BUILD ECC RAM for an ITX Build in Australia

[KieranC]

Hi all,

I'm in the progress of building a FreeNAS box here in Australia mainly just as a file server, but also as another backup for important documents, and also for some media hosting. So far I have a Fractal Design Node 304 (White) and a Seasonic S12G-450W PSU.

I'm looking at getting the ASRock C2550D4I, for $399 here. I know there is the more powerful C2750D4I, but at $579, its hard to justify the higher price for a home NAS. So just wondering how much of a difference there is between the two boards.

I'm going for 6 WD Reds in RAIDZ2, but am yet to decide on their capacity; it'll be 1, 2 or 3TB drives though. I'm pretty sure that if I one by one replace the drives to a higher capacity, once all the drives are at the higher capacity then the pool will expand to that size, is that correct?

The biggest problem I'm having is sourcing some ECC memory from the board's supported memory list here in Australia. So just wondering if anyone else has experience with other memory or knows of somewhere I can find some. I can order most products from newegg and get it shipped here, but it's more expensive. I was thinking of getting 2x 8GB sticks, that leaves 2 slots free should I want to upgrade in the future.

Also I was wondering if it was possible to add a wireless card, so that I can access the NAS over our Wi-Fi network and not just over Ethernet.

TL;DR what's the best ECC RAM for the ASRock C2250D4I that's available in Australia for a decent price?

Thanks in advance,

Kieran

 

[marbus90]

The recommended Crucial 2x8GB ECC DIMM kit has the part number CT2KIT102472BD160B and is listed as Micron 18KSF1G72AZ-1G6E1 in dmidecode. We have yet to hear about incompatiblities.

I wouldn't get 1 or 2TB HDDs anymore. 3TBs are far more cost effective per TB. You are correct in that assumption.

WiFi is a big and huge no-go. It's enough to have the NAS on the same network (i.e. connected to your WiFi router via cable with clients accessing it via WiFi).

 

[KieranC]

Thanks, I think I'll end up getting that RAM from Newegg where it's AU$200 including shipping, compared to the only offering here of AU$400.

I know that 3TBs are far more cost effective, a 3TB drive is about twice as much as a 1TB, but money is a bit tight.

I know I can plug the NAS into the router, but unfortunately they have to be in different rooms where it's impractical to connect them via cable. Are there any other solutions, such as is it possible to have a second wireless access point connected to the NAS via Ethernet also on the same network as the router?

 

[marbus90]

Nothing of which we'd recommend. Of course that eliminates WiFi-foobar on the FreeNAS itself, but if you encounter slow speeds or instable behaviour you'd be SOL.

 

[KieranC]

Alright, thank you for your time