Hey, everyone… my first post… nice to be here.
I'm planning on getting a NAS, and one option is to build it myself, and then install either TrueNAS Scale, unRAID or Ubuntu Server (with mergerFS & SnapRAID). But I'm leaning toward TrueNAS Scale for the DIY build option. For that I have found a motherboard that seems pretty good for the job, the Kontron K3851-R ATX. apparently based on a Fujitsu design:
www.kontron.com
Intel 12th & 13th generation
DDR5 ECC up to 128 GB
4 internal SATA III
PCIe 5.0
2 internal NVMe slots (PCIe 5.0, I assume)
6 PCIe slots plus one 32-bit x1 PCI slot
(Though I don't know what PCIe slot 4 is supposed to be… it's labeled "SCSI" on the board.)
My CPU of choice—relatively low power with ECC & DDR5 support plus iGPU for Plex transcoding—would be the Intel Core i9-13900T, though I don't know if the board will need a BIOS update for the tray version of this CPU. (Will have to ask Kontron.)
The board etc. would go into a 2U server rackmount chassis with 12 hotswap bays (no internal SATA disk space).
I have looked at a couple of components, but up to now I've never been a real hardware guy, so I don't know if this will all fit together, if certain components (incl. the 3 NVMe drives; see below) would steal bandwidth/speed etc.
The general approach for components would be:
RAM (DDR5 ECC)
Micron 32GB DDR5-4800 CL40 (MTC20C2085S1EC48BA1R)
SLOG volume (TrueNAS ZIL)
2 x 1 TB (mirrored) internal NVMe: Sabrent SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB
L2ARC (TrueNAS read cache, metadata only)
1 x 500 MB NVMe via PCIe: Sabrent SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-500
via PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe adapter card, e.g. something like the GrauGear G-M2PCI01
(this would go into the open PCIe 4.0 x4 slot #5)
Nota bene: for unRAID instead of TrueNAS Scale, I would probably just use the two internal NVMe slots (mirrored) as a write cache.
Networking
10GTek PCIe 4.0 x8 dual SFP28 25GbE NIC
(this would go into the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot #1)
The disk setup (without cache/slog) would be:
1 x 20 TB HDD standalone for regular server array backup (internal SATA port)
11 x Samsung EVO 870, and of those:
1 x 4 TB standalone for macOS Time Machine backups (internal SATA port)
2 x 512 GB for the OS (internal SATA ports; mirrored)
8 x 4 TB for the actual storage array (SATA via PCIe; RAID-Z2 double parity)
So four disks (1 HDD, 3 SSDs) would be using the four internal SATA ports.
For the remaining 8 SATA ports I'm currently considering:
PCIe 3.0 x4 SATA III 6Gb/s 8-port card
(this would go into the PCIe 4.0 x1/x4 slot #3)
…lots of cheap ones available, like the Beyimei JMB575+ASM1064
I can't say if all of this is feasible, or if there are some bottlenecks (incl. the CPU's capabilities). Heck, I don't even know if I've chosen the right PCIe slots for the above expansion cards. So any input, including suggestions for alternate hardware choices, e.g. for the SATA card, would be most welcome. Thank you.
I'm planning on getting a NAS, and one option is to build it myself, and then install either TrueNAS Scale, unRAID or Ubuntu Server (with mergerFS & SnapRAID). But I'm leaning toward TrueNAS Scale for the DIY build option. For that I have found a motherboard that seems pretty good for the job, the Kontron K3851-R ATX. apparently based on a Fujitsu design:
K3851-R ATX
[K3851-R ATX] by Kontron with Latest DDR5 memory technology for best-in-class system performance, Intel® UHD Graphics 7xx driven by Xe Architecture and triple LAN 1GbE/2.5GbE incl. Teaming and TSN support
Intel 12th & 13th generation
DDR5 ECC up to 128 GB
4 internal SATA III
PCIe 5.0
2 internal NVMe slots (PCIe 5.0, I assume)
6 PCIe slots plus one 32-bit x1 PCI slot
(Though I don't know what PCIe slot 4 is supposed to be… it's labeled "SCSI" on the board.)
My CPU of choice—relatively low power with ECC & DDR5 support plus iGPU for Plex transcoding—would be the Intel Core i9-13900T, though I don't know if the board will need a BIOS update for the tray version of this CPU. (Will have to ask Kontron.)
The board etc. would go into a 2U server rackmount chassis with 12 hotswap bays (no internal SATA disk space).
I have looked at a couple of components, but up to now I've never been a real hardware guy, so I don't know if this will all fit together, if certain components (incl. the 3 NVMe drives; see below) would steal bandwidth/speed etc.
The general approach for components would be:
RAM (DDR5 ECC)
Micron 32GB DDR5-4800 CL40 (MTC20C2085S1EC48BA1R)
SLOG volume (TrueNAS ZIL)
2 x 1 TB (mirrored) internal NVMe: Sabrent SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-1TB
L2ARC (TrueNAS read cache, metadata only)
1 x 500 MB NVMe via PCIe: Sabrent SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-500
via PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe adapter card, e.g. something like the GrauGear G-M2PCI01
(this would go into the open PCIe 4.0 x4 slot #5)
Nota bene: for unRAID instead of TrueNAS Scale, I would probably just use the two internal NVMe slots (mirrored) as a write cache.
Networking
10GTek PCIe 4.0 x8 dual SFP28 25GbE NIC
(this would go into the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot #1)
The disk setup (without cache/slog) would be:
1 x 20 TB HDD standalone for regular server array backup (internal SATA port)
11 x Samsung EVO 870, and of those:
1 x 4 TB standalone for macOS Time Machine backups (internal SATA port)
2 x 512 GB for the OS (internal SATA ports; mirrored)
8 x 4 TB for the actual storage array (SATA via PCIe; RAID-Z2 double parity)
So four disks (1 HDD, 3 SSDs) would be using the four internal SATA ports.
For the remaining 8 SATA ports I'm currently considering:
PCIe 3.0 x4 SATA III 6Gb/s 8-port card
(this would go into the PCIe 4.0 x1/x4 slot #3)
…lots of cheap ones available, like the Beyimei JMB575+ASM1064
I can't say if all of this is feasible, or if there are some bottlenecks (incl. the CPU's capabilities). Heck, I don't even know if I've chosen the right PCIe slots for the above expansion cards. So any input, including suggestions for alternate hardware choices, e.g. for the SATA card, would be most welcome. Thank you.
Last edited:
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