Building new system, buying hardware...

[caleb]

So I'm building me a new NAS. I've had several different commercial NAS systems in the past (Buffalo, QNap, etc) but I always run in to the limitations of those systems too quickly. So now I'm going to build something that can grow as my needs grow...in comes FreeNAS. :)

I've got the drives I'll be using on their way (6x2TB Seagate Baracudas, SATA III, etc). Where I'm not 100% solid on is since I'm starting from scratch, which components should I be looking at for maximum performance at a reasonable price (I'd like to stay under $700 for everything, except drives since I already have them on their way, for now).

The system I've built so far is as follows:

APEVIA MX-PLEASURE Case with 500W power supply Link

ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Link

4 x PNY Optima 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Link

ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard Link

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Link

So, I'm sure with those parts, it will do what I'm wanting it to do. However, what I'm wondering is can I get better performance for around the same cost by changing what parts I'm getting? Say getting a mobo that doesn't support all my drives on-board, for a lot less, then buying a storage card or two to drive my 6 drives? If I went that route, I'd probably end up being able to drive 8 drives, which would give me some expandability. So, any suggestions? Keep it as-is? What the hell am I thinking? :p

The total for all those parts is about $632.

It's been a long time since I've built a system, are there any parts I'm overlooking? Obviously I don't care about the monitor, keyboard, or mouse :D

Thanks

 

[Milhouse]

Like you say, it will do what you want it to do - in fact, that spec should allow you to do pretty much everything anyone could want it to do. You might be able to save money by going for an i5 or even i3 processor, and it should still be capable of performing most basic "server" type tasks with aplomb, and might even be a little quieter too.

The case you've chosen is pretty big, which might be useful if you want to expand or use this as a traditional PC, but for NAS purposes a number of people seem to like Fractal Design cases.

I doubt you'd get significantly better disk performance from an add-in controller than you would from the onboard SATA, but it would allow you to use more drives so you could balance the cost of an uber cheap motherboard plus the cost of an additional SATA/SAS controller - check the Hardware FAQ for suitable cards. Network performance might benefit from a decent (though still relatively cheap) network controller card as the onboard NIC is probably quite cheap and nasty (Realtek etc.)

 

[survive]

Hi caleb,

I don't know exactly what you want to do with the system, but my gut tells me that it is totally overpowered. If I were going to buy the CPU\board\memory combo you were getting you can bet it would be going in my desktop! Like Milhouse says, you should be able to do just fine (more than fine) with an i5 or i3 chip on a 1155 board. I'm not saying what you have selected is wrong...it's just not the direction I would go.

The one thing I would change is the case\PSU selection. I don't like PSU's that come with the case and I would advise you to look at something from Antec, Corsair or SeaSonic.

I'm with Milhouse on the Fractal Design suggestion as well, take a look at the R3. That's what I have and it's great for an 8 drive system.

-Will

 

[caleb]

This is great info. A little more info, I'd love to be able to build a virtual machine environment and have freenas as one of the VMs but I doubt I'd be able to get the performance I'd like to get...maybe I'm wrong. If that is the case (performance will lack) then the system will be strictly a NAS (no desktop double duty either way). Again, not knowing what FreeNAS base system can handle/do I may move my SickBeard, CouchPotato, SABnzbd, HandBrake, and all my scripts for tagging and ripping to this new machine from my Mac. Primary purpose will be NAS though. I knew that case would be big, that's not a huge concern since I'll just be putting this in a room in my basement with the rest of my networking gear, but if there is a better option, I'd love to see it...I've never heard of Fractal Design so I will definitely look into them.

EDIT: Those Fractal Design cases are exactly like what I was looking for, thanks! I'm actually thinking the XL would be nice, ability to hold 10x3.5" HDD will be nice for future growth. :)

Thanks for the info so far guys!

 

[Milhouse]

An Atom based system can easily handle low-overhead processes such as (Free)NAS, Sickbeard, Couch Potato and SABnzbd combined, but Handbrake will (temporarily at least) bring most systems to their knees. So other than Handbrake, ripping and perhaps VMs (I say perhaps as some users have VMs running just fine on HP N36L Microservers), even low powered Atom/Bobcat-class processors should prove satisfactory.

 

[survive]

Hi caleb,

You can use something like Vmware ESXi to host a FreeNAS vm. There's no reason you can't and some people have reported doing so with great results. That said, you wouldn't ever catch me doing so. I'm very much a "2 box solution" kind of guy....I want my storage system to do storage, but I have the luxury of having other systems I can use for the other jobs. If you go this way and want to insure performance look for hardware that does "vt-D" or "AMD-Vi" (VMDirectPath for ESXi) which is a technology that lets your vm have direct access to the hardware, in this case you would want a controller & board that both support it so the vm can directly control the disks.

FreeNAS 8.0.2 doesn't really support adding in other programs. You can do it, and lots of folks have, but it makes updating more difficult. FreeNAS 8.1 should include a "plug-in" framework that will allow additional programs to be packaged up so they can be added to a FreeNAS system. The programs you list are all ones I would expect to be among the first ones added to the list.

If I may recommend a motherboard, take a look at these:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/#1155

Any of those would be fine for your application and shouldn't have any problems supporting a SAS HBA card for when you need more ports.

-Will

 

[caleb]

Well, I figured I'd follow-up with what I purchased...we'll see how the install goes :D

I bought:

• Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics
• ASRock P67 EXTREME6 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
• BYTECC 18" Serial ATA-150/300 Cable L Shape plug w/Locking Latch Model SATA-118D
• Team Color Turn 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (Purple) Model TG008GE902V3
• 2 x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model
• Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• GIGABYTE GV-N84S-512I GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
• Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE
• ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A7T/BLK/B/GEN - OEM
• Kingston SSDNow S100 8GB 2.5" SATA II Industrial Solid State Disk SS100S2/8G

I bought an 8gb usb thumb drive and then decided to buy an 8gb SSD drive as well for the OS, I suspect the SSD drive will outperform the thumb drive, but I'll give them both a whirl :D

Thanks everyone for the help in deciding on parts :p