wheresmydata
Cadet
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2023
- Messages
- 1
I've been using a hardware RAID card with a single 2x 1TB mirror pair of drives in my main desktop computer for quite a few years for data storage and I'm ready to step up to building my first NAS. I've spent a few nights reading through the forums and learning so hopefully I can ask my questions semi-intelligently but please bear with me I'm still learning.
Use case
Storage of 3d renders, Unity game development projects, photos, GoPro video etc. I currently do my Unity work directly on my RAID drive and would like to continue doing that on my NAS. I will do video editing locally on NVMe and will use the NAS for video storage only. I do not plan to run PLEX or anything like that and I will be the only user.
Pool and performance planning
I would like to have a single pool of about 10 TB total storage. As I understand it from reading the forums, the performance of the pool is related to the number of vdevs in it and each vdev will have read/write performance approximately equal to that of a single constituent HDD. So 2 vdevs means a pool with about 2x the speed of a single HDD.
I'm thinking I will purchase 8x WD Red Plus 4TB HDDs and set them up in two RaidZ2 vdevs with 4 disks each, which should give me a single pool of about 12-ish TB and double the read/write performance of my current RAID. This seems to be a pretty good balance of redundancy, speed and cost. Assuming 130 MB/s sequential read/write performance HDDs and 2 vdevs, max speed should be ~260 MB/s for the pool. A 2.5 Gbe LAN will be needed to not bottleneck this. I understand this is max possible speed and lots of variables affect real-world performance, but does this make sense for planning so far?
Hardware
Nothing here is set in stone, but this is what I'm thinking. I haven't purchased anything yet.
Will that Intel I225-V NIC work? I see that one for $25 which appears to be made by a third party using an Intel chip, and I also see an I225-T1 for $110 which is made by Intel. Do I need the $110 one or will the cheaper one be fine?
I assume a used CPU will be fine but motherboard and RAM should be new for better reliability.
Thank you
Please provide feedback and comments. Is there anything I'm overlooking? Does this all make sense? Any better recommendations?
Use case
Storage of 3d renders, Unity game development projects, photos, GoPro video etc. I currently do my Unity work directly on my RAID drive and would like to continue doing that on my NAS. I will do video editing locally on NVMe and will use the NAS for video storage only. I do not plan to run PLEX or anything like that and I will be the only user.
Pool and performance planning
I would like to have a single pool of about 10 TB total storage. As I understand it from reading the forums, the performance of the pool is related to the number of vdevs in it and each vdev will have read/write performance approximately equal to that of a single constituent HDD. So 2 vdevs means a pool with about 2x the speed of a single HDD.
I'm thinking I will purchase 8x WD Red Plus 4TB HDDs and set them up in two RaidZ2 vdevs with 4 disks each, which should give me a single pool of about 12-ish TB and double the read/write performance of my current RAID. This seems to be a pretty good balance of redundancy, speed and cost. Assuming 130 MB/s sequential read/write performance HDDs and 2 vdevs, max speed should be ~260 MB/s for the pool. A 2.5 Gbe LAN will be needed to not bottleneck this. I understand this is max possible speed and lots of variables affect real-world performance, but does this make sense for planning so far?
Hardware
Nothing here is set in stone, but this is what I'm thinking. I haven't purchased anything yet.
- Drives: WD Red Plus 4TB x8
- SSD Boot Drives: Something small and cheap < 1TB x2 for a mirror
- CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2680 V3 - used on ebay for $15
- Motherboard: ASRock EPC612D4U-8R https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC612D4U-8R#Specifications
- RAM: 32 GB ECC - whatever is on the ASRock QVL for this motherboard
- NIC: Intel I225-V 2.5Gbe - such as this https://www.amazon.com/Wirenest-MultiGig-Network-NBase-T-Profile/dp/B0BSYHGXF1
- Switch: TP-Link TL-SG105-M2
- Desktop Computer NIC: ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E with Intel 2.5Gbe
- Case: Silverstone CS381
Will that Intel I225-V NIC work? I see that one for $25 which appears to be made by a third party using an Intel chip, and I also see an I225-T1 for $110 which is made by Intel. Do I need the $110 one or will the cheaper one be fine?
I assume a used CPU will be fine but motherboard and RAM should be new for better reliability.
Thank you
Please provide feedback and comments. Is there anything I'm overlooking? Does this all make sense? Any better recommendations?
