BUILD My First FreeNAS

[Jason Bateman]

There used to be a lot of info here, about my choices and stuff, but here's the end result:

 

[Ericloewe]

I usually strongly advise against fanless PSUs in servers, since the extra heat will make keeping the drives cool more difficult.

4GB is plenty, go with 8GB at most. Performance is mostly irrelevant. As long as you avoid the ultra-tiny (physically speaking) and the ultra-cheap drives, you'll be fine in all cases. Remember FreeNAS runs from RAM - the drive is not accessed regularly during use.

I'd recommend against Kingston, due to their shady practices as of late. Check ASRock's Memory list for specific RAM that's been tested.

 

[panz]

I agree with @Ericloewe that a fanless PSU is not what we're looking for in a server. I have to say that my Corsair HX650 80 Plus Gold doesn't power on its internal fan for 99% of the time ;)

 

[Jason Bateman]

Thanks for the input guys, I've made adjustments accordingly.

 

[Ericloewe]

The G-450 is a very good choice - a lot better than the Corsair CS.

 

[Jason Bateman]

I'd just like to report that so far everything has been going great after I received all the hardware.

Some thoughts:

• The cable management from Azerty's assembly service was top notch and all the parts seem to be in perfect condition.
  
• The Eaton UPS was a cinch to set up with FreeNAS, and I can see a lot of information about it using the ups command.
  
• The IPMI capabilities of the C2750D4I are amazing, every mainboard should have this.
• The node 304's fans are very quiet, even on the highest fan controller setting. On the lowest setting it's pretty much silent when you stand next to it.
• I've just started testing my drives/burning them in. The hard drives have all stayed in the lower 30 celcius so far.
  
• I put stickers on all the drive bays with the corresponding drive's serial number, and I made sure I can see their serial numbers using smartctl as well.

Thanks again.