First-time build sanity check, PSU sizing, and case airflow

[uniFox]

Hi guys!

I’m new to TrueNAS. I’m doing my first-time build and I wanted to get some feedback/get a sanity check of the components I’ve chosen and solve some questions that I have from the more experienced users of TrueNAS.

I intend to use TrueNAS Scale. I’ll be using it to:

• Store some important personal files (i.e., files, photos, videos) and sync that to cloud storage for backup
• Use it as a media center (e.g., Plex)
• Deploy containers for my personal programming projects (dev, test, production environments), my own docker registry, gitlab...
• I’ll probably use other applications, but I haven’t gone through that yet

What I have and plan to use until I can upgrade:

• HDDs: 3 x Seagate BarraCuda 500 GB 7200 RPM
• SSD 1: Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB
• SSD 2: Samsung 840 Evo 500 GB

What I’m buying:

• Motherboard: ASRock Z690 PRO RS (213€) https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z690%20Pro%20RS/index.asp#Specification
• Processor: i5-12400 (180€) https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134586/intel-core-i512400-processor-18m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz.html
• CPU heatsink: Noctua NH-U12S redux (55€) https://noctua.at/en/nh-u12s-redux/specification
• RAM: Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200MHz 1x32GB (85€) https://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KF432C16BB_32.pdf
• HDDs: WD Red Plus NAS HDD 5400RPM 4TB (3*100€= 300€) https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-red-plus-hdd/product-brief-western-digital-wd-red-plus-hdd.pdf
• M.2 SSD (boot device): Kingston NV2 250 GB M.2 SSD (25€) https://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/nv2-nvme-pcie-ssd
• Case: Aerocool Cipher (92€) https://aerocool.io/product/cipher/
• Case fans:
  • Noctua NF-P14S REDUX-1500 PWM (3*17€= 51€) https://noctua.at/en/nf-p14s-redux-1500-pwm/specification
  • Noctua NF-P14S REDUX-1200 PWM (2*17€ = 34€) https://noctua.at/en/nf-p14s-redux-1200-pwm/specification
  • Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 PWM (1*14€= 14€) https://noctua.at/en/nf-s12b-redux-1200-pwm/specification
• Fan splitter cables: Noctua NA-SYC1 (10€)
• PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS PX-750 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX (172€) https://seasonic.com/focus-px#specification

You can check out the setup at: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6tWjrD
Note that the case is not the same as the choice listed here. The one in pcpartpicker was my second option. I’ve been unable to put my first choice there because pcpartpicker does not have it.

What I’m not sure if I really need to buy:

• NIC card: QNAP QXG-2G1T-I225 2.5Gbps (46€) https://www.qnap.com/en/product/qxg-2g1t-i225/specs/hardware

What I might buy in the future if necessary:

• HBA card: The motherboard has 8 SATA connectors, if/when I need more, I’ll have to buy one of these.
• A graphics card, if I think I need it
• More HDDs /SSDs

I am aware this build does not support ECC, but I simply can’t afford it. I checked to see if the stores I’ll be buying from had an AMD option that might (i.e., I say might because it seems that ECC support in AMD is not so clear cut) support ECC and still stay within my price range/features, but no luck. In any case, for what I want I think I can live without ECC.

So I’ve quite a few questions for you guys:

1. Motherboard - My biggest issue with this motherboard is the NIC it comes with: Dragon RTL8125BG. I’ve read in some forum posts that it is now supported in TrueNAS Scale, but I’m not entirely sure if this is true or if I’m going to need to buy that QNAP card listed above. I’d rather not buy the external NIC card unless I absolutely have to. Another option would be buying a different ASRock motherboard (ASRock Z690 PG Riptide) that is like this one more or less, it is just 16€ more expensive but has a Killer E3100G 2.5Gb Ethernet. Though in all fairness, from what I have read, I’m still not sure whether that one would have better support or not.

2. RAM

a) I’m aware that by installing a single DIMM (1x32GB) I’m not taking advantage of the dual channel speed. I’m a little torn with this. I could install (2x16GB) to use the dual channel since doing the ideal (2x32GB) is not an option for me right now. But then if I want to upgrade later on, either I simply upgrade on the other two empty slots or if I want a full upgrade, I’d have to substitute the 2x16GB altogether. On the other hand, I’m not sure if/when I’d need to do a full upgrade to the max 128GB the motherboard can take. What are your thoughts on this?​

​

b) Also, do you think that 32GB is enough given what I want to do with my TrueNAS in the immediate future?​

3. Boot device: I was looking for a small M.2 SSD, but the smallest and cheapest, from a reputable brand (Samsung, Kingston, WB, Corsair...), that I could find where I’m buying the components was the Kingston NV2 250 GB.

a) 250GB for the boot device seems like a total waste considering 16GB is enough for the boot device, right? Would it make sense to make a 16GB partition for the boot device and leave the rest for something, like maybe SWAP?​

​

b) Like I said before there was no smaller/cheaper M.2 SSD from the “good” brands. I did find some Transcend and ADATA though. Are they any good? Would you recommend them?​

​

c) Another option would be to not buy the M.2 SSD and instead use the 256GB SSD I already have as my boot device. Considering that the 256GB SSD does not match in capacity any of the other SSDs and HDDs that I have, I’m not sure what I could do with it otherwise.​

​

d) How essential would you say it is to set up my boot as a 2-device boot pool? Does everyone, in general, do this?​

4. Case airflow: The case I have chosen can store up to 11 x 3.5” HDDs and 4 x 2.5” SSDs or 12 x 3.5” HDDs and 3 x 2.5” SSDs simultaneously. So assuming I add more disks in the future, I’ll need to make sure everything is kept cool. The case can have up to 3 fans in the front (they can be 120mm or 140mm fans), at the top (either 2 140mm or 3 120mm), and 1 rear 120mm fan. I want to create a slightly positive air pressure in the case as that seems to provide the best results and have all the fans be PWM to be controlled by the motherboard. I’d thought of using the fans listed above, which would mean that at full power the fans would:

• 3 * 140mm 450-1500rpm intake fans --> 3* 133.7m3/h = 401.1 m3/h = 0.111417 m3/second
• 2 * 140mm 350-1200rpm + 1*120mm 400-1200rpm exhaust fans --> 2*110.2 + 1*100.6 = 321 m3/h = 0.08917 m3/second

The case has a volume of 42.88l which is 0.04288 m3. So in theory that should it be enough to renew the air in the case very fast.​

​

The intake (0.111417 m3/second) is slightly bigger than the exhaust (0.08917 m3/second) so that should create a slight positive pressure. However, the intake fans need to bring air in through a mesh and all the way through the drive bays, so there will be some resistance to the intake which lowers the effective intake m3/second but I don't know by how much really. Though I guess the CPU cooler fan will help in moving the intake air along, again I have no idea how much of an effect that may have.​

​

a) So should I increase the intake capacity by putting 1700rpm instead? or lower the exhaust capacity? Or my current choice should be fine?​

​

b) Does the PSU affect this? or since it does intake and exhaust all on its own, it kind of balances itself out?​

​

c) These are all calculations based on the fans working at full power, which I hope is not the case most of the time. Since I want the motherboard to control the fans to fit the temperature requirements, maintaining that slightly positive pressure throughout the different temperatures via the fan control curves must be quite the challenge. Any thoughts/recommendations to do this right?​

​

d) I've never used radiators instead of air cooling, so I know nothing about them. Given my budget for the CPU cooler and the case fans, should I bother looking into radiators instead? At least for the exhaust (top and rear) as I can't use a front radiator without removing the drive bays in that case.​

5. PSU: I’m not sure if I’m over-dimensioning the PSU. I’ve taken into account future upgrades. I read the great PSU sizing guideline https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

​

This is the way I arrived at 750W PSU. Let me know if you think something is off:​

• Motherboard: ~25W --> I used the value provided in the guideline as I was unable to find this data for my motherboard
• Processor: 117W in turbo, 65W avg. --> 117W (I suppose the peak watts are what I should use to calculate, right?)
• RAM: 12W * 4 = 48W based on this https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much-power-does-memory-use. However, in the PSU sizing guideline 6W is suggested per stick instead, so I don’t know if this is correct.
• Disks: 30W * 12 = 360W -- 30W per drive, based on the WD Red Plus NAS specs (1.75A*12V=21W --> 30W to give more leeway)
• Fans: 140mm 1500rpm (3*2.4W=7.2W) + 140mm 1200rpm (2*0.96W=1.92W) + 120mm 1200rpm (1*0.9W) + CPU fan 120mm 1700rpm (1*1.08W) = 11.10W
• HBA controller: 10W
• Extra NIC: 10W --> I don't really know, this is an estimate

Total watts: 582W * 1.25 = 727W --> 750W​

6. CPU heatsink size: According to the case, it supports a CPU cooler that has a max height of 160mm. The Noctua I’ve chosen has 158mm. It’ll be fine, right?

7. GPU: Which scenario, if any, do you think would make the iGPU not be enough for me so that I would need to get a graphics card?

8. Do you see any issues with my HW choices in general?

Thanks for reading my long post and if you can answer any or all of my many questions, please do so, I would appreciate it.

 

[JohnTwenty]

I have a Riptide MB with the same NIC (although with a B550 chipset). It works out of the box. However I'm not sure I get the full 2.5 Gb/s (I get transfer speeds over SSH of ~120 MB/s). On the client I also have a 2.5 Gb/s NIC from logiLink. Since I'm fairly new to TrueNAS an this is my first NAS build, I don't know if my HDDs are slowing things down, the drivers don't allow for full speed or if something I did wrong is to blame.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers
J.T.