Motherboard Compatibility

[McNinjaTNT]

Hello, I'm very new to server hardware.
I'm planning on using this CPU: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124847770154?epid=1940636829&hash=item1d1181ca2a:g:aBsAAOSwQIFhExKp

With this motherboard: https://www.ebay.com/itm/4027278984...7n%2FcHBSIl9YKuzswly|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524

Yikes that link is long, sorry. Anyways, the motherboard is most definitely a off brand, and I'm wondering if it could work with FreeNAS or not, or if this combo will flatout not work.
Also, I'm planning on using Seagate Exos (18tb/16tb drives), and I'm wondering if I need any hdd controller add on card or not.
And one last thing, are slog drives required? And how big should it be for ~36TBs of redundant storage.

Sorry for the many questions.

 

[ChrisRJ]

I would instead go for a used Supermicro board. I have a couple of X9SRi-F and quite like them. Not the best in terms of power efficiency, but neither is your choice probably. And the price should be roughly the same.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

1. It has a RealTek NIC, which a quick google search indicates it is not supported by FreeBSD (TrueNAS). Get a mobo with an Intel NIC or an Intel PCI card.
2. It's likely an Intel SATA controller, but you will have to check if it is supported in FreeBSD

 

[McNinjaTNT]

I would instead go for a used Supermicro board. I have a couple of X9SRi-F and quite like them. Not the best in terms of power efficiency, but neither is your choice probably. And the price should be roughly the same.

Thank you for your input!
Do you reckon this combo to be good?
Mobo: https://www.ebay.com/itm/194230640224
CPU: https://www.ebay.com/itm/184933487352?hash=item2b0ee512f8:g:YAAAAOSwdWhg6Ooa&LH_BIN=1
Only thing I'd like is for the cpu to have 8 instead of 4 threads but oh well.
Also, how important is having a slog ssd?

 

[ChrisRJ]

Looks ok to me, although depending on the price an X9 or X10 will generally be more than sufficient. For SMB clock speed is more important than cores. For RAM a board with DDR3 ECC RDIMMs will usually give you the best price ratio. This is why I went for the X9SRi-F in the first place. I got 16 GB modules for 20 Euros the piece in October 2020.

As for an SLOG device, you would need to describe your workload (preferably with some numbers).

 

[McNinjaTNT]

Is DDR3 sufficient? I could pick a cheaper board but I figured I should at least have DDR4 2400MHz.
This is the whole setup I was thinking of:

Case: (Fractal Define R5) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q2Z11QE?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1 $110
PSU: (EVGA Supernova 750w G+) https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-SuperNO...1&keywords=gold+psu+750&qid=1628733340&sr=8-3 $100
Mobo: (Same) https://www.ebay.com/itm/194230640224 $140
Ram: (Non-reg ECC DDR4 2400MHz) https://www.ebay.com/itm/203113308973?hash=item2f4a7f232d:g:Qg8AAOSwxlJfavH7 $180
CPU: (Decided to get a bit better one, E3-1245 V5)https://www.ebay.com/itm/274901092318?hash=item400161c7de:g:MYIAAOSwDxdhE~m1 $100
UPS: (900w/1500VA UPS) https://www.ebay.com/itm/224568362508?hash=item344951460c:g:XnsAAOSwKExhE-8~ $100
CPU Cooler: (Who cares) https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Maste...d=1628790476&sprefix=lga+1151+,aps,223&sr=8-3 $40
I could probably chunk off $100 or more going DDR3. I don't really want to go with the X9SRi-F since on ebay it's going for $200+ refurbished, though. The existing mobo seems decent for the price, but yeah the ram is a bit steep.

As far as workload goes, not much. For a family of 4 + guests. I'm thinking against a slog because of it, though I'm tempted to do a cheap 500GB nvme ssd (WD blue or something) with a pcie m.2 nvme slot add in card. Also I saw one of the main reasons for a slog is power off protection, and I saw somewhere that having a UPS doesn't solve that? I would think there would be no need for a slog power wise if you have a UPS that can last for a bit, cause if a power outage does happen I can run over and shut it down safely before the UPS runs out of juice.

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[McNinjaTNT]

I looked into it some more, DDR3 looks great, I decided to switch to a even better CPU for cheaper and with a cheaper mobo, I made a new post about it if you want to check it out. Thanks a lot for your input! I probably wouldn't have checked the idea of DDR3 if not for you. Still a bit curios about how necessary slog drives are aswell as if you can mix sata and sas drives.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Glad I could help . For SLOG please read "ZIL and SLOG" from the recommended readings in my signature.

As for power protection, a UPS can malfunction (actually not so uncommon) and so can your PSU. So an SLOG without power-loss protection (PLP) is a really bad idea. Also, using a consumer-grade SSD that claims to have PLP is high-risk, since they usually have a variant of the real thing that does not help at the end of the day.

The bottom line is, your workload (you did not provide any details) will most likely not require an SLOG. Having a poor man's SLOG is no improvement over using async writes in the first place, rather it will slow things down. So you can save yourself the money.

 

[McNinjaTNT]

Glad I could help . For SLOG please read "ZIL and SLOG" from the recommended readings in my signature.

As for power protection, a UPS can malfunction (actually not so uncommon) and so can your PSU. So an SLOG without power-loss protection (PLP) is a really bad idea. Also, using a consumer-grade SSD that claims to have PLP is high-risk, since they usually have a variant of the real thing that does not help at the end of the day.

The bottom line is, your workload (you did not provide any details) will most likely not require an SLOG. Having a poor man's SLOG is no improvement over using async writes in the first place, rather it will slow things down. So you can save yourself the money.

I see, thanks for explaining the UPS business. Alright I'll scrap the consumer SSD idea then lol, or any SLOG. I looked into it a bit and yeah async works great for my purposes. Thanks again!