Dell T30 New Build

[Royalblu]

A few months ago I purchased a Dell T30 for $329 to build a FreeNAS system.
It came with a Xeon E3-1225, 8GB of ECC RAM, 1Tb HD, and a DVD burner.
I think it is just enough to get me started on a FreeNAS system and get my feet wet without spending tons of cash.
The DVD easily comes out and there is a nice space for 2 2.5" HD or SSD drives side by side. I laser cut a blank to fill the slot and hot glued it in.
There are mounts inside for 4 3.5" hard drives and the 2 2.5" HD's.
The MB only has 4 SATA connections.

I have installed 4 3Tb WD Red drives but have yet to connect them up.
I also have a couple of small SSD drives I am planning to use mirrored as boot drives.
I plan to get this system up and going before moving on to a larger system.
My main purpose is just local backup of computers, pictures, etc..

The main issue I have right now is that I do not have enough SATA connections for all 6 drives.
My thought is to purchase a LSI 9211-8i and connect the WD's to it, then connect the SSD's to the MB SATA.
I would like to get some comments.
If anyone has questions about the T30 let me know.
Thanks,
James

 

[joeinaz]

$329 is a good price for a new Dell server. As for FreeNAS, 8 GB of RAM is bare minimum memory. Looking at the documentation on the T30, I could not see how the drive cage was connected to the motherboard so if it were me, I would look at getting an inexpensive dual port bootable SATA card for the SSDs. It may be easier and cheaper than getting an LSI card.

 

[Chris Moore]

If you are picking up a used LSI card from eBay, you're more likely to find one that is about the same price as a SATA card. I would rather buy the SAS HBA as I have found them more reliable over time than the cheapest SATA cards.
Also, before you use the SAS card, make sure it's in IT mode and the latest version of the firmware.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Moore]

The main issue I have right now is that I do not have enough SATA connections for all 6 drives.
My thought is to purchase a LSI 9211-8i and connect the WD's to it, then connect the SSD's to the MB SATA.
I would like to get some comments.

Sounds like a solid plan. If I were in your position, this is the card I would get:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-...0-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162834659601
I actually have 5 like that myself. Just be sure there is some airflow over the heatsync because it does put out some heat.
I went to look at the Owners Manual:
https://www.dell.com/support/manual...1a62d6-0f1f-4f73-9c1e-ddfdbae53969&lang=en-us
The system doesn't have any sort of backplane for the drives to connect to, so a simple forward breakout cable should be all you need to connect the drives.
This is the model cable I prefer, after trying several:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-M...-Forward-Breakout-Internal-Cable/371681252206
Just measure the distance to be sure it is long enough. They make longer ones if you need more length, but that is a fairly small chassis.