Complete Noob looking for hardware help

[wildbill001]

I've been researching NAS for sometime and have decided on TrueNas. I've been searching the forums the last day or so and keep coming up with little to no info or info that is from 2015-2018. So if this hardware combo was discussed somewhere, please point me in the right direction.

This is a system that has been sitting on a shelf doing little to nothing. Here are the specs:

CPU: FX8120
RAM: 32gb DDR3 @1333
M.B. Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 (6 SATA ports on board)
Power: Cooler Master (if it matters) 750W
boot drive: 120gb SSD
Seagate Barracuda, 2TB X 7
IOCrest SI-PEX40062 PCIE 4-SATA port card (if needed) (also have a SI-PEX40057 that I just found, unopened)
Intel Pro Dual-port Gigabit Ethernet (can't remember which model)

My questions are:
1) Do I need or should I have bigger supply if I run all 7 drives (plus SSD for total of 8)?
2) Will either of those expansion cards work ok with TrueNas
3) Anything to watch out for (other than letting the smoke out of the various components)?

Planning on running TrueNas Core (latest version)

TIA

Bill W

 

[Arwen]

Here are some answers:

1. I don't know
2. It's better if you use a LSI based HBA, which generally comes with 8 ports. (But, some are 4 or 16 ports).
3. Yes:
   • Check that your Seagate Barracuda 2TB hard drives are not SMR.
   • Make a plan for backups!

In general, re-using an old CPU & system board is not a good idea, unless it is a server style board, (which this is not). Server boards tend to be made to different standards. For example, over-clocking is generally never done on servers, and some don't even support it. (And over-clocking can cause problems with a server, especially during high load times.) But, it's possible to re-use an old CPU & system board.

Please read some of the many sticky threads and resources available. ZFS is radically different from anything that came before. Problems can arise from assumptions or not following best practices.

Many of us in the forums want reliable & safe data storage. And we tend to be conservative in both our hardware and software for our NASes. This also is why we have some recommendations on hardware, so others will have a good chance on reliable and safe storage for their data too.

 

[wildbill001]

Thought I'd give an update. Got my NAS up and configured this afternoon. Only "hiccup" was the additional SATA card (SI-PEX40062) was bad. It would show up in the config intermittently. Replaced it with the SI-PEX40057 that was on-hand and it is doing just fine now.

My plan is to use this for awhile and start collecting hardware for something bigger, badder, faster.

Bill W

 

[jgreco]

Thought I'd give an update. Got my NAS up and configured this afternoon. Only "hiccup" was the additional SATA card (SI-PEX40062) was bad. It would show up in the config intermittently. Replaced it with the SI-PEX40057 that was on-hand and it is doing just fine now.

My plan is to use this for awhile and start collecting hardware for something bigger, badder, faster.

Bill W

Generic SATA cards are not recommended. They work in some cases, but often they include SATA port multipliers or are dodgy Chinese knockoffs of legitimate silicon.

 

[Davvo]

If you haven't read them yet, I suggest you the following readings:

Introduction to ZFS

This is a short introduction to ZFS. It is really only intended to convey the bare minimum knowledge needed to start diving into ZFS and is in no way meant to cut Michael W. Lucas' and Allan Jude's book income. It is a bit of a spiritual...

www.truenas.com

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

Multiply your problems with SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers

This resource was originally created by user: jgreco on the TrueNAS Community Forums Archive. Please DM this account or comment in this thread to claim it. In the last year or two, we’ve had a resurgence of users asking about SATA Port Multipliers and cheap SATA controllers. Please, do NOT use...

www.truenas.com

What's all the noise about HBA's, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

This is relevant to FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE. Some parts of it might also be relevant to Scale, but I don't really know how reliable the Linux drivers are. 1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with...

www.truenas.com

It has been a while since I saw a working FX!

 

[jgreco]

Do I need or should I have bigger supply if I run all 7 drives (plus SSD for total of 8)?

Proper Power Supply Sizing Guidance

I've seen about 1,000 threads like this one where people decide that they can power a dozen hard drives off a 360 watt supply. DO NOT DO THIS. I've seen another 1,000 threads where people decide to buy the cheapest power supply that they can find. DO NOT DO THIS. Your NAS lives or dies by...

www.truenas.com