First Build - X11SSM-F/32GB/i3-7100/Mixed Drives

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hey folks, looking for some build advice. I've tried to be as detailed as possible re the parts I am interested in and my reasoning. Hopefully it isn't too verbose.

I've been reading the forums and advice online and think I've gotten close to narrowing down my build. I'd like to use my NAS to store important personal and business data as well as photos, videos, and backups of other machines I've got around. To start I will likely not access the server outside of my LAN but eventually will likely want to explore using it as a personal cloud and possibly as a media server to show friends and family photos and videos while away from home.

Motherboard - Supermicro - X11SSM-F

I've considered a lot of boards and based on advice found in the Forums and Resources pages. I am primarily focused on the following Supermicro boards.
C232
X11SSL-F 6 x SATA, Dual 1 Gb/s Lan
X11SSL-CF 6 x SATA, 8 x SAS, Dual 1Gb/s LAN
C236
X11SSH-F 8 x SATA, 1 M.2, Dual 1Gb/s LAN
X11SSM-F 8 x SATA, Dual 1Gb/s LAN
X11SSH-TF 8 x SATA, M.2, Dual 10Gb/s LAN (The newegg link suggests it is 1Gb/s but the supermicro site shows the board using the Intel x550)
X11-SSH-CTF 8 x SATA, 8 x SAS, Dual 10Gb/s LAN (Same as above where the supermicro site suggests the LAN is 10Gb/s but newegg does not)

After reading the 10 Gig Networking Primer page I am leaning away from the X11SSH-TF and X11-SSH-CTF as both have Intel NICs. If I decide to go with 10Gb in the future I will buy a card to do so.

This leaves me with thoughts of future expansion, which requires PCIe slots. For that reason I am shying away from the two C232 boards.

I don't see a need for the M.2 slot on the X11SSH-F and so that leaves me with the X11SSM-F. It has 4 PCI slots (2 x 8x and 2 x 4x) which gives me plenty of room to add HBAs and NICs.

Q: Is there a compelling reason to get a board with M.2 slots instead of with more PCIe slots?
Q: Am I making a mistake going with the LGA-1151 boards? Is it overkill or will I need something capable of more if I decide to use the box for streaming?

CPU - Intel Core i3-7100 3.90 GHz 51W TDP

Based on the recommendations found in the FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide there are no LGA-1151 recommendations for the medium range. I worry that as I use the server for more I may regret buying a CPU with less power so I tried to find a similar CPU in the LGA-1151 socket to match my board. With that I came to the Intel Core i3-7100. I'm happy to consider other CPUs but I plan to make use of encryption so a CPU which supports AES-NI would be important.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-7100 too much CPU for my NAS if I plan to use it as a media server and personal cloud?

Memory - 32GB (2 x 16) Crucial DDR4 SDRAM ECC 2133

Supermicro did not have a large list of tested memory, nor did they have much that was not super low profile memory. I think perhaps there may be some information I am missing. My goal is to purchase 32GB ECC memory on 2x16GB DIMMs so I can expand to 64GB later if I need to. Something like the Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133.

Chassis - Fractal Design Define R6

For my first build I'd like something like the Fractal Design Define R6. I like that it supports 11 HDDs (if you buy extra HDD brackets) and 2 SSDs to boot.

Boot Drive - 120GB WD Green SSD SATA III 6Gb/s - WDS120G2G0A

I've got one lying around. So long as it won't hurt anything I might as well use it.

Storage

Pool1 - RAIDZ2 vdev
3 x 7200RPM 2TB Toshiba P300 HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - HDWD120XZSTA (Already Own)
1 x 5400RPM 2TB WD Red NAS HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - WD20EFRX

Pool2 - RAIDZ2 vdev
3 x 7200RPM 3TB Seagate Constellation ES.3 HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - ST3000NM0033 (Already Own)
3 x 5400RPM 3TB WD Red NAS HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - WD30EFRX

I already own the 3 Toshiba and Seagate drives so I would like to use them if I can get some mileage out of them.

Q: What am I really risking by not using NAS drives? Is it simply that they will fail faster? Or will they corrupt my data or cause the vdev to become corrupted and therefore ruin my pool? I am totally happy if they die faster since I have no other use for them and happy to give them a job.
Q: Is it acceptable to mix the 7200RPM drives with the 5400RPM drives? I found several posts, including this one, which suggests it is okay.

HBA - LSI SAS 9207-8I

As the X11SSM-F 'only' supports 8 SATA drives I would consider picking up an HBA. To start I would likely be attaching SATA drives to it but may upgrade to SAS. Even with SAS if I only use up to 8 HDDs on the HBA would I need anything with more throughput than the LSI SAS 9207-8I? I had a somewhat hard time finding good sources of new cards. There are a TON of used cards out there but I worry about the reliability of a used card. Am I perhaps not looking in the right places or are there newer parts to consider?

PSU - Seasonic Prime Titanium 650W - SSR-650TR

I realize this is on the pricier side for a PSU but I like that it is a trusted brand and more energy efficient. I'm not too concerned about making my money back on the extra cost. I'm mostly interested in whether the 650W will be enough to power my machine.

 

[JohnK]

Just a few comments.

Motherboard - Supermicro - X11SSM-F
X11SSL-F 6 x SATA, Dual 1 Gb/s Lan <- I use this C232 board. Got it for a great price on Ebay and I had not complaint. Stuck in an 4 port Intel Nic and M1015.
Q: Is there a compelling reason to get a board with M.2 slots instead of with more PCIe slots? <- I don't think so.
Q: Am I making a mistake going with the LGA-1151 boards? Is it overkill or will I need something capable of more if I decide to use the box for streaming? You could possibly get away with an Atom C2550, but only you will know what your future holds. I've been running my backup server with X10 for five year and have had no problems.

CPU - Intel Core i3-7100 3.90 GHz 51W TDP
Q: Is the Intel Core i3-7100 too much CPU for my NAS if I plan to use it as a media server and personal cloud?
I ran my main server on an i3 for a few year with no complaints. Moved it to my desktop when upgrading to a Xeon. I could transcode Plex and it was more than capable. It couldn't handle virtualization at the time, so the reason I upgraded.

Chassis - Fractal Design Define R6
For my first build I'd like something like the Fractal Design Define R6. I like that it supports 11 HDDs (if you buy extra HDD brackets) and 2 SSDs to boot.

My first two servers were build using Fractal Design. I really loved the cases, until I had to start replacing some drives. I had 6 drives in my main and 7 in my back server. What you realize is that even if you knew exactly what drive needed replacing, it was still a pain when you are using power splitters etc. Also, I had to add some fans to keep all my drives cool. I have not moved to Supermicro 836 cases and I will never go back!

HBA - LSI SAS 9207-8I

As the X11SSM-F 'only' supports 8 SATA drives I would consider picking up an HBA. To start I would likely be attaching SATA drives to it but may upgrade to SAS. Even with SAS if I only use up to 8 HDDs on the HBA would I need anything with more throughput than the LSI SAS 9207-8I? I had a somewhat hard time finding good sources of new cards. There are a TON of used cards out there but I worry about the reliability of a used card. Am I perhaps not looking in the right places or are there newer parts to consider?

I have bought a few M1015's on Ebay and they are all working with no problems. If you do decide to go with something like a SuperMicro 3u case, you can get it with a SAS expander that means you only need one HBA card. I use 14 drives in my backup and never have any problems with speed. Also why having only 2 PCI slots could be ok.

PSU - Seasonic Prime Titanium 650W - SSR-650TR
My first two NAS builds I had Seasonic 360 gold PSU's. They worked fine pulling 7 drives. So you should be ok. Probably an overkill! :)

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Bumping this and asking some followups.

The the HDDs . . . Is it worth picking up the extra WD reds or should I just pick up more drives to match what I already own?

Are there places that supermicro lists manufactured ram that is more exhaustive than here?

I'm guessing by the lack of significant corrective suggestions that this build will work?

 

[Stux]

Iirc the m.2 slot on those boards is only 2x, and you lose a 4x pcie slotnin return. So no, not stood idea.

And you may want an extra pcie slot for nvme drives

There should be no problem mixing 7200 and 5200 rpm drives, but it is sub-optimal, oh well.

I buy my ram from crucial, they guarantee Supermicro compatibly, and crucial is actually micron’s brand.

Stick with your SATA ports until you *need* an hba.

 

[Skro]

Hi PhiloEpisteme,

I am not an expert, but I can chime in on a couple of your question since I have the mobo and similar use cases.

Am I making a mistake going with the LGA-1151 boards? Is it overkill or will I need something capable of more if I decide to use the box for streaming?

I use the X11SSM-F-O with an Intel G4620 and have a Plex server that serves 3 users (2 in-house and 1 remote although usually no more than 2 at a time) and have no issues with streaming live TV, my movies, music and pictures remotely. Although, I am not streaming 4k (1080/720 only with 12Mbps upstream). I will eventually move to a xeon processor and more RAM, but I couldn't afford it initially and have been fine.

I would second Stux's opinion on Crucial RAM. I have Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) ECC, 288-Pin and have had no issues.

Is it worth picking up the extra WD reds or should I just pick up more drives to match what I already own?

I would recommend the WD Reds as they are more reliable NAS drives. I used some additional drives to add more storage to my setup (in separate pools), but they are strictly for non-crucial data. See my signature for what I did.

Like I said, I'm not an expert but my setup has been working really well and without any issues for 14 months.

**If I was to make on change to my original build, I would up the RAM to 32GB. My CPU never gets anywhere near full usage. Most of the time it is under 10%.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Great, thanks for the advice. The board doesn't have enough ports to support all of my drives so I'll be picking up an HBA I think.

Definitely planning on the 32GB to start. I'll check out the ram suggestions. Thanks for the advice!

I am nearly done playing with FreenNAS and practicing replacing a drive in an encrypted pool then I think I'll start purchasing parts so I can begin the burn in process soon.

 

[Skro]

I understand about the HBA. One of the reasons I bought the Supermicro board was the number of sata ports, but they go fast so I will also probably look at adding an HBA at some point.

I'm definitely no expert on those but there are some folks around here that are...look for the posts by @danb35 and @Chris Moore...they seem very knowledgeable on the subject. Here is a recent one:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hba-help.68984/#post-473689

And, good luck with your build, I have a ton of fun/learning with mine!