BUILD 3x 4TB Xeon build

[theozaurus]

Hi,

I've been lurking for a long time and I'm almost ready to start putting a box together, that will cover backup needs, able to stream videos using NFS and audio with uPNP and ideally by quiet. So far I'm thinking along the lines of:

- 3x 4TB 5400 drives (Hitachi seem to come out well in the Backblaze blog)
- Fractal Design Node 304
- Xeon E3-1220 v3 (cheapest processor I can find that is 4 core, ECC and no GPU)
- 8GB of ram (easily upgradeable)
- 400W Seasonic fanless psu
- Supermicro X10 series (struggling to tell the difference), something like X10SL7-F

I'm planning on running in raidz. In the future if I want to increase pool size I could add another vdev with 3 drives set up in raidz as well. Is this a sensible strategy?

CPU wise, would I be better off just going for a 2 core i3? I won't need any transcoding abilities.

Will I need a HBA, or will the built in SATA ports be sufficient on the Supermicro board? I've read in one of the posts you can flash the SAS controller on the motherboard itself to IT mode?

Anything else I should be considering?

Thanks

Theo

 

[Yatti420]

Without the need for transcoding.. Assuming your wired / gigabit you could probably get away with a Pentium chip.. Not sure about the x10.. I use the x9 series.. I believe it has 6 x sata 2 ports..

 

[indy]

The Node 304 is a M-ITX case, the X10Sl7-F is u-ATX.
You will be very limited in choice with M-ITX unfortunately.

Personally I would consider a 6 drive raidz2 setup for its increased security and performance.

 

[jkh]

Since you have so few drives (and they're of the slowest 5400 rpm variety) you might as well stick with SATA - SAS would be overkill for this setup. If you have the extra cash, go for 16gb of memory at the outset and try a 6 drive raidz for your first vdev. Then if you decide to use the SAS controller later, you can add a couple of SSDs and another 6 drive vdev raidz to add to the pool.

 

[theozaurus]

Thanks everyone.

That's really useful. I also plan on using SabNZB on the machine, so maybe that'll need a bit more grunt than the G2020 Pentium can provide.

I've been trying to reduce the getting started cost - hence the 3 drive raid, with space for another 3 drives. From what I've read the 5400 seem preferable due to their lower power / heat requirements. Is there a large drop in performance using these? Would I notice?

 

[theozaurus]

Just had a good read through this thread: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/mini-itx-c226-haswell-build.15371

It seems this could be just right for Mini-itx build:

- ASRock E3c226d2i
- Pentium G2030 (should do everything I need)

Then it's just down to the hard drives.

Better to go all out on 6 small drivers, rather than 3, then another 3 when required?

 

[indy]

The CPU might be a tight fit, considering it uses a socket different from the mainboard ;)

If you use your NAS to store Blu-Ray rips go for raidz1.
If you store work related stuff or your family photos go for raidz2.
Just my opinion of course.

 

[theozaurus]

Haha, oh dear. In a minute I'll get a combo that not only fits in the case, but the parts will fit together!

How about something like a:

- G3320
- G3420
- G3430

They all cover LGA1150 with ECC memory support. Only 2 cores, but substantially cheaper.

 

[Yatti420]

I use one.. Works well.. I don't transcode media however..