Needing some suggestions for a new NAS build

[mrramsey]

Hi all - I am hoping to get some direction. I am not a total newbie but the time has come where I want a dedicated ground up nas build. I have been using a NAS for about 11 years. My current system is a re-purposed DELL Xeon workstation running FreeNas 9.10x Stable. My previous systems have also just been various re-purposed machines. My use case is really just mass storage for pc backups, photos, music etc. I don't stream or otherwise run any type of plex services etc. Current capacity is 2TB on a raid1 mirror using 2 2tb WD black drives. I attempted an update to the latest stable version of freenas 11.2 but had issues. I was able to get back to 9.10 though. After a little bout of anxiety thinking I bricked the system I made the decision to either build a system or buy a pre-configured one.

FreeNas has been super reliable over the past 4 years or so that I have been running it. I really set it up and left it alone no problems except for the self inflicted ones. Here is what I am after:

Smallish form factor hot swap bays
4TB total storage 4 to 6 drives raid6 or raidz2 (WD reds)
SSD boot (i have a spare 256GB samsung850)
1GBe
8-16GB RAM
Trying to stay in the $800-$1k range

 

[Redcoat]

Take a look at this resource to get yourself started - https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/specific-build-components-list-up-to-32gb-ram.109/

I wouldn't get hung up on hot-swap if I were you. Seems "nice" to have, but in a non-critical environment when one can shut the server down to make a swap, always less risky to do so.

 

[joeschmuck]

So it looks like you are just using your NAS as a NAS only, that is a novel idea ;).

Because your needs are so low and all you are really looking for is to increase your capacity and keep costs low then you might ask yourself these questions:

1) What is wrong with my current FreeNAS machine?
2) Can I just replace the current drives with two higher capacity drives, like 5TB drives = ~4.5TB usable space ($156/each)

As for upgrading to the latest version of FreeNAS, you may not have enough RAM or you might need to reinstall from scratch (your pool would be safe). Unfortunately you didn't specify what your current system hardware exactly is, the boot drive, hard drive interfaces, etc...

So in short, just over $300 for the new hard drives is a good price if your current system is good enough for you, much better than $800 to $1000.

 

[mrramsey]

So it looks like you are just using your NAS as a NAS only, that is a novel idea ;).

Because your needs are so low and all you are really looking for is to increase your capacity and keep costs low then you might ask yourself these questions:

1) What is wrong with my current FreeNAS machine?
2) Can I just replace the current drives with two higher capacity drives, like 5TB drives = ~4.5TB usable space ($156/each)

As for upgrading to the latest version of FreeNAS, you may not have enough RAM or you might need to reinstall from scratch (your pool would be safe). Unfortunately you didn't specify what your current system hardware exactly is, the boot drive, hard drive interfaces, etc...

So in short, just over $300 for the new hard drives is a good price if your current system is good enough for you, much better than $800 to $1000.

@joeschmuck
Here is my current system -
Dell T-3500 workstation circa 2013 (this was purchased as a backup development computer in the event that the primary cratered for some reason. I would be generous in claiming that it had 100 hours on it when I re-purposed it into a NAS on 2015)

CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3505 @ 2.53GHz (2533.34-MHz K8-class CPU)
8GB ECC Unbuffered RAM
Boot Device is currently USB stick but as I mentioned I do have an available SSD.
The current case can support 4 SATA drives if I remove the optical drive
The MOBO has 5 sata ports

My current drives are coming up on 5 years old now. Overall I guess I don't really have an issue with performance of the current system. and it only pulls about 74 watts at idle.

 

[joeschmuck]

So I would consider staying with your current hardware if that is okay with you and a pair of mirrored drives or you could install a 3 way mirror or even a RAIDZ2 if you desire, it's only money after all. If you were looking for a new system (some folks like to buy new) then the previously mentioned guide is a good place to start, but keeping everything under $1000 is not easy but it can be done. I was just trying to keep your costs low.