Maximizing my build

[SomeDumbNAS]

Hello, so I have built my first NAS ever using old parts. I currently am running:
CPU - i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
RAM - 8gb Corsair vengance
MoBo - Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (downside is only 4 SATA ports)
HHD - 3x4tb WD Red (ordered) 3x1tb random old drives and 1x500gb laptop drive (boot) got the drives for $69.99/each btw so think that was a good deal?
CPU cooler - 120mm AIO (thinking of using my Noctua Noctua NH-L9i I don't know if it's enough)
Case - FD Node 304
PSU - 550w ATX (plan to change it to Seasonic FOCUS SGX-500 for space-saving)

Things I was wondering is:
M.2 boot drive? just a small one to save space and SATA ports
A smaller cooler would it be okay IDK how demanding a NAS can be
SSD's for cache? also how to configure
suggestions on PCIe Sata cards


Plan for the computer is, file storage and steam library if I can ever figure that out lol, also maybe host a Minecraft server for the kids. I recently transferred 50gb at 102mbs from the NAS to my PC on a wired network. I assume part of that is the old drives and mixed drives. I am just trying to plan for when the WD Red's come in what to do to maximize read/write speeds for me. Currently, I have 2 drives in a pool mirrored and one alone just for games because if it fails that's fine I was just messing around to try to figure things out. Thank you for reading this mess and any info provided!

 

[Redcoat]

HHD - 3x4tb WD Red (ordered)

Well, there's a problem here. These are SMR drives which you do not want for use with TrueNAS - see https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/list-of-known-smr-drives.83993/ for more information.

I suggest that you forget the need for a cache. ZFS uses a cache (L1ARC) in RAM for reads, so max that out on your board to 16MB as a first choice.

To get info on PCIe SATA cards for TrueNAS - look at this resource first https://www.truenas.com/community/r...bas-and-why-cant-i-use-a-raid-controller.139/ - then search here for HBA - you'll find lots of posts. Many of us here buy used HBA's on eBay - vendor "The Art of the Server" has satisfied quite a few by the positive reports here.

I dont have any info on your other points.

Good luck as you pursue optimization.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

Thanks for that! I'll just cancel my order, they haven't arrived yet so I'm sure I can get a refund.
Also was looking at possibly a SAS card too vs the SATA hba. I just can't seem to figure out what would be best my only draw to a SAS card is the 4:1 on the wire SATA:SAS that is. Also just assuming you mean 16gb of ram and it was just a typo?

 

[Constantin]

Agree re: LSI based HBA for more SATA / SAS ports.

I'd increase RAM to max possible, avoid SLOG cache. Depending on the use case, I would consider using a SSD as a persistent metadata-only L2ARC device if you can get your RAM up. L2ARC eats into regular RAM - ideally don't add L2ARC until you have 32GB or more RAM. Then, it can make browsing much, much faster and and any protocol that requires a lot of directory traversals (such as rsync) will operate much more quickly with a good L2ARC than without (or something similar like a sVDEV in TrueNAS 12).

 

[Redcoat]

Also just assuming you mean 16gb of ram and it was just a typo?

Yes, dammit - a typo.

SAS card is the 4:1 on the wire SATA:SAS

The LSI HBA's are SAS, and use the 4:1 breakout cables for SATA drives. See the pic in this eBay listing https://www.ebay.com/itm/163846248833?hash=item2625ff5981:g:shEAAOSwPKZdbst~ has two ports on the back edge - use forward breakout cables for 8 drives total.

 

[QonoS]

Noctua NH-L9i is not enough for i7-4790K which comes with 88W TDP. Even with boost disabled.
Noctua also does not recommend it : https://noctua.at/en/nh_l9i_tdp_guidelines

Apart from the already mentioned points your setup lacks ECC. It is not a must but highly recommended if you care just a little bit for data integrity.

 

[Etorix]

As tempting as recycling old parts into a server might be, at the point where you consider changing the cooler and adding a HBA card just to get two more SATA ports, it might be worth looking for a second-hand mini-ITX server board with at least 6 SATA ports instead, and kill several birds with a single stone. The SuperMicro X10SDV boards are perfect fit for your case (6 SATA, M.2 for boot, slap a Noctua A6x25 on the passive CPU heatsink and silent cooling is done), if you can find one for a reasonable price.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

As tempting as recycling old parts into a server might be, at the point where you consider changing the cooler and adding a HBA card just to get two more SATA ports, it might be worth looking for a second-hand mini-ITX server board with at least 6 SATA ports instead, and kill several birds with a single stone. The SuperMicro X10SDV boards are perfect fit for your case (6 SATA, M.2 for boot, slap a Noctua A6x25 on the passive CPU heatsink and silent cooling is done), if you can find one for a reasonable price.

Thanks! Yea I'll look into that idk cost of CPU and RAM just always kinda assume expensive. Thank you, my goal was silent and wasn't sure if a passive cooler would work. Anything to know about PSU when using a server board or do they work with ATX boards?

 

[Etorix]

Server boards are just boring-looking motherboards optimised to run 24/7 at stock settings. Nothing special with respect to the PSU, or any other component. If your current ATX PSU is of good quality and quiet under low load, there's no reason to buy a new Seasonic.

For a silent setup, do look for X10SDV variants with passive heatsinks (no "+" in product name) and put a quiet 60 mm fan on it, secured with two strips of adhesive tape (the Xeon-D CPU requires some airflow, which it normally gets from the powerful case fans of servers). X10SDV boards with active heatsinks have tiny whiny fans which are not easy to replace.

 

[jgreco]

Thanks! Yea I'll look into that idk cost of CPU and RAM just always kinda assume expensive. Thank you, my goal was silent and wasn't sure if a passive cooler would work. Anything to know about PSU when using a server board or do they work with ATX boards?

You should always make sure you're properly sizing your PSU.

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.39/

X10SDV boards with active heatsinks have tiny whiny fans which are not easy to replace.

Disagree; the range of choices you have for replacements is somewhat limited, but it was reasonably easy to replace the heatsinks on our X10SDV's with some tall passive ones to work in a 2U chassis. Had to find the right replacement part though, and that IS a bit of a trick.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

You should always make sure you're properly sizing your PSU.

Agreed, I just didn't know if normal home use PSU for some reason were not good for 24/7 uptime.

@Etorix Ty for the board choice looking at it looks to be exactly what I want with the placement of ports and all! just trying to figure out if most come with a CPU pre-installed. I was looking on the old EBay and found one for 222 shipped "SuperMicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F, Mini-ITX,Xeon D-5121 with active fan & I/O shield" seems like a good deal.

but I really appreciate everyone's input! just trying to figure out this Quiet/Silent cooling situation if I were to get it. I can go 165mm up from the CPU so 1u or 2u cooler should be easily done.

 

[Etorix]

Xeon D-1500 are not socketed processors, they come soldered to the board.
$222 for a board, CPU, 10 GbE NIC ("T") and the I/O shield is quite a bargain. You only need to add some RAM; again, second-hand DDR4-2400 RDIMM should be quite cheap.

Silence. Six hard drives in a fully loaded Node 304 make some hum and buzz; there's no going below that. The three case fans cool the drives but some airflow is needed over the CPU.
If the board has a passive heatsink (which does expect the strong airflow of server case fans), slapping over a Noctua NF-A6x25 does the trick. Can't be heard from outside the case.
If the board comes with an active heatsink, the small fan, designed for 1U, spins fast with an unpleasant high pitch. If that's an issue, replacing the fan involves taking the heatsink off because it is screwed from the bottom. Unscrew the heatsink, disconnect the fan, run CPUBurn or stress-ng to heat the CPU and soften the thermal compound. Carefully wiggle the hot heatsink until it comes loose, let cool and clean the thermal compound.
This is not difficult (I did it on my D1541D4U-2T8R) but I'd rate the process as "medium skill" rather than "reasonably easy" because it is a little bit scary to come so close to a soldered CPU, knowing that mishandling could brick the board.
At this point you can as well replace the heatsink with a passive one; as mentioned by @jgreco, it is NOT a standard fit and replacement parts are few and hard to find.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

Xeon D-1500 are not socketed processors, they come soldered to the board.
$222 for a board, CPU, 10 GbE NIC ("T"), and the I/O shield is quite a bargain. You only need to add some RAM; again, second-hand DDR4-2400 RDIMM should be quite cheap.

So 2 things 1 would the 10GbE NIC on the board work fine with CAT6 cable on a gigabit network? (normal home network 10/100/1000) also, any particular RAM to look for or if it fits it sits as long as ddr4-2400 RDIMM ECC.

 

[jgreco]

Copper 10GbE no longer supports 10Mbps copper. Also, the 10G copper chipsets tend to be somewhat more finicky and less well-proven than SFP+. We have recommended 10G hardware listed in the 10 Gig Networking Primer. That doesn't help with a built-in ethernet port, I know.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

Copper 10GbE no longer supports 10Mbps copper. Also, the 10G copper chipsets tend to be somewhat more finicky and less well-proven than SFP+. We have recommended 10G hardware listed in the 10 Gig Networking Primer. That doesn't help with a built-in ethernet port, I know.

Well dang :/ I'm not quite sure the best way to go about this, but I have found 2 4TB WD40EFRX nearby for $50 each. So that's quite the deal :). Guess just need to figure out the MOBO problem.
Options I've found
MOBO - AsRock Rack E3C232D2I Mini ITX Server Motherboard Intel C232 : $208 (Newegg)
CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1240 3.30 GHz Processor - Socket H2 LGA-1155 : $50 (used on Newegg)
as far as ram I can use what I have now and get ECC later. I don't think ECC is a major concern for me at this moment.

 

[Etorix]

So 2 things 1 would the 10GbE NIC on the board work fine with CAT6 cable on a gigabit network? (normal home network 10/100/1000) also, any particular RAM to look for or if it fits it sits as long as ddr4-2400 RDIMM ECC.

In principle, the answer is yes to both. Intel X550 is a well-supported chipset, 10 GbE 10Base-T integrates well with gigabit ethernet. There are not many suppliers of RDIMM and their market is for servers, they don't play tricks with settings as it happens in the consumer/gamer/overclocker market.
Either an X10SDV or the E3C232D2I should make for a nice small NAS.

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

Just wanna say thank you to everyone. I got The X10SDV installed with a Noctua fan (45°c idle temp) learned about IMPI? and set the fans to max, without it I was idle around 50°c. I got 2 WD40EFRX going but for RAM im non ECC right now as from what I read ECC for my needs is not needed. Also my PSU choice worked but if for some reason someone else is reading this. the Seasonic 500SGX has only 3 SATA power connections so you will need to order one more for 6 total. I ordered mine from http://www.btosinte.com. (recommended by Seasonic). Also, the 10gb Base T is working no problem on my 1bg network! :D so thank you, everyone! been a fun project so far.

 

[Etorix]

As you now have a X10SDV you may want look into the available fan control scripts. (My X10SDV-6C-TLN4F in Node 304 uses @Kevin Horton's script.)

PID fan controller Perl script

I can't post in Useful Scripts, so Hardware will have to do. I've updated @Stux's hybrid fan controller script to replace his HD fan control logic (which uses three discrete fan duty cycles as a function of warmest HD temperature) with a PID control loop, which controls duty cycle in 1%...

www.truenas.com

Fan Scripts for Supermicro Boards Using PID Logic

Since motherboards have no way to access drive temperatures, they can’t really regulate them. The fan control scripts presented here read and respond to both drive and CPU temperatures. Such scripts are MUCH better than the control built into...

www.truenas.com

 

[SomeDumbNAS]

As you now have a X10SDV you may want look into the available fan control scripts. (My X10SDV-6C-TLN4F in Node 304 uses @Kevin Horton's script.)

PID fan controller Perl script

I can't post in Useful Scripts, so Hardware will have to do. I've updated @Stux's hybrid fan controller script to replace his HD fan control logic (which uses three discrete fan duty cycles as a function of warmest HD temperature) with a PID control loop, which controls duty cycle in 1%...

www.truenas.com

Fan Scripts for Supermicro Boards Using PID Logic

Since motherboards have no way to access drive temperatures, they can’t really regulate them. The fan control scripts presented here read and respond to both drive and CPU temperatures. Such scripts are MUCH better than the control built into...

www.truenas.com

I am a newb when it comes to doing this. Know of a step-by-step? I have very little experience with Linux / scrpits

 

[Etorix]

Good news: There's no linuxity in there—TrueNAS is based on FreeBSD.
Bad news: These take a bit of work to set up, and instructions have to be picked up from the support threads. So, fair request…

So you would first check your hardware.
Is your X10SDV a revision 2 board (it's printed on it)? If so, it has two fan zones, as expected by the PID script (first link) and you put the CPU fan in one zone and all other fans in the other zone; if not, just put anything together.
Note the low and high RPM values for your fans.
Set appropriate lower values for each fan in the BMC. This is done from the shell (web console or ssh):
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN lower LNR LC LNC
FAN is the label for your fan header. Do it for each connected header.
LNC: Lower Non-Critical = lower value minus 10%/20% (as in fan spec sheet), rounded down to a multiple of 100.
LC: Lower Critical = lower than LNC
LNR: Lower Non-Recoverable = still lower, 0 to disable
so for a quiet low spinning fan (rated for min. 300 rpm) it could be
ipmitool sensor thresh "FANA" lower 000 100 200
The defaults, for fast and loud server fans, are too high. Upper values are not relevant.
Set fan mode to maximal through the BMC and leave the rest to the script.
Put the fan script in a safe place in your pool (root home dir would be a good place), using ssh.
Edit the variables in the first part of the script to describe your system: Which zone is what, fans speeds, desired temperature…
Run the script in verbose mode, use the system normally for some time and check the log to see if it's doing as expected. If not, tweak the values.
When you're satisfied, go to Tasks>Scripts in the web interface and setup a task which launches the script at boot.