- Joined
- Oct 4, 2018
- Messages
- 1,484
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte C246-WU4
- CPU
- E-2278G
- Graphics
- WX7100
- Mac
Not being in audio at all, the concept of Ethernet-based audio interfaces looks weird beyond belief… So, let's keep one interface for that. Why not put the NAS on "general" 10 GbE networking? There are relatively inexpensive 10 GbE switches such as the QNAP QWS-M408 series or Mikrotik CRS-305-1G-4S+IN / CRS-309-1G-8S+IN — and these are managed switches, so if the concern is to keep the NAS totally off the Internet for safety this can be done.10 GbE for NAS, 1 GbE for general networking, 1 GbE for my audio interface. Broadcom USB 2.5 GbE adapters work fine.
Thunderbolt DAS is NOT fine. These are typically hidden NAS serving a single client through Thunderbolt networking; so would require Thunderbolt bus on the client side, and that's only going to be a bag of hurt (doesn't work on Maple Ridge, save for Asus boards using Big Sur; Gigabyte is currently busy removing BIOS support for Titan Ridge).DAS is fine. This works? No problems with sleep?
The GPU accounts for itself. Assuming that WiFi is taken care of from a M.2 2230 module, my search for socket 1700 motherboards with at least two x4 slots and at least one x1 slot yields 14 results, mostly from Asus Prime range.Plus GPU. So, 1 slot short for most mobo's.
Most actually have PCIe 4.0 x4 (in x16 slot, 10 GbE NIC… may well be a card with two interfaces), PCIe 3.0 x4 (GC-TitanRidge AIC) and two PCIe 3.0 x1, which is one too many (or allows for a Fenvi WiFi/BT card).
That's not too bad for a very specific set of requirements. For boards which are just one slot short, converting a M.2 slot would do.
Look into ADT-Link R41/R42/R43 series once you have settled on a board and case… Their flat ribbon cables do not bend easily (they are designed NOT to be bent sharply), so you need to think carefully about cable routing and get just the right length (certainly no less but much preferably not much more!) with the right geometry.Didn't know about m2 to pcie adapters... Indeed, 3 x M2 will be enough.
Another option would be Zen4, with the potentially insane amount of I/O from X670 chipsets (actually, even B650 may do). But this first requires validating that your audio software does work properly on a "Ryzentosh" now that AVX-512 is supported.