help with a silent, budget, home FreeNAS beginner build

[petoniano]

Hi! this is my first post in the forum, hello everyone. I've read a few pages inside this forum and haven't found a build to "copy" for me.

I'm new with FreeNAS, and new with servers. After reading a lot of info about FreeNAS I've decided to try to build my own server. I'm from Spain and some components are difficult to find, or at least to find with a good price.

I want a server that has to be quite silent because it's going to be in the living room next to the router and the TV, and my girlfriend, who is like scotland yard has to approve it ). My use of the server will be: Backups of my family data (not too much), storage of movies and series, SMB sharing, owncloud..., but I would like to try plex and give a try to learn with 1 or 2 VM. I thought to buy a synology or a Qnap in the first moment, but then I saw the HP proliant gen10 microserver, and then this forum to try to build my own build.

I've seen here many builds with lots of drives and big cases and lot of ram... but I need a more budget build. The main reason I want a FreeNAS build over a Synology is to learn to build and be my own system administrator of my DIY NAS, I'm not an expert but I like the command line and use linux in my laptop.

I plan a miniitx motherboard and case to go at the beginning with 2x 4TB 3.5WD red drives mirrored, and in the future add a 3rd or 4th drive to the pool when I need more space.

- I thought to buy the basic HP Proliant gen10 Opteron x3216 8Gb ram, because it's only 250 euros plus the drives, and give a try to FreeNAS and see if it is for me. I know some issues with the installation solved in the forum and with the SATA Marvell controller. And that it is not very powerful and it may be short in the future.

- Other similar option: going for the higher HP with the Opteron x3421 and 16Gb of ram around 650 euros.

- I've read the hardware recommendations thread to build my own build but it's difficult, I've seen I could add some bucks to my build to get something better than the HPs with supermicro Xeon D or atomC3000 motherboards.
something like this?

Motherboard: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-4C-TLN4F.cfm for 550 euros or https://www.newegg.com/global/es/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182964 for 630 euros and 16Gb of ram in two slots
a case like this one: https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B0...2-80ef-4a9b-86de-0fd6585ac783&pf_rd_i=desktop

They are more expensive than my initial budget but I could try to build the server little by little and upgrading it in the future with more drives and ram. My questions:
Are they appropiate for my intended use?
Does this motherboard require a CPU fan or passive cooling is enough? (because I've seen many with a fan and other with a heatsink). I'm very concerned with the cooling problems on miniITX boards and case, the heating of my living room with two children could be a problem.
Should I stick with the basic HP to start? Because I would save a lot of bucks and maybe, in the future, build a better more powerful FreeNAS server with a Supermicro motherboard.

I know I'm a little lost but I want to learn, thank you!

 

[Chris Moore]

Look into these resources for now and I will give more specific answers later.

FreeNAS® Quick Hardware Guide
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/

Hardware Recommendations Guide Rev 1e) 2017-05-06
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[loch_nas]

It all depends on your future plans, the max number of drives.

For small builds the best (and theoretically quiet) chassis option would be Fractal Design Node 304 (max 6 drives) or Node 804 (max 8 drives). I would go for the Node 804, because you can fill it with a cost-effective Micro-ATX Mainboard with 8 SATA ports. With the Node 804 you could build very easily a silent server. With the airflow of the Supermicro chassis you are looking at it's not so easy to achieve a silent and cool (in terms of temperatures) build.

The Xeon-D mainboards are nice and compact, but too expensive if you don't really need 10Gbit network or 4 Gbit NICs. I have bought a Xeon-D mainboard, because it has 2 x 10Gbit and 20 x SATA. But if you don't need all this, then it's a waste of money.

 

[petoniano]

Thank you for your advice. I´ve read the hardware guide again.
I´ve measured the place where the server is going to be placed and a Fractal Design Node 304 fits better than the 804.

For the motherboard I could get the Supermicro A1SAi-2750F recomended in the HW guide, but do you have any suggestions on a better CPU that still has a low TDP (I know that TDP is not the most important thing for power comsumption but it is for heating isn´t it?). Is a good idea to try to get a C3758 board like A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F , discussed in another recent thread?

The PSU could be a https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-RM550x-Modular-Supply-Certified/dp/B015YEICJ2/ref=dp_ob_title_ce from the hardware guide.

Thank you for your help and your patience
petoniano

 

[loch_nas]

The Corsair PSU is not so bad, but the Corsair models made by Seasonic are better:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm

But why not get the original (Seasonic), maybe the best ATX PSU you could get for a small home server. Their PSUs are really all in all high quality products. There is a (good) reason for being the most preferred choice for a home server build.

I would avoid Avoton if possible as there's a possibility for a known bug. A lot of people are lucky and don't experience this bug. But there is no good reason for gambling with server hardware. The Denverton platform has better performance and better expandability.

Even if the little Avoton/Denverton CPU has a low TDP, it still needs active cooling (for example with a 6cm Noctua fan).
So in my eyes a Supermicro Micro-ATX with 1151 socket, a Pentium G-4560/i3-6100/i3-7100 and a CPU cooler made by Noctua is at least as cool and quiet as such a Avoton/Denverton build.
And the best is that it's possibly not so expensive. So if you don't need more than 6 drives, such a Micro-ATX build would be quite perfect as the Node 304 can be filled with a decent CPU cooler.
Such a CPU cooler also helps the overall air-flow.

I also don't think that there's a big difference in power consumption, because a big part of the power is consumed by hard disks.

 

[petoniano]

ok, so maybe this Seasonic G650-Watt is a better choice. or even a G550

Micro-ATX build would be quite perfect as the Node 304 can be filled with a decent CPU cooler

I've looked the specs of the Node 304 and I think it doesn't fit a micro-atx board. I think it needs to be a mini-ITX isn't it?

In the hardware recomendations I only see a mini-itx lga1151 ASRock Rack E3C236D2I
not any supermicro. A mini-itx board with the CPU you said pentium G4560 for example or i3-7100 would be great. But I havn't found, only the X11SSV-Q but its not for servers I think, no ECC no IPMI...

The other option is the Denverton c3758 supermicro miniITX board but is more expensive. I have not found many benchmarks of this chip , the 3558 is the same but with only 2 cores and has a passmark is around 2500.

 

[loch_nas]

Sorry, my fault. You're right. The Node 304 can only take Mini-ITX.

And yes, the ASRock mainboard would be the choice for this chassis.

But what's true, is, that you can put a decent CPU cooler onto that mainboard and into the Node 304.

Just look around in this forum. There are some builds with that mainboard. For example look at the signatures of the forum users.

 

[Chris Moore]

I just don't like the idea of making the system choice based on the chassis.
The system board, processor and drives should be selected to satisfy your functional requirements, then pick a chassis that the solution fits in.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[loch_nas]

This is very true. But I know that a lot of people (especially in Europe) have certain space restrictions, especially if the server shares living space. I think that is why Mini-ITX is so popular in Europe.

But sure, it's not the best way to build a server in dependency on space. It should depend on the general server requirements.

 

[petoniano]

Yes, that´s it, the server is going to be in the living room, and it's small, and the node 804 is too big for me. But I understand, and agree with that, all about mini-itx are limitations compared with a micro-atx.

 

[petoniano]

So looking the past two days for some components, could be like this.:

MBO: ASRock E3C236D2I Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236 (~195€.)
CPU: i3-7100 box (100€.)
RAM: Crucial 16GB Single 2133MT/s DDR4 PC4-17000 Dual Ranked x8 ECC DIMM CT16G4WFD8213 / MTA18ASF2G72AZ-2G1A1 (190$)
CASE: FD Node 803 (78€.)
PSU: Seasonic g-550 (~84€.)
CPU FAN: Noctua NH-U14S (68€.) (not sure yet about the model)
HDD: 2x4TB WD red mirrored, for the moment, more in the future.

what do you think about it?
- The MOBO + CPU are around 300eur. , limited to 32Gb RAM but I think it's enough for me. For the same cost could be a Supermicro with c3558 but I think its worse perf/money.
- ¿What do you think about the intel i3-7100?, maybe the other option was a Pentium G4560 for 66eur., what do you think in terms of performance, heat, watts,...I think it's worth the i3.
- Does the i3-7100 fan needs to be removed and changed for a better fan/heatsink like the noctua U14S? maybe it produces less noise. But I don't know.

Ok, that was hard to decide and to find, I'm a litle bit concerned about incompatibilities or after all, that it were a noisy build..., what do you think. For a FREENAS box to storage and backup files, plex server, owncloud, and play a litle with virtualization.

Thank you again

 

[Linkman]

I have an HPE ML10 Gen9 server with the SkyLake i3-6100, previous version of the one you're considering, and the stock cooler is very quiet. Server is under my desk and I can not hear it at all, at least under normal circumstances. I will admit I've never listened while pushing the CPU hard, but I doubt it would make much difference - a 51W TDP CPU doesn't need a lot of cooling.

I'd recommend saving the money on the cooler, using the stock one, and just listen first. You can always swap it out later.

 

[loch_nas]

I agree with @Linkman. If you really want to get something else from the boxed cooler (can be audible if CPU is stressed), then something smaller would be more than enough for that tiny and cool dual-core CPU. A Noctua with a 92mm fan would be more than enough and you could still access all the elements on the mainboard easily. Such a big thing like NH-U14S makes some parts around the CPU socket very hard to access, especially in a small chassis.
But I would try the Boxed first and swap it if the boxed is really too loud.

It's possible that you will need a BIOS update for that mainboard, if you choose the i3-7100. A safe choice would be a i3-6100 if you don't have an older CPU (for socket 1151) at home for making a BIOS update.

Did you really chose the Node 804? That's a micro-ATX chassis. So why not buy a Supermicro Micro-ATX mainboard with more choices for expandability?
With a Supermicro board you will also not need an older CPU for BIOS update as you can update via IPMI. Probably you will have to pay around 20 € for an IPMI BIOS update. But some guy on another forum in Germany told me that Supermicro has sent him the license for that update at no cost.

 

[petoniano]

Sorry, It was a mistake. The case is the node 304 ! Thank you.

OK, the noctua out of the list

 

[petoniano]

Hi, I've just purchased the Asrock motherboard, I'm having problems finding the RAM in Spain.

I've found in amazon.es a 16gb stick from Kingston: model KVR21E15D8/16
should be ok? it's much cheaper than the Crucial RAM
thank you.