Build #2 - U-NAS NSC-810A, Xeon e3-1275v6, 64gb DDR4, 8 x 8TB HGST NAS

[Jorsher]

Hello,

My first build is mounted in a rack across the globe. It's currently offline until I'm able to travel home and see what's going on. Meanwhile, I have accumulated a few years of data that I haven't secured on ZFS/cloud due to poor internet connections. Time to fix that!

Case: U-NAS NSC-810A
Motherboard: SuperMicro X11SSH-CTF
CPU: Intel Xeon e3-1275 v6
RAM: 64gb - 4 x Crucial 16gb DDR4 2400 EUDIMM
Boot Drive: 256gb Samsung PM981 M.2 NVMe
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i + Noctua NF-A9
Case Fans: 2 x Noctua NF-S12A
PSU: SeaSonic SS-350M1U
Storage: 64tb - 8 x 8tb HGST Deskstar NAS

Desktop NIC: ASUS XG-C100C 10gbe

I really wanted to purchase a COTS NAS. I was looking forward to using hardware that could be optimized to the smallest footprint possible with an easy-to-use, attractive UI, but none of them checked all my boxes. Synology has a self-healing filesystem, but the hardware is seriously lacking. The rest sold some decently powerful hardware, but didn't have a filesystem to protect data integrity. As expected, they all had lower performance for the money. So...I decided on another FreeNAS.

I liked the U-NAS case for it's relatively small size and it's minimalist aesthetics. It should go well next to my Corsair 250D PC and will be easier to ship home than a rack-mounted enclosure. The most powerful PSU for this case is currently 350w. Because of this, I looked for a low TDP processor that will have sufficient performance and I will need to stagger the HDD spin-up. Proper cooling was not an issue for this case according to the build threads I've found. I will do some testing and pay close attention to power draw and temperatures. If they go beyond what I'm comfortable with, I guess I'll have to buy a bigger case :)

The M.2 is overkill for a FreeNAS boot drive, but it will be given a new purpose if I decide to use this as an ESXi host. I could use a DOM or 2.5" SSD to boot from, but I'm trying to keep the build as clean and uncluttered as possible. I still have 6 x SATA, 2 x SATA/DOM, 1 x internal USB ports unused if I decide to change things around. The backplane for the storage drives will be connected to the onboard LSI-3008 SAS connectors after it's reflashed to IT mode.

The ASUS 10gbe NIC will be used to connect my NAS directly to my PC.

Pictures soon :)

================================================

Update 05 AUG 2018

I finished putting it together less than a week ago. The case was delayed since it comes from China and I'm at an APO, but they were kind enough to ship it to the USA then forward to my APO. Arrived very well-packaged and in great shape. It's honestly a lot nicer than I expected. It's not on the level of my premium tower cases for ease of accessing everything, however everything was built well using quality materials. This is not a "cheap" case at all!

Building in it was difficult. I had to partially disassemble the case for things like replacing the fans and replacing the SAS cables, however it wasn't "difficult," just a little tedious. Fortunately, you shouldn't need to do it more than once. The M2 slot was designed for the shorter length drives and I used the standard size, so ended up wedging one of the rubber "anti-vibration" pieces from a fan between the cpu cooler and M2 to hold it down. Heh.

I was able to stagger spin-up with the onboard LSI 3008 (flashed to IT). 350w is kind of "small" for an 8-bay NAS, but with staggered spin-up there shouldn't be any problems since the draw will be spread out. 350w Corsair is currently the most powerful PSU you can fit in this case.

I replaced the 12(?)mm fan on the Noctua L9i cooler with the 25mm Noctua fan. Fits just fine. I would probably get better results if I turn my cooler 90* but I'll watch the temps for now. According to Supermicro's temps, it's at 40c, and according to Freenas it's at 31c. The drives, according to freenas, stay at 34-38c depending on load. The wildest thing, to me, was the Intel 2 x 10gbe onboard adapter reporting a temperature of 50c. I might put a heat sink on it if I'm ever in the case and board, but wow!

Any other questions, just let me know ;)

 

[demon]

Why an E3-1275? You don't need the iGPU, the motherboard you've chosen has an IPMI controller with its own graphics. The iGPU will go 100% unused. Save money and get an E3-1270v6 or something. Or you could get a cheaper CPU (an E3-1230 maybe?) if you don't need those last few megahertz - unless you're gonna be doing really CPU-heavy stuff, like video transcoding, you might not need that much oomph, and be able to save yourself a few bucks. Or even an E3-1220, if you don't need HT. No need to overkill.

Also, the 64 GB of RAM, while it'll give you lots of growth potential, might be slight overkill for the configuration. I think 32 GB would probably be plenty for the setup you've got going, unless you're really sure about it being repurposed for ESXi use.

Also also, the U-NAS case may be a tight fit. I've heard from friends that have used them that they technically fit the boards they mention, but the components on the boards tend to be very, very crowded. You might have to engage in a bit of... manual override to get it to fit. See how it works for you, but don't be surprised.

 

[Jorsher]

demon -- you are right that it's overkill. The ram (likely) and M.2 as a boot drive is, and processor possibly is overkill.

I didn't select the processor for the iGPU, although it might have hardware transcoding features that Plex might be able to take advantage of now or in the future. I mostly selected it for the price/performance/tdp aspect. There were more powerful CPUs in the price range, but they had a TDP that was at/above the recommended TDP of one of the few coolers that fits in this case. I could have saved a little money buying a lower clocked processor, but this was within my budget and I wanted to be as sure as possible it could handle transcoding a few streams or running a decent little ESXi host. I will agree with you though -- and it's not the processor I would recommend to most.

I agree with you on the ram. 32gb was probably plenty, even for what I would use it for with ESXi.

I read a few build threads on the U-NAS case here and on other forums. This (810A) is supposed to be a bit bigger than the 800, but it'll still be a little claustrophobic. That's OK, you should see my mini-itx build :D I used a ASUS ROG Maximus motherboard which has a bunch of riser cards, a GTX1080, a water-cooled CPU, etc all shoved into a mini-ITX case. A few people with this specific case have suggested building most of it outside the case, then installing it. I chose a M.2 over DOM/SATA options just to have a little more room. It'll still be tight, but not impossible.

I just learned today that my case has to first be shipped to the USA from China, then shipped from the USA to the middle east with USPS since I'm at an APO. That'll delay my project...

 

[Jorsher]

Update

 

[rossthompson89]

@Jorsher i recently got a UNAS 810 A case and have started the build. This is my first server build and I have, what I hope, isn't too stupid of a question. How do you have your RAID setup physically cabled? My thought is to replace the included silver SATA cables that are plugged into the back of the board at the bottom of the case with SATA -> SAS breakout cables into a RAID controller. I noticed that you didn't mention anything in your post about a RAID controller.

Also, what did you plug that gen 3 PCI-E SSD into?

Any advice possible would be appreciated.

 

[Jorsher]

@Jorsher i recently got a UNAS 810 A case and have started the build. This is my first server build and I have, what I hope, isn't too stupid of a question. How do you have your RAID setup physically cabled? My thought is to replace the included silver SATA cables that are plugged into the back of the board at the bottom of the case with SATA -> SAS breakout cables into a RAID controller. I noticed that you didn't mention anything in your post about a RAID controller.

Also, what did you plug that gen 3 PCI-E SSD into?

Any advice possible would be appreciated.

My motherboard had two SFF-8613 connectors onboard and they split to 4 SAS connectors. I had to buy new cables for my case if I remember right, and it was a bit of a chore replacing them. The case comes with a preinstalled breakout cable, so I just reused the same routing location. Some patience and zip-ties and you can get it done neatly.

I didn't use a separate RAID controller. Remember that you don't want a "RAID controller" if you plan to use FreeNAS. You want it to operate as pass-through (I'm probably using the wrong term) to give FreeNAS direct access. So -- either directly to the SATA ports, or reflash a RAID card for the direct access. My motherboard has an onboard LSI3008 controller. Reflashing it took a little research but was pretty easy.

My M.2 SSD was plugged in to the onboard connector on my motherboard. It is way overkill for FreeNAS, but it made the installation cleaner. I ordered the wrong form factor (it was too long) but I devised a way to hold it down.

 

[rossthompson89]

I didn't use a separate RAID controller. Remember that you don't want a "RAID controller" if you plan to use FreeNAS. You want it to operate as pass-through (I'm probably using the wrong term) to give FreeNAS direct access. So -- either directly to the SATA ports, or reflash a RAID card for the direct access. My motherboard has an onboard LSI3008 controller. Reflashing it took a little research but was pretty easy.

Right on. Thank you for the info and for getting back to me. The mobo I have (SuperMicro x9SCM-F) only has 6 SATA ports unfortunately. I think for now what i will do is use the backplane that is pre-installed with the case and connect everything directly to the motherboard. If I end up needing to expand, which won't be for a long time, then I can reassess when I get to that bridge.

 

[kanid99]

How tight was that cooler to the roof of the case? I've seen conflicting numbers on the max cooler clearance, yours at 48mm total being one of the tallest one actually read in a completed build.

 

[Bozon]

Hello,
The most powerful PSU for this case is currently 350w.
...
350w Corsair is currently the most powerful PSU you can fit in this case.
...

I found this 500W Platinum PSU, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIABP956S3335
or
https://www.amazon.com/FSP-Solution...-50fspt&qid=1547846639&sr=8-1&tag=googhydr-20
or
https://www.fspgroupusa.com/ecommerce/pc-psu/flex-12v/flex-atx/fsp500-50fspt.html

I checked with the seller, and they assured me it would fit, and the measurements seem correct, but of course I don't know for sure until I do my build. I currently have just too much going on to do my own build, so I am lurking. The only problem I have heard about with all of the power supplies for this case is wire length.

 

[Jorsher]

How tight was that cooler to the roof of the case? I've seen conflicting numbers on the max cooler clearance, yours at 48mm total being one of the tallest one actually read in a completed build.

Sorry I'm late.

I bought a thinner fan. The fan that comes with my cooler I believe is too tall, so I bought the thinner one separately. It's tight, but the CPU keeps cool.

 

[Jorsher]

I found this 500W Platinum PSU, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIABP956S3335
or
https://www.amazon.com/FSP-Solution...-50fspt&qid=1547846639&sr=8-1&tag=googhydr-20
or
https://www.fspgroupusa.com/ecommerce/pc-psu/flex-12v/flex-atx/fsp500-50fspt.html

I checked with the seller, and they assured me it would fit, and the measurements seem correct, but of course I don't know for sure until I do my build. I currently have just too much going on to do my own build, so I am lurking. The only problem I have heard about with all of the power supplies for this case is wire length.

Of course it would be better to have more headroom. I staggered my drive spin up to keep from pounding the PSU with a huge power draw. Never had any power issues and it's been running 6 months.

When I looked, there definitely didn't seem to be any better/bigger options. If they are similar dimensions as the 350w, then I would definitely choose them for peace of mind.

I did need a couple power cable extensions but I'm sorry I can't remember exactly which ones.

 

[Bozon]

Bozon ... I checked with the seller ...

I realized that "checked with the seller" in my post wasn't clear. I checked with UNAS about whether or not the PSU would fit their case.

Of course it would be better to have more headroom. I staggered my drive spin up to keep from pounding the PSU with a huge power draw. Never had any power issues and it's been running 6 months.

When I looked, there definitely didn't seem to be any better/bigger options. If they are similar dimensions as the 350w, then I would definitely choose them for peace of mind.

I did need a couple power cable extensions but I'm sorry I can't remember exactly which ones.

I posted that PSU as an FYI because people tend to search the forum for build information if they are considering using a particular MOBO or Case.

I kept seeing people say you couldn't get a bigger power supply than 300W or 350W for this case. I wanted to dispel this myth, plus this is a platinum power supply so it is very efficient.