Hi all,
it is my first time posting here, but I have been reading the forums for a while.
For the past 6 years I have owned a Synology NAS. However, it is getting quite old and my needs have expanded beyond its or any other reasonably priced Synology product capabilities. With the first RC SCALE build around the corner I figured it is a good time to start planning my first Truenas SCALE build.
First things first - I am situated in the UK, so keep that in mind.
Highlight of what I am looking for:
- Start small, 4-6 HDD disks
- Start as inexpensive as possible, but still meet my initial goals and allow room for upgradability in the future
- Ability to expand to up to 16+ disks (including SSDs for app storage, VMs)
- As lower power as possible (at least when idle), but still powerful enough for all my needs
What it will be used for:
- Media streaming with transcoding on the fly (Jellyfin)
- FIle storage (Nextcloud)
- VMs (virtual desktop primarily, but an ability to play games with an additional external GPU may be considered in a future expansion)
I have been reading up on ZFS for the past few months and I think I have a relatively good idea of its 'quirks and features' as one might say.
Here is a part list for the initial buy:
- Case: X-Case RM424 Pro- V2 24 Bay Hotswap Storage Server Case 12Gb backplane
- CPU: Intel Xeon W-1290T (10 core, 20 thread, iGPU, 35W)
- Motherboard: Asrock Rack W480D4U
- RAM: Any reasonably priced ECC DDR4, 2400+ MHz, (2 x 32GB)
- PSU: Any reasonably priced PSU, 500+ W, Gold or above
- 8643- SATA Reversed (x2)
- Seagate EXOS enterprise HDDs (the more capacity per HDD and the more HDDs I can afford the better)
- Boot disk: Cheapest Kingston 120ish GB SSD I can find
- Other miscellaneous (CPU cooler, CPU paste, etc)
Rational and notes:
- Case: I was originally thinking of getting a 2U or a 3U case, however I decided against it, as a 24 bay case will allow me to expand even further in the future (say 5 years from now), plus it is tall enough so that any HBA card or GPU will fit in (no need to look for LFF stuff)
- CPU: Low power, plenty of cores, ECC support and iGPU, what more can I want
- Motherboard: 8 SATA ports built in - saves me the trouble to buy an HBA with the iniial purchase, plenty of PCIe, plenty of M.2 ports, IPMI
- RAM: 64GB initially, as fast as possible, while still relatively cheap. This is enough for a start, I will max it out to 128GB in an upgrade
- PSU: Single power supply for now as a cost saving. This is not a mission critical server, so downtime is acceptable. 500W+ to ensure it will handle future expansion
- 8643- SATA Reversed - up to 7 HDD/SSDs on the backplane without the need for an HBA
- Seagate EXOS disks - "enterprise" grade, rated for up to I think 24ish? disks in a single chassis. Relatively cheap, with good price/TB metrics.
- Boot disk: attached to the SATA DOM and powered from the PSU
Future upgrades (roughly in order):
- SSDs for a VM/app pool
- Max out RAM
- Install a mirrored Intel Optane SLOG in the M.2 slots
- Maybe add an SSD for L2 ARC
- Buy a redundant PSU
- More disks + HBA, discrete GPU, 10GB ethernet, etc...
Potential problems:
- Low CPU single core clock. Since ZFS is single-thread limited at some places, this can produce bottlenecks. It does boost clock to almost 5GHz however, so I am hoping this will not be a problem
- Scarcity of parts - especially CPU, motherboard, case
However, I want to hear from you, the experts. What am I doing wrong/overlooking? Is there a better/cheaper alternative to some of the components I have listed? Any information you feel would be of use to me, please share.
it is my first time posting here, but I have been reading the forums for a while.
For the past 6 years I have owned a Synology NAS. However, it is getting quite old and my needs have expanded beyond its or any other reasonably priced Synology product capabilities. With the first RC SCALE build around the corner I figured it is a good time to start planning my first Truenas SCALE build.
First things first - I am situated in the UK, so keep that in mind.
Highlight of what I am looking for:
- Start small, 4-6 HDD disks
- Start as inexpensive as possible, but still meet my initial goals and allow room for upgradability in the future
- Ability to expand to up to 16+ disks (including SSDs for app storage, VMs)
- As lower power as possible (at least when idle), but still powerful enough for all my needs
What it will be used for:
- Media streaming with transcoding on the fly (Jellyfin)
- FIle storage (Nextcloud)
- VMs (virtual desktop primarily, but an ability to play games with an additional external GPU may be considered in a future expansion)
I have been reading up on ZFS for the past few months and I think I have a relatively good idea of its 'quirks and features' as one might say.
Here is a part list for the initial buy:
- Case: X-Case RM424 Pro- V2 24 Bay Hotswap Storage Server Case 12Gb backplane
- CPU: Intel Xeon W-1290T (10 core, 20 thread, iGPU, 35W)
- Motherboard: Asrock Rack W480D4U
- RAM: Any reasonably priced ECC DDR4, 2400+ MHz, (2 x 32GB)
- PSU: Any reasonably priced PSU, 500+ W, Gold or above
- 8643- SATA Reversed (x2)
- Seagate EXOS enterprise HDDs (the more capacity per HDD and the more HDDs I can afford the better)
- Boot disk: Cheapest Kingston 120ish GB SSD I can find
- Other miscellaneous (CPU cooler, CPU paste, etc)
Rational and notes:
- Case: I was originally thinking of getting a 2U or a 3U case, however I decided against it, as a 24 bay case will allow me to expand even further in the future (say 5 years from now), plus it is tall enough so that any HBA card or GPU will fit in (no need to look for LFF stuff)
- CPU: Low power, plenty of cores, ECC support and iGPU, what more can I want
- Motherboard: 8 SATA ports built in - saves me the trouble to buy an HBA with the iniial purchase, plenty of PCIe, plenty of M.2 ports, IPMI
- RAM: 64GB initially, as fast as possible, while still relatively cheap. This is enough for a start, I will max it out to 128GB in an upgrade
- PSU: Single power supply for now as a cost saving. This is not a mission critical server, so downtime is acceptable. 500W+ to ensure it will handle future expansion
- 8643- SATA Reversed - up to 7 HDD/SSDs on the backplane without the need for an HBA
- Seagate EXOS disks - "enterprise" grade, rated for up to I think 24ish? disks in a single chassis. Relatively cheap, with good price/TB metrics.
- Boot disk: attached to the SATA DOM and powered from the PSU
Future upgrades (roughly in order):
- SSDs for a VM/app pool
- Max out RAM
- Install a mirrored Intel Optane SLOG in the M.2 slots
- Maybe add an SSD for L2 ARC
- Buy a redundant PSU
- More disks + HBA, discrete GPU, 10GB ethernet, etc...
Potential problems:
- Low CPU single core clock. Since ZFS is single-thread limited at some places, this can produce bottlenecks. It does boost clock to almost 5GHz however, so I am hoping this will not be a problem
- Scarcity of parts - especially CPU, motherboard, case
However, I want to hear from you, the experts. What am I doing wrong/overlooking? Is there a better/cheaper alternative to some of the components I have listed? Any information you feel would be of use to me, please share.
