Sokonomi
Contributor
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2018
- Messages
- 115
Hi all,
I'm new to the scene, and after some finnicking around with FreeNAS on a virtual machine I wanted to finally step into the wonderful world of NAS. After spending most of my life dealing with VMs and crappy windows boxes to do my dirty work, I figured it was time to step it up a notch. Unfortunately im just a working man with an expensive hobby, so my funmoney is limited, and that means I will have to skimp on a few of the fancier features. Someone here on the forum kindly suggested id put my build up for review and suggestions, so here I go!
What I have to work with;
2 x Western Digital Green - 3Tb
2 x Western Digital Green - 1Tb
1 x Western Digital Caviar - 200Gb (heh)
1 x Samsung - 1Tb
All of them still in 100% health according to S.M.A.R.T.
My budget is about 500 to 550 euros (that includes shipping!).
What do I want to do;
Im probably asking a lot, but im going to try anyway;
- Centralized storage for the entire family (mom&pop store, plus living on 2nd floor).
- Media handling that involves sabNZBd, Transmission, Sickrage, Couchpotato, and Plex.
- WAN accessible cloud storage (I want us to be able to access everything from our phones).
What I had in mind;
I thought it would be best to buy two more 3Tb drives to pool them together with the two WD greens ive already got, setting them up as RAIDz1 for that one disk parity redundancy. Only about 350gb of my data is actually important, so I was thinking of making a second pool using the two WD green 1Tb drives, possibly striped for extra speed, to keep a backup of my important dataset, along with the jail dataset that could make good use of a fast scratchdisk. So in summary; 4 x 3Tb in RAIDz1 + 2 x 1Tb in Striped.
How I intend to do it;
I want to purchase the following items;
Mobo : Asus Prime B250M-K
CPU : Intel Pentium G4400 Boxed
RAM : Corsair ValueSelect CMV8GX4M1A2400C16 1x8gb
HDD : 2x WD Red WD30EFRX, 3TB
Case : Fractal Design Node 304
PSU : Inter-Tech CPM 550W II
Cooler : Scythe Shuriken Rev. B
Some notes about these parts ;
All this, plus some cables and thermalpaste guffins rings up for about 525 euros shipping included. The motherboard supports 6x SATA-600 on its own, so that saves having to buy a controller (for now). CPU im not sure about, could do with a bump to the next step which has hyperthreading. RAM is just as cheap as I could find from a reliable brand. HDDs are a pair of WD Reds, which apparently as the hot new thing for NAS building these days (can they be pooled with my greens though?). Case choice is because its got convenient drive cages that are actively cooled. Cooler is again a cheap choice that seems good for this build because an upright tower might get in the way of all the HDD cables.
Like I said, what im attemping to do wont win any pageants, but do you folk think this is a viable build? If you have any tips or suggestions, please throw them my way and ill be happy to look at them. Happy judging! ;)
- Soko Signing off
[EDIT] WHAT REALLY ENDED UP HAPPENING ;
So after a few discussions ive finally settled on what I want to do. Heres the config I decided to go with;
CPU : Intel i3-6100 *
RAM : Kingston ValueRAM KVR21E15D8/16 *
MOBO : ASRock Rack C236 WSI
HDD :
Pool1 : 2 x WD Green 3Tb ** + 2x WD Red 3Tb (Raid1Z)
Pool2 : 2 x WD Green 1Tb ** (Mirrored)
SSD : Team Group L3 EVO 120GB (Boot pool)
PSU : Corsair CX450M
Case : Fractal Design Node 304
Cooler : Shuriken Rev. B
* Bought secondhand.
** Already in stock.
As you can see, things have changed around quite a bit.
CPU : This one is a good step up from the G4400 I originally slated, because it bumps up the clockspeed, adds more cache, and provides hyperthreading (though apparently freeBSD doesnt care?). It was 45 bucks, 9 months used, still in store warranty, so I figured it was a good deal.
RAM : I ended up with a secondhand strip of unbuffered ECC, since it was only barely more expensive than just simple DDR4 nonECC. Another FreeNAS user here on the forum has stated to use this RAM + board combo no problem. So it feels like a sure bet.
MOBO : Its an asrock rack. Not the most ideal one, I know, but atleast its not a discoball all-flash-no-bang +/-100 euro one. It looks like its got the goods where it matters; Supports ECC (there it is), has a whopping 8 SATA ports allowing for full 6xHDD cage saturation (id have to sacrifice one for the boot drive otherwise), ample USB3.0 ports, and its got a pair of Intel NICs so freeBSD will play nice. I'll just have to pretend the audio bit isnt there.
HDD : Bit of a hodgepodge, for now. I already have two WD Green 3Tb and two WD green 1Tb loafing about. I intend to flash tweak them so they spinup quicker and can somewhat keep up with the pair of WD red 3Tb I intend to buy. I hope to ride out this config until the 6Tb drives have come down in price enough to swap out all HDDs for a fresh 6x6Tb Raidz2 down the road. Also, I doubt ill ever consider running a NAS with more drives than this.
SSD : I had to throw in a little SSD because Flash drives are rather unreliable. This one was cheap and the reviews I could find were all right enough for what it has to do, so there you have it.
PSU : Originally I had a cheap Intertech one planned, but I decided I should atleast go with a decent brand if I go cheap. Corsair has been a reliable horse in my stable for a while now, so im betting on it again. 450W should be sufficient.
Case : Its compact and well designed, as im used to from Fractal. Holds six normal 3.5" drives. The Node 804 has been mentioned, but its too bulky for the space I have reserved for it. It holds all the stuff I want, and has a good front to back airflow across the drives, which sounds like gravy to me.
Cooler : In all honesty I just grabbed a cheap one with good reviews. Its flat so it won't get in the way of the HDD cables, big fan so its quiet. can't do worse than stock, and is probably way overkill for a stock speed 51W CPU. :D
I'll report back with a build log and some metrics on how she runs.
I'm new to the scene, and after some finnicking around with FreeNAS on a virtual machine I wanted to finally step into the wonderful world of NAS. After spending most of my life dealing with VMs and crappy windows boxes to do my dirty work, I figured it was time to step it up a notch. Unfortunately im just a working man with an expensive hobby, so my funmoney is limited, and that means I will have to skimp on a few of the fancier features. Someone here on the forum kindly suggested id put my build up for review and suggestions, so here I go!
What I have to work with;
2 x Western Digital Green - 3Tb
2 x Western Digital Green - 1Tb
1 x Western Digital Caviar - 200Gb (heh)
1 x Samsung - 1Tb
All of them still in 100% health according to S.M.A.R.T.
My budget is about 500 to 550 euros (that includes shipping!).
What do I want to do;
Im probably asking a lot, but im going to try anyway;
- Centralized storage for the entire family (mom&pop store, plus living on 2nd floor).
- Media handling that involves sabNZBd, Transmission, Sickrage, Couchpotato, and Plex.
- WAN accessible cloud storage (I want us to be able to access everything from our phones).
What I had in mind;
I thought it would be best to buy two more 3Tb drives to pool them together with the two WD greens ive already got, setting them up as RAIDz1 for that one disk parity redundancy. Only about 350gb of my data is actually important, so I was thinking of making a second pool using the two WD green 1Tb drives, possibly striped for extra speed, to keep a backup of my important dataset, along with the jail dataset that could make good use of a fast scratchdisk. So in summary; 4 x 3Tb in RAIDz1 + 2 x 1Tb in Striped.
How I intend to do it;
I want to purchase the following items;
Mobo : Asus Prime B250M-K
CPU : Intel Pentium G4400 Boxed
RAM : Corsair ValueSelect CMV8GX4M1A2400C16 1x8gb
HDD : 2x WD Red WD30EFRX, 3TB
Case : Fractal Design Node 304
PSU : Inter-Tech CPM 550W II
Cooler : Scythe Shuriken Rev. B
Some notes about these parts ;
All this, plus some cables and thermalpaste guffins rings up for about 525 euros shipping included. The motherboard supports 6x SATA-600 on its own, so that saves having to buy a controller (for now). CPU im not sure about, could do with a bump to the next step which has hyperthreading. RAM is just as cheap as I could find from a reliable brand. HDDs are a pair of WD Reds, which apparently as the hot new thing for NAS building these days (can they be pooled with my greens though?). Case choice is because its got convenient drive cages that are actively cooled. Cooler is again a cheap choice that seems good for this build because an upright tower might get in the way of all the HDD cables.
Like I said, what im attemping to do wont win any pageants, but do you folk think this is a viable build? If you have any tips or suggestions, please throw them my way and ill be happy to look at them. Happy judging! ;)
- Soko Signing off
[EDIT] WHAT REALLY ENDED UP HAPPENING ;
So after a few discussions ive finally settled on what I want to do. Heres the config I decided to go with;
CPU : Intel i3-6100 *
RAM : Kingston ValueRAM KVR21E15D8/16 *
MOBO : ASRock Rack C236 WSI
HDD :
Pool1 : 2 x WD Green 3Tb ** + 2x WD Red 3Tb (Raid1Z)
Pool2 : 2 x WD Green 1Tb ** (Mirrored)
SSD : Team Group L3 EVO 120GB (Boot pool)
PSU : Corsair CX450M
Case : Fractal Design Node 304
Cooler : Shuriken Rev. B
* Bought secondhand.
** Already in stock.
As you can see, things have changed around quite a bit.
CPU : This one is a good step up from the G4400 I originally slated, because it bumps up the clockspeed, adds more cache, and provides hyperthreading (though apparently freeBSD doesnt care?). It was 45 bucks, 9 months used, still in store warranty, so I figured it was a good deal.
RAM : I ended up with a secondhand strip of unbuffered ECC, since it was only barely more expensive than just simple DDR4 nonECC. Another FreeNAS user here on the forum has stated to use this RAM + board combo no problem. So it feels like a sure bet.
MOBO : Its an asrock rack. Not the most ideal one, I know, but atleast its not a discoball all-flash-no-bang +/-100 euro one. It looks like its got the goods where it matters; Supports ECC (there it is), has a whopping 8 SATA ports allowing for full 6xHDD cage saturation (id have to sacrifice one for the boot drive otherwise), ample USB3.0 ports, and its got a pair of Intel NICs so freeBSD will play nice. I'll just have to pretend the audio bit isnt there.
HDD : Bit of a hodgepodge, for now. I already have two WD Green 3Tb and two WD green 1Tb loafing about. I intend to flash tweak them so they spinup quicker and can somewhat keep up with the pair of WD red 3Tb I intend to buy. I hope to ride out this config until the 6Tb drives have come down in price enough to swap out all HDDs for a fresh 6x6Tb Raidz2 down the road. Also, I doubt ill ever consider running a NAS with more drives than this.
SSD : I had to throw in a little SSD because Flash drives are rather unreliable. This one was cheap and the reviews I could find were all right enough for what it has to do, so there you have it.
PSU : Originally I had a cheap Intertech one planned, but I decided I should atleast go with a decent brand if I go cheap. Corsair has been a reliable horse in my stable for a while now, so im betting on it again. 450W should be sufficient.
Case : Its compact and well designed, as im used to from Fractal. Holds six normal 3.5" drives. The Node 804 has been mentioned, but its too bulky for the space I have reserved for it. It holds all the stuff I want, and has a good front to back airflow across the drives, which sounds like gravy to me.
Cooler : In all honesty I just grabbed a cheap one with good reviews. Its flat so it won't get in the way of the HDD cables, big fan so its quiet. can't do worse than stock, and is probably way overkill for a stock speed 51W CPU. :D
I'll report back with a build log and some metrics on how she runs.
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