Build Advice Welcome

[Zarat]

Hi guys,

Your feedback would be very much appreciated. This is my first FreeNAS build, and actually my first real build - in all my other machines, I've upgraded components but never built the whole thing.

That in mind, I've been wanting a NAS for some time, mainly for nightly backups of my laptop and desktop. I've lost all my data before (and came very close to losing it all about a month ago) and it's no fun, as I'm sure you all know. And since I have an advanced CS degree and work as an engineer, I don't have any excuses. :)

On top of the backups, I am planning to use it as a media server - my desktop currently serves in that role. I can't see myself using it for that purpose outside of the LAN, and then almost always on a single device. As a rule this is pretty low traffic since most of my media streaming is via Netflix, not local content. As my other computers are Windows machines, I'll need CIFS, which I understand is singlethreaded. In fact since Samba is capable of it, I will probably at least experiment with using it as an AD server. On top of all that, I am seriously considering using it as a low-traffic webserver for some SMF forums I run, presently hosted on a shared hosting service. I have a business class Internet connection, so that's not a problem.

I've been lurking here for quite a while and I've gone through the sticky threads and cyberjock's PowerPoint. That said, it remains possible I'm confused or doing something stupid, so that's why I'm posting here.

This is what I'm looking at right now:

Mobo: Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O (btw - I'm not really sure what the O means - if it is important please let me know!))
Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230v2
Memory: 2 x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered (KVR1333D3E9S) (I plan on buying another 16GB down the road - just a temporary cost-saving measure)
Power Supply: SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W
Case: Fractal Design R4
Drives: 6 x 4TB WD Reds

I realize some are a bit old (no Haswell, for example) but I'm OK with giving up a little bit of power saving and juice for what (seems to be) proven. I'm most uneasy about the power supply - I've never had to worry about one, so I've just tried to overshoot a little based on what other builds here had for similar setups.

The drives will eventually be in a RAIDZ2 configuration - I am going to buy them staggered (cost and worries about a single batch), though, and probably stop at 4 for a while. I realize that means I will have to throw my data away to get everything up and running on a 6 x 4TB RAIDZ2 configuration. That's OK. All the data will still exist on my desktop, laptop, and external, and part of the point is to learn a little.

 

[PenalunWil]

Hi Zarat, I've just completed a similar build using the X10 SL7 -F motherboard. It was my first ever build also. If I can be of help with anything then don't hesitate to ask, but there are far better people in this forum than I that can and , i'm sure, will help you. I suggest you get a gold certified psu. Also you can't add to your zpool once it's up and running so you'll need to get all your hard drives installed in one go. Where are you based btw?

 

[Zarat]

Hi Zarat, I've just completed a similar build using the X10 SL7 -F motherboard. It was my first ever build also. If I can be of help with anything then don't hesitate to ask, but there are far better people in this forum than I that can and , i'm sure, will help you.

Thanks!

I suggest you get a gold certified psu.

I believe it is gold-certified - it is this one, to be exact:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151124

lso you can't add to your zpool once it's up and running so you'll need to get all your hard drives installed in one go

Right - I understand that I'll have to throw away what I have on the NAS and rebuild it if I want to add drives to the zpool. I'm OK with that. It's not going to happen more than twice (probably just once), and I plan on sticking with 6 x 4TB indefinitely - it should tide me over for the foreseeable future.

.

Where are you based btw?

The Deep South. :)

 

[Zarat]

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger and put it all together over the weekend.

Some thoughts and observations for those who find themselves in the same position:

-When you 16GB RAM is the minimum, they ain't lying. I'm running a backup to the NAS right now, having set up nothing else and it's consistently used around 12GB. And this is just with the 2 x 4TB. Going to put the other 16GB of RAM on order in a month or two.

-Realtek sucks. My desktop has Realtek and despite being allegedly a gigabit interface I noticed that at some point in the past few months its decided to stick at 100mbps, which of course is easily saturated.

-CIFS isn't quite as CPU hungry as I thought. CPU utilization is staying pretty low. If all you want is a NAS with CIFS shares you can probably get away with less.

-You'll have to pull some of the really nice cabling the Define R4 has set up for you unless you get a bigger motherboard. it doesn't reach otherwise. Not a big deal, jussayin.

- I had some trouble seating the heatsink on the CPU. There was some material indicating that I did not need thermal paste. I consistently had heating issues on the CPU until I picked some up and applied it liberally (just a line did not suffice.) A more experienced builder might not have an issue but just FYI.

- Another CPU issue that is probably entirely my inexperience - I assumed that the fan cable on the stock CPU heatsink/fank was wound in a sane way and didn't need to be moved. When I first powered it on I immediately discovered that is not the case - the fan will be slightly obstructed by the cable. I ended up just unwinding it.

Other than that, I ran memtest for 48 hours, the smart utils, and some more burn-in stuff and now I'm running FreeNAS and just checking to see if any problems crop up with me running Windows Backup off my desktop to the NAS and everything is good so far. Thanks guys!

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger and put it all together over the weekend.

Some thoughts and observations for those who find themselves in the same position:

-When you 16GB RAM is the minimum, they ain't lying. I'm running a backup to the NAS right now, having set up nothing else and it's consistently used around 12GB. And this is just with the 2 x 4TB. Going to put the other 16GB of RAM on order in a month or two.

-Realtek sucks. My desktop has Realtek and despite being allegedly a gigabit interface I noticed that at some point in the past few months its decided to stick at 100mbps, which of course is easily saturated.

-CIFS isn't quite as CPU hungry as I thought. CPU utilization is staying pretty low. If all you want is a NAS with CIFS shares you can probably get away with less.

-You'll have to pull some of the really nice cabling the Define R4 has set up for you unless you get a bigger motherboard. it doesn't reach otherwise. Not a big deal, jussayin.

- I had some trouble seating the heatsink on the CPU. There was some material indicating that I did not need thermal paste. I consistently had heating issues on the CPU until I picked some up and applied it liberally (just a line did not suffice.) A more experienced builder might not have an issue but just FYI.

- Another CPU issue that is probably entirely my inexperience - I assumed that the fan cable on the stock CPU heatsink/fank was wound in a sane way and didn't need to be moved. When I first powered it on I immediately discovered that is not the case - the fan will be slightly obstructed by the cable. I ended up just unwinding it.

Other than that, I ran memtest for 48 hours, the smart utils, and some more burn-in stuff and now I'm running FreeNAS and just checking to see if any problems crop up with me running Windows Backup off my desktop to the NAS and everything is good so far. Thanks guys!

8GB is the bare minimum, 16GB should be fine for your system. Remember that most of the RAM is being used for cache.

Regarding the Intel stock cooler: I absolute hate those. I never got one to sit right on the first try. And I'm never sure if it's really in place... You can, however keep the fan cable wound around the cooler, it has a few guides for it. You just have to make sure it's in its place.