PCIE-5 x16 slot
   10. Most of these have limited sata3 connectors on board (2 or 4 connectors)
   11. Most have a single RJ45 connector 2.5G
        

 

 

Edited February 7, 20251 yr by whipdancer

I am roughly in the same situation, rocking an 11900k right now which draws too much power to my taste.

 

Even if the 13900's TDP is 65W, I think it will draw much more power than the 7945HX or the 8845

So I am not considering this intel chip.

 

I like how powerful the 7945HX is and it looks very power efficient too. Hower, I am not a fan of the BD795m with only 2 sata and 2 m.2. with 8 sata or 4 m.2 this would be perfect.

This is why I am eying the Topton 8845HS motherboard with 9xsata, 2xm.2 and 4x2.5G https://www.toptonpc.com/product/9-bay-nas-motherboard-amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-usb4-4xi226-v-2-5g-lan-9xsata3-0-2xm-2-nvme-pcie-x16-2xddr5-mini-itx-firewall-mainboard/

3 hours ago, mathgoy said:

 

This is why I am eying the Topton 8845HS motherboard with 9xsata, 2xm.2 and 4x2.5G https://www.toptonpc.com/product/9-bay-nas-motherboard-amd-ryzen-7-8845hs-usb4-4xi226-v-2-5g-lan-9xsata3-0-2xm-2-nvme-pcie-x16-2xddr5-mini-itx-firewall-mainboard/

I looked at that Topton board as well. The 8845HS and 7940HS aren't remotely in the same league as the 7945HX (and that's really the issue with the mobile cpus - you have a to find a MB with them already on it). There are a few options with the i9-13900HX, which is pretty close to the 7945HX and also rated at 55W TDP.

I don't need more than a couple of SATA connectors because I use a 9300-16i HBA for most of my drives. Once I finish paring down my array, the total drive count will be 16 - 12 in the array including 2x parity, all on the HBA; 1 spare HDD on the HBA; 1 optical drive on a sata connector. I would replace my 2x SATA pool drives with 2x nmve drives - leaving me 1 spare SATA and 3 spare HBA connections.

The 8845 is rated at 45W and the 7945HX is rated at 55W TDP. The 13900 is 65W TDP. Any of the 3 CPUs will pull more than 65W under full load because TDP != actual usage. Even so, here's a projection assuming 24/7 usage at their max TDP for a year -