BUILD Home NAS build - Sanity Check

[nofferman]

All,

I'm close to pulling the trigger on the following FreeNAS build. Did I miss anything important regarding hardware compatibility or meeting my needs? Thanks!

Needs:
- Store media, pictures and work backups from several Windows 7 PCs reliably. I currently have about 1.5-2TB of data stored; I anticipate needing no more than 8TB of storage over the life of this system. I plan to run 6x 3TB drives in one RAID-Z2 volume and create separate shares on the volume for pictures, music, data, etc. for the Windows PCs to access it. 3TB drives seem to be the best $/GB value right now and would give me ~10TB of available storage (correct?).

- Download media with SABnzbd/Sickbeard/Transmission, then stream it with Plex to 1-2 tablets or HDTVs over 2.4GHz N Wifi at the highest bitrate the network connection will allow.

- Possibly run 1-2 Windows 7 VMs doing some basic office work. This wouldn't overlap with the Plex transcoding.

- A Mini ITX case would be preferable, but it isn't a deal breaker if there's a much better solution using a micro ATX board instead. The server will either live in my office if it's small and quiet, or in a basement if it's not.


Proposed Build:
Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz
ASRock E3C224D2I Mini ITX
Crucial 16GB DDR3 1600 ECC 2x8GB Kit - CT2KIT102472BD160B
6x Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" WD30EFRX - one RAID-Z2 volume
Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower

I already have the following hardware from other PC projects to complete the build:

Seasonic X-Series SS-750KM 80+ Gold PSU
Cyberpower 1500AVR UPS
SanDisk Cruzer Fit 32GB USB drive

My biggest question: Do you think 16GB of RAM is enough for that much storage, transcoding, and media plug-ins to run smoothly 99% of the time? If I want a mini ITX system and socketed CPU, I'm tied to the ASRock boards that only support 16GB. If 16GB of RAM won't cut it, the alternatives seem to be:

- Use an ASRock Avoton board (C2750D4I) and have less CPU power, which might make running VMs impractical. It's also more expensive than board and CPU combo I chose.

- Use the ASRock extended Mini ITX board (E3C224D4I-14S) and Lian Li PC-Q26 case, but I can't find the case for sale yet. Haven't done much further digging on larger cases that might be suitable for an office, any suggestions?

- Just pick a larger motherboard and inexpensive case, and stick the NAS out of sight.

TL;DR - Will 16GB RAM be enough to download, store, and stream, or should I go to a bigger motherboard that will support more RAM?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Jailer]

16GB should be enough for what you plan on doing. It's similar to my usage scenario and mine is running without a hitch.

Good luck with the Windows 7 vm's. Last I checked (and tried) it's too unstable to work. I've got a xp64 vm that has been running without issue though.

 

[marbus90]

Yup, Virtualbox might run okay with XP, but don't come near it with NT6. Tried running a Server 2012 R2 and lost my sanity. 350 character console commands to keep it running... ew. yuck. bah.

You might want to look for a way smaller PSU, 400W max for 6 drives. Better take something around the 300-350W mark. Even if you already have a PSU, your UPS will thank you.

 

[nofferman]

Thanks both for the feedback on VMs. My current VM setup is pretty rock solid reliable, so I'll steer clear of trying that for now.

Marbus - How is a lower wattage power supply easier on the UPS? Because the lower wattage PSU would be running closer to its peak efficiency than the higher wattage one under the same load? Thanks!

 

[marbus90]

Exactly. Also most NAS systems don't even come close to the peak efficiency, not even 300W ones.

 

[Ericloewe]

For small servers, the Seasonic G-Series (360, 450 and 500) are a good choice.

 

[jgreco]

Marbus - How is a lower wattage power supply easier on the UPS? Because the lower wattage PSU would be running closer to its peak efficiency than the higher wattage one under the same load? Thanks!

You don't want to be up in crazy-stupid-large range. A good quality power supply will have a fairly flat efficiency between about 20-70% utilization, and maybe a little further out (15%-85%?) on either end. However, you also want to make sure you have sufficient power to spin up the drives, and some of the recent threads (including this one) have seen poor recommendations.

Taking a guess at the base NAS platform to be between 30-100 watts depending on loading, ten more watts per HDD, you need 90-160 watts just for steady state operation. Spinup current for each drive is an additional 2 amps on the 12V rail, so that means the system could draw more than 300 watts under stress. A 300 or 350 watt supply would be an incredibly poor choice. Instead, you want to forward-project based on that 90 watts. To hit the low end of that 20-70% efficiency window, this implies a 450 watt supply.

This doesn't mean that you couldn't go smaller, but the flip side to this is that as components age, running them closer to capacity stresses them out, and especially for a NAS, the poor thing occasionally sees all its drives spin up simultaneously, which is maximum stress in a short burst. Failure of a supply is caused by component failure, and this can result in destructive voltages being let out into your system. Since that could take out several (or all) drives all at once, causing a catastrophic loss, the smart money is to make sure that you are not EVER stressing the supply to near its rated capacity. That is why you do not pick a 300 watt supply for a box that's been projected to draw more than 300 watts under stress. Not even a 360 watt supply.

So let me be real clear here: you are better off having a supply that's a little larger than suggested herein than one that's a little too small. The 750W supply originally mentioned is about 89% efficient at 20% loading, which is too big a supply because it'll run normally between 12%-20% capacity, and that'll mean the efficiency drops somewhat. However, if the machine is taking 90 watts and is only 80% efficient as a result, we're still only talking a difference of a handful of watts more being consumed due to the inefficiency as compared to a supply that's running at 92% efficiency.

So, guys, please consider carefully before advising people to use supplies that are too small.

 

[sremick]

My build is very similar to yours. I only draw 40-45W idle, maybe 100-120W if I artificially load it to 100% (never actually happens in real usage). I have a 400W power supply.

 

[nofferman]

Thanks everyone for your feedback!