BUILD First Build - Am i doing it right?

[Eli Singer]

Beautiful. It keeps getting better :)

Of course. This is preferred, since it's known to work well.


That's assuming a rather worst-case scenario that does not make sense to consider in most cases. I wouldn't mind stretching that a bit further, even. There's plenty of bandwidth to go around and I'd have no qualms with running 24 drives (a full 4U backplane) off four SAS channels. 36 wouldn't be crazy, either.

Beautiful. It keeps getting better :)

So now it makes me think maybe i should think ahead and get a chasis that can hold, let's say 16 or 24 drives which will probably last me a good while instead of the Fractal R5 that will force me to buy something else again when i expend?
Well, i don't really know many rackmount cases or other options to get so many drives in one system so pointers here would be much appreciated.
It is worth mentioning again that quiet computing is important to me so rackmounts with industrial vacuum-cleaner-like fans are not a viable option for me...

Eli

 

[Ericloewe]

There's no point in trying to obsessively future-proof things. You'll just end up with waste.

Unless you have a very real and concrete upcoming need for more, stick with the original chassis choice.

 

[Eli Singer]

Ok, so I've done the math and since currently I'm using 8x 4TB drives in Raid 1 and they are pretty full, i will be getting 4x 8TB drives to replace that array in the new FreeNAS machine.
That leaves me with 4x 4TB drives for offsite backup and another 4x 4TB for another vdev.
That is using every one of the 8 drive bays i can use on the Fractal case.

So, long story short, I will be needing a case that can host more drives.

What are the options for a 16 drive case that are reasonably priced?
I do want it to be quiet if there is a quiet case that qualifies and if not, i little modding and fan-replacing is a valid option.

 

[Dice]

What are the options for a 16 drive case that are reasonably priced?

DIY.
4 metal brakets. cut to length. drill. attach drives within reach for cabling. add fans.

 

[Eli Singer]

DIY.
4 metal brakets. cut to length. drill. attach drives within reach for cabling. add fans.

Ahhh... any tutorial on that or something?...

 

[Dice]

Ahhh... any tutorial on that or something?...

Really - if you need a tutorial for this type of DIY, you probably are best not attempting it.

 

[Eli Singer]

Really - if you need a tutorial for this type of DIY, you probably are best not attempting it.

The fact that i never did it doesn't necessarily suggest i'm incapable of comprehending the task. I link to some visual material would help so i won't screw up for missing something.

And how about something like the rosewill rsv-l4500?

Eli

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

You can also look into Case Labs cases. They have the ability to expand to a pretty crazy amount of drives. My Magnum M8 currently houses 16 HDD's and 8 SSD's for my Freenas. If I really wanted to cram more drives in it, it could hold 16 more HDD's or 32 more SSDs. If I got a pedestal for it, it could hold another 12 HDD's or 24 SSD's and a back up power supply.

They're not nearly as space efficient as a 4U from supermicro but they breath easy, keeping things quiet and I find aesthetically pleasing.

 

[maglin]

Eli I think you are getting caught up in potential performance that you will never need. Unless you are going to virtualization for FreeNAS and running a lot of Large data stream programs. But just FreeNAS on bare metal your bottleneck will be the NIC. Unless I missed you going 10G soon. Even then SAS2 can saturate the NIC with one port or 4 channels.

Just putting that out there because I too get all caught up in max performance that leads to more expensive builds.


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[Eli Singer]

Eli I think you are getting caught up in potential performance that you will never need. Unless you are going to virtualization for FreeNAS and running a lot of Large data stream programs. But just FreeNAS on bare metal your bottleneck will be the NIC. Unless I missed you going 10G soon. Even then SAS2 can saturate the NIC with one port or 4 channels.

Just putting that out there because I too get all caught up in max performance that leads to more expensive builds.


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I am planning going 10G soon so there's that.
Maybe i will edit out of the FreeNAS build so i wanna make sure it's a viable option...

Eli