Does this Atom-based build make sense?

[PrzemekD]

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking the boards for a while now, carefully reading all the guides, tutorials and recommendations. Now I joined to ask about the experts' opinion on my idea for a first-time build.
This is going to be a small home server with only storage in mind - I'm initially planning a 6-drive RAIDZ2 setup. I haven't yet decided on exact capacity, but most likely choices will be 6x3 TB or 6x4 TB, with exact models depending on a more careful study of Backblaze reports. My current understanding is that the choice of drives is secondary anyway, with the choice of mobo, CPU and RAM being of more importance. Since I don't intend to do anything more than file sharing (local, and potentially FTP) and torrenting, and power efficiency is of greater interest than performance, I've come up with the following idea for a build:
Motherboard: [ebay] SuperMicro A1SRM-2558F (254$)
CPU: [ark] Intel Atom C2558 (SoC, built in the mobo)
RAM: 2x [ebay] Innodisk 8GB DDR3-1600 (MEM-DR380L-IV02-EU16), Very Low Profile, ECC, Unbuffered, SuperMicro Certified (320$)

This doesn't include a PSU nor a chassis for the moment, but while those choices are also important, I think that it can be deferred until I know exactly what kind of intestines are they going to house & power.

Such setup seems good to me as the CPU is not very power-hungry (and the server is going to run 24/7 of course), 16 GB RAM while good for the start, can be easily expanded as the mobo has 4 slots. The 6 SATA slots should also be enough for my needs.
Will such a build work for my purposes? Are there any better configurations I should consider?

PS: I'm somewhat constrained with my buying options, as my payment method is restricted to PayPal - therefore I wasn't even browsing Amazon or Newegg, since they do not accept it. Also, due to my location (Poland), I might prefer to purchase all components at one vendor, since a 20$ saving in choosing better (in terms of bang-for-the-buck) parts might turn out 40$ more expensive in shipping.

 

[Inxsible]

My current understanding is that the choice of drives is secondary anyway, with the choice of mobo, CPU and RAM being of more importance.

Not entirely. The choice of your board/CPU/PSU also depends on the drives that you intend to put in. Will your case support X number of drives? If so, will you be putting all drives or will you leave empty bays. Will your motherboard have enough SATA ports to support those X drives? If not, you will need an HBA. Will your motherboard have the right PCI-E slots to accommodate the HBA? Will your case have space to accommodate it ? Lots of dependencies.

Motherboard: [ebay] SuperMicro A1SRM-2558F (254$)

No issue with that board per se. But the link you posted shows it costs $254. You will be able to source other X9/X10 based boards + the CPU for around that price. And it will turn out to be more powerful than the Atom based option. Most X9 UP boards, IIRC, support a max of 32GB which is the same as the board you selected. But the use case that you listed wouldn't require 32GB. I have 16GB(maxed) on my Tyan S5533 board and I have never had a problem.

But because you are in Europe, Supermicros might be hard to come by. You can also look at MSI, Asus, AsRock boards. For CPU, a base Pentium should work out great. I use a Pentium G3240 on my Tyan S5533 motherboard.

RAM: 2x [ebay] Innodisk 8GB DDR3-1600 (MEM-DR380L-IV02-EU16), Very Low Profile, ECC, Unbuffered, SuperMicro Certified (320$)

I know everyone likes to recommend "certified" RAM, but I just bought Crucial sticks before I even knew that a "certified" list existed. Never had a problem. You may or may not want to take a chance. It might save you some money though.

 

[Chris Moore]

I don't know if you can order from this vendor, but you might want to take a look at these small tower servers from HP. They are quite a value.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5173247&CatId=30

The one I linked to will need more memory and drives. It is a very economical starter system and if I recall correctly, it can have 6 drives with a little extra effort. There have been a couple other users on the forum that used this as the starting point for their own build and one of those even took the system board and processor from this and put it into a larger case. If I recall correctly, he ended up using 11 hard drives.

 

[nightshade00013]

For one or two users and what you have listed you want to do the board should work fine. I would buy cheaper ram though. Two 8GB sticks should cost no more than about 200 bucks and that is Samsung brand new. Used you should be able to find some for less.

Also Newegg DOES accept paypal as a payment.

And I agree that if you can find another system with more power for less you should snag that unless you are really worried about power use and even then since the board will idle more often than being spun up to do the same work it may end up working out better.

 

[Chris Moore]

Here is the post I was thinking of..

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...n-hpe-proliant-ml10-gen9-freenas-server.56763

 

[PrzemekD]

Thank you for the insights. I'll take a look at the X9/X10 boards, I've heard Pentium G4xxx are decent CPUs too.
@Chris Moore, the link you have posted (tigerdirect.com) does not work for me ("Your order requires additional verification by phone", they say) - I assume the post you've just linked to is the same thing?

@nightshade00013 This choice of RAM was a result of total cost optimization, including shipping. For some reason I was totally convinced that Newegg is not an option for me. I just checked again and indeed I can do PayPal there. Great, this opens some whole new options for me, thanks!

 

[Chris Moore]

the link you have posted (tigerdirect.com) does not work for me

This is what it is, and they have it listed for $210

Code:

HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 Tower Server - Intel Pentium G440 Dual-Core 3.3GHz Processor 4GB DDR3 Memory 
No HDD SATA/600 Lan 2x External 5.25" DVD-ROM No OS Gigabit Ethernet - 837826-001
Item#:  13888996  | Model#: 837826-001

 

[Inxsible]

This is what it is, and they have it listed for $210

Code:

HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9 Tower Server - Intel Pentium G440 Dual-Core 3.3GHz Processor 4GB DDR3 Memory
No HDD SATA/600 Lan 2x External 5.25" DVD-ROM No OS Gigabit Ethernet - 837826-001
Item#:  13888996  | Model#: 837826-001

Yup. It sure is a great starter system. And I have seen it go down to $165 on sale. So if you are not in a rush, you might want to keep an eye out for a sale on it.

 

[PrzemekD]

Thank you for your replies.

I took a look at the ProLiant build but actually I have to order the parts pretty soon - I'll be taking some leave in early May, and planned to spend this time on building the server and learning FreeNAS, so would be good to have the parts ready by then.

After another long consideration (and optimization), I came up with the following set of parts (prices are shown to me in my local currency (PLN), so I asked google to convert to USD for your convenience):
Mobo: [newegg] SuperMicro X11SSM-F-O (226$)
CPU: [newegg] Intel Pentium G4560 (69$)
RAM: 2x [newegg] Kingston ValueRAM 8GB DDR4-2400 (KVR24E17S8/8MA), ECC, Unbuffered (234$)

This sums to just under 590$ including delivery - I managed to find all items at one vendor. The only catch I see is the Kingston RAM, which I picked because there was no other choice for unbuffered ECC memory - even though I've read some dated post here saying that Kingston memory is not recommended. However, the latest revision of Hardware Recommendations doesn't mention Kingston anymore. Will this be good to go then, or are there some concerns about this choice and I should make another round of optimization and find a better combination?

I deliberately omitted chassis, PSU and UPS choices - due to their large size/mass the shipment costs skyrocket, so I will be buying these locally. @Inxsible Since I know I will be putting 6 drives, and that the X11SSM has 8 slots, there will be no need for any extension card. With this assumption, I think it's safe to say I can pick virtually any micro-ATX chassis and any compatible PSU, and as long as this configuration is okay, everything should run smoothly, right?

 

[Chris Moore]

Since I know I will be putting 6 drives, and that the X11SSM has 8 slots, there will be no need for any extension card. With this assumption, I think it's safe to say I can pick virtually any micro-ATX chassis and any compatible PSU, and as long as this configuration is okay, everything should run smoothly, right?

No.
Not all micro-ATX chassis will allow you to mount 6 drives without the purchase of additional adapters. Choose wisely. You will also want to ensure you have adequate air flow over the drives to keep them cool. A temperature between 25 and 35 C is best, in my opinion, but many drives are actually rated to operate at up to 55 C. Generally, the hotter they are, the sooner they fail.
There is guidance on the forum with regard to power supply sizing, don't go too small, you need to be able to accommodate the start surge of the drives, not just the running load. Since you are going with very low power components, your running load will likely be in the range of 60 to 100 watts, but the drives will likely pull as much as 15 watts each at startup. To be sure you have enough capacity, I would suggest a 400 to 500 watt supply. I have run a NAS with 12 drives using a 550 watt supply with no trouble but you should get a quality unit that can be relied on.

 

[Inxsible]

Newegg shows me the X11SSM-F-O at $149.99 + $2.99 shipping. Not sure how you got $226. Maybe shipping to Poland costs a whole lot more.

 

[Ericloewe]

200ish bucks sounds typical for Amazon in Europe.

 

[PrzemekD]

Oh yeah, I absolutely understand the issues with drive bays, air flow and startup current. What I meant was that there are no interdependencies like between CPU-mobo-RAM, and as long as these main parts work, I will be able to get the right chassis/PSU without influencing the core hardware.

@Inxsible Yeah I can get almost every one of those parts for cheaper, but the shipping costs are on the order of 30-50$. Believe me, for this particular setup this is the cheapest way I can get them :)
My question though, price issues aside, would you entrust such hardware with your data? I'm mostly doubtful about the RAM. Maybe I'm overthinking this by now, but better safe than sorry.

 

[Chris Moore]

My question though, price issues aside, would you entrust such hardware with your data? I'm mostly doubtful about the RAM. Maybe I'm overthinking this by now, but better safe than sorry.

Personally, I would go with a Xeon quad core processor, but that is because I would want to do more with the hardware than just have a NAS.
This will absolutely do the job as a NAS and the Kingston RAM should be fine. They have had some quality control issues in the past, but if you test it when you get it and it passes, you should have good service from Kingston.