First time FreeNAS system build list help.

[Evanm484]

Hello Everyone,

I put together a list of parts based off some other builds I've seen for my first Freenas build. The link will be below to my full list. I am looking for advice on if my system will be able to support my goals and if all the parts are compatible before I purchase it.

My goals for this build are as follows:
-Be an external backup for ~5 devices.
-Allow storage of media for an amateur photographer and vlogger.
-Be a plex server capable of transcoding media for streaming to phones and tablets.
-allow for expansion and redundancy.

I plan to start out running raidz1 and and the future add 1-2 more hardrives to run raidz2. My goal is to have about 20TB+ worth of space with the redundancy.

Here is the list
https://secure.newegg.com/Wishlist/MyWishlistDetail?ID=4988897

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as well as recommendations, I will be putting off the purchase for a few months so I have some time to tweak anything needed.

Let me know if you need any more information. Thank you in advanced.

 

[joeschmuck]

Your wish list link does not work as it's under your user account. Please list all the items.

I plan to start out running raidz1 and and the future add 1-2 more hardrives to run raidz2. My goal is to have about 20TB+ worth of space with the redundancy.

You cannot at present time just add a single hard drive to increase capacity, well not safely. Read up on ZFS and how it works. Also you cannot change from RAIDZ1 to RAIDZ2 easily. You would have to backup all your data and then destroy the pool and recreate it with the new drive(s).

 

[Evanm484]

Here is the list of parts
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5
Mobo: Supermicro MBD-X11SSM-F-O
RAM: 2x Kingston ValueRam 8gb 288-pin DDR4-2133 ECC UNBUFFERED
HDDS: 4-5x Seagate Ironwolf 8TB 7200rpm
PSU: seasonic Focus plus series SSR-550PX 550W 80+ Platinum

Here are links to all my parts.

Case:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16811352047

Mobo:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16813183013

CPU:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16819117613

RAM:
https://m.newegg.com/products/9SIA4YU6WG2210

HDDs:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16822179003

PSU:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16817151193

As far as the Raid change would it be best to just buy the additional drive upfront and start at raidz2?

I will research more into ZFS. From what you said it sounds like upgradability isn't supported with the system? Or is my understanding wrong?

 

[Bidule0hm]

From what you said it sounds like upgradability isn't supported with the system?

No, you can upgrade, but not in every way you may want to though. Please read https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/ and https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/.

 

[Inxsible]

My goals for this build are as follows:
-Be an external backup for ~5 devices.
-Allow storage of media for an amateur photographer and vlogger.
-Be a plex server capable of transcoding media for streaming to phones and tablets.
-allow for expansion and redundancy.

You would be able to do all of this with older generation hardware for much cheaper. Especially if you look for motherboards that support Registered RAM instead of Unbuffered as UDIMMS are very expensive currently.

As far as the Raid change would it be best to just buy the additional drive upfront and start at raidz2?

Yes.

 

[sretalla]

You might want to look at your options for HDDs.
Those Ironwolf 7200RPM drives chew more power than WD REDs (spin only at 5400RPM and about 2-3 watts lower per drive).
This will add heat to your system and resulting from that you will run your fans louder or the system will get hotter, perhaps driving early failures in some components.
I haven't seen compelling performance data to say that WD reds would be a lot slower, so have always used them myself (and see a lot of consensus around the forums that those should be at the top of the list for FreeNAS installs).

I note in particular that I have seen some of the drives in my Node 804 get hotter than the others and I'm looking at the fan setup on the drive cage section to see if I can improve that. I already have an additional fan at the bottom of the MoBo section due to having my CPU cooler/Radiator in the top position, having found that the airflow wasn't enough over my chipset and video card without it. My CPU stays nice and cool even under heavy transcoding load of 80% for hours at a time (under 45 celcius) and is practically room temperature the rest of the time (28 celcius)

 

[Evanm484]

You would be able to do all of this with older generation hardware for much cheaper. Especially if you look for motherboards that support Registered RAM instead of Unbuffered as UDIMMS are very expensive currently.

Yes.

For price, I am not too concerned as this list falls below my budget for the system and I am going for some overkill just in case I want to add onto the functions of the system in the future.

Is there a benefit to UDIMMS vs Registered RAM? I've read ECC is almost required and highly recommended for FreeNas but haven't seen any info on registered or UDIMMS.

@sretalla For as heat in the case, I plan to add an aftermarket CPU cooler as well and some more case fans. You said you use the case, any recommendations with it? Do you like the case?

The case will be in a basement so noise wont be a problem if the fans run a little loud, I am concerned with longevity of components tho.

I will look into the other drives as power consumption is a minor concern with this being something that will be on 24/7.

@Bidule0hm I will look into that information thank you. I am just starting to learn about how FreeNas works and so far have only gotten to hardware setup and will be looking into the software more from this point.

 

[Chris Moore]

As far as the Raid change would it be best to just buy the additional drive upfront and start at raidz2?

Really, you need to read and understand how it works a bit more before you start buying hardware.

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

 

[sretalla]

For price, I am not too concerned as this list falls below my budget for the system and I am going for some overkill just in case I want to add onto the functions of the system in the future.

Is there a benefit to UDIMMS vs Registered RAM? I've read ECC is almost required and highly recommended for FreeNas but haven't seen any info on registered or UDIMMS.

@sretalla For as heat in the case, I plan to add an aftermarket CPU cooler as well and some more case fans. You said you use the case, any recommendations with it? Do you like the case?

The case will be in a basement so noise won't be a problem if the fans run a little loud, I am concerned with longevity of components tho.

I will look into the other drives as power consumption is a minor concern with this being something that will be on 24/7.

@Bidule0hm I will look into that information thank you. I am just starting to learn about how FreeNas works and so far have only gotten to hardware setup and will be looking into the software more from this point.

I like the case. It's good in that it allows for 4 ssd drives and 8 spinning disks in a separate compartment (just need to work on the fan setup and maybe block some of the openings between the two halves to ensure the airflow gets to all of the disks). I'm still undecided on if it's a good idea to use the supplied fan controller (I have been doing that, but recently thinking it's part of the problem with balancing fan speed, noise and cooling which isn't granular enough (all 3 fans connected to it are at low, medium or high at the same time). As I mentioned, I will be playing around with it.


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