Question ASRock B550M Pro4 - good choice for DIY NAS build?

[slurmsmckenzie]

I'm planning to build a DIY NAS in a TJ08-E micro-ATX case with 4-5 SATA HDDs and a single NVMe SSD to boot from. After some research I've ordered a Ryzen 5 4650G PRO CPU which I believe is pretty power efficient and am looking for a micro-ATX (or smaller) motherboard to pair it with. I'd also like to use ECC RAM so I've ended up focusing on ASRock as they seem to be clearest in fully supporting ECC (in ECC mode).

I started looking at the A520 boards shown in Wolfgang's videos on YT, figuring that he knows a thing or two about DIY NAS / home servers and that even though they are budget and cut down that should be okay for a DIY NAS. Most of them have no VRM cooling and lacklustre VRMs in general - most server boards I've seen also have no VRM heatsinks although I've no idea how good the VRMs themselves are on those things. I'm trying to figure out whether this is something I should consider or not, some stuff I read says that quality VRMs only matter if you're overclocking and/or maxing the CPU (e.g. gaming) but I've also read the opinion that quality, well-cooled VRMs are important for overclocking AND stability longer term - which is obviously what I'm looking for. With the A520 boards specifically I've also seen conflicting opinion - from "perfectly good if you're not overclocking" to "absolute garbage, stay clear".

Whilst I would start off using the system for primarily storage only I would like to be able to do a bit more with it as a home server in future if I want to. So I started to think that a better motherboard might be a good idea and arrived at the ASRock B550M Pro4 which seemed to do pretty well in the Hardware Unboxed VRM testing and it also has 6 SATA ports which would be convenient as I wouldn't need to add any via PCIe or M.2. However it is less available and over twice the price of the A520 boards (not that the cost is huge) and I don't need PCIe 4, plus I'd like to save as much power as possible and I gather there are some small power draw differences between A520 and B550. I also read about a lot of USB issues with the B550M Pro4, I'd hope they were linked to the AMD issues fixed a few years back although I do see some more recent reports too.

So I can't quite decide whether the B550M Pro4 is the right choice or more than I need and I'd make cost and power savings by going with something like the A520M-HVS. Any thoughts would be much apprecated 😀

 

[Lutfij]

Congratulations on landing on a TJ08-E case and deciding on a build in said case. I was looking into one way back when it was released but couldn't justify the small form factor and the lack of good matx mainstream motherboard's at the time without sacrificing features.

This reddit would be a worthwhile read;

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/lzxqod/list_of_am4_motherboards_that_support_ecc/

As for the motherboard you've picked out, it's stated in the specs page that ECC memory is only supported with the Pro lineup of APUs, meaning you're in the clear with that board. If I were you, I'd definitely look at a board with a heatsink atop the VRM, not to mention a good RVM design/layout in hopes you keep the NSA up and running for the foreseeable future.

I would avoid the A520 chipset unless you find one that has a similar VRM design as the B550 Pro 4 but you're likely going to pay about the same as the B550 chipset offering albeit with A520 features. The A520 was designed to be a stripped down version of the B550 which in turn is a stripped down version of the X570. So if you will, the A520 chipset was design for no frills office machines which can be replaced due to their relative cost effectiveness. Motherboard makers also place lackluster hardware/componentry on the bottom of the barrel chipsets/platforms.

Hope that helps.

 

[slurmsmckenzie]

Congratulations on landing on a TJ08-E case and deciding on a build in said case. I was looking into one way back when it was released but couldn't justify the small form factor and the lack of good matx mainstream motherboard's at the time without sacrificing features.

Thanks! I actually have it from a former build, I needed a case that was shallow due to my desk setup and that was the best option. I've moved on to a Torrent Compact now which supports full ATX but I stil love the TJ08-E.

This reddit would be a worthwhile read;
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/lzxqod/list_of_am4_motherboards_that_support_ecc/

Thank you for this, some of those posts make me wonder if ECC will ever actually truly work on consumer boards! I thought I'd seen evidence of people getting ECC to work on the B550 Pro4 (some linux command) but that thread makes me doubt it a bit. I guess I can try anyway, I'd like to do all I can to avoid data corruption!

As for the motherboard you've picked out, it's stated in the specs page that ECC memory is only supported with the Pro lineup of APUs, meaning you're in the clear with that board. If I were you, I'd definitely look at a board with a heatsink atop the VRM, not to mention a good RVM design/layout in hopes you keep the NSA up and running for the foreseeable future.

I would avoid the A520 chipset unless you find one that has a similar VRM design as the B550 Pro 4 but you're likely going to pay about the same as the B550 chipset offering albeit with A520 features. The A520 was designed to be a stripped down version of the B550 which in turn is a stripped down version of the X570. So if you will, the A520 chipset was design for no frills office machines which can be replaced due to their relative cost effectiveness. Motherboard makers also place lackluster hardware/componentry on the bottom of the barrel chipsets/platforms.

That's great, thank you, feels like I was right to disregard the A520 boards. I should probably stop thinking about it and buy the B550M Pro4 because that Reddit thread you linked mentioned how X570 was better for virtualisation than B550 - I'll end up down a rabbit hole trying to find a micro-ATX X570 board that supports ECC next 😆 Although I don't like the idea of a chipset fan I have to admit, one of the reasons I use an X570-E Gaming Wifi II for my main desktop PC - X570 without the chipset fan 😀

 

[slurmsmckenzie]

Okay, maybe this answers my question! I'll stick with the B550M Pro4 😀

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy0H7Q0sfVg