Looking at Building Freenas Media Server

[Gosties]

Over the last year I have utilized UNRAID, XPENOLOGY & WINDOWS 7 to various degrees.
Thought about FREENAS without ECC RAM. Not worth it with bit rot risks without ECC RAM.
Settled on UNRAID but not entirely satisfied with that.
Looking again at FREENAS now but having purchased ECC RAM.

Current Components available for build

CPU - AMD FX 8150
M/B - ASUS SABERTOOTH 990 R2

ECC RAM comprised of
RAM 8GB(2x4GB) DDR3-1333
RAM 4GB(2x2GB) DDR3-1333

X-Case/Norco 4224 Case
LSI SAS 9201-16i (16 SATA PORTS)

Hard Dives

4 WD Green 2TB
3 Hitachi 2TB
5 Seagate Barracuda 3TB
4 Seagate Barracuda 2TB (Additional Spare 2TB)

Looking for suggestions but considering more than likely 0f

1) 6 Disk Z2 2tb
2) 6 Disk Z2 2tb
3) 6 Disk Z2 3tb

Will have to move TV & Movies on an on going basis when I create pools.
But have 6X2tb to create my first pool unoccupied.
Looking to begin a build later in the week.

Any suggestions appreciated

Been reading this and Hard-Forum for pointers regarding FREENAS with ZFS Z2. Looked at Ubuntu as well but inexperienced with CLI. So therefore FREENAS looks a better bet for me.

 

[cyberjock]

You seem to have a fairly good grasp of the fundamentals... The Norco 4224 may have cooling issues.. so watch your hard drives closely(especially during scrubs) to keep them below the fated 40C.

The NIC is a "to avoid" though.. Realtek. Might want to get an Intel NIC to add on so you can avoid the Realtek wrath altogether. You're definitely going to need more RAM if you plan to have more than 1 vdev of your 6-disk groups.

 

[Gosties]

I know board supports 32Gb Ram and will upgrade when funds allow.
Any suggestions for an "Intel" NIC.
Still have a lot of reading to do before building..

 

[cyberjock]

Naa.. just any cheap Intel NIC that is PCIe will work just fine.

 

[Gosties]

Thanks will purchase Intel NIC before installing FREENAS.

 

[cyberjock]

ebay works REALLY well for this. Used are just as useful as new unless you have a problem with used NICs. :P

 

[Gosties]

Have no qualms purchasing from Ebay. Only issue is that Item purchased works as prescribed.

 

[cyberjock]

If you want validation on a particluarl model, just drop in the IRC channel with a link to what you want. Surely one of us experienced guys will tell you if its okay or not. But in short, if its PCIe and Intel Gb it'll work just fine.

 

[Gosties]

Unfortunately purchased ECC Registered RAM instead of Unbuffered ECC RAM.
Why make it easy for yourself !!!!

A few moments of head-scratching figuring out why machine would not even post.

Will purchase correct ECC RAM when I receive refund for my own stupidity.

 

[cyberjock]

Whoa.. hopefully you didn't blow your memory controller with that mistake!

 

[Gosties]

Everything Ok.

Ordering Unbuffered ECC RAM as soon as I get refunded.