Bringing A Server Back From The Dead
I wrote a few posts about how DreadNAS, my main NAS and media server, had died. It refused to stay on for over two hours without freezing, and I had given up on it. I was planning on buying a replacement NAS, custom built with a Threadripper CPU, R-DIMMs, the works. Unfortunately, after adding things to cart, a grim realization hit- prices were astronomically high. Not just the CPU, which I had expected to cost me a pretty penny- but the RAM prices had over doubled- not only that, but the RAM kit I wanted wasn't even available even if I wanted to pay the insanely high price.
If the parts were available, I'd have considered pulling the trigger anyway just to get back online. Downtime isn't something that I personally tolerate, as I have a high standard for my self-hosted services. They have to be online, not just for me, but for my friends and family. So with my main NAS being down, I had become increasingly frustrated. Buying new parts would fix the issue, but availability wasn't there, and paying grossly over-inflated prices meant accepting the current pricing situation- not something I was willing to do.
With the server being down for far too long, and no replacement server coming anytime soon, I had to try something. What if- and this is crazy- I search the web for my issue and find a fix. So I threw into duckduckgo a search that would leave me with hope. Someone on the internet had very similar issues with their 5950x, and they were able to resolve them by turning off C-States in the BIOS.
So that's exactly what I did. I brought up DreadNAS, made the change, and DreadNAS was up for a week without crashing. Insanity- however, that victory was short lived. While DreadNAS was working, it would still sometimes crash. At least now, it's not measured in hours, but several days or even weeks without issue. This, I can work with. Random freezes can still happen, but a quick reboot gets things back up. Not ideal, but it works.
Long term, I want to resolve this permanently. There are a few things I want to try, like updating the BIOS, but I feel like this is a hardware issue. Specifically, I feel like it's the CPU or motherboard causing the freezing. With my wallet feeling lighter every day due to financial stress, and the cost of everything increasing, I have a few ways I can go about solving the issue. Let's list them in order of most expensive to least expensive.
- Buy a Threadripper Server - ~$3-4k
- Buy a replacement 5950x - ~$400
- Migrate the 3950x from my other server to my NAS - FREE, but costs a lot of time and I'll be removing a server
- Fix my 5950x build - FREE but also costs time and isn't a guarantee to work
Given these options, in better financial times, I'd have gone with the baller new server. I've been wanting to build out of a threadripper machine, and having R-DIMMS will be sweet. However, we are not in great financial times, and I'm favoring getting the replacement 5950x. It's a solid chip even in 2026, and I think it's a great value choice, given that I'm unsure that I can fix what feels like a hardware defective CPU or Motherboard... Regardless, I'm currently in a state where the system stays up long enough to where it's reliable. I just have to deal with the occasional freeze, resulting in requiring a hard reboot.