CPUs Contribution to Performance

[lankanmon]

I am planning on making a NAS that is friendly on the wallet and was trying to keep the price below $100 per components where possible (except for the HDDs). I do however want to consider upgradability in the future (swapping processors for better ones with same socket). I also want the NAS to handle multiple requests at once and at times to stream 1080P videos.

I was looking at possible CPUs for my build and find some great AMDs for low prices.
I think an APU is best, so I won't have to buy a graphics card since I plan to manage it remotely.
Some questions that I have are:

1. A lot of them have 1MB cache... is that enough or should I look for more?
2. Is a Dual core Processor enough or do I need a Quad core (which means I can not use an APU or have to go to higher price range)
3. What is the effect of clock? 3.5GHz vs 4.2 GHz

The two that I am mostly considering are:

AMD A6 7400 (65W) Dual-Core Processor
- Socket FM2+, 3.5GHz, 4Mb Cache, 28nm
- (AD740KYBJABOX)

AMD A6-6420K Black Edition (65W) Dual-Core Processor
- Socket FM2, 4.2GHz, 1Mb Cache, 32nm
- (AD642KOKHLBOX)​

BTW, here is a link (http://bit.ly/1sBvoW9) to one of the stores I buy PC parts and their selection of AMD CPUs in my price range. Let me know which would give me the best bang for the buck.

I really appreciate your help!

 

[carcrusher]

AMD A-series processors doesn't support ECC so it is not a good idea. There is sticky thread about why you should use ECC memory with ZFS. If you want cheap components and ECC support try AM3+ motherboards - especially ASUS, for example: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LUSB3/specifications/

 

[mjws00]

Check out @joeschmuck 's build and the hardware stickies. His build is a reasonable compromise. If there were great 'cheap' options rest assured we would have them listed. We all want that... but it isn't reality. There are lots of platforms that accommodate low specs, this isn't one of them. The successful AMD population is also small. Desktop chipsets and gear don't often play nice so we avoid them.

Clock speed matters but anything over 3Ghz is fine. The more cores the better for transcoding. That said, we are rarely cpu bound on 1GBe.

We'd rather see you "buy once; buy right" then buy twice.

 

[lankanmon]

Check out @joeschmuck 's build and the hardware stickies. His build is a reasonable compromise. If there were great 'cheap' options rest assured we would have them listed. We all want that... but it isn't reality. There are lots of platforms that accommodate low specs, this isn't one of them. The successful AMD population is also small. Desktop chipsets and gear don't often play nice so we avoid them.

Clock speed matters but anything over 3Ghz is fine. The more cores the better for transcoding. That said, we are rarely cpu bound on 1GBe.

We'd rather see you "buy once; buy right" then buy twice.

AMD A-series processors doesn't support ECC so it is not a good idea. There is sticky thread about why you should use ECC memory with ZFS. If you want cheap components and ECC support try AM3+ motherboards - especially ASUS, for example: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LUSB3/specifications/

Okay, you both have convinced me to dump the A-series ones and go to an FX series one. I looked at @joeschmuck's build and found similar hardware. Please tell me if these look alright. -- Especially with ECC support because that is very important to me.

Selected CPU: AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor FD6300WMHKBOX
Selected Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G + SB710 HDMI USB 3.0 uATX AMD Motherboard --- I still needed one with an integrated graphics card as I do not want to buy a separate one.
Selected Ram: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B

The motherboard has a LAN port with 10/100/1000Mbps, so do I need a Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45 ?
Also how necessary is a Auxiliary Power Supply. It is a bit out of my budget and I will but it as soon as I can, but the power is quite stable where I live and power only goes out like once a year.

Please let me know how you feel.

Thanks!

 

[cyberjock]

The onboard-LAN on that motherboard does not work with FreeNAS 9+, so you will need an Intel adapter.

 

[lankanmon]

The onboard-LAN on that motherboard does not work with FreeNAS 9+, so you will need an Intel adapter.

Oh Ok, I did not know that . Thank You! I will pick one up.

 

[Fraoch]

Also how necessary is a Auxiliary Power Supply.

By that do you mean an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)?

If power is stable you could get by without one for a bit. But my thought was: what if power is interrupted in the middle of a write? No amount of heavy investing into ECC hardware and RAID-Z will save that write from getting corrupted.

Plus FreeNAS integrates well with a UPS, it's built into it. It will safely shut down on its own, either a predetermined time after the UPS goes on battery or after it reaches low battery.

 

[Shane_pcs]

The onboard-LAN on that motherboard does not work with FreeNAS 9+, so you will need an Intel adapter.

Freebsd 10.3 now supports the Realtek 8111H and thus freenas now supports with the 9.10 load. It tests out for me at about 98 MB/s and handles all my plex needs with no issues. That being said they have been proven not as reliable as Intel for heavy use, so if you have issues just buy an intel NIC.

I just wanted to update the thread as it was the only one I found on the issue and had they not given me the ASUS M5A78L-M Plus/USB3 for practically free I would not have purchased it.

 

[Ericloewe]

Why on earth are you necroing a thread from 2014? The RTL8111, in all its horrendous incarnations, has been discussed to death. It's a crap product used to save literally a few dozen cents. It works "well" if it has a good driver, but it causes unnecessary CPU load and the FreeBSD driver is not good, due to Realtek not giving a damn.

Does it "work"? Yes, for some values. Do you need to go out and buy an Intel NIC right now? No. Do you want to buy an Intel NIC to replace it? Definitely.