BUILD First FreeNAS Build

[Maq]

I'm planning my first FreeNAS build using the following. It will be used as a NAS only with up to 4 concurrent users. It will hold mostly media (songs, videos, photos).

Supermicro MBD-X10SL7-F-O
Intel Pentium G3220

I want to use 16GB (2x8GB) ECC Ram but I'm having trouble finding any here in Canada that's on the Tested Memory List. Only one I'm able to find is Kingston and it's KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G, but I've heard that some people on this forum were having compatibility issues.

Also, I'm thinking of going with either 6 or 8 (using all the LSI ports) 4TB drives in Raid-Z2. I was reading on the forums and saw that some people had lost space when using a number other than the recommended 2^N + 2 but there are no confirmations that this was the cause though.

I'm also wondering if I should go with a better CPU, something like the Xeon E3-1230V3. In what case should I get the Xeon instead?

Edit, updated build (Ordered):
Supermicro MBD-X10SL7-F-O
Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3
4 X 8GB ECC Unbuffered Memory (2x CT2KIT102472BD160B)
10 x 4TB ST4000DM000
Fractal Design Define XL R2
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W
CyberPower UPS CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA 900W

 

[ser_rhaegar]

If you encrypt the drives or use Plex for transcoding, go with the Xeon. Otherwise the Pentium is fine.

 

[PenalunWil]

Hi Maq,

My build is going to be similar to yours. I got the RAM from this company who also ship over seas. If you click on "Click here for International Shipping" then I'm sure they will provide you with what you want. I found them to be very helpful. I've spoken to them over the phone and they also provide a live chat internet connection as well.

These are the RAM they sold me which are Hynix and recommended for the X10 SL7-F...

http://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/co...ddr31600mhz-ecc-unbuffered-memdr380lhl01eu16/

I also bought my mobo off them which is of course is the X10 SL7-F.

I'm trying to buy the Xeon E3-1230V3 from "Scan Computers", but they seem to be having trouble with my order as they have to pre order it. I may well cancel the Scan order and get it from Servercase anyways at an extra £11.00

http://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/co...-quad-core-haswell-processor-bx80646e31230v3/

Hope this helps in some way.

Regards



Wil

 

[Maq]

Thanks for the replies.

I've decided to change the number of hard drives so now I'm wondering if 32GB ram would be enough for 10x4TB drives (40TB RAW, 32TB useable raid-z2)? I'm planning on going with the Pentium G3420. Just ordered a Fractal R2 XL. Also, a SeaSonic 520Watt power supply should be enough, right? Again, it'll only be used as a file sever with 4 max concurrent users. I found some ram from the Crucial website that I'll use.

Edit: Will the G3420 be good if I want to use a jail for torrents or SabNZBD?

 

[Ericloewe]

The Seasonic G-450 is plenty for 10 drives. The 360 might push it a bit, but it would probably work fine, too.

 

[Maq]

Thanks Eric.

The reason why I'm a bit hesitant right now is because the X10SL7-F can only support a maximum of 32GB ram, so I won't be able to upgrade unless I upgrade the motherboard and CPU (~$400). My other option would be to wait for the new E5 Xeons, with that I could get a lot more ram.

 

[cyberjock]

Thanks Eric.

The reason why I'm a bit hesitant right now is because the X10SL7-F can only support a maximum of 32GB ram, so I won't be able to upgrade unless I upgrade the motherboard and CPU (~$400). My other option would be to wait for the new E5 Xeons, with that I could get a lot more ram.

The "new E5s"? They're already out, and tons of people are using them at home and work.

 

[cyberjock]

Also, that thumbrule of 1GB of RAM per TB of storage is a good indicator, but especially for home use where you serve your media, word files, and such, you can break that rule bigtime once you get to 32GB of RAM. In fact, right now my main FreeNAS box has 20GB of RAM(I virtualize) and I have 2 pools totaling 54TB of raw disk space. I've had no problems here. But in my own defense, I'm also the sole user of the server.

At a friends house he has a wife and kids that stream movies from their FreeNAS server and he's got about 50% storage space than the thumbrule allows and his performance is still far beyond saturation speed for GbE.

For the vast majority of home users I'd wager you could probably go with 100TB of storage with 32GB of RAM. Home use is nothing like business use, so you have much more room to play with before you start crying that the pool is slow.

Keep in mind though, if you want to start stretching that thumbrule significantly or doing more work than just your typical "home use" scenario, you may find performance is inadequate and you will be forced to upgrade. So use your own judgement when deciding how much RAM to have in your system and whether to go with E3s or E5s.

 

[Hyperion]

10 X 4TB lol, I like u, u are mental

 

[diehard]

The "new E5s"? They're already out, and tons of people are using them at home and work.

I bet he is talking about Haswell-EP on the 2011-3 socket.

 

[Maq]

The "new E5s"? They're already out, and tons of people are using them at home and work.

I was referring to the E5-2600 V3s which are rumored to be released in Q3.

Also, that thumbrule of 1GB of RAM per TB of storage is a good indicator, but especially for home use where you serve your media, word files, and such, you can break that rule bigtime once you get to 32GB of RAM. In fact, right now my main FreeNAS box has 20GB of RAM(I virtualize) and I have 2 pools totaling 54TB of raw disk space. I've had no problems here. But in my own defense, I'm also the sole user of the server.

At a friends house he has a wife and kids that stream movies from their FreeNAS server and he's got about 50% storage space than the thumbrule allows and his performance is still far beyond saturation speed for GbE.

For the vast majority of home users I'd wager you could probably go with 100TB of storage with 32GB of RAM. Home use is nothing like business use, so you have much more room to play with before you start crying that the pool is slow.

Keep in mind though, if you want to start stretching that thumbrule significantly or doing more work than just your typical "home use" scenario, you may find performance is inadequate and you will be forced to upgrade. So use your own judgement when deciding how much RAM to have in your system and whether to go with E3s or E5s.

Thanks, this helps a lot. A single 10 x 4TB vdev (raidz2) should be fine as well, right? I'll probably get the E3-1220V3 or E3-1230V3 as well since it should help with the scrub times and resilvering times.

 

[indy]

The CPU should be fine as long as you are on 1Gbit and do not encrypt your pool.

Also I am running 11 drives on a 400W Seasonic and it works fine.

Regarding the memory: as cyberjock already said dont waste your money.
Freenas / ZFS needs enough RAM to run stable and the rest is just cache.
For home usage I feel it does not matter since your hard drives will be able to saturate 1Gbit several times over.

 

[Hyperion]

The CPU hardly ticks over.
Its all about HDD speed and memory
Ive got a pretty fast network.
Was playing SW- the revenge of the shite, 45GB
Was played on 6 PCs. 1920 X 1080 not 1 skip