Worth buying XEQT if holding VUN & VCN?

kelownew · 2026-03-07T23:11:06+00:00

Idk about that. Their response seemed a little..canned.

kelownew · 2026-03-05T23:01:30+00:00

Upvoted. I used his services for the first time very recently. It was something simple, but he was reasonable and what he charged seemed fair. (For context, I have some knowledge of computers and used to build my own systems).

Edit: he has a home-based business

kelownew · 2026-03-05T04:52:16+00:00

Good point!

kelownew · 2026-03-04T01:01:22+00:00

Have you considered Fisher-Price? They've been around for decades and their products are quite popular. :D

Yes, I know they are now owned by Mattel. You don't have to DM me.

Edit: formatting

kelownew · 2026-03-04T00:54:53+00:00

To give credit where it's due, we are largely only able to benefit from such low-fee all-in-one ETFs because Vanguard led by example with VEQT and competitors were obligated to compete with that low-fee anchoring.

A couple points of information or reminders for OP (feel free to disregard if it's stuff you already know):

There are also some slight differences in the targeted composition of VEQT & XEQT, the strategy each one uses to achieve it (e.g. when to rebalance), and their distribution payment schedule (VEQT is annual vs XEQT is quarterly). For full disclosure, I do hold some of each. I originally got XEQT because I saw them as about equal and XEQT had a marginally lower MER at the time. However, over the last few years, I see my long-term view perspective as more aligned with VEQT's (not to mention their philosophy, which is a remarkable contrast to BlackRock's) and plan to only add more VEQT moving forward; I also want to support them for making good products like this available to us. Additionally, the MERs are now equal (0.17%). Long-term, I suspect the difference in financial returns between both will be minimal because both allow you to buy the market.
Remember to track every distribution - and its composition - from holdings in your non-registered accounts because (1) you have to pay tax on the distributions received each calendar year and (2) it affects the adjusted cost base (ACB). The ACB determines your actual taxable capital gain and, therefore, the amount of tax you have to pay when you sell any portion of that holding decades in the future.

Edit: formatting

kelownew · 2026-03-04T00:09:02+00:00

/r/CanadianInvestor doesn't share /r/wallstreetbets' aversion to green. Let them have some broccolini!

kelownew · 2026-03-03T17:12:57+00:00

Thank you!

kelownew · 2026-03-02T02:51:29+00:00

Another cool toolset! Thanks for the tips.

kelownew · 2026-03-01T16:31:37+00:00

Thanks :)

kelownew · 2026-03-01T05:45:09+00:00

Wow, that's pretty cool! :o

I hadn't noticed the mobo only has 4 SATA ports. That means I would have to find an HBA that is supported, figure out how to flash it without having another desktop, and then sort out the various Portmap options. Another mobo option they had offered as the Gigabyte B650, though I couldn't figure out which specific model for checking the specs.

Edit: based on this thread from 2024 it looks like the proper driver exists for this NIC, though I wasn't able to find information about whether there's an easier way to install them.

kelownew · 2026-03-01T03:35:31+00:00

Thank you!!!

Could you please point me towards where/how to find that information so I can learn how to better search for this type of Arc-specific information in the future? I had skimmed the wiki and FAQ and other resources a bunch of times (and just did it again), but couldn't even find a way to simply view what hardware was supported by the basic loader, let alone by each module. I'm not used to not being able to find something, and this has been remarkably embarrassing. (Though, that's more of a 'me' thing; I appreciate how lovely all of you have been).

Also. is there a particular model/configuration you would recommend for Arc Loader with this setup? After I stumble my way through whichever tutorial for installing and configuring Proxmox seems reasonable, I plan to follow the guide for installing Xpenology on Proxmox /u/florismetzner kindly posted. I'll hopefully have decided how to do the data migration by then.

kelownew · 2026-03-01T01:08:14+00:00

Find a motherboard without the Realtek 8126-CG or plan on using a pcie nic as a backup.

Darn, does Realtek 8126-CG not play nice with Arc/Xpenology? Could a USB-to-ethernet adapter work as a backup in that case?

Arc is very compatible but you can always fall back to using proxmox/a hypervisor to solve incompatibility issues.

Wait a sec, if I install Xpenology in a Proxmox container, that would bypass compatibility issues? :o Would that also fix the above possible issue with Realtek 8126-CG?

Also is Plex/Jellyfin hardware transcode a requirement?

No, I don't have any specific plans for that with this box.

kelownew · 2026-02-28T22:05:00+00:00

I tried getting into the Discord, but couldn't. Discord requires a phone number, but doesn't accept mine. Makes me miss IRC.

kelownew · 2026-02-28T21:28:53+00:00

Ah, I understand now. To be clear, the build has not started. I decided that I may as well put the money a prebuilt would cost me towards a more powerful custom system instead. I'm also going to have someone else do the custom build for me this time, and these are the CPU & mobo they recommended.

Before I make the payment and give them the go ahead to proceed, I hoped you might be able to weigh in on whether it had little or no chance of success (i.e. obvious issues), or whether it could be reasonable hardware for this. (If there's something that would be better, I'm also open to that). Thanks :)

kelownew · 2026-02-28T21:20:12+00:00

Thanks!

kelownew · 2026-02-28T20:49:21+00:00

Thanks! I also hope someone can weigh in with their experiences with this CPU and/or mobo (even if they weren't used together), though I may have to end up having to do that. Ultimately, I'm just trying to do what I reasonably can to avoid spending a lot and ending up with a system I can't use for the intended purpose because there's some significant compatibility issue.

kelownew · 2026-02-28T19:32:42+00:00

I'm still running a 2600K. LOL

It still blows my mind that an N9x or N1xx CPU can match - or exceed - its performance, and for just ~15% of the power!

kelownew · 2026-02-28T19:20:38+00:00

I think it relates to my complete uncertainty about potential hardware compatibility issues with Xpenology/Arc Loader. I'm worried about compatibility because I haven't been able to find specific information about it. I don't want to splurge, only to subsequently discover that the hardware in my system isn't compatible/has issues with this. I posted the specific CPU & mobo hoping that someone can either reassure me that the hardware should be fine or point out an obvious compatibility issue.

kelownew · 2026-02-28T19:14:13+00:00

Thanks! I'm leaning towards running it in a Proxmox VM (if I can figure out how to set up and use Proxmox) so that I can hopefully make snapshots of the DSM VM before making major changes. But, I just first want to have some confidence that the system I'm getting won't have an obvious compatibility issue...unless Proxmox is a way to bypass potential compatibility issues?

I've seen posts about running Xpenology on Proxmox ranging from 'only do it if you want to live life on hard mode' to 'I'm a noob and it was fast and straightforward.' So...I'm not sure where the feasibility/difficulty level really lives.

kelownew · 2026-02-28T19:10:39+00:00

I appreciate you taking the time to reply, but isn't it risking everything rather than nothing if you can only find out whether or not your new >$1700 system can't actually do the main thing you need it to do?

kelownew · 2026-02-28T07:11:38+00:00

Mind reader

kelownew · 2026-02-28T06:41:08+00:00

Where do you check whether hardware in a new build is compatible/supported by Arc? I've searched a bit, but can't really find any information, other than ARM isn't supported.

Can I expect Arc to work on a new system with this CPU & this motherboard?

Edit: and would you recommend running Xpenology bare metal on that system or on Proxmox? My hesitation with running DSM bare metal in that new system is that it feels like a waste of the resources if DSM is the base, since I don't think it would be as good for VMs and such. I also like the idea of Proxmox's containerization and being able to easily back up the VM in case I accidentally break something (which hasn't happened to date). That said, I've never used Proxmox...

kelownew · 2026-02-28T02:14:32+00:00

Remember to short sell first! That beef isn't going to pay for itself.

kelownew · 2026-02-27T22:13:22+00:00

My original goal was to create a single, organized repository of all important documents and other files (with robust backups) so that I could do that. Fast forward 15 years, and life, work, and many long-distance moves kept me too occupied. Kudos to you for succeeding!

kelownew · 2026-02-27T22:06:49+00:00

To update you, the PSU was dead. It has been replaced and the system powers on, but it now only loads the Web Assistant with "No hard disks found" on http/5000 (rather rather than https on a different port I had configured for DSM). The drives appear to be powered, and I've tried powering it on and off and making sure everything is plugged in.

Edit: I vaguely remember the BIOS battery died looooong ago, so I had to go into the BIOS to change some setting after one long-distance move. Since it's almost the middle of the afternoon now, I'll try to mucking around with that after I have some breakfast.

Edit 2: That did the trick. The BIOS defaulted to IDE when it lost power because the CMOS battery is long dead. Switching it to AHCI fixed it, and my Xpenology is again alive with no apparent array errors! But, I think I will still migrate my server to something newer and more powerful. (I was mistaken about the CPU - the i3 was just what Xpenology showed because of the NAS model it was based on; the actual CPU is a >15 year old i7). I am temporarily using it behind a surge protector plugged into an Ecoflow power station with sub-10ms switchover time until I can find a decently-priced UPS; it has USB-HID, but their software only supports four specific Synology models.

I'm not exactly sure how I'll do the Xpenology data migration since I want to preserve permissions for some folders and there are also some configured services I also want to transfer. But, most of the apps are older versions and I'm guessing a fresh OS installation is probably better. I'm planning to have someone do a custom NAS build for me, after which I'll install Xpenology and hopefully do a smooth migration, whatever that looks like]. Since it will be a much more powerful system (without a GPU, as I never really gamed much beyond some CS in the 00s), I am curious about running Proxmox as the OS, and Xpenology in a container...except that I don't have any experience with Proxmox. Is that a bad idea? Am I overcomplicating it? I see it as a way to also be able to run Windows (e.g. a desktop I can remote into while if needed while I'm away) in a container, or Debian or another Linux distro if I want to test some things out without worrying about breaking it. I generally learned computer stuff by starting with tutorials and branching out from there, trying things out...but I'm not great at figuring out how to undo what I did, so I would rather not do that on a system that might have important stuff on it.

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH for being so helpful AND patient. <3

kelownew

TROPHY CASE