Help with hardware

[Phix]

I'm planning on upgrading my current system with the intention of later on using that hardware as a server/NAS box. When it becomes a server/NAS it should be able to support 2 transcodes at a time of HD movies, with enough CPU power to support a VM server. As a gaming PC I require the motherboard to have a PCI-e 3.0 16x (16x) slot, but as a NAS I need it also to have - a lot of SATA 3.0 ports, ECC memory support, dual gigabit LAN (from reading around it needs to be Intel rather than Realtek), and room for future expansion (PCI-e slots). I think that I've found a motherboard and configuration that fits the bill, but would greatly appreciate any input and criticism.

Motherboard: ASRock C226 WS (£151.99)
-Supports LACP
-PCI-e 3.0 16x (16x) for GPU
-10 SATA 3.0 ports
-ECC memory support (up to 32GB)
-Current generation


CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 v3 @ 3.4GHz with 3.8GHz turbo (£202.60*)
-4 cores with hyperthreading
-ECC support
-VT-x and VT-d support
-Current generation

*Currently unable to find any reseller for the UK that has this item in stock, but considering the MOBO has a dispatch of 1-2 months, that shouldn't be a problem.


RAM: Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) kit @ 1600MHz (£128.99)
-DDR3-1600
-low power consumption (1.35V)


Disk Drives: A mixture of WD RED 4TB and Seagate NAS 4TB drives (£115-£130 per drive)
-RAIDZ (2+1) then another vdev of RAIDZ (2+1) when i can afford it (or change it RAIDZ2 4+2 depending on performance/requirements).



Motherboard:
http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?Model=C226+WS
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-WS-S...d=1396093449&sr=8-1&keywords=ASRock+WS+Server

CPU:
http://ark.intel.com/products/75055/intel-xeon-processor-e3-1240-v3-8m-cache-3_40-ghz
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...e-34ghz-base-38ghz-turbo-8mb-cache-80w-retail

RAM:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=0CA44A43A5CA7304
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT2...1396093529&sr=8-1&keywords=CT2KIT102472BD160B

 

[survive]

Hi Phix,

So you want to buy a system that you can use for gaming now but plan on using it as a FreeNAS box in the future? I suppose the AsRock board should work for that but keep in mind you might have to compromise some features you would expect out of a desktop board (does the AsRock have sound? will a video card actually work in the 16x slot?).

If you are planning on dual-booting this box so you can run Windows when you need to & use it as a filer the rest of the time I'm not so sure I would do that.

-Will

 

[Phix]

Hi Will thanks for responding.
Yes it does have on board sound (7.1 Realtek ALC1150), and a graphics card would work with the board as it supports up to 3-way crossfire (x8 x8 x4), but I intend to only use 1 GPU for this build in x16. What I'm planning on doing with this build is use it as a temporary gaming machine. When I get another upgrade instead of this machine becoming surplus to requirements I can use it as a dedicated NAS/server. FreeNAS will be the base install and I'm hoping to run a VM through the VirtualBox plugin (currently though there seems to be a problem with it see https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/1974 by the time I get round to do this hopefully any issues will have been resolved and there will be better documentation).

 

[Phix]

The motherboard has dropped in price, definitely considering ordering it soon so long as no one can see any potential problems with the set up. Don't know if the price drop is to do with the recent haswell refresh announcement (don't know if it will be incompatible with the new chips, but as they stand at the moment I don't think there will be much performance improvements and the e3-1240 v3 seems a decent enough chip to last the next 5 or so years). I'm just hoping there wont be any unwelcome surprises (extra custom's tax to pay).