Hardware selection

[Kakistos153]

So right now all my hardware is cobbled together from home stuff as a sort of proof of concept that FreeNAS is for me. I'm pretty happy with it. I'll be upgrading slowly over the next couple months and wanted a little input on my upgrade path.

Current motherboard is my old gaming mobo, ASRock z75 Pro3. That will be one of the last things I'll be getting as that will also mean getting an ECC board with a Xeon processor.


Raid card: The m1015 seems like a no-brainer. I'll crossflash that to IT mode with the tutorials available on here and stuff it in with my current garbage rig.

Question: Could I purchase a MegaRAID SAS 9220-8i or does it have the be the rebranded IBM variant? I've only seen it referred to as the 1015 but wasn't sure if that was just a convenient title for it. I know they are the same card rebranded but I wasn't sure if that would make a difference for flashing etc.



Motherboard. I was planning on going with the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1600. IPMI is too good to pass up

Question: Can I use non-ECC ram in that board (consumer gaming ram) while I save up for ECC? I always have a hard time with the rules on ECC and buff/unbuff. Also, does it matter if the ram is buff/unbuff?


Memory, 32GB of name brand ECC RAM (pending previous question)

Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1226 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor. This seems to hit the price/performance sweet spot for me.

I patiently await the LMGTFY reponses :)

 

[droeders]

Question: Can I use non-ECC ram in that board (consumer gaming ram) while I save up for ECC? I always have a hard time with the rules on ECC and buff/unbuff. Also, does it matter if the ram is buff/unbuff?

No, you cannot use non-ECC RAM in that board.

Based on the Supermicro site, you will need un-buffered ECC RAM:

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLL-F.cfm

Without checking the thread about Supermicro's part number designations, I'm not sure what the "-O" is on the end of the motherboard number you listed.

 

[joeschmuck]

Before I answer any questions, I have a few of my own and it's pretty important in order for you to build a proper NAS.

1) What do you plan right now to do with the FreeNAS system? Meaning is it only a NAS for a home system, do you plan to run Plex for media streaming, etc...
2) How much storage capacity do you feel you will need right now? And how much over the next 3 years?
3) Where do you plan to locate this hardware? (Looking for how loud it can be as in a bedroom then you want it silent)

Okay, one piece of advice... Do you own homework, for example with respect to asking if specific RAM would work you could just go to the Supermicro website and download the User Manual and the Qualified RAM list and answer the question for yourself.

I'm not sure what the "-O"

I think it's the difference between OEM (Bulk) and Retail boxed.

 

[Kakistos153]

1) What do you plan right now to do with the FreeNAS system? Meaning is it only a NAS for a home system, do you plan to run Plex for media streaming, etc...

My FreeNAS is used for media storage and home streaming. Its just storage pools really. I'm just going a little overkill with it because i'm an enthusiast

2) How much storage capacity do you feel you will need right now? And how much over the next 3 years?

My intention is to fill the 12 drive bays with 2TB drives over 3x raid 5's so around 18TB

3) Where do you plan to locate this hardware? (Looking for how loud it can be as in a bedroom then you want it silent)

I have a spare room for my servers and network infrastructure stuff

Okay, one piece of advice... Do you own homework, for example with respect to asking if specific RAM would work you could just go to the Supermicro website and download the User Manual and the Qualified RAM list and answer the question for yourself.

I've done a bunch of research and gone over the suggested hardware listings multiple times. There's just so many hardware combinations possible that a sufficient one is hard to land on.
I've mostly been working from this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/


Also, sorry for bumping a relatively old post. I haven't had time to work on my NAS in a while. I got a m1015 and flashed to IT and that has solved a lot of the problems I WAS having.

 

[joeschmuck]

I have a spare room for my servers and network infrastructure stuff

Wish I had that.

I'm just going a little overkill with it because i'm an enthusiast

Nothing wrong with that. Just wanted to ensure you purchase what will make you happy.

So, did you buy all your parts and build your system?