E-ATX motherboard and a tower case...

[Dave304]

So I've been looking at used Supermicro servers on Ebay. And the prices seem pretty good...
I don't need state of the art...

I've combed through a lot of Supermicro forum searches and it seems that some people have no issues with used
Supermicro servers.. Other than making sure the hardware is what will work with Freenas..

So around $300- $400, I can get a decent Supermicro motherboard with a lot of memory and 2 cpus in a chassis...

My dilemma is I know the 1 - 3U chassis's are loud.....

Would I be able to migrate the Supermicro motherboard, to an E-ATX Tower.
I'm hoping this would help with the sound...

 

[Arwen]

One note about used servers. If they have a SAS back plane and you intend to use it, make sure it's
SAS2 or SAS3. The original SAS standard did not support disks larger than 2TB. Thus, SAS1 back
planes are to be avoided today.

 

[tvsjr]

Here's the reality... if you want a "big" NAS - like a 4U 24/36 bay Supermicro server - the power and cooling needs pretty much necessitate the noise (unless you want to get into exotic stuff like liquid cooling, which isn't readily compatible with standard hard drives). You're generating a lot of heat (the system in my tagline, at typical load, consumes 350 watts) that must be removed for the longevity of the system and the drives. Personally, my FreeNAS box plus three VM nodes ended up in a closet with dedicated HVAC to keep them properly cool and to isolate the noise. Without doing a lot of exotic stuff, you aren't going to be able to build a system that has lots of drives, cools them sufficiently, and does so quietly.

As Arwen pointed out, pay close attention to the backplanes. You want a SAS2 backplane at a minimum, and an expander backplane would be recommended for ease of cabling. Don't get anything too old... I would suggest something X9 or newer.

 

[Dave304]

I understand the SAS situation...

But I'm only planning on starting out with 8 drives...
This is not going to be 24 drives....
Just something small at home to house data, vmdks and movies....

 

[tvsjr]

If all you want is 8 drives, it should work, although it's probably cheaper to buy a motherboard rather than an entire chassis. Look up the specific motherboard - some are ATX/EATX and would be compatible, some are proprietary size (which might work, but might require some modification to the case).

You mention small... and then VMDKs. Make sure you understand the requirements to build a VM store. RAIDZ is out, striped mirrors are required for reasonable performance. You'll need a fast, resilient SSD for a SLOG device. You'll want to keep the pool at <50% utilization. Small/cheap and VM datastore are pretty much orthogonal requirements.

 

[Spearfoot]

So I've been looking at used Supermicro servers on Ebay. And the prices seem pretty good...
I don't need state of the art...

I've combed through a lot of Supermicro forum searches and it seems that some people have no issues with used
Supermicro servers.. Other than making sure the hardware is what will work with Freenas..

So around $300- $400, I can get a decent Supermicro motherboard with a lot of memory and 2 cpus in a chassis...

My dilemma is I know the 1 - 3U chassis's are loud.....

Would I be able to migrate the Supermicro motherboard, to an E-ATX Tower.
I'm hoping this would help with the sound...

Yes, you can migrate the motherboard from a Supermicro 19" rackmount chassis to a tower case, but you need to make sure the form factor of the motherboard you buy will fit into said case. Some of Supermicro's boards are non-standard, proprietary sizes. Luckily, Supermicro's website gives details about every system or board you're likely to find on the used market, so it'll be easy for you to do the research.

Also, you'll have to address CPU cooling. The rackmount systems typically have front-mounted fans that force air through a shroud located over the CPU heatsink(s). This approach doesn't work in tower cases where you instead must install fans directly on the CPU heatsink. Depending on the system you buy, you may need to replace the heatsink(s) if they're unsuitable. Ask me how I know... I bought a used 1U Supermicro server off eBay and had the Dickens of a time replacing the heatsink, but I was able to make it work with a little ingenuity. This became my test FreeNAS system (see 'my systems' below).

Cost is a consideration, too. You're not just paying for the used motherboard with CPU and RAM; you're also paying for a chassis and power supply (and possibly other stuff) which you'll be discarding. This is fine as long as the motherboard/CPU/RAM alone are worth whatever you pay for the complete system, and there certainly are good prices on used Supermicro servers these day.