First build FreeNAS / Plex Server

[Ed A]

Hi FreeNAS Forum. This is my first post, but I have been poking around here for a couple of months.

I've been researching hardware ideas for building a FreeNAS / Plex Server and I've read a "wealth" of information here on the forums. Thanks for that. I've put together a final list from about 5 lists that I created, from bare-bones NAS to something just outside of my comfortable price range. If anyone could comment and or educate me, I'd be grateful.

My minimum requirements are:
- I plan to convert miniDV tapes of family stuff.
- I plan to rip and store dozens and likely hundreds of DVD/BluRay discs.
- at least 4TB available storage to start.
- be able to transcode on the fly.
- stream HD to at least two devices, which may not be computer based at a time (network enabled. TV for example). Computer based devices will likely use XBMC or Plex client.
- will likely run some other services (Samba, etc).
- Stay in the $1000 or less range.
- Will run the latest version of FreeNAS.

I looked at many prebuilt solutions like Drobo and Synology, but I soon realized that you can get way better specs for your money, if you build your own. Here is a list of hardware I chose based on what I think would put the power in the right places, maintain a level of cost effectiveness and leave room for some upgrades (or at least re-purposing of hardware) if needed. You'll notice that I did surpass the $1000 mark, but I felt that I was kind of in a sweet spot and that less money would compromise in a place I didn't want to. Also, I realize that I could buy a much, much more cost effective case. However, I have a wall mounted rack with a home server and a POE switch, etc. and I wanted to put the NAS there. The rack is a very shallow one and I could only find a few cases that fit in there well. Yes, I can find an ultra-compact for a fraction of the cost, but I like the ease of drive removal this case offers. If there are other places I could spend less, I'd like to know as well.

Here is my hardware list:
iStarUSA E3M4R-400w Black Steel 3U Rackmount Server Chassis - OEM $375
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLH-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C226 DDR3 1600 $210
Intel Core i3-4340 Haswell 3.6GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I34340 $160
Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B $210 (BTW, I am not sure about compatibility with the MB, Supermicro only lists like two tested modules)
Transcend JetFlash 600 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model TS4GJF600 $9
4 x Seagate NAS HDD ST2000VN000 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive $420

Total build is approximately $1400 after tax and shipping.

 

[wakemaster]

Being a new guy myself and running through the process of building it, I have likely read most of the same threads you have. The typical comments that I have seen relative to your build will likely be that.

1) Your HDD's. ZFS does not allow dynamic resizing of pools or easy addition of additional drives to a pool. This means when you select your HDD's, to add more your going to have to extract the content and make the pool and put it all back. Newegg has 4TB drives for ~$190 a piece which is a big jump to buy 4 drives, but the cost per GB of data, the hassle of changing it in the future may make it work it. Also since your at 4 drives, you will be into a Raid 6 situation/RaidZ2, which you are going to loose 2 drives due to parity storage. Meaning you will have you 4TB, and that's about it.

2) For the budget you likely can't future proof all that well, to upgrade to something for more SATA ports or SAS. Nothing wrong with that, doing a similar choice likely. But being a rackmount, you will not be using any of the built in intel HD graphic capabilities. Don't know if that leaves you a slightly cheaper board you can use or not.

3) Memory: Make sure you buy supported sticks. Kingston dropped support for their ram from most of the supermicro boards and I am sure for a good reason. Don't play with fire, and buy the brands that are supported.

Good luck with the build

- Wake

 

[joelmusicman]

With the amount of transcoding you'll be doing, I'd highly recommend stepping up to the Xeon E3-1220. Also, there are many superior choices for the case, many at better prices too. Maybe something like this?

Rosewill RSV-L4411, which doesn't come with a PSU, so add a Seasonic 450w 80+ Gold. Now you have space for 12 hard drives, and you've also got the extra $$ for the Xeon. Of course, it's a 4U instead of a 3U. Just an option though...

Edit: didn't see your comments about the rack limitation. searching...

 

[joelmusicman]

So I found another option that is the same size as the case you selected:

http://www.servercase.com/Merchant2...ROD&Product_Code=CK3055-1496&Category_Code=3U

Comes with 4 internal hard drive spots & 3 external 5.25 slots, which you can install this:

http://sewelldirect.com/5-Bay-SATA-or-SAS-Hard-Drive-Hot-Swap-Tray-Rack-Module-525.asp

I'd still recommend the Seasonic over the bundled PSUs that optionally come with the case though.

 

[Ed A]

wakemaster / joelmusicman thanks for taking the time to respond. you've made some good points and i've already begun to rethink my build. i've also given myself a little more flexibility in the budget. ;-)

wakemaster, i'm not sure how i missed the dynamic pool re-sizing, but this certainly puts more weight on the initial drive capacity, over the case features. also, i am starting to look at a few different motherboards with similar features (i.e. Asus P9D-M), not only for the lower price, but for more options available for supported memory modules.

joelthemusicman, your recommendations for the case w/hdd tray rack makes a lot of sense and while the tray rack adds a hundred bucks, it's still way less expensive than the case i was looking at. i added the power supply you suggested, as the previous case came with a server power supply and the ones i am looking at now do not come with one.

using the recommendations from you guys helped me rearrange the budget better, in fact even with upgrading the cpu to a xeon as joelthemusicman suggested and increasing the drive capacity to 4 x 3TB seagate barracudas based on wakemaster's suggestion i had a better build, less need to upgrade later and still came in $200 less. crazy!! i still can't bring myself to go the SAS route though, just too much additional expense for a home appliance.

now i am doing a little more research on the cpu to best fit my needs. i went with the higher frequency Core i3 3.6GHz at first, but i need to really understand the transcoding performance and core usage before i can make the best choice.

thanks again. i'll be posting more on this build soon.

 

[Michael Wulff Nielsen]

Just to add my 2 cents.

1. I have the Asus P9D-M, and it is a fine motherboard. Wake-on-lan is not supported, so pick something else if you need this.

2. My cpu of choice is the Intel 4130. I mainly use it to transcode from HD into ipad/iphone resolutions and it works very well. I have tried it with DLNA on my TV and that also worked without a hitch.

3. Since I decided to use 6 drives in my system I actually just bought a cheap CoolerMaster N300 desktop case. It has good airflow over the disks and is dirt cheap. Only disadvantage is that 8-10 disks is probably all you can cram in there.

And joelmusicman's suggestion on a good Seasonic PSU is seconded.

 

[scurrier]

I also have the i3-4130 and am happy with it. I'm not positive, but I think that the only troubles I've had with Plex transcoding with it were due to incompatible devices that did not work with Plex and thus were not CPU power related. The XBOX 360 had trouble with it when transcoding a straight bluray MKV rip, which surprised me but, looking around on the web others have had issues with it, too.

 

[scurrier]

BTW, I am using the RAM you spec'd with my supermicro board. It was on Crucial's compatibility list so I went with it. It worked without any issues whatsoever. I suggest checking if it's compatible with your board on Crucial's site.

 

[DataMover]

There is no need to go Xeon just to transcode two HD streams by Plex. After my brand new Supermicro ASRi-2758F (an new(!) Atom board!) arrived, I tested transcoding: it was easily serving 7 concurrent clients with different HD streams (clients were Apple TV, iPhone, Macs connected via LAN and Macs connected via WLAN). Now, running 8 jails and transcoding for 2-3 clients on a regular basis, the Atom is being bored to death! Can't wait for the next scrub, which will drive cpu load up to 10 % ;-)
One thing left to say: this doesn't cover miniDV and ripping BluRays! And...eh..don't expect to save much money by buying an Atom....just Watts.

For the RAM: my board runs on Kingston memory and luckily I am not having any problem. But for the electrons sake - go for supported modules.

My PSU is a Seasonic 400W 80+ Gold (nice to read, that others are recommending this). I'd wish I could have found a 2U PSU, 80+ Gold, with just 200W - would have been enough for my board even while disks (6 HDD) are spinning up.

Beside my experience there is one recommendation I would like to share: get a board with IPMI!

 

[engmsf]

My Plex server consists of a Haswell G3220 with 16gb non-ecc ram in RaidZ1. In the Roku Plex Rarflix, under direct play preferences, I have it as 'Always Transcode' and my CPU load under Freenas 9.2 is typically 60-80%. MKV and MP4 files are typically 5-20GB.

If I were to upgrade my CPU and start transcoding two or more HD streams, I would not hesitate to grab an Xeon.