ECC + BitRot everything on the cheap?

[José Encarnação]

In 2026 I'm gonna try sort my backup situation once and for all; mine, my family and friends.

At the moment, I only have the HDDs... and much to learn.

On Reddit, reading about BitRot I noticed someone mentioning that if you get an AMD 5600XT, and ECC compatible Motherboard and RAM, you can make an ECC + BitRot protection system that will keep NAS files uncorrupted.

Since hardware prices have gone crazy, and are due to become crazier really soon... I' researched that:

• €180 - Intel i5-12500 is the lowest team blue consumer CPU that's ECC compatible available
• €230 - Intel Core i5-14600K (with iGPU) is the lowest price team blue consumer CPU that's ECC compatible available
• €140 - AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT is the lowest team red consumer CPU that's ECC compatible available

Since in an "always on" system the TDP matters, 65W vs 125W is quite a big difference.
But if one considers using the GTX 1080 GS 180W I retired some months ago, the TDP switches teams.

So, considering getting ECC DDR4 ('cause I came out late to the DDR5 party), and having learnt that some Network Cards are not FreeNAS compatible yet, I would like appreciate if anyone has validated any of the configurations base CPU's and please do tell which Motherboards have you chosen?

My main goals for an HexOS server are mainly remote Backups and little Streaming. So I doubt a dedicated graphics card will lend important performance.

Also, do have any suggestions on cheaper ECC hardware available to get atm?

Perhaps 2nd hand, although in Portugal there aren't that many IT companies that have upgraded Workstations or Servers.

[Mobius]

5 hours ago, José Encarnação said:

Since in an "always on" system the TDP matters, 65W vs 125W is quite a big difference.

you won't usually see that kind of tdp at idle, both intel and amd cpus will be a fraction of their advertised tdps at idle

i know that intel claims they fixed their 13th and 14th gen cpus but imo its not worth the risk.