ZeroBit
Dabbler
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2016
- Messages
- 28
I'm putting together my second FreeNAS system, and would greatly appreciate a sanity check (constructive criticisms also welcome).
The goals for the system are as follows:
The hardware I'm considering is:
I've noticed the TrueNAS Mini systems use the Intel Atom C3000 series processors and compatible motherboards. Looking at the Intel Atom C3000 series PassMark scores, as compared to the Intel Xeon E-2100 series, I'm wondering if maybe the Xeon is overkill, or if iXSystems is not expecting the TrueNAS Mini users to run so many jails, VMs, etc. as I'm planning?
I'm tempted to go with two 1x16GB UDIMM modules, for 32GB, to actually get the dual channel. But my thought is that I would like to eventually expand the memory, possibly to 128GB, and I don't like buying modules I would need to replace. Is the performance of the dual channel now really worth the interim spend?
I know a lot of people prefer the SuperMicro motherboards. My experience with the X11SSM-F-O SuperMicro motherboard, in my first FreeNAS system, has made me want to consider other manufacturers though. If anyone knows of a good alternative, please let me know. Some of the reasons I'm looking are:
The goals for the system are as follows:
- Provide redundant storage for pictures, home videos documents, etc. Losing files is not an option, as these are things like family pictures and videos, so RAIDZ2 is a must have minimum.
- Provide an offsite backup of my first FreeNAS system, and vice-versa for anything added to this system.
- Run OpenVPN in a jail, to allow for remote login, and then run rsync with my first FreeNAS system.
- Run the Plex plug-in/jail, and serve up to 5 devices. In the future, I would like the option to put in a dedicated GPU for hardware transcoding, when Plex supports it while running in a jail.
- Be quiet enough to place in the living room, with the tv.
- Run the Minecraft Server plug-in/jail.
- Run a git server, along with Gogs in a jail.
- Run a VM in a jail, for things like an automated build system, continuous integration, etc.
- Don't break the bank, but also don't be so cheap as to regret it later.
The hardware I'm considering is:
- AsRock Rack E3C246D4U Micro ATX LGA1151 Server Motherboard.
- Intel Xeon E-2146G 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
- be quiet! Shadow Rock LP 51.4 CFM CPU Cooler
- NEMIX 32GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM (Replacement for Samsung M391A4G43MB1-CTD)
- be quiet! Straight Power 11 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
- Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case
- Fractal Silent Series R2 40.6 CFM 120mm PWM Fan (x3) [provided with the case]
- be quiet! Silent Wings 3 50.5 CFM 120mm PWM Fan (x2)
- be quiet! Silent Wings 3 59.5 CFM 140mm PWM Fan (x1)
- Seagate Ironwolf 510 240 GB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD [boot drive]
- Seagate Ironwolf 3TB CMR (x6) [configured in RAIDZ2 as vdev]
I've noticed the TrueNAS Mini systems use the Intel Atom C3000 series processors and compatible motherboards. Looking at the Intel Atom C3000 series PassMark scores, as compared to the Intel Xeon E-2100 series, I'm wondering if maybe the Xeon is overkill, or if iXSystems is not expecting the TrueNAS Mini users to run so many jails, VMs, etc. as I'm planning?
I'm tempted to go with two 1x16GB UDIMM modules, for 32GB, to actually get the dual channel. But my thought is that I would like to eventually expand the memory, possibly to 128GB, and I don't like buying modules I would need to replace. Is the performance of the dual channel now really worth the interim spend?
I know a lot of people prefer the SuperMicro motherboards. My experience with the X11SSM-F-O SuperMicro motherboard, in my first FreeNAS system, has made me want to consider other manufacturers though. If anyone knows of a good alternative, please let me know. Some of the reasons I'm looking are:
- the BMC IPMI interface requires the use of an old/insecure version Java (SuperMicro rarely provides updates), which requires the IE Tab plug-in to run in the Chrome browser.
- the fan power management control is not granular enough, and does not work well with the Noctua PWM fans (the Noctua PWM fans tended to ramp up and down a lot, until I set them to the Standard setting in the BMC IPMI interface and used a fan control script I found in the forums to manage them based on the temperatures)
- the BIOS interface is very terse/old; seems like a 90's American Megatrends BIOS, rather than a current, or modern, BIOS/UEFI interface.