BUILD Mini-ITX based Backup box + Plex help?

[depasseg]

I'm looking for an 8-bay box to be a replication target that can also handle a couple plex streams (down the road, at which point I'll add the other 16GB of RAM). There will be 8 * 6TB SATA drives and 2 SSDs (for boot/jails/.system) coming from my existing backup system. And I plan to put a chelsio T420 10GbE card in it.

I've been back and forth over the HW stickies, and x10/x11 stickies, and I think I got it right, but I'd appreciate a second set of eyes. The plan is to use the MB SAS/SATA ports for the drives (after flashing the on board 2308 SAS controller)

If there is a better (smaller) 8 drive chassis with hotswap, I'd love some ideas. I'm not a huge fan of the drive layout in the node 804.

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($251.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($91.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $763.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-04 20:37 EDT-0400
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

[Jailer]

Looks good, very similar to my own system.

I can't get over how much the price of memory has dropped since I built mine. It's literally half what I paid.

 

[depasseg]

I found the Silverstone DS308, which look like a great case option, but the MB is mini-ITX. Any recommendations for that?

I found Jailer's post from a couple weeks back, recommending the ASRock E3C236D2I , but I'm not familiar with them, nor the compatible CPUs and RAM (off to do more searching). And it looks like it can only support 6 SATA drives (not 8).
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-for-a-freenas-first-timer.42782/#post-278931
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813599005

 

[Kevin Horton]

I found the Silverstone DS308, which look like a great case option, but the MB is mini-ITX. Any recommendations for that?

I found Jailer's post from a couple weeks back, recommending the ASRock E3C236D2I , but I'm not familiar with them, nor the compatible CPUs and RAM (off to do more searching). And it looks like it can only support 6 SATA drives (not 8).
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-for-a-freenas-first-timer.42782/#post-278931
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813599005

What is the DS308? Is that like a dyslexic DS380? If so, several forum users have reported difficultly in cooling hard drives in that case.

I'm using a Node 804, and I am very happy with it (although I only have five drives in it so far, so my experience may not be relevant to your intended use case).

 

[depasseg]

Thanks Kevin, yes, I meant the DS380. "Dyslexics of the world "Untie"!" - The Far side, Gary Larson

I saw those, and I figured the cardboard thingy and using the thin SATA cables should help. My concern is the MB/CPU combo. I'm not sure I'm a fan of that ASRock Avoton setup (cpu seems weak, and I'm not a fan of Marvell).

I found this U-NAS NSC-800 which looks even smaller and has better cooling than the DS380: http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17617

I'm having a tough time finding a mini-ITX board with 10+ SAS/SATA ports. Aagh

 

[depasseg]

Is that like a dyslexic DS380?

Yes. It's like EEC RAM. LOL

 

[Ericloewe]

cpu seems weak,

It's surprisingly competent at workloads that benefit from multiple threads, like transcoding.

As for the Marvell ports, that is a feeling I wholeheartedly agree with.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Yes. It's like EEC RAM. :) LOL
View attachment 11678

Hmm. I had thought it was EEC RAM we used, but Google suggests that is not quite the same thing. Thanks for the tweak :)

 

[depasseg]

Eric - Can't you convince supermicro to make something similar without the Marvel stuff?

On the other hand, it sounds like that's the foundation for the FreeNAS Mini XL, so maybe the Marvel support is improving.

 

[Ericloewe]

Eric - Can't you convince supermicro to make something similar without the Marvel stuff? :)

They do have something similar:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SA7-2750F.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SAi-2750F.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SAM-2750F.cfm

Plus processor variants (C2x58, C25xx, ...). Note that the LSI SAS 2116 is an IT mode controller and that the board that uses it only exposes a single SoC SATA port.

 

[Ericloewe]

On the other hand, it sounds like that's the foundation for the FreeNAS Mini XL, so maybe the Marvel support is improving.

I'll believe it when I see nobody having problems with the Marvell controllers. So far, that does not seem to be the case.

 

[depasseg]

They do have something similar:

Unfortunately, the MB with enough SATA ports is Extended mini-ITX. :-(

 

[depasseg]

I'll believe it when I see nobody having problems with the Marvell controllers. So far, that does not seem to be the case.

Yeah, this has me a little baffled. There had to be a conversation around supporting the platform for a while and they made the decision that it was possible.

 

[Ericloewe]

Unfortunately, the MB with enough SATA ports is Extended mini-ITX. :-(

Well, there's still the basic miniITX boards.

 

[depasseg]

Alright, I think I might be getting closer.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/lian-li-pc-q26-and-asrock-e3c224d4i-14s.26984/

 

[depasseg]

Well, there's still the basic miniITX boards

True, but they max at 6 drives. And since I would like to add a 10GbE card, I don't have another slot for an HBA. :-(

 

[depasseg]

Any idea if this Flex ATX board would fit in the Lian-Li PC Q26?
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-7TP4F.cfm
http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q26/#

 

[styno]

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)

I really like that partlist but I don't understand your CPU choice. Imho that's a lot of $$ for a replication target/plex streamer. If you replace the xeon with an i3 you can get that extra ram at once and still order some pizza with the leftover money ;)

 

[depasseg]

but I don't understand your CPU choice.

There are 2 reasons I went with the E3.
1. Performance - I'd like to have some headroom in this system for the next 5 years and with Plex and possibly crashplan or other VM's options with FreeNAS 10, I wanted to be prepared.
2. The whole "i3 supports/doesn't support" ECC scares me, and with an E3 I don't need to worry. Of course it is quite possible I've misunderstood this issue, and in that case, point 1 still applies.

 

[Ericloewe]

Any idea if this Flex ATX board would fit in the Lian-Li PC Q26?
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-7TP4F.cfm
http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-q26/#
View attachment 11681
View attachment 11682

I dunno, but ASRock Rack's Voodoo-shrunk X10SL7-F does fit.