My first build, it does FreeNAS, for $1k

[tekiwibird]

I wanted to move away from my QNAP TS-231 to something more powerful and under my control, in order to act as a macOS time machine, photo storage, personal cloud, and potentially a home automation and media server. I used the FreeNAS mini as the benchmark, and I wanted to see how close I could get to the $1k mark with disks.

I wasn't fixed into buying all new, but I did want reliable components. This is my build for $1066, feedback is welcome:

• Motherboard: Intel S1200KPR, $60 eBay
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L, $65 eBay
• PSU: SeaSonic SS-350SFE 350W SFX12V 80PLUS, $22 eBay
• MEM: 16GB A-Tech DIMM DDR3 ECC Unbuffered PC3-10600 1333MHz Single Rank RAM Memory, $125 Amazon
• Boot HDDs: 2x ADATA 16GB SATA DOM, $40ea Amazon
• Data HDDs: 8x HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache, $55ea Amazon
• SAS controller: IBM ServeRaid M1015 46M0861, $69 eBay
• SAS to SATA cables: 2x Mini-SAS to 4x SATA Forward Breakout Cable, $12ea Amazon
• CPU fan: Silverstone Low Profile 48mm 95W TDP LGA 115X CPU Cooler, $21 Amazon
• ITX Case: Silverstone CS01B-HS Mini-ITX NAS Aluminum Case, $160 Amazon

In keeping the cost close to $1K, I made compromises on the HDDs. However Hitachi (HGST) seems to do well in the blackblaze reports, and my 3.5inch variants have been running for 2+ years in the QNAP. So I made the call to use them vs NAS drives. We'll see how that goes!

If I were to do it again, I'd actually read the forum's FreeNAS build guide, which I only discovered recently.

 

[joeschmuck]

Do not use USB Flash Drives nor the SATA DOM as a boot device, instead use a single SSD, any SSD 16GB to 120GB. Anything over 16GB is a waste of space but you can think of it as heavily over provisioned.

I think the PS is sized well for the given parts.
The hard drives might be an issue, 7200 RPM in a small case, you will need to ensure good air flow which could mean more noise.

BTW, I'm not endorsing your system picks, jusy making a small comment.

 

[danb35]

Do not use USB Flash Drives nor the SATA DOM as a boot device,

Why not? They work perfectly, perform well, and at least in my experience, are far more reliable than the USB sticks. And they're far more convenient to mount, too. They're often much more expensive than a 2.5" SATA SSD, but not always.

 

[joeschmuck]

I know in the past that DOM's also had issues. Maybe not all of them but some had issues. If you have a specific brand that might be good to offer up. I'm thinking that some of these failing DOMs were more like a USB Flash drive on a SATA interface but that was a while ago when we had these issues.

 

[danb35]

No specific brand--I bought the cheapest 16 GB units I could find on eBay (Kingspec, maybe?). They worked fine for me under 9.3, but when I built my current box I threw in a 120 GB SSD I had laying around.

 

[Zredwire]

You can save a little bit of money on your SAS controller if you want. This Dell H310 from Amazon works well.

 

[joeschmuck]

You can save a little bit of money on your SAS controller if you want. This Dell H310 from Amazon works well.

I do not like the Dell Perc H310. It may not work with your computer unless you mask off a pair of pins on the edge connector. This is why I personnaly will not recommend one of these, but some people have no issue with them.

 

[Zredwire]

I do not like the Dell Perc H310. It may not work with your computer unless you mask off a pair of pins on the edge connector. This is why I personnaly will not recommend one of these, but some people have no issue with them.

Oh wow. I have never heard of that. I got lucky. Its what I use and have had no problems.

 

[joeschmuck]

Oh wow. I have never heard of that. I got lucky. Its what I use and have had no problems.

It depends on the motherboard. I think the issue is the SMBus signal if memroy serves me correct.

 

[Chris Moore]

It depends on the motherboard. I think the issue is the SMBus signal if memroy serves me correct.

Your remembering correctly, it is only a problem with certain system boards and generally only the 'not really a server', system boards.
I am using those H310 cards in three different Supermicro x9 series boards and in a couple of Dell workstations with no issues at all.

 

[Chris Moore]

I wanted to move away from my QNAP TS-231 to something more powerful and under my control, in order to act as a macOS time machine, photo storage, personal cloud, and potentially a home automation and media server. I used the FreeNAS mini as the benchmark, and I wanted to see how close I could get to the $1k mark with disks.

I wasn't fixed into buying all new, but I did want reliable components. This is my build for $1066, feedback is welcome:

• Motherboard: Intel S1200KPR, $60 eBay
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L, $65 eBay
• PSU: SeaSonic SS-350SFE 350W SFX12V 80PLUS, $22 eBay
• MEM: 16GB A-Tech DIMM DDR3 ECC Unbuffered PC3-10600 1333MHz Single Rank RAM Memory, $125 Amazon
• Boot HDDs: 2x ADATA 16GB SATA DOM, $40ea Amazon
• Data HDDs: 8x HGST Travelstar 7K1000 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III 32MB Cache, $55ea Amazon
• SAS controller: IBM ServeRaid M1015 46M0861, $69 eBay
• SAS to SATA cables: 2x Mini-SAS to 4x SATA Forward Breakout Cable, $12ea Amazon
• CPU fan: Silverstone Low Profile 48mm 95W TDP LGA 115X CPU Cooler, $21 Amazon
• ITX Case: Silverstone CS01B-HS Mini-ITX NAS Aluminum Case, $160 Amazon

In keeping the cost close to $1K, I made compromises on the HDDs. However Hitachi (HGST) seems to do well in the blackblaze reports, and my 3.5inch variants have been running for 2+ years in the QNAP. So I made the call to use them vs NAS drives. We'll see how that goes!

If I were to do it again, I'd actually read the forum's FreeNAS build guide, which I only discovered recently.

If you have not bought this gear yet, you might want to go through the guide and make some other selections instead because you can get double the storage capacity for about the same price if you use 3.5", 2TB drives instead of those 1TB 2.5" drives. This build would only get you about 5.5TB of usable storage if you run it in RAID-z2. It is not really worth spending that much money for that little capacity.

If you are open to other ideas?

 

[tekiwibird]

If you have not bought this gear yet, you might want to go through the guide and make some other selections instead

I should have gone through that guide, I only came across this forum's build section yesterday. Yes, I've purchased the system I mentioned. Like you said the storage is small at 5.4TB on raidz2.

I was moving toward a compact footprint, that's why I went 2.5" and itx. I'll upgrade the storage to higher cap hdds when needed (there are 4TB 2.5", but expensive).

Right now, 5.4TB is plenty which is mainly for photos, scanned documents, and 2 macbook time machines.

I'm open to see what else may trip me up with this system, so I can plan for the future.

 

[tekiwibird]

You can save a little bit of money on your SAS controller if you want. This Dell H310 from Amazon works well.

Yes, found about that card recently too. Did not know it was basically the same as the M1015, I'd have purchased that instead.

 

[Ericloewe]

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L, $65 eBay

You probably want to look around for something without the L. Pretty much any Xeon E3-1230 or better, with no L, is going to be better.

MEM: 16GB A-Tech DIMM DDR3 ECC Unbuffered PC3-10600 1333MHz Single Rank RAM Memory, $125 Amazon

El-Cheapo RAM? That may come back to haunt you.

Boot HDDs: 2x ADATA 16GB SATA DOM, $40ea Amazon

Two of them seems like overkill. Not that it would hurt.

CPU fan: Silverstone Low Profile 48mm 95W TDP LGA 115X CPU Cooler, $21 Amazon

It's more expensive, but consider the NH-L9i instead. The Silverstone you link has the dubious look of the stock cooler without the attached "Intel okayed this" warm fuzzy feeling.

I know in the past that DOM's also had issues. Maybe not all of them but some had issues. If you have a specific brand that might be good to offer up. I'm thinking that some of these failing DOMs were more like a USB Flash drive on a SATA interface but that was a while ago when we had these issues.

Why not? They work perfectly, perform well, and at least in my experience, are far more reliable than the USB sticks. And they're far more convenient to mount, too. They're often much more expensive than a 2.5" SATA SSD, but not always.

The ones that iX used on the FreeNAS mini for about the first 2-2.5 years apparently failed a lot after two years or so.

 

[tekiwibird]

You probably want to look around for something without the L. Pretty much any Xeon E3-1230 or better, with no L, is going to be better.

Can you elaborate? I chose the 1260L because it had the onboard GPU. I was also considering the 1265L.

 

[danb35]

I chose the 1260L because it had the onboard GPU. I was also considering the 1265L.

The 1265 would have the GPU, not the 1260. The L suffix designates a "low-power" (i.e., low-performance) model, which is pretty much pointless.

 

[tekiwibird]

The 1265 would have the GPU, not the 1260. The L suffix designates a "low-power" (i.e., low-performance) model, which is pretty much pointless.

I mean I was going for a low-power build. What would the e3-1230 allow me to do, over the e3-1260L, for my current use-cases? if it's something that'd help a future media server use-case, then what would it allow? streaming of 1080p, 4k?

The e3-1260L does have an onboard GPU.

Passmark between the three the s1200kpr supports: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1203&cmp[]=1486&cmp[]=1189

 

[Ericloewe]

I mean I was going for a low-power build.

It won't lower power consumption at idle. It will lower power consumption at full tilt, at the expense of performance, possibly to the point of using more power in total for the same job.

 

[tekiwibird]

Or it could end up being the same, just taking longer. Unfortunately there's no performance per watt info for these CPUs (that I know of).

If I take Passmark's 'Single Thread Rating' and divide by the 'Max TDP', I can kind of get an indicator (Single Thread Rating per Dissipated Watt):

1260L: 36
1265L: 38.9 -> places the 1265L as the most efficient choice.
1230: 28.2

Similarly for 'CPU Mark' / 'Max TDP':

1260L: 145.2
1265L: 172.8 -> places the 1265L as the most efficient choice.
1230: 128.3

Assuming that TDP is a good enough indicator of processor power draw, work -> heat, the e3-1230 isn't as good as the L versions, and the e3-1265L would be something to consider for performance and low power.

 

[Ericloewe]

If I take Passmark's 'Single Thread Rating' and divide by the 'Max TDP', I can kind of get an indicator:

Not a very good one, unfortunately.

The issue here is that modern CPUs save power by racing to idle - do things quickly, then idle. Running for longer at a lower frequency tends to carry inconvenient constant power draws like internal busses that stay on for longer and execution units that might be powered even though they're not in use, leaking current.
Then there's the opposite effect. Higher power means higher temperatures which mean higher leakage, benefiting lower frequencies.

At the end of the day, they probably use the same power for typical workloads, so the low TDP ends up being a plain performance handicap.