BUILD First build, just purchased all my parts, looking for opinions please

[Talimore]

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased all the parts for my first NAS build ever. I have been looking at the forums for a long time and read a lot of information on what to choose and I wanted to build my first one right.

Here is the hardware I choose:

4 x ($119.99) Western Digital Red NAS Hard Drive WD30EFRX 3TB In - OEM
1 x ($169.99) SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX Server Motherboard
1 x ($164.99) Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbu
1 x ($104.99) Fractal Design FD-CA-NODE-804-BL Black Aluminum /
1 x ($84.99) CORSAIR CSM Series CS550M 550W ATX12V v2.4 and EPS
1 x ($84.99) Intel Pentium G3450 Haswell Dual-Core 3.4GHz LGA
1 x (($48.50)) DISCOUNT FOR PROMOTION CODE (had some discounts)

Using this build to store my family's data and run a small plex server for all the Blu-Rays I just ripped from my massive Blu-Ray collection. I will also do backups for my Mac and the other few PCs in the house for data loss prevention.

Please give me some opinions and let me know if I made the right choices. Thank you.

 

[Bidule0hm]

All seems good except the PSU. I would recommend a SeaSonic (like the G-360 or the G-450 for example) which is far better ;)

The boot drive is missing, but I assume you already have some USB sticks for this.

 

[DrKK]

I think it's fine. I would build this for someone. Even with that PSU; which while not the best, should still be fine.

If the G3450 works without any problem, please let the forum know, and include your BIOS version.

 

[Talimore]

All seems good except the PSU. I would recommend a SeaSonic (like the G-360 or the G-450 for example) which is far better ;)

The boot drive is missing, but I assume you already have some USB sticks for this.

I have always had best luck with Corsair PSU's, the only Seasonic one I had failed on me a year in. Just personal preference

 

[Francis Reader]

The PSU wattage is a little overkill. Better to choose something smaller and gold/platinum to reduce 24/7 power costs.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Well, you're the exception :D

But it's just an advice, in the end you buy what you want to buy, no problem ;)

 

[Francis Reader]

I'm using one of these with the 804 and would recommend to all: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009X8E9D4/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[Talimore]

Thanks for the advise all, yeah I wasnt sure on the exact wattage I would need and if I ever wanted to add more HD's in the far future I wanted a little future proof.

 

[Francis Reader]

I'm currently running a e3-1230v3, 6x 3TB Green HDDs, 2x 1.5TB Green HDDs, 2x SDD and 6 fans.

Running my kill-a-watt during idle and peak (transcoding 4x HD streams maxing out my CPUs and recording 4x HD streams from a Myth Jail), never seen the kill-a-watt going anywhere near 250watt. So my 450w PSU is a little over-kill as well but within sanity.

 

[Talimore]

I also got 3 more of the fans that come with the case, the silent fractle ones for the front of the case for a total of 4 intakes. It might add a little sound but they are held in with nice sound dampening rubber and I thought it would be nice to have 4x120mm intake fans blowing on my Hard Drives :D

Cant wait for my parts to come in. Just ordered an hour or two ago and will post pictures of the build when I can.

EDIT: Also the PSU had a great sale. Got 10% off the cost and another 20$ Mail in for it. Only cost around 58$

 

[Talimore]

I had a question if people don't mind.

The motherboard I got, the MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX Server Motherboard, supports IPMI on one of its' ports but I have never used it before. From my understanding it will allow me to use another PC's mouse/keyboard/monitor to access my machine? How would one go about setting that up (note: my parts haven't come in yet).

Also, I looked up several guides, both video and written, on how to install FreeNAS on my machine after it's built but how would I go about installing drivers for my MOBO or don't I need to?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!!!

 

[Ericloewe]

I had a question if people don't mind.

The motherboard I got, the MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX Server Motherboard, supports IPMI on one of its' ports but I have never used it before. From my understanding it will allow me to use another PC's mouse/keyboard/monitor to access my machine? How would one go about setting that up (note: my parts haven't come in yet).

Also, I looked up several guides, both video and written, on how to install FreeNAS on my machine after it's built but how would I go about installing drivers for my MOBO or don't I need to?

Thanks in advance for the advice!!!!

Connect the IPMI LAN port to your network, look for the IP address it was assigned by DHCP (MAC address is printed on a label on the motherboard). Access that IP address and log in with the default credentials. For the iKVM function, you need Java.

 

[marbus90]

IPMI works per default over the LAN1 port as well, so you only need 1 cable for that. The IPMI chipset (basically its own little computer) will get its own IP still. Overhead can be ignored - I'm running IPMI over LAN1 on a few production boxes. As you don't need IPMI that often, you won't notice a performance impact. The LAN1 is regularly maxing out at 938mbps on Debian.

Standard login credentials for Supermicro IPMI is user: ADMIN and pass: ADMIN

 

[danb35]

Also, I looked up several guides, both video and written, on how to install FreeNAS on my machine after it's built but how would I go about installing drivers for my MOBO or don't I need to?

There are no drivers to install for the motherboard or anything else.

Maybe a little late to the party, but your build generally looks pretty good. Your CPU looks a little light if you're going to be running Plex much, though. If it isn't enough, you can always upgrade to an i3 or Xeon.

 

[Talimore]

There are no drivers to install for the motherboard or anything else.

Maybe a little late to the party, but your build generally looks pretty good. Your CPU looks a little light if you're going to be running Plex much, though. If it isn't enough, you can always upgrade to an i3 or Xeon.

I had the hardest time finding a good CPU to be honest, I was concerned I would get one that didn't support ECC Ram. I was reading the forums about hardware selection and found a post from Intel that verified all the CPUs that had ECC Support and that was the best one on the list for the i3.

EDIT: Do you think that CPU is ok for one stream transcoding on Plex? I wont ever have more then one stream going, just the wife and I ^_^

Also just noticed the onboard USB on this mobo after I purchased an internal USB header....

 

[natobyte]

According to the plex support site a very rough estimate of your CPU needs should be a benchmark score above 2000 for 1080p
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/ar...kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-computer-

The Pentium G3450 has a score of 3734 (and a really good price, currently $70)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel Pentium G3450 @ 3.40GHz

I was looking at the same CPU for my own first NAS build, but just as a heads up for other builders: the G3450 doesn't support AES-NI
http://ark.intel.com/products/80792/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G3450-3M-Cache-3_40-GHz

I think that only matters if you want to use encrypted hdds without a performance hit
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/encryption-performance-benchmarks.12157/