I'm also researching my first server build for FreeNAS and I've been reading as much as I can find. I'm wondering how you plan to interact with your server. I see your choice of Supermicro board has built-in graphics and remote management. I have also been looking at using an Intel server board, S1200V3RPL with a Xeon E3-1265L V3 processor. It also has graphics and remote management, is power-efficient, has Intel dual GB LAN, six SATA 6GB/sec ports, and good bang for the buck. I'm planning on 16GB Crucial ECC RAM to start, can be increased to 32GB, 2 x 4TB WD Red drives to start. What do you guys thing of this Intel motherboard and cpu combo? When I'm done, I'll post full details of everything.