Hello everyone, I am building a FreeNAS system with the first and foremost goal of having a reliable file server. I thought it might be nice to do a few extra things such as a ubuntu server or 2, a torrent server, and possibly a plex media server.
I have read quite a few posts and feel that I will probably go the X11/E3/ ECC RAM route with a goal of reliability and data integrity. I thought at first with a bit of extra RAM and a slightly more powerful CPU than necessary for a fileserver I could also run a virtual machine or 2 and possibly run a plex media server that would stream 1 movie at a time max. However, now that 4k is upon us I am thinking that it is probably not worth trying to stream video from this machine and my primary purpose of a reliable file server should be my #1 goal.
I have read:
Discussion of X10/X11 supermicro boards.
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/supermicro-x10-and-x11-motherboard-faq.5/
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...o-buy-a-supermicro-x11-xeon-e3-v5-6-board.13/
Brian Moses discusses ECC vs non ECC
https://blog.briancmoses.com/2014/03/why-i-chose-non-ecc-ram-for-my-freenas.html
I have also read over many of his various builds
Another ecc vs non ecc
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/
Nice overview of hardware design, no real discussion on CPU. Makes me wonder more about SAS vs SATA...
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/a-co...are-design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices/
So far I am thinking for the motherboard:
https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-m...h-gen-core-i3-intel-pentium/p/N82E16813182996
The LN4 is not necessary for me, but right now the price is the same as lower tier models. The only thing this does not have is SAS.
https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-x...3-1200-v5-intel-6th-gen-core/p/1WK-0010-002M5
This has SAS x8 with an LSISAS3008 controller, but doesn't have the additional networking ports. I am not really sure that I need the extra networking ports but I am not sure if I need the extra money for SAS vs SATA either. What type of scenarios will extra networking ports really be useful? Will SAS really confer that much an advantage? I am planning on getting a few WD SATA reds right now.
I am then thinking of a Xeon E3 v6 processor, probably the 1240.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Xeon-E...on+E3-1240+v6+@+3.70GHz&qid=1571953231&sr=8-2
Is there any point in getting a 1245, the version with the GPU? Can the GPU do anything if I am not planning on connecting this to a monitor? It won't help with video transcoding or something will it? Can I still store media in an already transcoded form anyway and then have no problem serving 4k video even without a powerful CPU or GPU? Should I look at completely different CPUs for any reason?
32 GB of ECC Crucial RAM
https://www.newegg.com/crucial-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820148840
Seems like a great deal right now.
HD, will probably pick up 2 WD red 4TB HD and mirror them for now. When I want to increase my pool size I will add a couple more larger drives, then down the road replace the 4TB drives with something larger.
Do you all think I am getting reasonable value with this system, or is it a lot of extra money for nothing? Clearly, I could go with a Asus Desktop motherboard and CPU and build a much faster computer for qutie a bit cheaper. For a rock solid file server is this a way to go? And/or, should I spend less money with a different type of server motherboard and much older CPU if all I want to do is serve files? How important is SAS? Probably not worth debating ECC here, as that is debated elsewhere ad nauseam.
Main questions:
Is GPU going to do anything on this E3? 1245 vs 1240? Should I look at a completely different CPU? Do I need something better for running a virtual ubuntu computer or 2 with low resource requirements.
Should I really be looking into SAS? Or is SATA fine?
This system is much more expensive than a normal desktop could be, am I getting good value for this build, or do any of you have an idea of a completely different direction?
Thanks for the consideration everyone. I know my questions could be more specific, but despite building computers over the years, very careful consideration of hardware with respect to servers is brand new to me.
I have read quite a few posts and feel that I will probably go the X11/E3/ ECC RAM route with a goal of reliability and data integrity. I thought at first with a bit of extra RAM and a slightly more powerful CPU than necessary for a fileserver I could also run a virtual machine or 2 and possibly run a plex media server that would stream 1 movie at a time max. However, now that 4k is upon us I am thinking that it is probably not worth trying to stream video from this machine and my primary purpose of a reliable file server should be my #1 goal.
I have read:
Discussion of X10/X11 supermicro boards.
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/supermicro-x10-and-x11-motherboard-faq.5/
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...o-buy-a-supermicro-x11-xeon-e3-v5-6-board.13/
Brian Moses discusses ECC vs non ECC
https://blog.briancmoses.com/2014/03/why-i-chose-non-ecc-ram-for-my-freenas.html
I have also read over many of his various builds
Another ecc vs non ecc
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/ecc-vs-non-ecc-ram-and-zfs.15449/
Nice overview of hardware design, no real discussion on CPU. Makes me wonder more about SAS vs SATA...
https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/a-co...are-design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices/
So far I am thinking for the motherboard:
https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-m...h-gen-core-i3-intel-pentium/p/N82E16813182996
The LN4 is not necessary for me, but right now the price is the same as lower tier models. The only thing this does not have is SAS.
https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-x...3-1200-v5-intel-6th-gen-core/p/1WK-0010-002M5
This has SAS x8 with an LSISAS3008 controller, but doesn't have the additional networking ports. I am not really sure that I need the extra networking ports but I am not sure if I need the extra money for SAS vs SATA either. What type of scenarios will extra networking ports really be useful? Will SAS really confer that much an advantage? I am planning on getting a few WD SATA reds right now.
I am then thinking of a Xeon E3 v6 processor, probably the 1240.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Xeon-E...on+E3-1240+v6+@+3.70GHz&qid=1571953231&sr=8-2
Is there any point in getting a 1245, the version with the GPU? Can the GPU do anything if I am not planning on connecting this to a monitor? It won't help with video transcoding or something will it? Can I still store media in an already transcoded form anyway and then have no problem serving 4k video even without a powerful CPU or GPU? Should I look at completely different CPUs for any reason?
32 GB of ECC Crucial RAM
https://www.newegg.com/crucial-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820148840
Seems like a great deal right now.
HD, will probably pick up 2 WD red 4TB HD and mirror them for now. When I want to increase my pool size I will add a couple more larger drives, then down the road replace the 4TB drives with something larger.
Do you all think I am getting reasonable value with this system, or is it a lot of extra money for nothing? Clearly, I could go with a Asus Desktop motherboard and CPU and build a much faster computer for qutie a bit cheaper. For a rock solid file server is this a way to go? And/or, should I spend less money with a different type of server motherboard and much older CPU if all I want to do is serve files? How important is SAS? Probably not worth debating ECC here, as that is debated elsewhere ad nauseam.
Main questions:
Is GPU going to do anything on this E3? 1245 vs 1240? Should I look at a completely different CPU? Do I need something better for running a virtual ubuntu computer or 2 with low resource requirements.
Should I really be looking into SAS? Or is SATA fine?
This system is much more expensive than a normal desktop could be, am I getting good value for this build, or do any of you have an idea of a completely different direction?
Thanks for the consideration everyone. I know my questions could be more specific, but despite building computers over the years, very careful consideration of hardware with respect to servers is brand new to me.