Home NAS

[Lucinde]

Hello everybody,

For a long time I'm planning to build a home NAS, but somehow something always prevented me from making the actual purchase (waiting on new platforms like the C3000, the garden needing attention, spending time with the kids, ...).
But now I'm ready to do it, my mouse pointer is almost above the buy button, I just wanted to double check the build with you to see if it will FreeNAS well.

The aim is to use it as a file server (obviously) with some extra functionality like:
Plex server, max 2 or 3 simultaneous streams, could need some transcoding from 1080p MKV bluray backups.
Video surveillance, maybe 2 cams using something like Xeoma to handle the feeds.
NextCloud for the family.
Web server to host a CMS for family related stuff, light usage.
Light VM usage for a home lab.

After reading the hardware recommendations this is the build I have in mind:

Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSM-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6
RAM: Hynix 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC UDIMM
Boot disk: Corsair Force LS 60GB
Data disks: 2x HGST Ultrastar He10 10GB 4Kn ISE (mirror)
Case: Fractal Design Define R6
PSU: Be Quiet! 450W Straight Power 11

Will this do the trick? I still have some doubts, so opinions are welcome!

Some things I'm not sure about:
ECC UDIMMs are hard to find. Anyone knows why? Do you think it will be impossible to find if I want to upgrade the RAM in the future?
Does anyone have experience with the Ultrastars? I chose the 2 disk mirror because it's about the same price as 5 smaller disks in RAID-Z2, but leaves more room for expansion later on.
I don't find much about the PSU on the forum. However, the praised Seasonic G-series are hard to find and I have good experience with Be Quiet.


Cheers,
L.

 

[kdragon75]

The only thing that's jumping out to me is the 16GB of RAM and the E3 quad core. For all the extra stuff you are running, you may want to add a bit of RAM. Also be sure to keep your VMs set as single cores.

 

[Lucinde]

Thanks for the reply!

I wasn't sure 16GB would be enough either, but I was planning to see how snappy it was and upgrade to 32GB if necessary.

Would a quad core E5 like the 1620 v4 perform better than a quad core E3? I guess not, CPU benchmark scores seem more or less the same.
Another advantage of the E5 is that is uses registered DDR4, which seems to be easier to find.
A second hand six core like the 1650 v3 could be interesting...

 

[adrianwi]

Yeah, more memory if you're wanting to run some VMs. You might get away with 16 if you're just running a couple of jails which share the system resources, but VMs won't share and will take up the CPU and memory allocated for the entire time they are running.

It's a pretty big case for 2 drives too!

 

[Ericloewe]

Xeon E5s would need a different, more expensive motherboard.

 

[kdragon75]

Xeon E5s would need a different, more expensive motherboard.

True. I would get an older generation CPU and board with 6 cores.

 

[Lucinde]

It's a pretty big case for 2 drives too!

I know :) But it provides space for future expansion.
My desktop is in a Define R4 and I'm happy with it: it provides decent cooling and is very silent. The NAS would be in my office, so the aesthetic aspect is also a thing.

Xeon E5s would need a different, more expensive motherboard.

Yep. I'm thinking about a Supermicro X10SRL-F if I would go down that road. It's about €50 more expensive, but has 2 extra SATA ports and 8 RAM slots that take registered DDR4, which seems to be a little bit cheaper than unbuffered.

 

[danb35]

Your choices look good for new hardware. More RAM is always good, but you can add that later. I'd suggest considering, if available, recent used hardware. In .us, you can get fairly recent used gear running DDR3 RAM (which tends to be cheaper) for a hefty discount from new--not sure how things are in .be, though.

 

[Stux]

Looks like a good set of choices to me.

1230 is a good cpu. 8 threads.
16GB is a good starter amount of ram

Corsair RMx PSU range is also an alternative.

Mirrors allow easy expansion and good random perf, at the cost of 50% storage efficiency. 6 way raidz2 gets you 66% storage efficiency, but it’s harder to get from a pair of mirrors now to 6 way raidz2 later, but not impossible.

Still 10TB is a lot of storage and if that meets your requirements then good luck :)

 

[Lucinde]

Again, thanks for the feedback!

Your choices look good for new hardware. More RAM is always good, but you can add that later. I'd suggest considering, if available, recent used hardware. In .us, you can get fairly recent used gear running DDR3 RAM (which tends to be cheaper) for a hefty discount from new--not sure how things are in .be, though.

It's a bit harder to find in .be. Importing from the US doesn't seem worth it, because of the high import taxes.
I had my eye on a good E5 deal in Germany, but I was too late.
And somehow, I don't fully trust the cheap "engineering samples" from Hongkong :)

Looks like a good set of choices to me.

1230 is a good cpu. 8 threads.
16GB is a good starter amount of ram

Corsair RMx PSU range is also an alternative.

Mirrors allow easy expansion and good random perf, at the cost of 50% storage efficiency. 6 way raidz2 gets you 66% storage efficiency, but it’s harder to get from a pair of mirrors now to 6 way raidz2 later, but not impossible.

Still 10TB is a lot of storage and if that meets your requirements then good luck :)

I'm now in doubt between a new E3 1230 v6 and a used E5 1650 v3. The E5 has 6 cores while the E3 has only 4, but the single core performance of the E3 seems to be better...
The only thing that worries me a bit is that it's hard to find unbuffered ECC DDR4 for the E3...

 

[Stux]

You go to an E5 if you want more than 32/64GB of ram or more pcie lanes generally.

But yes, you can get lots of cores too. If you’re looking at older e5 hardware check out the 2XXX range. They still work in single processor boards and can be had relatively cheaply as ex enterprise equipment

Have a look at my builds (in signature) and then go back to the e3-1230 ;)

It’s very easy to get into the *more* power thing, but you started out wanting to build a nice home nas with 4 cores and 2 drives ;)

 

[Lucinde]

It’s very easy to get into the *more* power thing, but you started out wanting to build a nice home nas with 4 cores and 2 drives ;)

Haha, true. Once you start googling it's very easy to get lured into a slightly more powerful/expensive setup :)

 

[southwow]

Just kidding... I'm running a 1231V3 and am totally happy with it. In fact, it's been plugging away for almost 3 years now. Just make sure you've got enough RAM.

 

[rvassar]

I have 16Gb in my NAS now, and run one little Ubuntu VM with a very low memory allocation of 768mb, and the usual Plex jail. I'm not under a lot of memory pressure, it's not swapping, but I don't have a lot of room for anything else.

 

[southwow]

I'm running 32GB with 2 VM's (both windows for various backups). 4GB assigned to each VM, with zero problems except occasional lag when a large file is being backed up and I try to play it.

I plan to ditch one of the VM's when one of the backups is current (both started from scratch, one local, one cloud)

 

[Lucinde]

Thank you, all!

I decided to go for the original E3 setup, but with 32GB of RAM. Let the impatiently waiting for delivery begin...

Haha, this exact image also popped in my mind when I read Stux' *more* power comment :D