Large Quiet NAS/Storage Server Build Review...

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cycleback

Cadet
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Feb 4, 2018
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I would appreciate a check over of the following components I am hoping to put together to consolidate all my storage into one large quiet server. Currently I just have a large number of seperate hard drives either in storage or in external cases. The usage I am considering is mostly simple file storage and serving to 1 or 2 clients over SMB. I would also run Sabnzbd, CouchPotato, Headphones, torrent client, and podcast downloader. I don't currently plan on running PLEX but I guess I might in the future. Components I am considering are the following.

Are there any gotchas, conflicts, or things I am missing.

Which CPU would you recommend?

Motherboard: X10SLM+-F (LGA 1150) [Used]
CPU: i3-4160, or i3-4170, or i3-4340, or E3-1220 v3, or E3-1231 v3
CPU Fan: Noctua NH-U9DXi4 or Cooler Master Hyper 212
Memory: 4 x Samsung M391B5273DH0-CK0 (4GB DDR3 ECC PC3-12800 CL11 Unbuffered UDIMM) or Hynix HMT451U7BFR8A-PB 4GB DDR3 ECC PC3-12800 CL11 1.35V Unbuffered UDIMM) [Used]
Boot Drive: 1 x Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB
HBA: LSI 9210-8i in IT mode [Used]

Case: Supermicro SC846 [Used]
Backplane: BPN-SAS2-846EL1 [Used]
Power Supply: 2 x Supermicro PWS-920P-SQ [Used]
Fan Wall Replacement Fans: Noctua NF-F12 iPPC 3000 PWM
Rear Wall Replacement Fans: Noctua NF-R8 PWM
Cable from HBA to Expander: SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 connector
 

loch_nas

Explorer
Joined
Jun 13, 2015
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Welcome to FreeNAS forum!

I'm not going to say anything about the general configuration as I'm no FreeNAS Pro.
(As far as I can judge you have chosen decent components)

But one thing I can see immediately is that you have chosen the wrong cpu cooler (wrong socket).

Take Noctua NH-U9S or Noctua NH-D9L as these are compatible to the 1150 socket.
The Cooler Master would fit anyway.

Have fun!
 

wblock

Documentation Engineer
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Nov 14, 2014
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Hyper 212 should work on 1150. At least I swear I've got one or two of them. Incidentally, they made no difference at all in temperature versus the stock Intel CPU fan. Not sure about noise level.
 

wblock

Documentation Engineer
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Nov 14, 2014
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1,506
Not from me. I like the E3-1230 series, but if you don't need that kind of power, it's a waste.
 

Evertb1

Guru
Joined
May 31, 2016
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700
Any thoughts on the specific processor choice?
If you want to run Plex in the future you might like a CPU with some power. Plex needs about a Passmark of 2000 for a single full-transcode of a 1080p/10Mbps stream. You can find more on this subject on the Plex support site. An i3-4340 is rated for a PassMark of 5240. An E3-1220 v3 scores a PassMark of 6992. So you can draw your own conclusions based on your current and future wishes.

By the way: If you buy a boxed CPU you have no need at all to buy an aftermarket cooler. I am running the orignal CPU coolers of Intel for years and I have no cooling or noise problems. The only machine with an aftermarket cooler is my heavy duty work station/gaming machine.
 

Nick2253

Wizard
Joined
Apr 21, 2014
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What kind of storage are you running on this thing?

If you haven't bought the memory yet, I would strongly recommend going with 8GB DIMMs. Worst case, you get two and you have the ability to grow to 32GB if needed. With the list of things you're doing on the server, I'd probably recommend maxing out 32GB of memory to start with, especially if you're looking at 16TB+ raw storage.

As far as CPU goes, I would just go with the cheapest. None of what you've described is very CPU limited. If you were going to do lots of Plex streaming, I might recommend a more powerful i3, or if you needed encryption, I'd recommend a Xeon.
 
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