BUILD Advice on (another newbie's) hardware setup

[Doc Chacha]

Hi all !

I'm Thomas, from France, and I seek your knowledge ! :)
(Please forgive typos and weird talking, I'm not native english !)

After quite a few years on Netgear NAS for advanced home usage (personal and professional files management, music and video streaming, remote computers backups), I lately realised that my hardware had been put in "legacy state" a while ago... I started thinking of what might happen if I had a hardware failure in my shiny outdated netgear NAS box... Since I'm using Netgear XRAID-2 file system, on a legacy box, it would probably be quite painful. Of course, I have a nice backup scheme, and all my datas are mirrored offsite a couple of times... But what about the time spent for setting up a new NAS, bringing the data abck home and so on ?

So I decided to switch to FreeNAS. After quite some research, it seems that it has all the features I want. It has room for playing a bit, while keeping important things safe. It's powerfull. It's upgradable. And if my home made new box has a problem, I can replace the faulty part and keep things up...

So, I read a few hundred thread, a few thousand pages, and wrote down an insane number of "TO-DOs" and "DON'Ts"...
I used a creepy undersized VM to test FreeNAS, not on the filesystem side, but to find if the software I'm using on my present NAS works on a FreeNAS system... It's been two weeks now since I began to play with it, and I'm quite satisfied.

So I decided to go one step beyond and to build my next NAS. And I would really like to get your thoughts on my setup...

First, the needs:
-I use my NAS for personnal high value files (2 decades of family pictures, various important bank and administrative files...), and also for personal files (most of accounting, customers data and so on....). So, safety of my data is important. I actualy use a dual redundant file system, using Netear XRAID-2, and a rsync backup scheme to 2 remote locations, over SSH.
-I started small, and upraded with time, so a system that could provide RAID *and* upgradability was mandatory, hence the choice for XRAID2, and Netgear (I liked netgear products for quite some time). So, I found that ZFS could be an interesting answer.
-I need to stream audio and video both in and out house. My in house system uses ogitech squeezeboxes, and I use subsonic when outside.
-I use a dedicated software for laptops and desktop computers files 2-ways backup on my NAS
-I need something that won't made my wife mad about putting an XXXL NAS up in the house :)

So, at this time, I plan to do something like this:
-case would be a Siverstone DS308 (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452) Front hotswap ports are awesome :) It has plenty of room for disks additon
-motherboard (mITX) would be ASROCK E3C236D2 (http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C236D2I#Specifications) ECC memory, IPMI support, 6 SATA ports, and good reviews as fr as I know
-proc would be a XEON E3-1240V5 (http://ark.intel.com/fr/products/88176/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1240-v5-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz) I think it's quite fine. Maybe oversized, maybe not. I'm willing to put some more bucks right from the start, instead of upgrading several times when I will lack processing power
-memory : I will go for 32Gbytes, the maximum size my motherboard can fit. ECC of course. I admit I don't know which brand to trust. Need your opinion here... I would go for 16GBx2
-Hardrives would be WD green or WD red... Need your help here too... I would go for 5or6x2To drives, in a RAIDZ2 aray. Are "Red" drives worth the price ? Or are Green reliable enough for my use ?
-Boot would be either on USB stick or a small SD (in which case I would only put 5 hard drves for data storing).

I read a lot of things, but I would really like to get "live" advices before I order my parts. As you may have guessed, I plan to spend quite some money in that box, in order to get something that's powerfull enough, reliable, and that will be sized ofr the job for quite a long time.

Thanks for your replies :)

 

[Ericloewe]

-case would be a Siverstone DS308 (http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452) Front hotswap ports are awesome :) It has plenty of room for disks additon

Cooling is highly dubious, unfortunately. There are some threads on the forums on that subject, should be easy to find.

-proc would be a XEON E3-1240V5 (http://ark.intel.com/fr/products/88176/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1240-v5-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz) I think it's quite fine. Maybe oversized, maybe not. I'm willing to put some more bucks right from the start, instead of upgrading several times when I will lack processing power

If you won't be transcoding, an i3-6300 will certainly be more than plenty - might as well save a few bucks.

-memory : I will go for 32Gbytes, the maximum size my motherboard can fit. ECC of course. I admit I don't know which brand to trust. Need your opinion here... I would go for 16GBx2

Whatever is on the QVL. Generally, little can go wrong with Crucial/Micron, Samsung or Hynix.

-Hardrives would be WD green or WD red... Need your help here too... I would go for 5or6x2To drives, in a RAIDZ2 aray. Are "Red" drives worth the price ? Or are Green reliable enough for my use ?

Reds are a bit better and don't need any hacking. Greens/New Blues do need some hacking.

-Boot would be either on USB stick or a small SD (in which case I would only put 5 hard drves for data storing).

I'd go with USB. Unless you feel like going one size up on the chassis and getting an X11SSM-F, which would give you two additional SATA ports.

 

[Doc Chacha]

Cooling is highly dubious, unfortunately. There are some threads on the forums on that subject, should be easy to find.

That's something I have been thinking about. I thought that the 2 fans for the hard drive and a watercooling system for the processor would do the job. But I will follow your advice and dig a bit more about that.

If you won't be transcoding, an i3-6300 will certainly be more than plenty - might as well save a few bucks.

I do some transcoding while streaming, sometimes, mainly FLAC to MP3, and various video streams to FLV... Does that count as transcoding ?

I'd go with USB. Unless you feel like going one size up on the chassis and getting an X11SSM-F, which would give you two additional SATA ports.

I had a hard time choosing my motherboard. I was willing to go for a Supermicro, since it's quite obvious it's one of the favorite. I must admit I went for the asRock due to the size factor related to the case I choose. But since you pointed out the cooling problem, I might reconsider the case and so reconsider the motherboard.

Thanks for your answer

 

[Mirfster]

Since you are not in the US, I would give a little more thought on going with ASRock. There have been some issues with them lately (not the model you chose) and from what I have seen those not in the US are having a heck of a time getting support or RMAs in any decent time frames.

 

[ChriZ]

For your needs, I think a fractal node 304 is a better choice.
No hotswap capability (not sure if Ds380 has proper hotswap anyways), but has better cooling, is still very small and costs half the price of the Silverstone...

 

[Ericloewe]

I do some transcoding while streaming, sometimes, mainly FLAC to MP3, and various video streams to FLV... Does that count as transcoding ?

The i3 can handle 1-2 1080p streams, based on what people say.

 

[Stux]

Other option in mini itx is the Xeon d boards. They get you more than 32gb of ram and features like 10gbe.

Other than that you need to step up to mATX to get 64gb of ram (baring the avotons)

Ds380 has a well known design flaw on its cooling. It can be improved with the judicious application of a cardboard baffle. Research this ;)

If you do decide on mATX then the SuperMicro X11-s11m-F is a great system.

I like the Xeon X11 CPUs like you chose. Great for video transcoding.

Re upgradability, you can't add a drive to a vdev without recreating the vdev. You can replace all drives in a vdev to grow the vdev.

This means going from 5/6 drive raidz2 to 8 drive raidz2 requires a backup/restore.

 

[Doc Chacha]

For your needs, I think a fractal node 304 is a better choice.
No hotswap capability (not sure if Ds380 has proper hotswap anyways), but has better cooling, is still very small and costs half the price of the Silverstone...

Ds380 has a well known design flaw on its cooling. It can be improved with the judicious application of a cardboard baffle.

I will definitely have a look at Fractal boxes.

Re upgradability, you can't add a drive to a vdev without recreating the vdev. You can replace all drives in a vdev to grow the vdev. This means going from 5/6 drive raidz2 to 8 drive raidz2 requires a backup/restore.

I had that on my mind. In fact my idea was rather to get 8 bays, so I could start with a 4 discs RAIDZ2 vdev, then, then when needed expand it by replacing all 4 drives with bigger ones. And then, re-use the smaller ones to create a second RAIDZ2 vdev, then use it to create more space on another volume. (If I read correctly the documentation, using a new Vdev to pair with a previously created vdev would need same RAIDZ architecture and same disk size)

Anyway, thanks for your answers. I will dig a bit deeper for the case, and may consider another motherboard size/brand.
I will probably come back shortly with a new setup for you to review ;)

 

[Doc Chacha]

If you do decide on mATX then the SuperMicro X11-s11m-F is a great system.

Did not find that one, but you may be speaking of X11 SSM-F ? https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm

 

[Stux]

Did not found that one, but you may be speaking of X11 SSM-F ? https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm

Yes, that's the one

 

[Doc Chacha]

After reading your advices and doing some research about those various subjects, I changed a bit my setup, going for something that might take a bit more space, but will get me something powerfull enough to go a bit further than planned (in terms of running software and virtualization usage)

-Case: Fractal Design Node 804 http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-804
-MB: X11SSM-F https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm
-Proc: Xeon E3-1240V5 http://ark.intel.com/fr/products/88176/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1240-v5-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz
-Mem: 32GB as a starter, might go higher if needed. 2x Samsung 16GB DDR-4 2133Mhz ECC, Supermicro certified http://store.supermicro.com/memory/16gb-ddr4-2133-mem-dr416l-sl01-er21.html
-HDD: 6x 2GO WD Red disks, XRAIDZ2
-SSD for boot: Corsair 60 Go http://www.corsair.com/en/force-series-ls-60gb-sata-3-6gb-s-ssd

 

[Ericloewe]

After reading your advices and doing some research about those various subjects, I changed a bit my setup, going for something that might take a bit more space, but will get me something powerfull enough to go a bit further than planned (in terms of running software and virtualization usage)

-Case: Fractal Design Node 804 http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-804
-MB: X11SSM-F https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSM-F.cfm
-Proc: Xeon E3-1240V5 http://ark.intel.com/fr/products/88176/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1240-v5-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz
-Mem: 32GB as a starter, might go higher if needed. 2x Samsung 16GB DDR-4 2133Mhz ECC, Supermicro certified http://store.supermicro.com/memory/16gb-ddr4-2133-mem-dr416l-sl01-er21.html
-HDD: 6x 2GO WD Red disks, XRAIDZ2
-SSD for boot: Corsair 60 Go http://www.corsair.com/en/force-series-ls-60gb-sata-3-6gb-s-ssd

Looks good, but don't bother with the supermicro-branded RAM, which is typically more expensive than the exact same model without Supermicro stickers.

 

[Doc Chacha]

Looks good, but don't bother with the supermicro-branded RAM, which is typically more expensive than the exact same model without Supermicro stickers.

OK, thanks for this information

 

[Stux]

Seems like a good decision ;)

 

[Doc Chacha]

Thanks all for your time and reviews.
Hardware parts are on the way !