FreeNAS computer, will these parts work for my goals?

[fosslinux]

I currently am using a raspberry pi as a nas, and want to get an upgrade.

I'm throwing around ideas for a FreeNAS computer, and want to get an opinion on the various parts I'm thinking of. My budget is $400-$500 (AUD) and I haven't bought anything yet.

CPU: AMD Athlon 200GE https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07HJWVJDN
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B078KBKFZ6
Drives:

• Boot drive: WD Blue 250GB M.2 https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073SBV3XX
• (already got) Segate Barracuda 2TB
• over the next year-2 years, upgrade to some WD Reds, but not included right now. Just want to have this possible in this build.

RAM: G.Skill NT Series 16GB (2x 8GB) https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820231964
Case: Silverstone Precision PS09 https://www.umart.com.au/Silverstone-Precision-PS09-Black-Case-No-PSU-2x-USB-3-0_26419G.html
PSU: Corsiar CX450 80+ Bronze https://www.newegg.com/global/au-en/corsair-cx-series-cx450-450w/p/N82E16817139201

(N.B. this is probably not where I'll finally be buying from, these are just the sites that are the most friendly and usable. It fits in my budget on pcpartpicker)

Goals for FreeNAS:

• File server, accessible on Windows and Linux
• Media server (without transcoding)
• Backup

Priorities when building computer:

• Cheap
• Power-efficient
• Will work for goals

What are your thoughts? Are any of these parts not going to be powerful enough, or are too overkill?

 

[joeschmuck]

First of all welcome.

Second, I'm not sure anyone here will be able to tell you that all of your hardware will work for FreeNAS. I did a quick search for "freenas GA-A320M-S2H" and nothing came up except your posting so basically no one has tried it before. I did not download the motherboard user manual to investigate this, it is something you should be doing but some of the possible complications are the M.2 drive may not be bootable under FreeNAS. Also you have four SATA ports, one may be shared with the M.2 drive so you will have only three SATA ports for hard drives and you didn't specify the storage capacity or configuration, you just listed a single 2TB drive which while it will work, FreeNAS was designed for reduncancy and you should have a pair of hard drives for storage but if the data is not critical, it will work. Also the motherboard has a RealTek Ethernet interface which is known to be problematic and slow. The AMD CPU shouldn't be a problem. And it's up to you to know if the RAM you selected is on the approved vendors list for the motherboard, if it's not then you are taking a risk on the compatibility.

If all your hardware works and passes the burn-in testing (RAM & CPU) then it should be stable and definitely much better/faster than the RPI.

The power supply looks good.

Would I buy this setup? Nope. I'd change the M.2 drive for a 3.5" SSD in the 32GB to 120GB range (whatever was most cost effective) and save more money and I would expect to be able to bootstrap from it. I'd have to investigate a few hour to ensure the RAM was on the qualified vendors list (QVL). And I'd purchase an Intel NIC card so I'd have a rock solid network interface.

Unfortunately budget does drive our purchasing but also think about it this way... Look at warranty info for the items you are buying. The main system will be the cheapest portion of a NAS you buy, meaning the parts typically outlast the use of the system whereas the hard drives are a substantial cost and require replacement typically between 3 to 5 years. I try to steer people into buying known good quality components up front, it will save them money in the long run. However trying to tell this to a new person here or someone on a tight budget is difficult. And I'm speaking from personal experience. I started out with an AMD system which actually will not support the current version of FreeNAS, and the RealTek NIC was trouble. I was on a tight budget and not sure about FreeNAS in my home. I replaced it around a year later with a better system that was supported by FreeBSD much better.

But I can't say your components will not work, I just didn't investigate it as if I were purchasing the parts, I don't have 2 hours to spend on it, and even after that there still could be risks. I hope I've outlined enough things to check out and then determine if this is the system you desire.

Good luck, sorry this wasn't a full endorsement for you but that is the problem with new motherboards, you may be the first to test it out.

 

[fosslinux]

Thanks for the very detailed reply!

I've decided I'll change the boot drive to one of these: Kingston SSD 120GB. https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01N6JQS8C, thanks for the thoughts on that.

RE an Intel NIC, how would this do? https://www.mwave.com.au/product/intel-expi9301ctblk-pciexpress-gigabit-network-adapter-aa38217

I was looking at a number of hardware recommendations, and rereading the FreeNAS hardware requirements page, two things jumped out at me:

ECC RAM; this seems like it will add a lot more cost to my setup. How necessary is this in the long run?
and Intel CPU recommended. https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/a-co...s-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/ gives a bit more detail about this. How necessary is an Intel CPU, should I change?

 

[joeschmuck]

I have a pair of these NICs that you referenced and they work great.

ECC RAM; this seems like it will add a lot more cost to my setup. How necessary is this in the long run?

First of all, you can't add ECC RAM to a motherboard that doesn't support it. Second, one of the main reasons to use FreeNAS is for the ZFS file system and part of the overall data reliability effort is having ECC RAM. If you are not storing important data (data you must keep and can't be lost) then you don't "need" ECC RAM, nor ZFS. So we here will promote building a system to utilize all the features of FreeNAS which include ECC RAM. It has been proven that bit flips do occur due to solar radiation, not a failure of your RAM. These bit flips can typically be detected by ECC RAM and corrected.

How necessary is an Intel CPU, should I change?

It's not necessary, and AMD CPU will work fine provided you build your system properly. I don't see any problem with what you have selected for a CPU. Intel is just the brand that most of us use so you have more people testing that brand and thus you can have a little more faith that more was tested.

Because you live in a different country than I, it's difficult for me to know what you can purchase and the costs. I know AMD systems are much cheaper but as I previously said, these are your core components and you should expect to get at least 10+ years out of them, but the hard drives are disposable. So I recommend you just find a system that others have built/used and duplicate what works. BUT! you could just take a chance on the system you designed and if the RAM works then I'd think it all would work fine, but I couldn't say 100% it would, that would be the risk you take.

I bought this little motherboard for a firewall project but it works well for FreeNAS too, just for a simple FreeNAS.
https://www.newegg.com/supermicro-m...processor-c2550-cpu-tdp-14w/p/N82E16813182914

Look to see if others have used this and find out if you could buy one at a reasonable price where you live. You would not need to buy anything other than RAM to make it functional.