BUILD Help With Proposed Build

[Cytokine Storm]

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some help with hardware selection for my first FreeNAS build. I'll just be using this as a home server storing mainly video and music files. In time, I expect to expand it's storage capacity to ~20 TB. I already have a case, a power supply, and a few WD Red 3 TB drives. Here's what I'm thinking in terms of CPU, motherboard, and RAM:

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 Haswell Dual-Core 3.7GHz LGA 1150 54W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I34360

Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

ECC RAM: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B (upgraded to 32 GB in the future as storage capacity increases)

What do you guys think? Will this CPU/motherboard/RAM combination work? If I've overlooked anything major, please let me know. You won't hurt my feelings. As I said, this is my first build.

 

[cyberjock]

Bang-up job! Two thumbs up! I'd get the i3 that has no video graphics though since they won't be used on your build. The built-in graphics work without a video CPU and the quicksync isn't supported in FreeNAS. ;)

Nice username by the way...

 

[Cytokine Storm]

Thanks, CyberJock. I was looking at the 4th gen. Intel Core I3s, and I didn't see one without integrated graphics. Am I missing something? Which processor would you recommend if this were your build?

 

[BigDave]

Bang-up job! Two thumbs up! I'd get the i3 that has no video graphics though since they won't be used on your build. The built-in graphics work without a video CPU and the quicksync isn't supported in FreeNAS. ;)

Nice username by the way...

Socket 1150 i3 CPUs all have Integrated GPUs

 

[DKarnov]

The 41x0s have a slightly less powerful integrated GPU in exchange for being a couple bucks cheaper. And, yes, the 43x0s have 4MB L3 cache instead of 3MB, but I'm not convinced there's a use case for an i3 FreeNAS box where that'd be noticeable.

One might think the chip with the fancier GPU would run a touch hotter but Intel is smart enough to power those chunks of silicon down when not in use.

Which i3 you get isn't going to matter much, beyond price (especially since you don't mention transcoding) but don't bother with the -T variant 'low power' chips, they're for thermal-limited scenarios, aren't as well suited for FreeNAS type applications, and won't actually use less power.

 

[cyberjock]

Socket 1150 i3 CPUs all have Integrated GPUs

Bah. Shows how many i3s I've bought. Guess it doesn't matter.

Personally, I think the extra 1MB of cache would make a difference for ZFS since ZFS is so memory intensive, but who knows. Without hard numbers it's just speculation. If you want to make the decision based on my opinion, I'd go with the CPU with the extra 1MB of L3 cache.

 

[Cytokine Storm]

Thanks for your advice guys!

 

[Jailer]

Aside from the CPU that is the same hardware I went with for my build. You'll be very happy with it's performance.

Also if you've never used it before you're going to love IPMI. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

For what it's worth, I picked the extra MB of L3 over a higher base clock.

It's not like DDR3 1600 is going to be a bottleneck anytime soon, but seeing all the Core 2 era stuff struggling today makes the extra MB of L3 look more appealing.