Dell Outlet PowerEdge T30 Server

[utamav]

How is this over the shelf server hardware from Dell for FreeNAS?

Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1225 v5 Processor (Quad Core, 3.30GHz, 8M Cache, 80W)

1TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

8GB UDIMM, 2400MT/s, Single Rank, x8 Data Width

8X DVD +/- RW Drive

Chassis with up to 4, 3.5 in Hard Drives

It has available slots for more drives to expand. I'm planning to use it for home use with about 8TB of data.


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[Inxsible]

Xeons xxx5 have a graphics chip included which is not needed for FreeNAS. If you have a choice then you should go for xxx0.

Is the RAM ECC?

I don't think the DVD drive is going to be useful.

If the chassis has upto 4 drives, how will you expand with more drives? Do you mean the motherboard has more than 4 sata ports? That's hardly relevant because you can always use a HBA. But your chassis needs to have space for those additional drives.


What motherboard does it have? That should be an important criteria especially if you plan on expanding later on. You need to have the expandability in the board for any type of expansion.

 

[Chris Moore]

Xeons xxx5 have a graphics chip included which is not needed for FreeNAS. If you have a choice then you should go for xxx0.

Except in the case of this Dell system board. It doesn't have integrated graphics the way the Supermicro boards do, it relies on the GPU in the CPU to make video, otherwise you need a separate video card.

 

[Inxsible]

Except in the case of this Dell system board. It doesn't have integrated graphics the way the Supermicro boards do, it relies on the GPU in the CPU to make video, otherwise you need a separate video card.

Son of a !!!
The more you know !!

 

[utamav]

Xeons xxx5 have a graphics chip included which is not needed for FreeNAS. If you have a choice then you should go for xxx0.

Is the RAM ECC?

I don't think the DVD drive is going to be useful.

If the chassis has upto 4 drives, how will you expand with more drives? Do you mean the motherboard has more than 4 sata ports? That's hardly relevant because you can always use a HBA. But your chassis needs to have space for those additional drives.


What motherboard does it have? That should be an important criteria especially if you plan on expanding later on. You need to have the expandability in the board for any type of expansion.

Thanks for the update. I'm looking at Dell outlet so don't think I'll have a choice of configuration but I'll wait it gets as close as possible to what I want.

It has 1x 1TB drive but I'll change that to 2x 4TB for now. I don't think I'll go beyond 8TB in about 5 years so the additional 2 slots should be okay. I've seen some YouTube videos where people were able to install upto 6x 3.5" drives. The current listings don't have ECC memory which is the main reason I'm not going for it. I've seen the price as low as $299 with 8GB ECC. So I'll wait for it come back to that before I buy it.

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[Chris Moore]

Thanks for the update. I'm looking at Dell outlet so don't think I'll have a choice of configuration but I'll wait it gets as close as possible to what I want.

It has 1x 1TB drive but I'll change that to 2x 4TB for now. I don't think I'll go beyond 8TB in about 5 years so the additional 2 slots should be okay. I've seen some YouTube videos where people were able to install upto 6x 3.5" drives. The current listings don't have ECC memory which is the main reason I'm not going for it. I've seen the price as low as $299 with 8GB ECC. So I'll wait for it come back to that before I buy it.

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You really need to have new?

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[utamav]

You really need to have new?

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No, not really but this is the best I've been able to find in terms of price and performance. Unless I'm looking in the wrong place. :)

I also plan to run a windows/linux copy as a VM for Matlab work. I know the processor is an overkill for FreeNAS, so the plan would be to use most of it for Matlab and the minimum required for FreeNAS. It also has slots for additional RAM, where I plan to add 16GB more. Does having a graphics chip help with OS GUI in VM?

 

[utamav]

I just found out that another version of the T30 is on sale for $179.

• Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual Core Skylake CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive

I can upgrade the RAM to 8GB ECC and it'll still be a decent cost. What do you guys think?

 

[Chris Moore]

I just found out that another version of the T30 is on sale for $179.

• Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual Core Skylake CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive

I can upgrade the RAM to 8GB ECC and it'll still be a decent cost. What do you guys think?

Not a good idea because...

I also plan to run a windows/linux copy as a VM for Matlab work.

If you want to run Matlab in a Windows VM, you are going to want more cores and more memory so you have some to dedicate to FreeNAS and some to dedicate to the VM. If you go the Pentium G4400 route, it is fine for FreeNAS and maybe running Plex in a jail, but a Plex jail is very lightweight comparison to a full virtual computer.
You might want to read the build log that @Stux did to give you some idea what is needed.

Build Report: Node 304 + X10SDV-TLN4F [ESXi/FreeNAS AIO]
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...node-304-x10sdv-tln4f-esxi-freenas-aio.57116/

Does having a graphics chip help with OS GUI in VM?

The GPU that is integrated in the processor can only be used by the "bare metal" OS, unless I am wrong, and FreeNAS didn't support passing a GPU into a VM the last I knew.
Some of the things your asking about are more advanced and they would require a build with a Xeon to give you the available system resources, possibly even a Xeon E5 for the PCIe lanes.