First build - 16TB FreeNAS build

pessimist101 · May 12, 2019

Hi everyone, I'm planning to turn my old build into a NAS using FreeNAS. I've done some research but I'm doing this on a budget so I would appreciate any feedback.
It will just be used for general storage - photos, documents, etc. and only 1-3 concurrent users. Parts I've already got are as follows:

Cooler master MWE Bronze 450
i5-2500 with stock cooler
Intel DQ67OW motherboard
Kingston A400 120GB SSD
Cooler master N300 case
16GB DDR3 1333MHz (4x4GB all mismatched)

I'm thinking of adding 8 of these drives:
WD Blue 2TB 3.5" SATA HDD

I think I want to put them in RAID 6 so I get more than the 8TB I'd get with RAID 10 but still have 2 drive failure tolerance.
I'm thinking of installing FreeNAS on the SSD. I know you can run it from a USB but I don't feel comfortable running it off USB and SSDs are so cheap now anyway.
I'm also thinking of putting another SSD in there (probably same model) for caching, could that improve my write speeds in any way?

Appreciate any feedback, thanks!

Stevie_1der · May 12, 2019

Well, just repurposing some random gear into a FreeNAS box is usually not the best idea.
Normally, you would want a mainboard, CPU and RAM that use ECC (error correction).
And for convenience, IPMI (remote access to BIOS settings etc.) is a good thing, too.

The best would be to sell your mainboard, CPU and RAM, and get some more suitable components.
You could get a used bundle for about £200 off ebay, if you're interested we can provide you with some ebay links.

A NAS is normally powered up and running 24/7 (especially FreeNAS prefers this), so you should also consider a Gold or higher rated PSU, for example Seasonic Focus Plus Gold or Platinum, or Corsair RMx.

Do you prefer a normal tower style chassis, or is rack-mount an option?

8x 2TB HDDs will give you 8TiB usable space in RAIDz2 (that's the ZFS name for "RAID6").
You should not fill your pool more than about 80%, performance will gradually get really bad above that.

How about 6x 3TB instead, WD Red or Seagate IronWolf preferred to WD Blue.
But first, what amount of data do you have right now, and what will it be in 3 to 5 years?

jgreco · May 12, 2019

FreeNAS doesn't have RAID5, RAID6, or RAID10. It does have some concepts that are superficially similar in terms of the end result, but work very differently.

There's a Terminology and Abbreviations Primer you can read that explains some of this, and how to more effectively communicate what you mean using unambiguous terms.

If you're looking to buy new drives, 2TB are on the bad side of the price-per-TB graph. Once you've bought them, you have filled bays with drives that aren't very useful and if you decide you need more space later, you're stuck pulling 2TB drives and converting them into doorstops.

Adding an L2ARC (cache) to a system with less than 64GB of RAM is not recommended and can actually hurt performance on small RAM systems such as 16GB.

pessimist101 · May 12, 2019

Stevie_1der said:
Well, just repurposing some random gear into a FreeNAS box is usually not the best idea.
Normally, you would want a mainboard, CPU and RAM that use ECC (error correction).
And for convenience, IPMI (remote access to BIOS settings etc.) is a good thing, too.

The best would be to sell your mainboard, CPU and RAM, and get some more suitable components.
You could get a used bundle for about £200 off ebay, if you're interested we can provide you with some ebay links.

A NAS is normally powered up and running 24/7 (especially FreeNAS prefers this), so you should also consider a Gold or higher rated PSU, for example Seasonic Focus Plus Gold or Platinum, or Corsair RMx.

Do you prefer a normal tower style chassis, or is rack-mount an option?

8x 2TB HDDs will give you 8TiB usable space in RAIDz2 (that's the ZFS name for "RAID6").
You should not fill your pool more than about 80%, performance will gradually get really bad above that.

How about 6x 3TB instead, WD Red or Seagate IronWolf preferred to WD Blue.
But first, what amount of data do you have right now, and what will it be in 3 to 5 years?

At the moment I have possibly 2-3TB of data, all spread out across different drives and such. In 3-5 years I'm anticipating that increasing anywhere from 6-10TB

I could go for rackmount or tower, I don't really have a preference. I've seen ECC memory go cheap but as far as systems that actually use ECC memory I don't really know what's the best bargain. If you have some ebay links to hand I'd be happy to check them out.

Stevie_1der · May 12, 2019

Ok, so here are some links I've just found:
Supermicro 2U 10 Bay X10SLM+-F - Xeon E3-1220 v3 Quad Core NAS 24GB Server £200
Supermicro 2U 10 Bay X10SLM+-F - Xeon E3-1220 v3 Quad Core NAS 32GB Server £250
These come with a 2U rackmount chassis, PSU, an OS SSD and internal HDD.
There is even a HBA card included (although I don't know if it is already flashed to IT mode, but you could do that yourself), and FreeNAS already installed.
Just be sure to ask the vendor if the RAM is really ECC type (there's no clear statement in the offers).

If you don't want rackmount (2U is most likely kind of noisy), you could try to sell the rackmount chassis and PSU, and put the hardware into a tower chassis instead.
If you want a really quiet build, you may take a look at the Fractal Design Define R5 or R6 chassis.

pessimist101 · May 12, 2019

Stevie_1der said:
Ok, so here are some links I've just found:
Supermicro 2U 10 Bay X10SLM+-F - Xeon E3-1220 v3 Quad Core NAS 24GB Server £200
Supermicro 2U 10 Bay X10SLM+-F - Xeon E3-1220 v3 Quad Core NAS 32GB Server £250
These come with a 2U rackmount chassis, PSU, an OS SSD and internal HDD.
There is even a HBA card included (although I don't know if it is already flashed to IT mode, but you could do that yourself), and FreeNAS already installed.
Just be sure to ask the vendor if the RAM is really ECC type (there's no clear statement in the offers).

If you don't want rackmount (2U is most likely kind of noisy), you could try to sell the rackmount chassis and PSU, and put the hardware into a tower chassis instead.
If you want a really quiet build, you may take a look at the Fractal Design Define R5 or R6 chassis.

Thanks! I'll look into this. I'm astonished at the value for money with these rackmount servers, definitely something I'll consider more when parts hunting in future :)

Chris Moore · May 12, 2019

pessimist101 said:
Thanks! I'll look into this. I'm astonished at the value for money with these rackmount servers, definitely something I'll consider more when parts hunting in future :)

Many of the forum regulars use rack mount systems at home because of the great value they represent. Many companies retire them in favor of something new when they still have plenty of useful life remaining.

Chris Moore · May 12, 2019

pessimist101 said:
Thanks! I'll look into this. I'm astonished at the value for money with these rackmount servers, definitely something I'll consider more when parts hunting in future :)

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First build - 16TB FreeNAS build

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