toyebox
Explorer
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2016
- Messages
- 87
To start, I might as well list the equipment in the box~
Currently I have three jails setup with Downloading software, Plex, media management software, and a web server running WordPress for my blog. Up until a couple days ago, i had a OpenVPN server as well for remote access away from home. I recently put together a pfSense box and have migrated that there.
Some notes about this build:
~Motherboard~
When initially putting the idea together and figuring out what to get, i heard many many gripes and complaints about this. Obviously it wasn't a "well known" board, but due to the unique use of a mobile processor, i had to find something. I cannot speak any higher about this board and what it's capable of. I used the supplied CPU heat-sink--but not for lack of trying to find a better one--there just aren't any! Regardless ,the heat-sink does a fine job at keeping it cool. I recently retrofitted a new 50mm Noctua fan on the heat-sink (Which was no easy task with the minimal clearance and how the old one was mounted) and it has brought the temps down drastically. I plan on buying the up-gradable expansion card that supplies four more gigabit connections.
~Case~
Hands down, best case for the job in my opinion. Air flow is fantastic with the two 120mm fans (they act as an exhaust, pulling air across the drives) . I tried turning them around just to play devils advocate, but i saw a rise in temperature but an average of 2 degrees. There are two things that are small, but still bother me about the case. The lid/cover is a very big pain to get on. It definitely seems easier to come off and on after doing it a bunch of times though. The lid bends quite easily and you can tell it's just sheet metal--even though, with it on, it looks awesome! The second thing is the slot where the motherboard sits. There is a long pin that the motherboard screws into, and due to where the connections on the motherboard are.. it makes it a bit difficult to finagle the motherboard down and behind it.
~SSD~
I decided to use an SSD for my jails for a couple reasons. I wanted to cut down on read/write for one. Secondly, due to how large my media collection is, I found it important to have all the media info on an SSD for quick access. I also have replication tasks that auto backup my jails to my tank every day. All of my Plex transcoding is done on the SSD as well. I only did this configuration because this is what i saw as being the best solution. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts, feel free to comment!
~Processor~
This thing is a beast (in my eyes anyway). I had a 2670qm in the box initially, and it ran great as well! The 3940xm hits a whopping 9373 Passmark score which should handle anything. Futhermore, it only has a TDP of 55W! I ended up switching to this processor not only because of the double in my processing power, but also for the iAMT features. For anyone who doesn't know what iAMT is, it allows remote monitoring of your system, from shutdown to startup. You can remotely view your headless box and everything. It truly is a fantastic feature.
~RAID Card~
Not much to say about this little monster--I had to add a small fan to the heat-sink though. I hope this helps someone who encounters the same issue as me: I had random reboots and they seemed to get worse and worse when accessing the drives. I had numerous people on the forums helping, with no avail. It ended up being the LSI card overheating and restarting the computer. a small 40mm fan fixed it. I assume it has to do with the ambient temperature in the case, with it being so small.
I think it touched on everything that was important! I would like to make one last disclaimer: I by no means am an expert at FreeBSD or FreeNAS. I only took what I have read and experienced and put them on paper for others. If you guys (or gals) have thoughts or opinions, i am open to listen to them!
Matthew~
- Motherboard: Jetway NF9G-QM77 Motherboard
- mini-itx
- socket G2 (second/third gen intel mobile processors)
- expandable addon cards
- dual intel NIC's
- Processor: i7-3940xm (formally an i7-2670qm)
- Extremely fast (almost 10,000 on passmark scale)
- iAMT supported
- AES instructions supported
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Performance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3L 1600MHz PC3 12800
- Not ECC because the mobo doesn't support it--i have yet to have an issue (don't yell at me)
- RAID card: 9240-8i LSI (M1015)
- Crossflashed to IT mode of course
- Added a small 40mm Noctua thin fan on the heatsink (I will tell you why at the bottom)
- PSU: Athena Power AP-U1ATX30A 1U
- Replaced the dual 40mm fans with Noctua 40mm full size fans
- Case: U-NAS NSC-800 Server Chassis
- Awesome quality (except for a few little things discussed below)
- Smallest 8 bay case with great heat dissipation
- Replaced the 120mm fans with Noctua Fans
- Hard Drives: 6x Seagate NAS drives (3x ST4000VN000 & 3x ST4000VN008 = new version)
- In a Mirrored configuration
- USB: Sandisk ultra fit
- SSD: 250GB Samsung 850 Evo
- This is strictly used for jails
Currently I have three jails setup with Downloading software, Plex, media management software, and a web server running WordPress for my blog. Up until a couple days ago, i had a OpenVPN server as well for remote access away from home. I recently put together a pfSense box and have migrated that there.
Some notes about this build:
~Motherboard~
When initially putting the idea together and figuring out what to get, i heard many many gripes and complaints about this. Obviously it wasn't a "well known" board, but due to the unique use of a mobile processor, i had to find something. I cannot speak any higher about this board and what it's capable of. I used the supplied CPU heat-sink--but not for lack of trying to find a better one--there just aren't any! Regardless ,the heat-sink does a fine job at keeping it cool. I recently retrofitted a new 50mm Noctua fan on the heat-sink (Which was no easy task with the minimal clearance and how the old one was mounted) and it has brought the temps down drastically. I plan on buying the up-gradable expansion card that supplies four more gigabit connections.
~Case~
Hands down, best case for the job in my opinion. Air flow is fantastic with the two 120mm fans (they act as an exhaust, pulling air across the drives) . I tried turning them around just to play devils advocate, but i saw a rise in temperature but an average of 2 degrees. There are two things that are small, but still bother me about the case. The lid/cover is a very big pain to get on. It definitely seems easier to come off and on after doing it a bunch of times though. The lid bends quite easily and you can tell it's just sheet metal--even though, with it on, it looks awesome! The second thing is the slot where the motherboard sits. There is a long pin that the motherboard screws into, and due to where the connections on the motherboard are.. it makes it a bit difficult to finagle the motherboard down and behind it.
~SSD~
I decided to use an SSD for my jails for a couple reasons. I wanted to cut down on read/write for one. Secondly, due to how large my media collection is, I found it important to have all the media info on an SSD for quick access. I also have replication tasks that auto backup my jails to my tank every day. All of my Plex transcoding is done on the SSD as well. I only did this configuration because this is what i saw as being the best solution. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts, feel free to comment!
~Processor~
This thing is a beast (in my eyes anyway). I had a 2670qm in the box initially, and it ran great as well! The 3940xm hits a whopping 9373 Passmark score which should handle anything. Futhermore, it only has a TDP of 55W! I ended up switching to this processor not only because of the double in my processing power, but also for the iAMT features. For anyone who doesn't know what iAMT is, it allows remote monitoring of your system, from shutdown to startup. You can remotely view your headless box and everything. It truly is a fantastic feature.
~RAID Card~
Not much to say about this little monster--I had to add a small fan to the heat-sink though. I hope this helps someone who encounters the same issue as me: I had random reboots and they seemed to get worse and worse when accessing the drives. I had numerous people on the forums helping, with no avail. It ended up being the LSI card overheating and restarting the computer. a small 40mm fan fixed it. I assume it has to do with the ambient temperature in the case, with it being so small.
I think it touched on everything that was important! I would like to make one last disclaimer: I by no means am an expert at FreeBSD or FreeNAS. I only took what I have read and experienced and put them on paper for others. If you guys (or gals) have thoughts or opinions, i am open to listen to them!
Matthew~
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