Input on my first Freenas Server build...

[benraines815]

First of all.. Great forum... The knowledge and info is very useful and informative.
So I've been reading and searching the community forum and I think I'm about ready to finish my purchase...
I'm going with a Supermicro X9DRL-3F 2 socket motherboard for a few reasons...
Price and I want to run VMs on it using the FreeNAS x10 bhyve hypervisor.
This will be for home use. (primarily files, media, light streaming and VMs)

I have:
Case: Silverstone CS380 ATX
PSU: Seasonic X series 650watt
HDD: 7 WD Red Drives
Looking at below for the rest...

Mobo: Supermicro X9DRL-3F-O Dual LGA2011/ Intel C606/ DDR3/ SATA3/ V&2G
$299.00
CPU: CM8062101082713 1 INTEL XEON E5-2670 8 CORE 2.60GHz 20M 8GT/s 115W PROCESSOR
$88 (hoping 1 CPU we'll be ok in the beginning)
RAM: 16GB 2x16GB DDR3 Memory PC3-10600R ECC REG DIMM 240-Pin 1333MHz RAM Memory
$34.00 (I'll start with 32gb and grow from there..)

I think all I need now is to get a thumbdrive for FreeNAS, heatsinks, SLOG device, ups and I'm good to go for the install...

Looking for input on the hardware I have chosen.. (I did my best to look at mobo manuals, specs, requirements and reading through forums)
Any input on a heatsink??

 

[wblock]

I'm skeptical about the need for a SLOG device on this.

As far as heatsinks, I have personally replaced the stock one included with a Xeon E3 with a Hyper 212 Evo and found no difference. Have not tried the E5 processors, though.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I agree that you probably don't need the slog device. Get any quality heatsink you want they will all cool just fine. If you are looking at getting a dual socket system just for vm's I think you need to get way more memory and start with 16GB or 32GB dimms.

 

[melloa]

RAM: 16GB 2x8GB DDR3 Memory PC3-10600R ECC REG DIMM 240-Pin 1333MHz RAM Memory
$34.00 (I'll start with 32gb and grow from there..)

Did you mean to say 4x8GB? I read 32GB as starting ...

 

[benraines815]

Thanks. I'm actually starting out with 32gb 2 16gb sticks. I goofed up on my message. I'm just starting with 32gb in the beginning and will add another 32 or 48gb later.

I just wanted to make sure the hardware I picked out would work with freenas

Thanks.

I'm just starting out

I agree that you probably don't need the slog device. Get any quality heatsink you want they will all cool just fine. If you are looking at getting a dual socket system just for vm's I think you need to get way more memory and start with 16GB or 32GB dimms.

 

[benraines815]

Heatsink ordered.. One down many to go....

Funny, I'm re-checking my list to confirm compatibility..

I thought my MOBO had to have a Xeon 2600 V2 after looking at some specs..

So I started searching for the V2 on ebay and found a 10 Core at a better price..
Turns out my MOBO supports the 2600 and the 2600 V2.. Oh well.. I like the 10 core which is $20 cheaper and a year newer...

 

[melloa]

Are you sure you need all that CPU power? Usually is memory that will hold you up ... That picture is of an i3 with 24 GB RAM, running 6 VMs. I've been moving my ESXI from server to server here at home to see what I really need: From an old 2950, to an Intel S5000 dual xeon x5450 3 GHz, and today moved to that i3 just for test. The pick in CPU utilization you will see was when I was creating a linux VM and doing a huge update to it and, at the same time, I'm watching x-files on my Plex :)

Let me know where you land as I'm also trying to build a new server, but for virtualization, as my FreeNASes are all set on two separated, dedicated, boxes.