Quick Sync CPU with ECC

[Flo]

Hello,

I am looking forward to building a new NAS with HexOS. I want to host my own jellyfin instance for movies / shows. I have read that intels quick sync that is build into their modern CPUs is the cheapest / most power effective solution for transcoding my 4k UHD Blurays.

I would also like to have ECC memory since TrueNAS recommends using it and I don't really want to use any of my data. Now I don't know how important ECC really is. There are two sides: One that tells you that it is really dangerous to not use ECC memory and the other that says it's useless for a home NAS. The real answer is probably somewhere in the middle. I have used TrueNAS and other NAS systems before and never had a problem without ECC. Still I got that little thought in my head that makes me unsure about not using ECC. Like... what if I don't notice the error in the metadata of a file instantly and after years when I finally try to view it again the file is corrupted? I don't want to have surprises like these.

After looking around the Web for CPUs that have ECC and are from Intel (Or from AMD with an integrated GPU, but I'm not sure how they compare in encoding) I am... well lost.

I found:

• Intel Atoms that TrueNAS themself are using for their prebuild systems (Expensive and hard to get)
• AMD Ryzen (Have ECC but no iGPU)
• General Intel CPUs from the last few gens (Have ECC + Quick Sync but requires the W680 chipset for ECC => 500€ for a motherboard)
• Ryzen APUs (Only the pro models support ECC and you can only get them in prebuilds)
• Old Xeons (No iGPU most of the time / power hungry / have to buy from ebay / motherboards are expensive)

So my three options are as follows:

• Use a Ryzen 7 3700x I have lying around with a new motherboard + ECC Ram and buy an ARC GPU
• Buy a new i3 / i5 + regular motherboard and RAM (No ECC except the build in DDR5 one)
• Hope someone here knows a magical CPU that can fulfil my (apparently) otherworldly desires

Since the new Intel CPUs use DDR5 RAM it has (kind of) ECC already but I heard it's not as save / good as real ECC memory. Maybe someone here can give their opinion on that.

Currently I'm kind of swinging towards the second option (Buying new Intel CPUs) since DDR5 has (kind of) ECC and Quick Sync, additionally it will probably use the least power. Depending on how good the DDR5 ECC really is I might as well buy a few gens older model since the CPU itself is cheaper and I can use cheaper DDR4 RAM.

I hope someone can help me here, thanks for reading!

[Dylan]

Hi @Flo You first have to decide whether the inherent risk of using non-ECC RAM is for your use-case and needs. Let that drive which hardware you go with. Which is to say, if you hedge and go for non-ECC RAM and you experience an issue related to RAM error that would've been corrected with ECC, you're going to kick yourself. If that's true, then wait until you can afford that additional cost. If not, and you can live with the added risk of running non-ECC, especially with some of what the new chipsets offer, go with that.

There is no magic here. Just your ability to honestly determine what you're needs are as measure against your risk tolerance, timeline and budget.

Good luck and welcome to the fold!

[Flo]

Hi @Dylan thanks for your answer!

After some more digging I found out that the last few generations of ryzen processors have iGPUs on all models that aren't the "F" version. It isn't limited to the "G" version anymore.

So my current plan is to get a last gen ryzen, get a cheap am5 motherboard with ECC support and try out the AMD iGPU transcoding performance. If it isn't good enough for me I'll later buy a used ARC GPU.

[NAS]

21 hours ago, Dylan said:

Hi @Flo You first have to decide whether the inherent risk of using non-ECC RAM is for your use-case and needs. Let that drive which hardware you go with. Which is to say, if you hedge and go for non-ECC RAM and you experience an issue related to RAM error that would've been corrected with ECC, you're going to kick yourself. If that's true, then wait until you can afford that additional cost. If not, and you can live with the added risk of running non-ECC, especially with some of what the new chipsets offer, go with that.

There is no magic here. Just your ability to honestly determine what you're needs are as measure against your risk tolerance, timeline and budget.

Good luck and welcome to the fold!

As I understand random nature of errors occurring with any type of RAM that ECC RAM mitigates.  However it does ECC RAM maintain data integrity when the ECC RAM starts to go bad?

Edited December 15, 2024 by NAS

[Dylan]

Hi @NAS If I understand your question correctly, ECC RAM events are usually logged as EDAC events. A quick read on where these are stored can be found HERE. Good luck!