ASRock Rack E3C224D4I-14s For FreeNAS?

[Kane Lee]

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this community. I am currently planning my first FreeNAS build and have done research on these forums and the "FreeNAS Community Hardware Guide (2016-10 Edition Revision 1c)" to conclude that this will be my build for my FreeNAS/Plex Server

1) Motherboard: ASRock Rack E3C224D4I-14s i
2) HDDs: (3xWD 4TB WD40EFRX) + (4x HGST 4TB HMS5C4040ALE64) + (4xHGST HMS5C4040BLE640)
3) CPU: Intel Xeon 1220 v3 3.1Ghz
4) RAM: Expecting to install 32GB. But brand is undecided and I am open to suggestions.
5) Case: Undecided and I am open to suggestions.

This board has been in the market for almost two years and because of that I expected the community to have had ample time to take this board through it's paces. The sentiment from the "Hardware Guide" and these forums were mostly positive. However, I found a negative review on this board saying it was not appropriate for FreeNAS and that the user experienced "silent errors" in the "decryption process". (Screenshot Attached to this posting).

Now I am confused as to whether this board is suitable for FreeNAS or not. Can someone out there please share their experiences with using the E3C224D4I-14s with FreeNAS with me? Has anyone experienced these errors?

Many Thanks in advance!

 

[Ericloewe]

However, I found a negative review on this board saying it was not appropriate for FreeNAS and that the user experienced "silent errors" in the "decryption process". (Screenshot Attached to this posting).

I'd give it zero credibility. It'll be no different than an X10SL7-F.

The only place where ASRock could potentially mess things up (that isn't immediately obvious) is the BIOS or the BMC, but nobody has reported any oddities.

5) Case: Undecided and I am open to suggestions.

This board only makes sense in a very limited number of chassis. The X11SSL-CF is a superior solution wherever it fits. Same number of ports, unfortunately (they could've made an X11SSM-CF with 8 SATA ports instead of 6), but the extra RAM capacity is very welcome.

 

[Steve Salier]

Running that exact same board in one of my NAS's with 10 x 4 TB HGST NAS 72K disks, 32 GB ECC RAM (don't recall which ones but almost positive they are Samsung) with a Xeon E3 1231 v3 proc in a Lian-Li Q26B case.

8 disks are attached via SAS breakout cables to the onboard LSI card and 2 are direct attached to the SATA3 port on the board.

LSI chip was flashed to the latest IT firmware.

NAS runs 24x7 no issues in 6 months.

 

[Kane Lee]

Steve - Thank you for much for sharing your experience with me. I have two questions regarding your setup:
1) Do you think I need a processor like the Xeon E3 1231 v3 proc to handle a NAS setup with 10 disks and maybe the occasional 2-3 Plex Transcoding sessions?
2) I was also doing some research on how to flash the LSI chipset to the IT firmware and found a few methods of doing so. However, I do not know which one was most effective in flashing it to the latest firmware. Can you please tell me which flashing method you used successfully?

Many thanks in advance!

Running that exact same board in one of my NAS's with 10 x 4 TB HGST NAS 72K disks, 32 GB ECC RAM (don't recall which ones but almost positive they are Samsung) with a Xeon E3 1231 v3 proc in a Lian-Li Q26B case.

The 8 disks are attached via SAS breakout cables to the onboard LSI card and 2 are direct attached to the SATA3 port on the board.

LSI chip was flashed to the latest IT firmware.

NAS runs 24x7 no issues in 6 months.

 

[Steve Salier]

Steve - Thank you for much for sharing your experience with me. I have two questions regarding your setup:
1) Do you think I need a processor like the Xeon E3 1231 v3 proc to handle a NAS setup with 10 disks and maybe the occasional 2-3 Plex Transcoding sessions?
2) I was also doing some research on how to flash the LSI chipset to the IT firmware and found a few methods of doing so. However, I do not know which one was most effective in flashing it to the latest firmware. Can you please tell me which flashing method you used successfully?

Many thanks in advance!

The Xeon 1231 is probably overkill but IIRC was the cheapest Xeon available at the time. Just check the ASUS compatibility list and get the cheapest Xeon you can find.

I think that I flashed the LSI FW on that board using UEFI boot environment from the board - I had to search around for the UEFI specific files (I think ASUS or SM has them on their site).

IIRC I had some issue using a DOS boot disk (which I can't remember the specifics) - it wasn't hard at all - the results are the same in the end however you do it. Google "Flash LSI IT mode using UEFI" and you should be able to find what you need.

I also run a 60TB NAS on a Supermicro 2750 Atom 8 core SOC board - you may want to consider it. This is the same board IX systems ships their NAS appliances with. It accepts 64GB ECC (albiet with SODIMMS) and you can get a cheap LSI SAS HBA (same one that the ASUS board uses).

The other board I use is ASRack's EPC612D41 - which is way overkill as you need a Xeon E5 CPU and pricey SODIMMs again ....

 

[m0nkey_]

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this community. I am currently planning my first FreeNAS build and have done research on these forums and the "FreeNAS Community Hardware Guide (2016-10 Edition Revision 1c)" to conclude that this will be my build for my FreeNAS/Plex Server

1) Motherboard: ASRock Rack E3C224D4I-14s i
2) HDDs: (3xWD 4TB WD40EFRX) + (4x HGST 4TB HMS5C4040ALE64) + (4xHGST HMS5C4040BLE640)
3) CPU: Intel Xeon 1220 v3 3.1Ghz
4) RAM: Expecting to install 32GB. But brand is undecided and I am open to suggestions.
5) Case: Undecided and I am open to suggestions.

This board has been in the market for almost two years and because of that I expected the community to have had ample time to take this board through it's paces. The sentiment from the "Hardware Guide" and these forums were mostly positive. However, I found a negative review on this board saying it was not appropriate for FreeNAS and that the user experienced "silent errors" in the "decryption process". (Screenshot Attached to this posting).

Now I am confused as to whether this board is suitable for FreeNAS or not. Can someone out there please share their experiences with using the E3C224D4I-14s with FreeNAS with me? Has anyone experienced these errors?

Many Thanks in advance!

View attachment 14699

I have the non-LSI version of the board (e3c224d2i). Been running it for two and a half years. Just make sure you have the latest BIOS and BMC firmware. Also make sure you install the P20 IT firmware for the LSI controller.

 

[Kane Lee]

Thank you very much for your input. Can you please tell me what processor you are using and what your use case is for your server (i.e. Plex, File Server)

Many thanks in advance!

I have the non-LSI version of the board (e3c224d2i). Been running it for two and a half years. Just make sure you have the latest BIOS and BMC firmware. Also make sure you install the P20 IT firmware for the LSI controller.

 

[m0nkey_]

Thank you very much for your input. Can you please tell me what processor you are using and what your use case is for your server (i.e. Plex, File Server)

Many thanks in advance!

Sir, all that info is in my signature. Click the 'Show: My FreeNAS system' button.