BUILD i3 compared to Xeon-E3

[Gamer0126]

I am looking to build a NAS and I have researched the parts but I have a couple of questions:
- What I plan to use the NAS for:

• Automated Computer Back ups at Night
• Emby support for Media storage and streaming HD Movies
• Native Mac OS support
  • Meaning iPhoto Support and iTunes support
• Remote Login Support
• Webpage Support

- The motherboard I plan to use is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O. I am going with this board because of the number of SATA ports available. Originally I was going to go with the ASRock C2550D4I, again due to the number of SATA ports also the Low Power. I rather stay away from an unstable build based on the threads I read here stating the Marvel Chipset does not do well with ZFS/FreeNAS.

- Does the instability still hold true of the ASRock C2550D4I ? Or is there a chance the latest builds have solved the issues seen?
- Is there another Atom board which supports 8+ SATA Ports and is stable with ZFS/FreeNAS?

The SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O requires a i3 or Xeon.
Based on my usage any reason I should go with a Xeon? Is the i3 enough?

I don't think I need the Xeon it may be too much for my usage. I rather spend money on the Hard Drives and reduce power consumption going with the i3. Unless the i3 isn't enough CPU power. I will be using ECC Ram.

 

[Ericloewe]

- Does the instability still hold true of the ASRock C2550D4I ? Or is there a chance the latest builds have solved the issues seen?

The Marvell SATA ports are still crap. That leaves 6 Intel SATA ports.

- Is there another Atom board which supports 8+ SATA Ports and is stable with ZFS/FreeNAS?

I think Supermicro has a model or two, but they're obscure and rather expensive.

Is the i3 enough?

Probably. Generally, the only really complicated workload FreeNAS users have is transcoding multiple simultaneous streams. An i3 generally does two streams with little trouble.

 

[jdong]

I just got burned by random checksum errors on the ASRock's Marvell chipset and that's even with 9.10. I would not recommend using them in production.

 

[russnas]

With above, i have only seen issues with that marvell controller dating back to 2014,i doubt there is any improvements,

everyone wants many sata ports and low powered cpu and they failed to bring that wishful thinking into reality

I3 cpu should be fine

 

[religiouslyconfused]

i3 is a good choice for a CPU. I do recommend if getting the X10SL7-F board, to reflash the controller to IT mode, but that is pretty easy and there are tutorials on how to do it.