BUILD First Freenas build! I need your expertise

[Member]

Hello all,

I am about to build my Freenas server after a year of on and off research.

Purpose: backup four (4) computers, occasional video streaming to Google chromecast/mobile device (Plex)


Hardware list:
Purchased: Asus P9D-m LGA1150 motherboard

CPU: i3 4130

RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Proline 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 UDIMM ECC DDR3 1333 (PC3 10

HDD: [Doing RAIDz2] 4x Hitachi deskstar 7k3000

PSU: Evga 500w Bronze

Case: undecided

Questions:
1. The hard drives are new, but they were released a few years back. Any problems with them?

2. Can someone confirm the compatibility of the components, I have checked, just want someone else to do it.

3. Should I use a SSD or a USB for the boot drive? Please recommend some models of devices.

any other tips would be greatly appreciated ;)
Thanks for dropping by





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[Member]

PS: what micro atx case do you recommend?


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[Stux]

If you use a dual mirror of USB 16GB thumbdrives (i quite like the Cruiser Fit drives, very unobtrusive and available cheaply), then you will leave an extra two SATA ports so that you can grow to six disks in the future, which would *double* your pool size, thus allowing your to fill about 6TB and still remain below 50% usage. As a bonus, your sequential datarates from disk would probably also double.

(beware, that you can't increase the drive count in a RAIDZ vdev without destroying and recreating the pool)

The Fractal Define range are popular.

 

[Member]

If you use a dual mirror of USB 16GB thumbdrives (i quite like the Cruiser Fit drives, very unobtrusive and available cheaply), then you will leave an extra two SATA ports so that you can grow to six disks in the future, which would *double* your pool size, thus allowing your to fill about 6TB and still remain below 50% usage. As a bonus, your sequential datarates from disk would probably also double.

(beware, that you can't increase the drive count in a RAIDZ vdev without destroying and recreating the pool)

The Fractal Define range are popular.

Thanks for your reply.
I think I have to disable usb 3.0 on my motherboard. Do you think it's worth going to six drives (2Tb each) so I don't have rebuild my vdev?

Do you know any places where I can get lower cost nas drive?
Are manufactured refurbished drives fine?

Thanks



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[Stux]

Thanks for your reply.
I think I have to disable usb 3.0 on my motherboard.

Why?

Do you think it's worth going to six drives (2Tb each) so I don't have rebuild my vdev?

I was going to say "I do", but then I realised I'm grappling with the same question with an old RAID5 4x2TB in a non ZFS DAS.

RAID5 is not good enough, so I want to go to RAIDZ2, but 4TB is a useless amount of space for me, after all, I could do that with a pair of 4TB disks. But I'm also loath to build a new 6 bay system *just* to populate it with an extra 2 2TB drives, which I'd need to purchase too.

You're already building a new 6 bay system.

You could use a pair of mirrors with your current 4 drives, and that would get you perhaps better performance, and you could still add another mirrored pair (of any size) later.

Up to you.

The problem is, a 2TB drive is not a very economical thing to purchase today, its right on the cusp of being a useless size (bay cost and per TB costwise). 4TB drives are cheaper per TB and you'd only need two of them vs 4x 2TB, thus they have less bay cost.

Given that you're building a new NAS, and 4TB is enough for today, then it may be a good idea to get the extra 2 drives, that will double your storage to 8TB. Then you don't need to think about it again

*if* you want to go bigger in the future, you can triple by going to 6 6TB ;)

Its a tough decision though... do you keep on 'investing' in 2TB technology?

Maybe its best to stick with your current 4TB max capacity, and when you hit 3TB usage (ie 80% or so), upgrade to a 6 x 4TB pool (16TB storage). You can't upgrade in place... but with some musical chairs you could actually do the upgrade on the one box with the new drives... it involves partitioning the new drives into 2TB partitions so you can make a 6x2TB zpool on just 3 drives. Then you replace the 2TB partitions with whole drives until you have 6x4TB drives in your zpool. Would probably take a week to do.

How long do you want this NAS to last before you're forced to upgrade it? Only you can guess at your estimated storage growth.

The benefit of sticking with 4x2TB today, and switch to 6x4TB (or 6TB) tomorrow, is that you can avoid investing in 2TB technology, and can hopefully gain from 4 or 6TB drives reducing in price.

The benefit of upgrading to 6x2TB today, is that you don't have to worry about upgrades until you're using 6TB of storage or so. The additional cost is probably worth the peace of mind ;)

I suspect the big bottleneck which will force upgrades in the future is being stuck on 1gbit networking.

Do you know any places where I can get lower cost nas drive?

http://pricewatch.com

Are manufactured refurbished drives fine?

Not in my experience. Generally the flakiest drives I have are the ones the manufacturers send back to me as "refurbished".

 

[DrKK]

500W power supply is mega-overkill for this. You'll probably not run in the efficiency window with that.

That whole system is *WELL* under 100W at idle, and I doubt it will go much above 100W at full blast.

 

[Ericloewe]

500W power supply is mega-overkill for this. You'll probably not run in the efficiency window with that.

That whole system is *WELL* under 100W at idle, and I doubt it will go much above 100W at full blast.

Well, the disks alone are going to be at least 120W at spinup. I'm not a fan of saying you should derate the PSU to 80% to better accommodate that spike after a few years in service (assuming quality PSUs, obviously), but aiming to keep the spinup spike within spec seems reasonable.

Of course, a decent 500W unit won't have a problem with this setup. Even a G-360 would do nicely, but expandability might be limited (and god do I hate fixed cables on PSUs).