First FreeNAS Build

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Hi guys,

Just wanted to check my parts build for my first FreeNAS. I was meant to do this earlier in the year but work got in the way so hopefully parts aren't too outdated from when I looked. I will be running FreeNAS inside ESXI at least until I get comfortable to use FreeNas baremetal. It's for a home lab running few servers such as Plex, Windows servers, linux boxes etc. nothing too intense.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I am based in Australia so prices will be a bit different to you guys in other regions.

HDD: Already have 6 x 3 TB WD Red (~ 1 year old) so will reuse these for data & a 500 GB SSD for boot/vm's

Case - ~ $350 Nocro RPC 4308 - product link
Why: 8 bay hot swappable – Rack mount & will fit in the cabinet I have

Motherboard - ~ $380 Supermicro X11SSM-F - Product Link
Why: Has IPMI (IP Management). Few PCI-E slots.. 2 x GbE.. Supports up to 64 GB RAM

Power Supply - ~ $160 Seasonic G650 - Product link
Why: Heard good things about the model

CPU - ~ $435 Xeon E3-1245 V5 - product link
Why: VT-D for hardware passthrough (vsphere), VT-x, ECC for Freenas

Storage Controller - ~ $120 SAS 9211 8i - Product Link
Why: Can flash into IT mode (FreeNAS) & passthrough to vsphere

RAM - $240 Crucial 16 GB DDR4 x 1 - Product link
Why: Motherboard compatible & ECC..
I'll probably buy 2 for 32 GB total. 16 is a bit lean.
 
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SavageAUS

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I'm not sure about price difference but the Xeon you selected has igfx obviously not needed for server. Why not go for the E3-1240 V5 it's the same minus igfx.

I have the Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 v5 @ 3.40GHz in my FreeNAS box and it handles everything I throw at it so the 1240 should be more than capable.
I'm also in Australia and all my parts were purchased locally. The gigabyte board has never missed a beat.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
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religiouslyconfused

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You don't need the iGPU in FREENAS and I have the 1230v5 and it works well.
 
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Good pick up thanks - there is a new E3-1240 just released so $20 cheaper ($411 total) and it is higher spec. So I think that will be the winner I will read up on it more tomorrow.

Intel Link
Mvware link

Thanks for cheaper link iammykyl as well
 
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religiouslyconfused

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Good pick up thanks - there is a new E3-1240 just released so $20 cheaper ($411 total) and it is higher spec. So I think that will be the winner I will read up on it more tomorrow.

Intel Link
Mvware link

Thanks for cheaper link iammykyl as well

X11SSM-F does work with v6 CPU's, provided you have bios v2.0 or v2.0a (Latest version). I have that board and while I did use a Skylake CPU, it did have the latest Bios and IPMI firmware preinstalled, so I could have used a v6 CPU if I wanted to. Some retailers have older stock which can make it difficult as the easiest way to update the BIOS is to use a special license key, or use an older Skylake CPU to flash the bios.
 

Sphinxicus

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Case - ~ $350 Nocro RPC 4308 - product link
Why: 8 bay hot swappable – Rack mount & will fit in the cabinet I have

If you do go with this case, can you please let me know how your HDD temps fair? I was looking at this for its short depth factor (387mm) but i had read some reviews about HDD temps being on the high side due to the air coming in the front taking the path of least resistance and flowing through the front mesh under the HDD bays instead of through them.

Thanks
 
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X11SSM-F does work with v6 CPU's, provided you have bios v2.0 or v2.0a (Latest version). I have that board and while I did use a Skylake CPU, it did have the latest Bios and IPMI firmware preinstalled, so I could have used a v6 CPU if I wanted to. Some retailers have older stock which can make it difficult as the easiest way to update the BIOS is to use a special license key, or use an older Skylake CPU to flash the bios.

Thank you!

If you do go with this case, can you please let me know how your HDD temps fair? I was looking at this for its short depth factor (387mm) but i had read some reviews about HDD temps being on the high side due to the air coming in the front taking the path of least resistance and flowing through the front mesh under the HDD bays instead of through them.

Thanks

Can do! I am going to place the order(s) today or tomorrow afternoon. I am a bit concerned about the airflow too but I need a short depth factor for the cabinet I have at home and this is the best one I've found that isn't too expensive. It will probably be a few weeks until I have all the parts but I'll keep you posted.
 

Sphinxicus

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I need a short depth factor for the cabinet I have at home and this is the best one I've found that isn't too expensive.

I feel your pain! I'm in the same situation with a short depth wall-mounted cabinet. This case was one of my options so any feedback is much appreciated
 
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