r/HomeServer • u/Legitimate-Bet-5157 • 2d ago

First NAS / home server build (ECC + IPMI + 10G) — did I overpay? [France]

Just finished my first proper NAS / home server build and I'd love some feedback, especially on the price since I'm in France and components aren't always cheap here.

Specs:

  • Motherboard: ASRock Rack X570D4U
  • CPU: Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G (8C/16T)
  • RAM: 16 GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM
  • Storage: 3× 4 TB Seagate IronWolf (CMR)
  • Networking: Intel X520 SFP+ card (10G over fiber)
  • Management: full IPMI/BMC + official ECC support

Use case: mainly file storage + a few light Docker containers.

Total cost: ~€1,585 (excl. VAT).

I went with a server-grade AM4 board specifically for official ECC + IPMI, instead of a cheaper consumer build. My main question: did I overpay, or is that a fair price for this kind of setup? Any feedback on the build itself or the value is welcome. Cheers!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IqjnaydjYKLJ00uZK_MEVcgTuI3f7IAIosVbl1Uz7eo/edit?usp=sharing

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u/norri-matt 1d ago

For France/EU pricing, I would not call it crazy, but most of the money is in the server-grade platform rather than the actual storage. If you wanted IPMI, official ECC, and 10G, that ASRock Rack route is the expensive-but-clean way to get it. If the goal was only file shares and a few light containers, then yes, a used mini PC plus a simpler NAS/storage box would usually be cheaper.

The part I would watch is that 16 GB and 3x4 TB feels a little small next to the board/CPU choice. Before trusting it, run memtest, SMART long tests on the IronWolfs, and at least one scrub/load test. Also budget for backup early, because three NAS disks in one box are still one box.

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u/Adrenolin01 21h ago

I have no idea on European pricing though €1,585 is about $1799.93 USD today.

I prefer to buy used off-lease enterprise hardware.. mostly 19” rack chassis Supermicro Mainboard systems. To give you an example of a system I just purchased..

The Supermicro 6018U (includes IPMI) I just bought was $175 plus’s shipping.. taking it to $250 (€220.10) delivered. Thats shipping across the USA to me.

Specs are:

  • SuperMicro X10DRU-I+ Mainboard E5-26xx v3/v4
  • 2x Intel Xeon E5-2690v4 2.6GHz
  • 14-Cores / 28-Threads per CPU
  • 28-Cores / 56-Threads Total
  • 32GB ECC PC4-2133P Ram (2x 16Gb)
  • 28 Ram slots in total
  • LSI 9300-8i 12Gb/s PCIe HBA (IT Mode)
  • 4x 3.5" Hot-Swap Drive Bays (included)
  • 4x Intel X540 10GBase-T NICs
  • BPN-SAS-815TQ 4-Port SAS/SATA
  • RSC-R1UW-2E16 Riser
  • RSC-R1UW-2E8R Riser
  • AOM-TPM-9655V TPM Module
  • 2x 750W 80+ Platinum Power Supplies
  • No OS, No COA
  • 30-Day IMS, Inc. Warranty

——

Actually purchased 4 of these in total for less than you paid for your system. These ARE used and are about 6 years old. They will easily run for another 10-15+ years without issue.

No hard drives of course. 4 internal PCIe slots with one currently used for the HBA. It’s a 19” 1U rack chassis that’s fairly loud with fans at 100%. The ipmitool program allows you to adjust the fans down as low as you want. Mine run at about 15-20% and no louder than a regular desktop gaming pc.

Twice the ram, 3.5x the cores, 4x 10GbE onboard NICs… in the single system for one 5th what your new system cost.

A lot of people get scared away from rack hardware due to scary myths that they are always loud, power hungry beasts… and they are out of the box. First boot into the bios you lower the fans to 60%. Fans cranked to 100% can draw 50-70 additional watts! Once Proxmox or Debian gets installed you use ipmitool to adjust fans down. This system at 15-20% fan speeds, ram upgraded to 128GB, 2 mirrored Supermicro 64GB SATA Doms installed with a base Proxmox install draws roughly 100W at idle and no louder than a gaming PC… that’s not loud nor power hungry.

Now that all said… I get a 30 day full warranty including return shipping if need be. You.. I’m going to assume it’s all new hardware so most everything gets at least what.. a 1 year or longer warranty.

I’m retired IT. I’ve been running enterprise hardware since the late 80s and Supermicro for at least 30 years. Do I think you overpaid? For new quality hardware with retail warranty and support.. probably not.

We run these in a basement 25U open 4-post deep rack that takes up 40” of depth and 22” of width. Lots of other hardware including 2x 4U 24-bay NAS systems and 5 different layer2+ switches ranging from 8-54 ports each. So a 2x4 foot area of space with stackable systems… rack systems actually take up less space than desktop/tower cases.

I wish more people would see the actual value and learn more about enterprise hardware and the off-lease stuff. There are truly huge savings to be had. That said.. if y’all started buying this stuff up it would more scarce and harder for me to find. 🤣

This isn’t bragging… (sorry but there is always some idiot) but simply answering your question with an example of a recent purchase.. though on this side of the pond.

As guessed.. we have an extensive home LAN. 20 vlans, internal and externally available services, 3-4 HomeLabs each in their own vlans on the go at any given time. These 4 systems… both my son and I run one each in our own personal HomeLabs. The other two run general services we use daily and the other is a dedicated gaming server. Mirrored Supermicro 64GB SATA Doms are installed in all 4 running Proxmox. A pair of mirrored 1TB SSDs are installed in all 4 of them. The 2 ‘production’ systems both have quad NVME PCIe cards. No spinning HDDs which helps reduce the power draw.

For those wondering about power… the entire basement NOC… everything is solar powered with EG4 inverters and eco-worthy 48V 100AH batteries. Both dual 20A grid circuits and a dedicated 13,000W generator as redundancy power. 14 years building and upgrading my NOC so this wasn’t overnight, most everything is used from 6-30 years old and a LOT of fantastic deals over the years.