Recommended TruNAS Scale Home NAS build motherboard options
Recommended TruNAS Scale Home NAS build motherboard options
Hello, I've been searching for the right motherboard for my new Trunas build and am struggling to choose. You mentioned needing an LGA1200 board under $200 with two M.2 slots for dual boot drives. At first, I thought this would be a solid option, but now I'm questioning if it's truly the best fit. My current board is a whitebox from the early 2000s with an i7-2600, so upgrading to a 2nd or 3rd generation seems reasonable. How much of an upgrade should I aim for? Is a 10th or 11th generation still suitable for this project?
The main concern is your budget. Another important factor is the functionality you're aiming for, along with storage requirements and how much redundancy you need. Before diving deeper, it's helpful to think about the AMD AM4 platform and Intel 12th generation options.
I have a flexible budget since I work in the ewaste sector and can usually source components at low cost. For storage, I’m satisfied with the four 4TB 3.5" HDDs in my current trunas setup. Right now I run two pools, each with two mirrored drives, but I’d like the chance to add another pair of larger drives later. Most modern boards already provide sufficient Ethernet ports, though having a few fast PCIe slots for a dedicated NIC would be nice. An AM4 board seems better than a 12th gen i series in this case. I don’t have strong preferences yet, but if one offers advantages for a NAS setup, I’m open to suggestions. For the build, I’m planning a blade-style case (ChyronHego ClickEffects Master Controller) that already has dual 500W server PSUs—maybe I’ll add a GPU later, though that’s not a top priority. I’ll aim for 64GB of RAM and connect everything to my router via an Ubiquiti 60W 8p switch.
I support having extra boot drives; my Proxmox lab uses two NVMe drives. TrueNAS works well too—its configuration can be saved in a compact backup file. If any boot drive fails, you can simply restore that file. For hosting VMs or containers, this approach makes more sense and I’d agree more strongly on the value of mirrored boot drives.
TrueNAS isn't greatly improved by quick boot disks. It places the operating system in RAM and remains active. For caching or metadata, I prefer M.2 drives. I also use two inexpensive small SATA SSDs as boot drives.
Remember that metadata must match the redundancy in the main vdev file. Losing your metadata vdev means you also lose all your data.
The drives are available at no charge, which makes me happy since I work in ITAD. After data erasure, I can retrieve nearly anything from the warehouse within limits. This means cost isn’t a concern here. Because they’re free, why not add extra redundancy? Regarding the board, it’s definitely the most unusual one I’ve used before. Besides oddities, the system receives some strange proprietary updates more often than any other brand, so I’d prefer something other than HP for this project.
Due to those free drives possibly introducing unnecessary requirements for your build, it’s complicating the process of selecting components. I currently have several SSDs at home, but I haven’t installed them on my TrueNAS server because they don’t significantly impact my workflow. The focus remains on keeping things simple, which is key for homelabs. If you find a board with 2 m.2’s, running backup drives makes sense—it’s always wise to have a safety net. Updates likely travel through the OS and won’t reach your motherboard directly, so that’s not a concern. TrueNAS doesn’t care about specific hardware, allowing flexibility in choosing any compatible board. You can switch later if needed. Starting with what you have now is a solid approach. Once you’re clearer on your requirements, you’ll be better equipped to upgrade effectively.