imaginary_num6er

joined 2 years ago
sorted by: new top controversial old
Best place to source Angled SFF-8643 to 4 SATA connectors? in c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum
[–] imaginary_num6er@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That’s what I assumed. I was hoping there was someone else who has had similar experiences and who had their own successes.

1
Best place to source Angled SFF-8643 to 4 SATA connectors? (alien.top)
 

As the title implies, I am having difficulty finding a reputable source for 90 degree angled SFF-8643 to 4 SATA connectors. Most of the reputable sources such as Cable Creation, Cable Matters, Star Tech, etc. do not seem to have cables with angled SFF-8643 connectors and the ones that do, are only sold on AliExpress.

Would anyone have any recommendations on sourcing these cables?

1
Most reliable source to get a LSI SAS 9305-24i ? (alien.top)
 

I am planning to use a PCIe4.0 x4 M.2 slot to PCIe4.0 x16 riser card to connect an ITX system to a HBA card. Because of this and the number of slots available, I am looking to get a LSI SAS 9305-24i card since even at PCIe3.0 x4 speeds, this will be fast enough for access to multiple 2.5" SATA SSDs drives.

The challenge is trying to find a reputable source for these cards, since it appears there are everywhere on Amazon, eBay, and other 3rd party sites. Are there ways to know whether a card is counterfeit like checking to see if the card says "Assembled in Thailand" instead of "Assembled in China"?

Recommendation on NAS CPU choice? in c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum
[–] imaginary_num6er@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah CPU performance is not really important since it will only be used to access SATA drives and possibly a HBA card. I was not aware the AsRock Rack AM4 boards had a motherboard iGPU either, since the iGPU will only be used to see the OS. I will probably go with one of the cheaper 5000 series CPUs in that case with AM4, since I do want more CPU lanes for the M.2 and I/O. The higher lane count is needed to access 2.5" SSDs and preferably at least 16 drives. Yes, DDR5 ECC protection is not really good enough so the board will need to support actual ECC DIMMs (i.e. only ASUS and AsRock Rack).

I think the board price is expected to be expensive regardless of whether it is ITX or mATX since with LGA1700 you have only the W680 mATX or ITX, AM4 requires a relatively expensive PRO chip or AsRock Rack board, and AM5 is just expensive. That being said, AM5 seems to only have the downside of high idle power draw whereas the other 2 options seem very limited in board or CPU choice if pricing is ignored.

1
Recommendation on NAS CPU choice? (alien.top)
 

I am still learning about the different caveats of building a NAS PC, which will only be used for network storage access. However, it seems like there are watch-outs in terms of CPU, motherboard, and RAM compatibility for a 24/7 system. The basic requirements are:

  • CPU integrated GPU
  • ECC RAM support
  • [Preferably] x16 PCIe bifurcation support (x4/x4/x4/x4 or x8/x8)
  • Low idle power consumption
  • mATX or mini-ITX form factor
  • 2 or more M.2 PCIe3.0 x4 slots and/or single x16 PCIe4.0 slot
  • No need for transcoding or multi-threaded load applications

Below are what I think are the pros/cons with each platform, but I would like to know if there is anything missing:

Intel (LGA1700)

Pros: DDR4 support, usually more M.2 slots than AMD boards, low idle power consumption as consumer CPU on low-end

Cons: No CPU ECC RAM support for 1x500 and below CPUs, ECC RAM support only for W680/W780 chipset, PCIe bifurcation only available on Z690/Z790 consumer boards

  • CPUs: 13500, 13600K, 14600K

AMD (AM5)

Pros: Most motherboards support PCIe bifurcation, newest platform, iGPU on almost all CPUs, ECC support on all CPUs

Cons: Higher platform and DDR5 cost, ECC RAM support is mostly only supported by ASUS boards, highest CPU idle power consumption?

  • CPUs: 7600, 7600X, 7900

AMD (AM4)

Pros: DDR4 support, most motherboards support ECC RAM, most motherboards support PCIe bifurcation

Cons: No CPU ECC RAM support for non-PRO CPUs, PCIe gen 3 for APUs, very limited iGPU options, conflicting reviews on idle power consumption vs. AM5 CPUs

  • CPUs: PRO 5750G, PRO 4750G, PRO 4350G

​

Based on the above, it seems like AM5 is the easiest to obtain the hardware but with highest idle consumption, Intel is the most limited in motherboard options, and AM4 is the most limited in CPU options?

1
Best means of accessing 12+ 2.5" SSD drives? (alien.top)
 

I currently have a ATX gaming setup with roughly 9x 2.5" SSD drives that I have come to realization that it is simply not practical to squeeze all the drives and high-end GPUs and CPUs into 1 system. Not to mention, even most common ATX boards will start to run into difficulties trying to support that many SATA ports without affecting PCIe bandwidth. After coming to this conclusion, I am leaning towards building a separate ITX or mATX system dedicated to just housing 12+ 2.5" SSDs and having it be on 24/7 and it only being accessed offline via LAN. Since I manually backup my data on external 3.5" drives every week, the storage solution will not need any RAID mirroring.

Since this is my first time looking into a 24/7 server setup, I am unsure if there are certain things I need to consider for system reliability. Some questions I have are:

  1. Between Intel LGA1700 and AMD AM5, which would be a better platform? For example, I just learned not all LGA1700 chips support ECC memory while AM5 chips have higher idle power consumption that low-end LGA1700.
  2. Would a consumer-grade ITX or mATX motherboard be good enough for 24/7 operation? Beside ECC support, are there other factors I should consider?
  3. Also what HBAs should I be considering? I know it is probably crude, but I was considering using a x16 to x8/x8 or x4/x4/x4/x4 m.2 card to hook up with multiple JMB585 5-port SATA cards and use 3-4 of them on a motherboard to get up to 20 SATA devices.

I was leaning towards Intel LGA1700 for the lower idle power consumption despite the limited x8/x8 PCie bifurcation options, but this latest discovery of ECC memory not being supported on 1x100 and 1x400 chips does make me change my mind.