First build sanity check

[Ross Moutell]

Use case

I am going to be using this for storage with maybe a plug-in to two. No VMs. I want a small desktop footprint and to be quiet.

I have read the hardware guide. Please be gentle. First post. The case choice was decided by the budget of my birthday present.

CPU & Motherboard - ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Avoton C2750 Motherboard @ £390

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asr...iii-6gb-s-vga-2x-gbe-lan-1x-ipmi-lan-2x-usb-2

RAM - Crucial 4GB DDR3 Server RAM 1600 MHz Speed ECC Unbuffered x 4 @ £140 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb...-240-pins-ecc-unbuffered-cas-11-ct51272bd160b

Case - Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Case @ Free (Present)

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/fra...k-mini-itx-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu-(std-atx)

PSU - Seasonic SS-520FL2 520W Fanless Modular Power Supply@ £150

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/520...-psu-80plus-platinum-full-modular-eps-12v-atx

Storage drives - Seagate ST2000VN000 2TB 24x7 NAS Internal Hard Drive x 6 @ £456 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...4x7-sata-6gb-s-5900rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

UPS - APC Back-UPS ES 400 - Uninterruptible Power Supply 400VA, - BE400-UK - 8 Outlets - Surge protected @ £64

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-U...1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1484257936&sr=1-4

OS Drive - PCI-E adapter card and drive @ £65 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lyc...-pcie-30-x4-2280-2260-2242mm-for-pc-mac-linux

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/128...e-ssd-read-3000mb-s-write-650mb-s-360k-150k-i

Total cost £1265

How does it look?

 

[Spearfoot]

Welcome to the forums!

"Please be gentle", eh? Did you think we'd bite you?

Well, I have to admit... we might nibble a little. :)

Overall your build looks pretty good. A couple of questions and observations:

• A 400 VA UPS isn't going to provide very much run-time if your power goes down.
• Why 6 x 2TB disks? Would 2 x 8TB be cheaper? If so, you could start out with a simple mirror and have the same capacity as a 6x2TB RAIDZ2 array. Plus you can add more capacity simply by adding more pairs of mirrors. If you build a big 6-disk RAIDZ2 array, you can't increase it's capacity until you've replaced every disk in the array with a larger one.
  
• You might save some more money by installing FreeNAS to a 16 or 32GB USB 2.0 flash drive such as the SanDisk Cruzer Fit. Did I say they're cheap? They are, and they're known to work. Your fancy Lycom M.2 SSD and PCIe thing-a-ma-jig may work... but you'll be the guinea pig finding out!
• Some users have reported problems with ASRock motherboards. Search the forum for you model and see if it's one of the bad'uns. You may still decide to use it, but at least you'll be aware of the issues.
• The ASRock supports up to 64GB, but you're planning to populate all 4 of the RAM slots with 4GB modules for a total of 16GB. We generally recommend that you leave some memory slots open by using, say, 1 x 16GB or 2 x 8GB modules, in case you find out you need more RAM in the future. Just a thought...

Good luck!

 

[DrKK]

Is his ASRock board the one with the vicious BNC bug that blows the board away after a few months of FreeNAS? (Don't mean to alarm you, but I thought this was the board)

 

[Ericloewe]

Yup, C2x50D4I.

Word on the street is that the head honcho at ASRock has stated that there will be a firmware update (finally) in the coming weeks. In the meantime, C2x50D4I boards have their watchdogs patted in a non-threatening way. Still, it is recommended to give them their own safe spaces with cuddly things, by disbaling the watchdog altogether - the non-threatening patting also renders the watchdog literally useless.

 

[Spearfoot]

Yup, C2x50D4I.

Word on the street is that the head honcho at ASRock has stated that there will be a firmware update (finally) in the coming weeks. In the meantime, C2x50D4I boards have their watchdogs patted in a non-threatening way. Still, it is recommended to give them their own safe spaces with cuddly things, by disbaling the watchdog altogether - the non-threatening patting also renders the watchdog literally useless.

Does this mean the boards are safely usable provided you disable the watchdog? If so, is this a BIOS setting?

 

[Ericloewe]

Does this mean the boards are safely usable provided you disable the watchdog? If so, is this a BIOS setting?

It's trickier than that,

It's the patting that causes the abnormal writes. Disabling the watchdog doesn't fix it. You need to stop poking (or respect its millenial wishes and poke it non-aggressively, with cuddly things) it. However, if you stop poking it while it's active, it'll reboot the machine. Jpaetzel figured out some way of doing the poking in a way that doesn't cause the write and tells the watchdog to not actually do anything, so this is theoretically worked-around purely at the OS/driver level.

If you want to be sure, there's a resource for that: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...2x50-d4i-boards-by-disabling-the-watchdog.16/

 

[GBillR]

Use case

PSU - Seasonic SS-520FL2 520W Fanless Modular Power Supply@ £150

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/520...-psu-80plus-platinum-full-modular-eps-12v-atx

Storage drives - Seagate ST2000VN000 2TB 24x7 NAS Internal Hard Drive x 6 @ £456 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb...4x7-sata-6gb-s-5900rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

How does it look?

Just a point for you on the Power Supply... You might consider the 660W Seasonic Platinum: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/660w-seasonic-platinum-full-modular-80plus-platinum-atx-psu

It has 10 SATA power connectors (versus the 6 on the one you picked), it has higher capacity (you do plan for many drives in your rig), AND it's cheaper.

I know you probably were looking at the lack of a fan and are trying to keep noise down... The 660w has a hybrid fan mode where it will NOT run unless the load demands. I own it, and the fan does not run under my load (granted it's not much), but even when I do turn the fan to regular mode, the fan is virtually silent. It is the quietest power supply fan I have ever heard. In fact, I can't even hear it once I put the side of the case back on.

Just my two cents.

 

[Ross Moutell]

Thank you all for your excellent feedback. Based on your advice I have adjusted the parts list.

CPU & Motherboard - ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Avoton C2750 Motherboard @ £390

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asr...iii-6gb-s-vga-2x-gbe-lan-1x-ipmi-lan-2x-usb-2

RAM - Crucial ECC Unbuffered DDR3 8 GB 1600 MHz UDIMM Server RAM Memory x 2 @ £108 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb...3-12800-(1600)-240-pins-ecc-unbuffered-cas-11

Case - Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Case @ Free (Present)

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/fra...k-mini-itx-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu-(std-atx)

PSU - Seasonic Platinum 660W Modular Power Supply @ £140

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/660w-seasonic-platinum-full-modular-80plus-platinum-atx-psu

Storage drives - HGST H3IKNAS40003272SE 4TB Deskstar NAS HDD 24x7 Use 3.5" 7200rpm x 2 @ £290 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/4tb...i-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-retail-box

UPS - APC Back-UPS ES 400 - Uninterruptible Power Supply 400VA, - BE400-UK - 8 Outlets - Surge protected @ £64

https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-U...1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1484257936&sr=1-4

OS Drive - PCI-E adapter card and drive @ £65 total

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lyc...-pcie-30-x4-2280-2260-2242mm-for-pc-mac-linux

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/128...e-ssd-read-3000mb-s-write-650mb-s-360k-150k-i

or

Silverstone EC01-P Internal PCIe USB 3 Card dual Port @ £20

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2-port-silverstone-ec01-p-internal-pci-express-usb-30-card

Which will connect to the front panel USB 3.0 ports on the case.

Then insert a pair of USB 3.0 drives for a mirrored install of FreeNAS.

SanDisk Ultra Fit 64 GB USB Flash Drive USB 3.0 x 2 @ £30

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ul...902&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+64gb+usb+memory+stick

or

Be ghetto and velcro a plastic 2.5" caddy for a regular SATA SSD to the roof of back half of the case.

Current total £1057

I will add more RAM and additional drives later.

I will have to disable the Watchdog feature as the board in question is the only one I could find to satisfy all my personal requirements. As for the UPS it is only really intended to protect against micro power cuts. I would have the NAS power off automatically after more than a few minutes on battery power alone.

 

[Spearfoot]

Silverstone EC01-P Internal PCIe USB 3 Card dual Port @ £20

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/2-port-silverstone-ec01-p-internal-pci-express-usb-30-card

Which will connect to the front panel USB 3.0 ports on the case.

Then insert a pair of USB 3.0 drives for a mirrored install of FreeNAS.

SanDisk Ultra Fit 64 GB USB Flash Drive USB 3.0 x 2 @ £30

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ul...902&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+64gb+usb+memory+stick

Looking good, @Ross Moutell!

Except for the boot device... Ain't nothing' wrong with velcro! If you need to use it to mount a pair of SSD boot devices, carry on! I prefer SSDs over USB drives.

But if you do go the USB route, consider using a pair of cheaper SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 drives, plugged in to the two USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard's rear I/O panel. Why USB 2.0? Because they run cooler, are less prone to failure, and are more than adequate as a FreeNAS boot device; I know, 'cause I used a pair of these for over a year with great success.You'll save a little dough this way, 'cause you won't need the PCI-e card.

Good luck!

 

[Spearfoot]

Oh! Make sure you plug your hard drives into the motherboard's Intel SATA ports, not the Marvell. Marvell has a reputation for being a little flakey...

And if you need more than 2 USB ports (e.g., to connect to your UPS), you can use a cable like this to bring 2 add'l USB 2.0 ports out to the rear of the chassis from the motherboard's 9-pin USB header. Ideally, you'd use an internal adapter like this to mount both of your boot drives inside the chassis. But I can't find one on Amazon UK.

Just trying to save you a buck or two...

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

I like the internal header adapter, @Spearfoot but have had problems with clearance because of the fixed position. Instead I've used this two-port USB cable and like this USB adapter that will go in a serial port cutout. Both allow you a bit more flexibility in placement.

In any case, @Ross Moutell, your build looks solid with an asterisk next to the C2x50D4I motherboard and the boot device. Save your monies and go USB.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Chris Moore]

I only comment here because of the discussion over boot device. I use a mirrored pair of 40 GB laptop hard drives. They can be monitored for health and replaced as needed just like any other drive in the system. You can't do any health monitoring on the USB drives and they do fail without any warning. I had it happen to me, which is why I switched to booting from disk.
I have been using the laptop drives for over a year now with absolutely no trouble at all.
The SATA-II ports on that board you have are ideal to use for boot drives and the boot drives on FreeNAS do not need to be fast.
I would recommend something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hitachi-40G...844342?hash=item25cd2994f6:g:0C4AAOSwopRYd7hc
That is a US listing, but I am sure you can find something like it in the UK. I purchased 6 (2 for each server and 2 spares) that had zero hours on them. They were still in the factory sealed bags when I got them. It is about the same cost as a USB drive but gives you a better solution.
I don't want to be too verbose, so if you have questions you can ask.