Advice on first build

[shipser]

Hi all, I'm a long time reader here at the forums, but never had the time or money for a build.
Finally I got both.
I want to build my first NAS for my own home use: media storage, backup for my Macintosh and my wife's Windows-based laptop, bulk storage for my photography, and home plex use (maybe use for 2 extra VMs - pihole and owncloud).

I followed a lot of builds and guides here on the forums, and read all the hardware recommendations.

I came up with this system, and would really love your thoughts about it:
CPU - Intel - Xeon E3-1240 V6 3.7GHz
CPU cooler - Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
MB - Supermicro - MBD-X11SSH-F Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory - 2x Kingston - ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2400
Case - Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M Tempered Glass (Black) ATX Mid Tower
PSU - EVGA - SuperNOVA T2 850W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Storage - 6x Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (used in raidz2 configuration)
Boot Drive - 2x Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (for mirrored boot drive)

What do you think?

Thanks in advance,
Shay.

--Edit--
Replaced the MB with Supermicro - MBD-X11SSM-F-O Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard.
Do i need a dedicated graphics card for basic monitoring?
What other case do you suggest?

 

[kdragon75]

Hi all, i'm a long time reader here at the forums, but never had the time or money for a build.
finally i got both.

Well that doesn't happen often!

PSU - EVGA - SuperNOVA T2 850W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Ya don't need 500 jigawatts. Honestly a quality PSU in the 500-600 range will be far better suited and with the same 80+ it will be more efficient. Figure about 30-40 Watts for the board, 60 for the CPU, at most 12 per drive, 30 for RAM,

Storage - 6x Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (used in raidz2 configuration)

I would just use a RAID 10 equivalent stripe mirror. You will get better performance and give up just as much space. Just be warned you can lose UPTO two drives before things go bad OR just one and if the other in the vdev (mirror) goes your SOL. It's still better than RAIDz1. I guess it just depends on how paranoid you are. If you feel the need for RAIDz2 with 4 drives, you may also consider using sync=always and using one of your SSDs as a SLOG for your ZIL.
Also it's nice to have a spare disk on hand. I personally am not a fan of hot spares in small systems like this.

Boot Drive - 2x Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (for mirrored boot drive)

Seems a bit overkill. You are more likely to lose your config to stupid mistakes that a failed boot drive. To that end, after each config edit save it to a USB drive and velcro it to the side of the NAS so it doesn't get lost.

Derp I just reread your post, you have 6 drives. Make the stripe mirror vs z2 a bit more fuzzy. Your call. With 6 I may do RAIDz2 but is harder to expand without redoing the whole damn thing. That said, if you are expanding any time soon just do it done otherwise you will have uneven performance. That all if you care about performance. If its just a simple filer/streamer, don't worry about performance much.

 

[Bidule0hm]

at most 12 per drive

That's too low, see this guide https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/ for more info ;)

Seems a bit overkill. Your more likely to lose your config to stupid mistakes that a failed boot drive.

Yep, one SSD is already far far better than a mirror of USB sticks.

 

[Chris Moore]

I would just use a RAID 10 equivalent stripe mirror. You will get better performance and give up just as much space.

That isn't true at all. The 6 x 4TB drives in RAIDz2 will give 14TB of storage. A pool of mirrors using the same drives (RAID-10 does not exist) will only give 10TB. Mirrors are faster (more IOPS) because there are more vdevs (3 in this case) but there is a penalty of an entire drive with regard to capacity and IOPS are not needed for a media server. I have one pool of RAIDz2 in my server and another pool of mirrors in my server one is for mass storage and the other is for running VMs. Different pool layouts for different purposes. Mirrored storage is not always the right answer.

 

[Stux]

Hi all, i'm a long time reader here at the forums, but never had the time or money for a build.
finally i got both.
i want to build my first nas for my own home use: media storage, backup for my macintosh and my wife's windows based laptop, Bulk storage for my photography, and home plex use (maybe use for 2 extra vm's - pihole and owncloud).

i followed a lot of builds and guides here on the forums, and read all the hardware recommendations.

i came up with this system, and really love your thoughts about it:
Cpu - Intel - Xeon E3-1240 V6 3.7GHz

Good cpu. Consider the 1230
Instead, just a tiny bit slower (4%?), could be substantially cheaper (10-15%)

Cpu cooler - Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

Beware of narrow ILM.

Memory - 2x Kingston - ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2400

Is that ECC ram?

Boot Drive - 2x Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (for mirrored boot drive)

I think mirrored SSDs are overkill. Just set up auto config backup.

 

[kdragon75]

That isn't true at all. The 6 x 4TB drives in RAIDz2 will give 14TB of storage. A pool of mirrors using the same drives (RAID-10 does not exist) will only give 10TB. Mirrors are faster (more IOPS) because there are more vdevs (3 in this case) but there is a penalty of an entire drive with regard to capacity and IOPS are not needed for a media server. I have one pool of RAIDz2 in my server and another pool of mirrors in my server one is for mass storage and the other is for running VMs. Different pool layouts for different purposes. Mirrored storage is not always the right answer.

Yeah I reread his post and saw the six. Striping a set of mirrors sounds like a RAID10 to me. I know it's not the same thing but for a new pool (read balanced) it's a rough conceptual equivalent.

IOPS are good for more than VMs and databases. if he was talking about 4 drives it would be the same loss of space and one may prefer being able to add vdevs of two drives and the IOPS. Striped mirrors also have less overhead and you can skip the whole parity thing but still keep data integrity checking via block checksums and healing from the mirror (assuming one copy is good). Again I miss read but corrected myself. With 6 drives your points are true and valid.

 

[kdragon75]

Is that ECC ram?

Yeah you are buying new parts that are ECC capable, get the ECC. As Chris has pointed out in the past, ECC is not much more expensive if at all.

I think mirrored SSDs are overkill. Just set up auto config backup.

I completely agree, save the cash and get a cold spare drive.

 

[kdragon75]

That's too low, see this guide https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/ for more info ;)

Yeah I have heard drives can draw SUBSTANTIALLY more on spin up with peaks of over 30 watts but your running 5400 RPM and once the drivers are up and writing data I can't imagine them drawing more than 12-14 watts. But yes spinners can suck the juice at startup.

I guess the spin up is more of a factor if you enable spin down.

 

[shipser]

Wow, never thought I get so many responses in less than a day.
Thanks, I'll go through all of it and then respond.
Thanks to everyone.

 

[shipser]

Well that doesn't happen often!

you are right, hope the misses won't regret letting me play a bit.

Ya don't need 500 jigawatts. Honestly a quality PSU in the 500-600 range will be far better suited and with the same 80+ it will be more efficient. Figure about 30-40 Watts for the board, 60 for the CPU, at most 12 per drive, 30 for RAM,

rather be overkilling it than sorry. thanks.

Seems a bit overkill. Your more likely to lose your config to stupid mistakes that a failed boot drive. To that end, after each config edit save it to a USB drive and velcro it to the side of the NAS so it doesn't get lost.

ok, thanks, i'll give it a thought.

That's too low, see this guide https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/ for more info ;)

thanks, helped a lot.

Instead, just a tiny bit slower (4%?), could be substantially cheaper (10-15%)

i'll check, thanks.

Beware of narrow ILM.

narrow ILM??

Is that ECC ram?

yep, Unbuffered ECC Memory

I think mirrored SSDs are overkill. Just set up auto config backup.

thought it is an overkill, wasn't sure about it, i'll consider staying with one.
thank's.

hope i referred all the points all of you made.
thanks everyone.

Has anyone ever used this board?
Do i Have to Flash the Board's HBA to IT Mode?

 

[Chris Moore]

narrow ILM??

That should not a factor with the Xeon E3 boards. It was about the possibility that you might decide to switch to a Xeon E5 v2 system on the 2011 socket. They have two mounting systems for the socket, square and narrow, so you must be sure to get a CPU cooler that matches the ILM.
https://www.servethehome.com/narrow-ilm-square-ilm-lga2011-heatsink-differences/

 

[Chris Moore]

Cpu - Intel - Xeon E3-1240 V6 3.7GHz
Cpu cooler - Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
MB - Supermicro - MBD-X11SSH-F Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory - 2x Kingston - ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2400

If you were willing to consider using parts from eBay that are possibly "new, old stock" or even used, you could likely build a system just as powerful as this for less investment. If you are interested, I will point you at some listings.

 

[shipser]

That should not a factor with the Xeon E3 boards. It was about the possibility that you might decide to switch to a Xeon E5 v2 system on the 2011 socket. They have two mounting systems for the socket, square and narrow, so you must be sure to get a CPU cooler that matches the ILM.

thanks, did not know that.

If you were willing to consider using parts from eBay that are possibly "new, old stock" or even used, you could likely build a system just as powerful as this for less investment. If you are interested, I will point you at some listings.

i'm willing, and be happy to, didn't say i want only new parts, used pcpartpicker.com only as a reference.

 

[Chris Moore]

i'm willing, and be happy to, didn't say i want only new parts

Excellent SSD for the price:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-394XT...IES-120GB-SATA-III-SSD-Low-Hours/282761537341

Really fantastic system board in my opinion:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Unopened-Super-Micro-Motherboard-LGA-2011-MBD-X9SRL-F-O/253300204890

Excellent bang for the buck CPU for use in FreeNAS:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-SR1A...Z-8GT-S-QPI-PROCESSOR-CHIP-SR1A8/372247365228

With that system board and processor, you can use very reasonably priced DDR3 registered ECC server memory. I think that board tops out at 256GB.

 

[shipser]

Excellent SSD for the price:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-394XT...IES-120GB-SATA-III-SSD-Low-Hours/282761537341

Really fantastic system board in my opinion:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Unopened-Super-Micro-Motherboard-LGA-2011-MBD-X9SRL-F-O/253300204890

Excellent bang for the buck CPU for use in FreeNAS:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-SR1A...Z-8GT-S-QPI-PROCESSOR-CHIP-SR1A8/372247365228

With that system board and processor, you can use very reasonably priced DDR3 registered ECC server memory. I think that board tops out at 256GB.

thanks, i'll have a look.

-Edit-
Just checked the listings, the ssd priced as much as the evo 850 new here in Israel (got price checked today), and the MB and CPU does not ship to Israel.
thanks anyway.

 

[Chris Moore]

Sorry, in the United States, IL is the abbreviation for the state of Illinois, so I thought you were located in the US.
It might be better to spell it out, to avoid confusion.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[shipser]

Sorry, in the United States, IL is the abbreviation for the state of Illinois, so I thought you were located in the US.
It might be better to spell it out, to avoid confusion.

it's ok, no harm no fowl.
I'll change it.

 

[Inxsible]

thanks, i'll have a look.

-Edit-
Just checked the listings, the ssd priced as much as the evo 850 new here in Israel (got price checked today), and the MB and CPU does not ship to Israel.
thanks anyway.

You should still have a Ebay equivalent in Israel, no? Another option would be to buy from India (Amazon.co.in or Flipkart.com) or SE Asia. The shipping might be more economical that way

 

[shipser]

You should still have a Ebay equivalent in Israel, no? Another option would be to buy from India (Amazon.co.in or Flipkart.com) or SE Asia. The shipping might be more economical that way

we have full access to ebay, the problem is the sellers, some of them won't send to Israel, or even outside of US.

 

[Chris Moore]

we have full access to ebay, the problem is the sellers, some of them won't send to Israel, or even outside of US.

We have had other users in England and Australia use this service to buy things in the US and have it shipped to them because, even with the additional shipping charge, they are sometimes less expensive and they can get things they wouldn't otherwise be able to get.

https://www.shipito.com/en/