Looking for feedback on a build for my budget

[thecoffeeguy]

hey everyone.
Just wanted to say first that i have been reading these boards and stickies for a better part of the morning and plan to do more reading today.

Wanted to lay out a few questions and see if I could get some feedback on direction for my FreeNAS box i am going to build.

The requirement is a NAS device for my home ESXi lab environment with the possibility of expanding this to potentially serve up media to my TV (streaming movies). The second part is down the road. The immediate need is for the ESXi box.

I do have a budget. I have looked at buying a NAS, but they are very pricey and i feel "locked in" to what i buy (no expansion really and if you can, its pricey as well.)

So here is what I am looking for.
A setup that is stable, reliable and pretty fast. Does not need to be over the top fast, but fast enough to serve up storage to 12-15 VM's running at any given time. I am going to start with 1-2TB of space, with the idea to add more when I get some more cash available.

Here is what I have put together so far:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C202 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182251

Intel Pentium G3220

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950

Seasonic PSU (I am a fan of Seasonic)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151072

Drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

Still looking for a case, but looking at that were listed in the sticky thread that meet a size for me.
Still shopping for memory, but a question on memory (will use ECC memory). What is a good amount to start with to get me up and running? 4gb? 8gb?

I apologize for the rushed thread here. But wanted to get this as a solid starting place for me.

This may be a long winded question, but what type of performance would I get with something like this? Any rough estimates? Am I underpowering myself? jsut right?

Appreciate the help very much.

Best,

TCG

 

[cyberjock]

You are failing bro.. but that's okay.. I'll give you some advice:

1. The X9SCM-F is like $10 more than the X9SCL-F.. and you get 1 more PCIe slot.
2. That CPU and board isn't compatible.. 1150 ≠ 1155.
3. Nothing less than 8GB of RAM. Typically 16GB is a good sweet spot for home users.

Performance varies depending on your load. You'll be plenty happy with it if you use it to store your files like most of us do.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Man. Cant believe I linked the wrong CPU. That was totally my fault. I meant to link the 1155 CPU.:
This is the one I meant to link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116887

I will upgrade to the X9SCM-F. Makes sense for $10 more.

I will go with 8gb to start with, with the idea to add 8 more down the road.

Appreciate the feedback.

Cheers,

TCG

 

[cyberjock]

That CPU is a good choice... If you don't want to do encryption, transcoding with Plex or some other CPU intensive jail application, or use high compression in your pool. If you want to do any of those you should look at a Xeon.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Thanks Cyberjock. I dont envision needing those particular features, since this is for my home lab.
Biggest thing for me was building a rock solid stable storage server that gives me the option to expand out (start with 1-2 drives then add more as i need it.)

Really appreciate your help.
Going to buy those pieces today.

Thanks,

TCG

 

[diedrichg]

Good choice on the ECC, Kingston is the most compatible and reliable. Definitely go for 16GB, FreeNAS will run its best at that level. Good news is the processor supports ECC RAM, I made sure to look that up as I didn't want you to have made a big mistake but it looks like you have that covered!

Be sure to set up your installation as RaidZ2 with either 4, 6 or 10 disks. RaidZ1 is not a good option - I don't remember the reasons why right now but cyberjock has written all about it and highly suggests RaidZ2.

Something to note, once you've built a RaidZ1 volume, all data will be lost if you decide to go to RaidZ2 later and you'll need to be sure you have a backup solution.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Thanks all for the feedback and help. Definitely going to go with Kingston due to the good things I hear about them and compatibility with FreeNAS systems.
I ordered my CPU, mobo, 8gb memory (to get me going) and the base OS drive (still looking for the storage drives.)

As I was reading last night on the board here and the docs, RaidZ2 looks to be the better approach for storage. That said, i started to think about some additional options, specifically on the case said. It occurred to me that I should consider future expansion. I started to think about how I could expand on my setup if I ever needed to. The last thing I want to do is limit myself. Originally I was looking at this Fractal 304 case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352027

looks good. Good price. 6 internal drive bays. But, one drive bay would be taken up by the OS drive, which leaves me with 5. Still good amount of space, but expansion future, does that limit me?

That in mind, any thoughts/suggestions on how to keep my options open if I want to add additional spaces in the future? Not sure what I would need, but its always good to leave room for growth.

Thanks everyone.

Cheers,

TCG

 

[gpsguy]

Don't install the OS on a hard disk. Just use a 4Gb flash drive. FreeNAS is designed to run this way.


Sent from my phone

 

[thecoffeeguy]

I like that...I can definitely do that. I have a bunch of 4gb, 8gb and 16gb USB sticks laying around.
That gives me six 6 full internal bays for 6 disks with that case I linked about.
What if i need to add more space? Say my storage growth is exceeding what I planned for. Options there? Different case? Buy bigger drives? Add on expansion bay of some sort?
THanks,

TCG

EDIT: I have a bunch of these lying around my house:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820168059

Those be pretty good choice for FreeNAS to run on?
Thx

 

[gpsguy]

I'd either buy a larger case up front or as you said as you said buy bigger drives. If say, you started with a RAIDz2 array composed of 6x1Tb drives, down the road, you could slowly replace them (one at a time) the 1Tb drives with say a 4Tb drive. Once all of them had been replaced, you'd see the expanded space in the pool.

I'd stay away from expansion bays, especially USB connected ones.

You flash drives should be okay. Once you install the OS on one, install it on a 2nd one, as a backup. And, on a periodic basis, backup your configuration file. If your first flash drive fails, all you need to do is insert the backup and restore a copy of the configuration file. You can do the backups manually via the webGUI or automate it with a cron job.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Thanks gpsguy. That is kind of the direction I was leaning towards. I will revise my case and find a little bit bigger one for the flexability.
Thanks.

 

[diedrichg]

The Node 304 is exactly what I used to build my FreeNAS. I love it! I currently only have 4 drives in there @ 1TB each but I know that I have the ability to expand to 6x4TB or bigger (which would be ~16TB) when/if the day ever comes. Below is my review on NewEgg regarding my build experience.

As a side note: FreeNAS is specifically built and intended to be run on a USB drive. 4GB is recommended. Larger USB drives does not mean more performance or expansion. It means wasted space as the OS is not designed that way.

As for the processor cooler, I found my stock AMD CPU fan to be overly noisy so I switched it out with this GELID Silent 7 FN-SX07-22 70mm case fan. My review was the first one.

Oh, to expand on what gpsguy said - if you have 3x1TB and 1x4TB drives, you will only see your pool storage as though you had 4x1TB drives. The OS matches the storage space to the smallest drive in the pool. You won't see 4x4TB capacity until you you have all 4 drives of the same size.

Node 304 review
Pros: This was such a fun build for my FreeNAS box!!! With my 4 hard drives occupying each of the drive cages and still 2 slots left I have plenty of room to upgrade my NAS in the future. This was a huge selling point for me. I loved the amount of internal storage in relation to the actual box size.

Another major selling point are the 90mm intake fans that blow _directly_ onto the hard drives and the 140mm exhaust fan. The integrated 3-speed fan controller was a major bonus!!

You don't have to worry about power supply length if you are not using any add-in cards (ex. video card). After building the system though, I wouldn't go longer than 170mm since your cords will be abutting the side of the case and will be difficult to bend. See my question to them and their answer below...

Cons: I took the 90mm fans off the front so that I would have some additional room to maneuver during cable management. Unfortunately, when some of the screws were being removed they also removed some plastic too. This then caused a couple of the screws to spin when replaced.

Other Thoughts: Motherboard--ASRock FM2A85X-ITX FM2
Processor--AMD A6-5400K
Memory--Kingston HyperX 16GB KHX16C9P1K2/16
Power supply--SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W 80 Plus Gold
4 1TB WD HDs = total system electrical system usage: 52W

Here was my question to their tech support regarding power supply length:

Me.........
Hello, I am about to build a NAS with the Node 304 box but I have a question about the power supply. I see that the power supply can't be longer than 160mm. The power supply I was originally hoping to use is 170mm. Being that this will be a NAS box with no video card or other protruding accessories, can I get away with the 170mm power supply or do I need to adhere to the 160mm max PSU length?

FD..........
Sorry for the delay. If you are building a NAS system and are not using a video card then it should be alright to use the 170mm PSU that you want to use.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Good write up there diedrichg. Makes me want to buy it. :)

Alright. Last question here. I am asking because I am both paranoid and a perfectionist. Lining up the correct RAM here with my mobo.

The mobo was:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182251

Was looking at Kingston (seems very popular with FreeNAS folks).
Using Kingstons calculator on their site (it gives the option for X9SCL-F for the motherboard. Not the full X9SCL-F-O listed on the site.

This is what I came up with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239399

I *think* that memory was listed in the sticked thread above "So you want to buy some hardware..."

Just wanted to double check...

Thanks,

TCG

 

[Yatti420]

I use Kingston..

This is on my board atleast.. Not sure what it means for 1600mhz ram..I'm pretty sure the pentium will support it maybe not at cpu peak speeds (adjust base clock?)

1333/1600MHz*** ECC DDR3 SDRAM
*** BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600.

 

[diedrichg]

I don't know if this is true for FreeNAS but for other operating systems they work best with two same-size RAM modules operating in dual-channel. I don't see anything in the specs on Supermicro's page about dual-channel RAM so I can't say for sure if FreeNAS or the motherboard will benefit from this. My gut says to buy a pair of 4GB that will work in dual-channel. Beware of the 4GBx2 Kingston on NewEgg, it's not ECC.

Here is the 8GB (4GBx2) Kingston KVR16R11S8K2/8

p.s. I love pcpartpicker.com when building computers. This would especially be helpful in finding the best price for your case. It's kinda sparse on server-specific parts though.

 

[Yatti420]

I just put as much in as I can get!.. I don't worry about single/dual channel.. Just that I have alot (max if I had $$) for ZFS..

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Thanks guys.
The idea to go with a 8gig DIMM is that eventually, I can add a second 8gig dimm for 16gis and only use 2 of the 4 slots, leaving me the option to get to 32gigs a needed (the sooner if memory prices drop :) ).

Cool. Thanks again for the help.

Best,

TCG

 

[diedrichg]

Oh right! DUH, haha, I forgot about that. Man you're on top of it!

 

[erturne]

Kind of late to the game here, but I can confirm that Fractal Node case is awesome (a little cramped but not bad considering it holds 6 x 3.5" drives and a full size ATX power supply). Kingston memory works well. I just built my FreeNAS system this week (see specs in my signature) and it's humming along quite nicely!

 

[joelmusicman]

Another happy Node user here. I'm running the E3C224 and a G3220 and it's humming along nicely. My only complaint is the cooling is suboptimal when running 7200rpm drives, but that was my fault for picking those. Still keeping them nicely under 40C but the fan switch is on high.

Another case on my radar now is the Silverstone DS380, it'd be nice to have hotswap, but I'm not gonna change now.

I'd recommend writing down the serial numbers on top of the drive cages as you install them in the event of a downed hard drive in the future.