Building my 1st free Nas server

[geekheads]

I'm super noob to freenas and servers.
So my problem is I need to add a file storage server to our network at work.
My budget is 1500 U.S. dollars as of now.
The server will go into a server rack.

What I need it for.:
We have 4-6 users who will use this server to store photos and videos onto it.
Occasionally they will need to access some of the content on it.
They will not edited off the server (but if they wanted to will it be possible?).

I read a thread and came across this server SuperMicro 4U CSE-846 24 Bay.
We would add more memory and I would add 4 of these WD Red 4tb drives.

Would this be a good build or should I build a server instead?

Any Guidance would be helpful.

 

[artlessknave]

that listing looks...odd. the colors on that chassis are not supermicro, so it looks like a knockoff. it might not be, but it looks a bit suspicious. it's also like 1/3 of the price of typical supermicro used parts and that's...also questionable.
assuming the parts are of the same quality as genuine supermicro parts, it's a fine build, although obviously a 24 bay chassis for 4 drives will be major overkill.
you can edit off the network, but with spindle drives the speed will be fairly slow overall, should be fine if only one user occasionally doing so. if you really want editing to be possible directly from the dserver, particularly for multiple users, you really want 10gbe and SSD's. if you are just reading

 

[melloa]

it's also like 1/3 of the price of typical supermicro used parts and that's...also questionable.

Don't disagree, but there are more than 10 available from the same vendor and he has 99.8% positive feedback. Also product review is at 4.9 out of 5.

I found one chassis for $275 from other vendor. Add MB (~$100), CPU (~$11), memory (~$20), we are talking about $400ish, so not a big difference.
One other thing is that I'm not sure that board has been upgraded with the BIOS supporting the v2 CPUs; I'd confirm.

@geekheads , here's another option with 64GB RAM, better processor (not that you'd need for a NAS), same chassis and MB.

Any way, this server has more horse power than would be needed for a NAS. If you are planning to run other things (VMs, jails, plugins. etc), than yes, the processors would be needed. Memory I always go with as much I can afford, as ZFS likes it. Editing videos and pictures from it ... I'd say you need to provide information about type of editing, size of files, share types (SMB, NFS, Apple, iSCISI ...), etc. Maybe you can get more inputs that way.

 

[jgreco]

that listing looks...odd. the colors on that chassis are not supermicro, so it looks like a knockoff. it might not be, but it looks a bit suspicious. it's also like 1/3 of the price of typical supermicro used parts and that's...also questionable.

System integrators can buy custom trays from Supermicro. Differently colored release tabs aren't that unusual. I think the yellow is probably Penguin. When you order in bulk it isn't a big thing to get a customization. Pretty sure I've seen stuff from Softlayer and ... can't think. Sorry.

Anyways, I would assume it's legit but just a bit annoying that you can't get a same-colored spare tray.

 

[artlessknave]

ya, it looks enough like the supermicros that the only way to tell would be to order one.