Hi!

 

I'm planning on building a NAS and use unRAID for it.

I will use it for:

1. Backups

2. Media storage + streaming (HD and 4K)

 

I want to spend as little as possible and have as little power consumption as possible.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thank you in advance!

I was thinking about ASRock Q1900M.

Question is: is EFF memory necessary?

Did any of you guys used this Mobo/CPU combo?

It depends on how many drives (and hence, SATA and/or PCI slots you need).

 

My first unRAID box used a SuperMicro X9SCM-HF, which I still use for my second box (I went with a different motherboard when I upgraded the case to a 24-drive Norco RPC-4224).

 

The X9SCM has an integrated Atom D510 1.66GHz CPU and is one of the lowest power-consuming boards around.  Having a built-in CPU would also makes this a low-cost solution; just need RAM and perhaps an HBA card if its 6 SATA ports are not enough.

I want to install 6 drives for now, but I'd like to have option to add 4-6 drives more in future.

 

I was thinking about buying ASRock Q1900M (has only 2 SATA connectors) + Syba SI-PEX40071 PCIe.

This combo will cost me 133 Euro. Question is if I can get anything better for that price (ie. Super Micro MoBo with embeded CPU with at least 6 SATA connectors)?

 

Auggie do you think buying non ECC motherboard is not a good idea?

I want to install 6 drives for now, but I'd like to have option to add 4-6 drives more in future.

 

I was thinking about buying ASRock Q1900M (has only 2 SATA connectors) + Syba SI-PEX40071 PCIe.

This combo will cost me 133 Euro. Question is if I can get anything better for that price (ie. Super Micro MoBo with embeded CPU with at least 6 SATA connectors)?

 

Auggie do you think buying non ECC motherboard is not a good idea?

 

I don't have any experience with the Q1900M, but me, personally, I would prefer ECC for that added protection to help prevent memory corruption.  It really depends on the what data you intend to store on this server, and if you have any other redundant storage plan.

 

I also want to point out that if you plan on having more than 10 drives, the Q1900M will require at least another HBA, so the initial low-cost of it versus other motherboards with more on-board SATA ports is negated.

So what would be the cheapest ECC supported motherboard with embeded CPU?

 

BTW 133 Euro is including both: ASRock Q1900M and Syba SI-PEX40071 PCIe HBA.

So what would be the cheapest ECC supported motherboard with embeded CPU?

 

This is an excellent question. I often hear that ECC memory is only $X more, but what is the cost of a "Cheap and low power consumption CPU+MoBo" without the ECC, and then with ECC?

As far as my research goes:

 

non-ECC: ASRock Q1900M + Syba SI-PEX40071 PCIe HBA (10 SATA connectors in total): 133 Euro

ECC: Asrock C2550D4I (12 SATA connectors in total): 315 Euro

 

So that is almost triple the cost.

 

I have never used ECC memory (I've build a few video editing work stations).

 

Would using non-ECC memory corrupt data or just make the system more prone to crushes?

Do those prices include the memory as well?

 

The difference between the ECC and non-ECC is the number of times the system will crash on memory error. The memory itself will not corrupt the data, but the crash might result in partially written data (aka corruption). Like disk protection, the amount of protection needed scales with the amount of disk/memory in the system. More data on disk and it makes sense to have more than single parity. Similarly with more memory, ECC becomes more desirable.

Those prices are not including the memory.

 

ECC is about 50-60% more expensive vs non-ECC.

 

@C3:

I'm considering getting the cheaper set-up with non-ECC memory (for now it will have 6 drives: 1TB, 2x 2TB, 3TB, 4TB + 4TB Parity) and I'll see how it goes. If the system is not stable, if it's going to crush I can just sell the Q1900M and get the server grade mobo/cpu combo.

What do you think?

Do you personally use ECC memory for your builds?

Yes, I do use ECC memory.

 

As expected the ECC motherboard also includes more features, like IPMI, additional ethernet port, more memory support. It's hard to find a cheap ECC board. They seem to get additional features, which you may not need.

 

If you don't need ECC, then the AMD AM1 platform is useful.  Add an Athlon 5350 to an Asus AM1-M board, and then stuff in a cheap SATA card, job jobbed.

If you don't need ECC, then the AMD AM1 platform is useful.  Add an Athlon 5350 to an Asus AM1-M board, and then stuff in a cheap SATA card, job jobbed.

 

Athlon 5350 alone cost as much as ASRock Q1900M MoBo+CPU combo also 5350 is consuming more power, so ASRock Q1900M + SATA card seems like a better choice.

If you don't need ECC, then the AMD AM1 platform is useful.  Add an Athlon 5350 to an Asus AM1-M board, and then stuff in a cheap SATA card, job jobbed.

 

Athlon 5350 alone cost as much as ASRock Q1900M MoBo+CPU combo also 5350 is consuming more power, so ASRock Q1900M + SATA card seems like a better choice.

 

What?  Where are you buying your AMD?

 

I got mine for £23, and the board was £25.  An AsRock Q1900 will NOT be less than £48.

I really don't get this ECC is required for a file server craze.

 

I believe this is being spread across the internet because of ZFS / FreeNAS. ZFS stores a lot of parity data / snapshot stuff in memory, meaning if the memory bits flip while the data is up there (and I understand its mostly up there, which is why FreeNAS builds generally put lot's of ram in), you'll get some corruption.

 

unRAID does not maintain your data in memory. It receives it, writes it to disk and done.

 

I'd really like to hear from someone who has experienced confirmed data corrution from non-ECC memory on unRAID.

I just bought this board http://amzn.com/B00JQHUE3G

 

I am going to setup a system with it over the next few days.  I will let you know how it goes.

I just bought this board http://amzn.com/B00JQHUE3G

 

I am going to setup a system with it over the next few days.  I will let you know how it goes.

 

Sweet.

 

Looking forward to hear from you.

I really don't get this ECC is required for a file server craze.

 

I believe this is being spread across the internet because of ZFS / FreeNAS. ZFS stores a lot of parity data / snapshot stuff in memory, meaning if the memory bits flip while the data is up there (and I understand its mostly up there, which is why FreeNAS builds generally put lot's of ram in), you'll get some corruption.

 

unRAID does not maintain your data in memory. It receives it, writes it to disk and done.

 

I'd really like to hear from someone who has experienced confirmed data corrution from non-ECC memory on unRAID.

ECC is not required for any file system / server at all.  Period.  No Ifs, Ands Or Buts.

 

BUT

 

You really have to consider the environments that ZFS / FreeNas / Windows, etc are all geared towards.

 

ZFS / FreeNas (especially ZFS) are geared towards the enterprise sector, and enterprise will NOT accept any server which does not have ECC because the risk vs $ is not acceptable.

 

Your average desktop is geared towards home / SOHO use

 

Your average desktop used at work tends to be commodity computers (as in generic Windows boxes) IF they manipulate the companies data through an intemediate program (something like AS/400 running on the corporations main servers), because in that case any flipped bits locally will not affect the main databases

 

A corporate desktop which is used to directly manipulate data will be a Workstation, which is identical to a white-box desktop with the exception of ECC memory.

 

 

It all comes down to acceptable risk levels.  Flipped bits can and do happen with all memory systems.  ECC will catch and correct the error.

 

A flipped bit on your home computer could merely cause Windows or a program to crash (Anyone ever had to restart their computer because of some weird crash / funkiness with it?)

 

A flipped bit on a NAS geared towards home media (like unRaid) could cause a pixel to not display correctly on a movie

 

A flipped bit on your corporation memory could have potentially huge effects on the money flow, accounts, etc.

 

If data integrity is absolutely paramount to you, your server's should have ECC (But then again, since for a lot of users, the source of media / storage is their desktop which does NOT have ECC, then to a certain extent the advantages of the server having it is negated)

 

And, as an aside, unRaid does NOT receive the file and write the file.  unRaid caches as much of the file in memory as possible prior to writing it.  A flipped bit not caught by ECC could potentially corrupt the file.

 

Its all about risk.  To me, the risk imposed by not having ECC is acceptable, and for 99.99% of my storage needs wouldn't bother me in the least if a file had a flipped bit in it.

 

But, don't delude yourself by saying that merely because you've never noticed any corruption caused by memory flips that it hasn't happened.  Haven't you ever restarted your desktop because it was just acting up for a minute?

 

Its all about risk management and how much trouble that single flipped bit is going to cause you vs the $ investment to protect against it.