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[ChrisTheWood]

I’m looking for input on a new build. I’ve written down some starting points and initial thoughts. I was hoping for your help in dialing in the exact details.
I would prefer new equipment, but it isn’t a requirement. That said I woudn’t buy used because of budget. It doesn’t need to be top of the line but solid to above average would be the sweet spot for me.
I’m looking for two to 3 solid recommendations in each area. Some alternate thinking. Point out some things I missed.
Also only 3 people in the house.

Must Have:
Movie Streaming – Thinking Plex (don’t need a lot of transcoding, maybe two to 3 streams, but plan to do mostly direct play with infuse)
Redundancy
Store Video from Blue Iris or other NVR - what are your thoughts on Purple drives for the NVR pool?
A way to back up family photos and video

Nice to Have:
Expandable ( add more drives)
Hot Swap drives

Case – Define R5, Node 304 or 804, Silverstone ds380B – I realize that is a large diversity there, but I started out gravitating to the small form factor as I’d like it to go on or in my A/V rack. However I’ve read about the challenges of cooling in the smaller cases. The r5 seems like overkill for my purposes but it does provide a lot of flexibility. It would also fit fine in my A/V Room but not in the rack. More like next to or behind the rack.
Motherboard: I was originally looking at the Super Micro mini ITX Xeon D boards but If I go with a bigger case I guess I have more options. I would love some alternate recommendations. I realize if we change boards I’d need to look at CPUs and Coolers.

Memory: Crucial 32gb (2 x 16) ddr4-2133 ECC Registered

Boot Disks: Mirrored Samsung EVO internal SSDs or San Disk Curzer Fit USB, should I consider a Sata Dom, Can I mix and Match, Sata Dom and USB, or USB and Internal SSD?

Storage: 6x 4TB WD RED or Seagate IronWolf
Power Supply: Was originally looking at the Silverstone SFX 650w Gold Plus, but if the case changes that could be something to adjust. I’m thinking modular but it could be a corsair or other. Perhaps i could get away with less wattage here. I haven't done the calculation just yet.

Thanks for the help.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Movie Streaming – Thinking Plex (don’t need a lot of transcoding, maybe two to 3 streams, but plan to do mostly direct play with infuse)
Redundancy

There is a nice tool to determine which CPU you'll need for your transcoding needs. Check out the PassMark score of the CPU you're interested in. I recently built a backup system and had good luck with a used CPU. You could save significantly (and put that money to RAM and HDDs) if you find a good used CPU that'll handle the load you need.

Motherboard: I was originally looking at the Super Micro mini ITX Xeon D

If you go with a larger case you may want to look at the Supermicro X10 or X11 boards. You can find nice used boards on ebay if you're looking to safe money for other parts of your build. For my build I opted for the X11SSM-F because it supported more modern CPUs in case I wanted to do a lot of transcoding and needed a better CPU, it supports 64GB of RAM, and has plenty of PCIe slots for HBAs and NICs if I want to upgrade. I bet you could fine an X10 that'll server your needs just fine though and save some money if that is a concern.

Memory: Crucial 32gb ddr4-2133 ECC Registered

Obviously, make sure your memory is compatible with the board. You will probably want to go with larger DIMMs so you can expand in the future. For example, a lot of X10 single-socket boards support 64GB of RAM and have 4 slots. You can start with either a single 16GB or two 16GB DIMMs and as your needs grow you can upgrade your system to the full 64GB capacity without replacing memory you already have.

Nice to Have:
Expandable ( add more drives)
Hot Swap drives

If you want hot-swap support from the hardware level you'll need to make sure the controller supports it. Something like the LSI 9207. If you're interested in making it easy to hot-swap then obviously the case matters significantly.

Case – Define R5, Node 304 or 804, Silverstone ds380B

If you care about hot-swapping I'd suggest something bigger than the Node 304 or 804. Both look fairly tight to me and in order to safely get a drive out you may need to switch it off anyway. The Silverstone DS380B looks to have nice bays but caps at 8. I looked at similar cases for my first build but went with the define R6 because I could get 12 drives in. 12 was the magic minimum number for me so I could have 2 RAIDZ2 vdevs each composed of 6 drives. I bet you can get 12 drives in that Define R5 with a few extra brackets. I know the R6 has great air flow and is pretty quiet, I really like mine. My one complaint is the R6 drive trays sag a little. Perhaps the R5's mounting mechanism will preclude that issue.

I will say that for my first build I opted for a traditional tower. I regret that. I wish I had gone with a 1U server chassis for the main board and a 3U JBOD for the disks. Patience on ebay can get those to you for fairly cheap, but not as cheap as a single tower, of course.

Boot Disks: Mirrored Samsung EVO internal SSDs or San Disk Curzer Fit USB, should I consider a Sata Dom, Can I mix and Match, Sata Dom and USB, or USB and Internal SSD?

I believe that most folks recommend going for SSDs now. USB drives can be flaky and with SSDs so cheap now you might as well bump up. I currently use two mirrored SATA DOMs on my main build, but I will admit part of the reasoning was that I thought they were cool. If space is a concern though the SATA DOMs can save you space inside the case.

Hope this helps. I'm fairly new to FreeNAS so if someone suggests something contrary to

 

[ChrisTheWood]

summarizing what I'm thinking. It occurred to me that this might have come off like I'm asking you guys to build this for me. I have read the hardware guide and think i'm in the ballpark. Really wondering if I've missed something or if you have any suggestions.

Case: Leaning toward Fractal R5, seems to be the most flexible for changes down the road.
Motherboard:

• Supermicro X10SDV-6C-TLN4F-O or another from that Line (passmarks range from 5000 and $550 for the 1518 and up to about 11000 and $1000 for the 1541)
• Supermicros X11SSM-F mentioned above seems solid and only $215 dollars

CPU (if Needed): Intel Xeon E3-1230 V6 - BX80677E31230V6 or maybe th 1245 depending on prices when I pull the trigger, both seem to have a plenty high passmark score

Memory: Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4-2133 MT/S (PC4-2133) CL15 dual ranked x4based ECC Registered Server Memory CT2K16G4RFD4213

Boot Mirror: 2x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD

Media and File Storage: 6x 4TB WD RED or Seagate Ironwolf depending on Price. Thinking this will a z2 pool

Power Supply: Seasonic FOCUS Plus 650 Gold SSR-650FX 650W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan


as for those purple drives I mentioned. They are surveillance specific.. Anytime you buy an NVR, those are what is suggested. This is due to the very specific write patterns associated with video recording. I have a hikvision nvr with 2x 2tb purple drives. I don't love the NVR and want to switch to Blue IRIS. I was wondering what you thought about setting up those purple drives as a seperate mirror/pool for my camera footage. The footage basically only lives there a certain amount of time and is constantly getting written over. anything I needed to save would be copied over to the z2 pool.
option two would be to sell the hikvision unit as a whole and use those funds to buy more Reds
I'm also thinking that either way this is going to require an HBA at some point. This is the biggest area where I need your help. I'll see what I can find as well.


Thanks again for the help.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

It occurred to me that this might have come off like I'm asking you guys to build this for me.

Not at all. :) It looks like you're definitely done some research. I find the research parts of building a computer the most fun.

X10SDV-6C-TLN4F-O

This looks like a system on chip board. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something but this may detract from flexibility in the future. It also has only a single PCIe slot which you'll fill with an HBA to control your drives. This will limit how you can add new drives in the future. It will still be possible, but with fewer options. I would suggest an X10 or X11 board that has a few more expansion slots and allows more CPU flexibility. Keep an eye on what features the board has that you'll need. For example, some of them have M.2 slots. You probably don't need those. Some come with 10Gbe as well. Unless you're got a router/switch and other 10Gbe machines ready that is also unnecessary. Having 2 or 3 PCIe slots allows you to add a 10Gbe NIC down the road and still have plenty of room for an HBA to control your drives. Also worth noting the max memory supported by the board.

CPU (if Needed): Intel Xeon E3-1230 V6 - BX80677E31230V6 or maybe th 1245 depending on prices when I pull the trigger, both seem to have a plenty high passmark score

The Xeon E3-1245 has integrated graphics, I believe. I'm not sure you'll have any need for that in a FreeNAS build. Perhaps you could find a slightly better processor without integrated graphics at a similar price?

I'm also thinking that either way this is going to require an HBA at some point. This is the biggest area where I need your help. I'll see what I can find as well.

There are lots of great links about HBAs in the forums. You can find affordable, used HBAs on ebay such as this LSI 9211 which should handle the internal disks that would fit in an R5.

Memory: Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4-2133 MT/S (PC4-2133) CL15 dual ranked x4based ECC Registered Server Memory CT2K16G4RFD4213

I would recommend Crucial's compatibility tool to be sure you get the right memory once you finalize your board. I don't see the CT2K16G4RFD4213 modules under either the X11SSM-F or X10SDV-6C-TLN4F's compatibility list from Crucial but perhaps I didn't look hard enough. Crucial should work fine for build though. Just pick your board first, then use their tool to find compatible memory then pick up the largest DIMMs you can afford that fit your board.

Boot Mirror: 2x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD

Media and File Storage: 6x 4TB WD RED or Seagate Ironwolf depending on Price. Thinking this will a z2 pool

Both of these seem reasonable to me. I generally find the Ironwolfs to be a bit cheaper right now. RAIDZ2 is great for 6-disk vdevs.

Power Supply: Seasonic FOCUS Plus 650 Gold SSR-650FX 650W 80+ Gold ATX12V & EPS12V Full Modular 120mm FDB Fan

I'm no expert on power supplies. I've seen some folks suggest that the 650W is more than you need for a build of your type. I used a similar PSU in a very similar build. I don't regret it as the slight cost increase wasn't a bank buster for me.


It looks like you're most of the way there! I think the biggest thing to work out is to finalize the board you want and be sure it'll support your use cases. That goes a long way in defining the rest of the build.

 

[Stevie_1der]

Memory: Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4-2133 MT/S (PC4-2133) CL15 dual ranked x4based ECC Registered Server Memory CT2K16G4RFD4213

Registered RAM doesn't work for

Supermicros X11SSM-F

but it should (please check compatibility) work for

Supermicro X10SDV-6C-TLN4F-O

If you have that memory already, you should look for mainboards that support registered RAM.
But the ones from Supermicro that do support RDIMM are mostly socket 2011-3.

 

[ChrisTheWood]

I don't have the memory yet. I haven't ordered anything yet.
I am looking to sort out the correct memory first.

 

[ChrisTheWood]

Seems like this is the memory I would need for that X11ssm board also seems like it would work on most of those x11 boards from super micro.

Crucial 16GB DDR4-21300 2Gx72 ECC CL19 Server Memory Model CT16G4WFD8266

 

[Stevie_1der]

Or you could consider the Samsung DIMM 16GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC (M391A2K43BB1-CRC), this is on the compatibility list of the X11SSM.
Here in Germany (where I live), these are actually a few bucks cheaper than the Crucial CT16G4WFD8266.