BUILD Need PSU for First Build (Fractal Node 304/ASRock)

[jb510]

What I want: A low power 4+ disk NAS that transcode at least one 1080p stream, and won't choke on BTSync.

FWIW, if I could get one stream at 4k for future proofing, that'd be cool, but far from required. I almost never transcode video on the fly, I just stream it as is to various devices and usually at 720p.

This NAS will be replacing a Synology DS213 (2 disk) + several USB drives. Currently the DS chokes on BTSync (100,000's of files). The DS gets used as home/office file server (inc. Time Machine for 4 workstations), BTorrent Client, media storage... The biggest issue really is that I'm just out of space and need more drives.

What I'm thinking (why):
Fractal Node 304 (6 bays, dust covers)
ASRock C2750D4I (lower power, 6+ sata ports, 4 DIMM slots. also considering the 2550)
2x8GB DDR3 1600 (Someday might upgrade to 32)
4 WD Red drives to start, will add 2 more later
PSU ?

Where I'm most stuck.
#1 Am I missing another good MB option? Cost and performance is secondary to power efficiency for me.
#2 Any recommendation of a PSU? I'm totally lost at evaluating quality and choosing an appropriately sized PSU. Beyond looking for 80plus gold. Links to reviews or simply to a reputable product are welcome...

On #1 The new Gigabyte GA-9SISL looks great, but I don't see it mentioned *anywhere* on these forums which seems weird. It looks expensive, but I have trouble comparing MB+CPU combos to bare MB + bare CPU. I don't like Supermicro's SO-DIMMS and needing to find ECC for them, maybe that's not as expensive or difficult as I assume. I dislike the the ASRock doesn't have USB 3.0.

On #2 - I'm looking at:
Corsair CX Series 430 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Bronze CX430M
or
Corsair CS Series 450 Watt ATX Modular and Efficient Power Supply CS450M
or
Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply SSR-360GP

I really have zero idea on how to choose a PSU. Appreciate any info.

Finally - I have read about all I can in the forums. I know many including cyberjock caution against using the ASrock Rack boards in part because of ASRock's inexperience building server boards compared to SuperMicro and others. Doesn't seem a big deal to me and my needs... Also seems odd since IXSystems selected the C2750D4I for the FreeNAS mini... but I'd entertain recommendation of other *lower power* boards with 6+ sata connectors. Just please don't tell me use "anything but ASRock", that's not really very helpful to me.

 

[Ericloewe]

CPU: The C2550 is a bit too slow for transcoding. The C2750 is fine.

PSU: The Seasonic G-series are the best low-power units you can easily acquire. The G-360 is fine for up to 10 drives, but the G-450 and up are modular. Both hardocp and jonnyguru have good PSU reviews.

 

[SweetAndLow]

You probably can't just add 2 more drives like you think you can. Just get 6 drives to start. Read up on vdevs if you want to know more.

Ericloewe feedback is what I would suggest also.

 

[enemy85]

An asrock E3C226D2I + i3 cpu could be another possible solution, but you will be limited to 16Gb of ram

 

[sremick]

Definitely second the idea of populating all 6 drive bays from the get-go and build a 6-drive RAIDZ2 pool. Then you add space by replacing all the drives in the pool. This will be easier in the long run over having 6 drives messily split between 2 vdevs, or having to back up, destroy and rebuild your pool when you add drives to flesh it out to 6 later.

 

[jb510]

Thanks! I read up a bit on vdevs, I clearly need to read more. I had mostly assumed ZFS pools were like Synology Hybrid Raid and BtrFS where one could fairly easily add mismatched drives and rebalance an array.

I have 6 drives I could start with, but they'd be mismatched, which similarly seems to be problematic. I need to do more reading.

My "naive plan" was to purchase two 6TB WD Reds now, to go with two 3TB Reds I currently have. Leaving the two 1TB WD Greens I have in another enclosure. In 6 months I'd add two more 6TB reds to the raid.

Starting to think Ubuntu+BtrFS or XPenology might be better for my sloppy drive arrangement. Just when I thought I had a plan I need to do more reading...

 

[Ericloewe]

Sounds like you should read Cyberjock's guide (link in my sig).

 

[jb510]

I've tried reading it several times... ;) I think I made it to slide 20 once...

I'm sure it's full of tons of valuable info and I'll eventually slog through it. I'm thankful to cyberjock for sharing it. Over detailed slides though are a really poor way to share detailed info like that. I was already thinking about converting to a nice indexed HTML doc like the FreeNAS Docs, but right now going back to square one to figure out if FreeNAS even makes sense for my needs. Don't need to discuss those further here... my hardware questions are all happy resolved, thanks!

 

[enemy85]

If you have other 2 unused disks laying around, you could even start with 6 different sized drives at the beginning, just to create a 6disks raidz2 array, obviously the pool size will be 4 x the smallest disk size in the array (2 disks are not considered because are used for parity). In this way, once substituted the small disks with bigger ones, and letting the system resilver each time, your pool size will automatically increase (NOTE: all the 6 disks have to be the same size at the end of the game).
This will allow to buy you just 4disks now and the other 2 later on. You have just to see if the small initial pool size is ok for your needs.