Low Power Home NAS

[JuanV]

Hey guys,
I am looking into building myself a low power home nas to run FreeNAS. I will be using 3x WD RED 2TB drives in ZFS. I already have the case and power supply, however I need suggestions for my motherboard and CPU and possibly RAM since I want to use ECC Ram. I am not an enthusiast and the data I will be storing is not super important but I do want reliability. The case supports both mATX and miniITX motherboards only.

 

[Yatti420]

Are you looking for reliable storage setup? How are you planning on setting up your pool? ZFS loves ram.. Loves it.. For optimal performance use as much ram as you can get.. RaidZ2 I believe requires 4 drives minimum..

 

[cyberjock]

ZFS is a better choice with larger servers. There's some significant costs regardless of pool size, such as server-grade stuff for ECC support. If you aren't needing a "larger" server you may be better off with just using a Windows 7 machine with file sharing setup.

Now, if you want to do FreeNAS to learn a new OS and enjoy ZFS benefits and cost is less important, then feel free to keep going!

Do check out our stickies(and my noobie presentation). We pretty much cover everything in stickies. My noobie presentation has my exact build, which is a rather inexpensive build with lots of performance. You can switch to a G2020 CPU from my build and save about $150. You also probably don't need 32GB of RAM either, so you can save more money there.

 

[JuanV]

I am looking to spend less than $300 for now on just the ECC RAM, Motherboard and CPU. Is it possible to start with just 8GB of RAM and just add more latter. I can also go either with UFS RAID 1 using 2x 3TB drives or RAIDZ1 using 3x 2TB drives. I want to know what will give me more reliability and not necessarily performance. I will be using both a windows PC and a Macbook to access the data.

 

[cyberjock]

ZFS is more reliable. $300 may be a bit too low. The cost of the parts in my head based on what I think they sell for is about $340. Do shop around though, and prices may be different depending on where in the world you live.

Z1 is just not reliable. Had 3 people lose RAIDZ1 pools this week. Go with RAIDZ2. That is why I have that link in my sig!

 

[JuanV]

What motherboard/CPU/RAM combination would you recommend given my price range? Would a motherboard with an Atom processor with ECC Momory support such as this one cut it X9SBAA-F with 8GB of RAM or is 16GB absolutely necessary for it to be stable.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

I would look at a processor like the Pentium G2020T (socket 1155) or the newer G3220T (socket 1150). I originally used a G2020T in my HP Microserver Gen8 and it could saturate the gigabit network interfaces without issue. They are very cheap, low power, support 32GB ECC and the motherboards that they go into can accept a higher end processor like a Xeon later on if you wish to upgrade.

 

[cyberjock]

Only the newer "Atoms" support ECC RAM, and you won't want to pay for them.

If you want to see what I'd recommend, check out my presentation. My configuration is there and I've already recommended how you could change your setup to be cheaper and work for you.

 

[joelmusicman]

Only the newer "Atoms" support ECC RAM, and you won't want to pay for them.

Seconded. The only Atoms that support ECC are the newer Centerton and Avoton architectures, and they're pretty spendy for board + CPU, though the prices are coming down a bit now that Avoton availability is better. I'm looking now and a C2550 Asrock board is $279; I think the same part was $400 when I was shopping in January.

For reference, my build is the Asrock E3C224d2i with a Pentium G3220, which together cost less than Atom and has a LOT more CPU headroom for jails. The 2550 has more RAM capability and SATA ports though, but if you need more than 6 drives, there's no reason to stick with mITX like I did, and those capabilities are easy to find on the 1150 mATX motherboards.

 

[JuanV]

Here is what I came up with please give me some feedback I want to do RAIDZ2 with 4xWD RED 1TB as suggested by cyberjock since according to him RAIDZ1 is not reliable enough.

MOBO: SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O $160
CPU: Intel Pentium G2020 $79
RAM: Kingston 8gb (2x 4gb) KVR16N11S8K2/8

 

[joelmusicman]

Just a thought, if you think that outgrowing 2tb of storage in the future is even a remote possibility, it's cheaper to buy the larger drives now than to buy twice...

 

[joelmusicman]

Also, for the RAM 1x8gb is about the same cost as 2x4gb and then you have room for upgrades later. There's not much benefit to running "dual-channel" in the server world.

Regardless, your setup should work quite well with FreeNAS. I have no trouble hitting 90MB/s with my Pentium G3220. Plex requires a bit more horsepower - consider the i3-3200 series in that case.

 

[DataMover]

...
For reference, my build is the Asrock E3C224d2i with a Pentium G3220, which together cost less than Atom and has a LOT more CPU headroom for jails.
...

Hi joelmusicman,

roughly a week ago I was on the mission for a new board, too. I have chosen an Atom Board (C2758). But it was almost out of the blue, for I couldn't find proper benchmarks or performance comparisons. Do you have links at hand?

Although I feel comfortable right now, I would love to back up my decision with some figures....at least afterwards ;-)

Kind regards
DataMover

 

[jgreco]

You might want to reconsider. The C2758 lacks turbo boost. The C2750 is probably the part you are looking for.

 

[DataMover]

You might want to reconsider. The C2758 lacks turbo boost. The C2750 is probably the part you are looking for.

Important advice for wanna-be-buyers, but I am done. The decision for AES encryption and against Turbo boost has been a conscious on. At this very moment I can't say I am missing CPU power without turbo boost. Also in exchange I've got a 7-year product life - for whatever that's worth

 

[JuanV]

What do you guys think about this Lenovo server it is on sale for $280 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F6EK9J2/?tag=ozlp-20

 

[Yatti420]

What do you guys think about this Lenovo server it is on sale for $280 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F6EK9J2/?tag=ozlp-20

Only 3 3.5 bays and only 4gb stock.. If it's 32gb max maybe..

 

[JuanV]

The 5.25 drive bays can be adapted into dual or triple 3.5 inch drives and the ram can be upgraded as well since it supports up to 32GB and has 5 sata ports with an i3-4130

 

[joelmusicman]

I actually had one of them at my house for a bit, but for me it had too many silly limitations. Case wise, it can only support absolute max of 5 hard drives. The 2 5.25 inch bays can be used, but they're physically separated by a divider on the front panel so a 3 drive - > 2bay adapter won't work. The price was so attractive (I bought it at $220) that I even attempted a case swap, but then I ran into problems with the short PSU cable & proprietary header to the motherboard. Also only has 5 SATA ports. Ultimately I decided that it was too limited and still returned it, despite the awesome price.

All that being said, my target build eventually settled on 12TB for some future proofing, so for me that meant a 6x3TB RAIDZ2 setup.

Since you're targeting 3 (hopefully 4!) drive config, the TS140 should suit your current needs. IIRC it only supports 16GB memory, but it comes with 4, so just add an 8GB stick and you'll be set for quite a while. :)

 

[joelmusicman]

The 5.25 drive bays can be adapted into dual or triple 3.5 inch drives and the ram can be upgraded as well since it supports up to 32GB and has 5 sata ports with an i3-4130

They can be converted into 2, but NOT 3! Note the lip between the two bays.

http://www.lenovo.com/images/galler...rver-thinkserver-ts140-side-open-detail-8.jpg