Dual Xeon build, will it Freenas?

[Xionax]

Hey everyone,

So, I’m coming from a Synology NAS 918+ and I’m looking to upgrade to an absolute unit! Like most first NAS builders I’m most likely overcompensating and going way overboard, but I have the money to spend so I should be good, but would like good value for my investment, and I can make use of many second hand options, here in the Netherlands.

I will primarily use my build for Plex Media Server, file storage and many other docker containers. Due to having a 500/50 mbit connection I expect to not be needing more than 10 trans codes at a time. I might experiment with VM’s or gaming, but that is a low priority. My reason for Unraid is that I can start with several drives and expand as I go.

I will be filling up one of two Cooler Master CM Stacker STC-T01 (Product Sheet PDF) towers, each with 4x 5.25 to 5x 3.5 HDD cages allowing for 20x 3.5 8TB WD Red hardrives.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

My “draft” build:
Note: I have inserted "Tweakers" links, Tweakers is the Dutch equivalent of PC Part Picker
CPU
Choice: [Dual CPU] Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 @ 12C/24T (2.5GHz, 3.3GHz) - Passmark: 24190 / STR: 1753 => €300
Why:
[Update] I can get them for fairly cheap, second hand, and they will give me plenty of raw power.

MOBO
Choice: Supermicro X10DAi (Bulk pack) => €349
Why:
A dual socket 2011 is around the same price as dual socket 2011-3 here and I like it to be future proof such that I can re-use later. The ddr4 ram requirement isn’t that much more expensive. And it comes with a good initial 10 SATA ports so I can withhold on the SAS card for now.

RAM
Choice: Samsung M386A8K40BM2-CTD 64GB DDR4 LRDIMM 2.666Mhz (Tweakers) (kit of 8 sticks => € 307,50 (€ 38,44 each)
Why:
[Update] As required, I need Registered ECC memory and this seems like a good choice.

PSU
Choice: Corsair HX850i => € 187,90
Why:
Seems like a good fit, I like the extra functionality although I’m not sure if I can use it in Unraid and if the wattage will be enough for the eventual 20 disks + 4 SSD’s

SDD
Choice: Samsung 970 Pro 512GB => € 144,90
Why:
I like the very high IOPS and will use this as storage for the docker configs and Plex meta files.

Storage
Choice: WD Red (256MB cache), 8TB => € 240,90
Why:
[Update] Bigger is better, also from a price point so I will stick with the WD Red series and look for good deals focusing on the higher capacity drives.

Total:
€ 1,130.70 ($1125,56)

• What is your budget?
  • To get up and running, € 1500
• How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?
  • Eventually, 20 HDD, each 8TB so 160TB and 5 SSD’s
• Is expandability important to you? If so, what's your long term goal?
  • Very important, eventually when I move I will go for a big server rack and hopefully have fiber optics internet but would like to reuse most parts.
• Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)? If so, which ones? Be specific.
  • Very few, maybe, I would like to use docker containers as much as possible.
• What do you plan to run for hard drives?
  • Plex media storage and personal file storage for family such as pictures/videos.
• Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build? This includes drives.
  • Currently have 3x WD Red 8TB in my Synology but will buy 3 more just to transfer everything safely.
• If you already have parts in mind, please oh pretty please post links to them so that we don't have to look them up.
  • Yes I did this!

Thank you!

 

[troybs1d]

That seems like a very nice solid CPU+Mobo+RAM choice. HDD choice look like a good choice for storage/cost.

Do you already own the CM case?
+ If so then yes the 5.25" -> 3.5" SATA Hot-swap bays work along with the HX850 PSU
+ If not are you looking for a Tower system or would a rack mountable system be acceptable?
- If going with a tower with the amount of bays you want the CM case & hot-swap bay modules are good
- If a rack mountable system is acceptable then I would suggest going with a SuperMicro chassis that has 24x bays (6 rows of 4x)

The pros/cons of the SuperMicro chassis
+ It would have redundant PSUs so you could swap power sources (ex. from no UPS to UPS powered or from one UPS to another UPS)
+ Better cooling for the 2x CPUs as they have fan shrouds that direct the powerful (yet relatively quiet) fans to passive CPU heatsinks along with cooling for the memory
+ You can either get a SAS SFF-8087 connected backplane (for SAS SSDs) or a backplane with individual SATA ports
+ Rack mount systems may seem a bit duanting to someone not accustom to it but you can get inexpensive small (wood/MDF usually) rack mount "boxes" with wheels/casters on them
+ The "front panel IO" (such as the Power/Reset button & LEDs) are really geared towards use in a SuperMicro chassis than a standard BYOPC case
- Yes you will have to get a HBA card & SAS expander but they are very cheap (HBA is about € 28 & SAS expander € 14 - € 80 depending on model)
* Look for chassis that already have the "SQ" line of PSUs in it as they operate very quietly (I'm pretty sure SQ means Super Quiet) so you won't have to purchase additional PSUs
* The directed airflow will be better for 10Gb & 40Gb NIC cards (they can be as cheap as € 15 - € 70) which are really designed to operate in a chassis that has directed & high pressure airflow than BYOPC case would have

One issue I do see is the choice of SSD - there are no M.2 slots on that motherboard. Yes you can technically add a PCIe card to interface with M.2 (usually NVMe than SATA) but I believe the multiple M.2 expansion cards require a SuperMicro X11 based board for the 2nd & more M.2 NVMe drive. There are Oracle/Sun based SSD cards that are basically LSI 9211 (SAS2008 chipset) cards in IT Mode (the way you want them) with multiple individual SSDs. The F40 is 4x 100GB SSDs, F80 is 4x 200GB & F160 is 4x 400GB (yes they are already over-provisioned) for quite reasonable prices & are compatible with FreeNAS.

I personally run pretty much everything in VMWare ESXi because with 6.0 & up dual socket motherboards are supported under the free license. I have an Emby server (very similar to Plex) along with a host of other VMs doing various tasks. ESXi allows for a virtual networks I believe a bit better than unRAID too. I also feel it's easier to manage individual VMs than working with jails/docker instances in FreeNAS along with FreeNAS being able to just do what it does best without any "additional components" running on it.

If possible factor in a UPS (or two) that is at least 1500VA - 2200VA. If it's not possible within the initial timeframe of building this system, I strongly recommend putting some money aside for it as it's better sooner than later. If you go with ESXi I like CyberPower UPS units as they provide a nice premade VM for their UPSs than will send the power down command to the ESXi system it's in (and thus safely & gracefully shutdown the FreeNAS VM).

Going with a rack mountable setup will be easier to add the UPS & any switches (with 10Gb SFP+ ports) along with being more compact. Like a very populated city, it's better to build up vertically than wider horizontally.

 

[Evertb1]

Seems like a good fit, I like the extra functionality although I’m not sure if I can use it in Unraid

You do realize that this the FreeNAS forum?