New Build Advice (Freenas noob)

[Thorax2015]

Afternoon all. I'm looking into building a FreeNAS based machine, got some ideas about what hardware I want to use, just looking for some pointers. I plan to use it as a media server and backup, possibly a git repo???


Intel Pentium (G4560) 3.5GHz
(Dual core with HT, few guides have suggested similar)

Gigabyte X150M-PRO ECC Motherboard
Has 6 SATA 6 Gb/s, would prefer 8 to match the case its gonna go in.
Should I bother with lots of SATA 6 Gb/s connections or get a PCI card to manage it?
Either way, it's still one of the cheapest boards I've found that supports ECC.

Kingston KVR24E17D8/16 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Spare Fractal R4 case.
Missus's PC is in the Fractal R4. I plan to move her old thing into a Fractal Mini C, and eventually upgrade that to something a bit beefier.
But I figured, I already have a case that can take 8 3.5" HDD trays.

Spare Seasonic G 500W PSU.

I have a single 6TB WB Red to go in it aswell.

OS will run off a SanDisk 16 GB USB.

Network card?? Is it worth getting a dedicated NIC or will the onboard one suffice? It will only really be for serving media to two PC's and two laptops.

Any suggestions?
Apologies if a bit vague or not formatted correctly.

Cheers all!

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Gigabyte X150M-PRO ECC Motherboard
Has 6 SATA 6 Gb/s, would prefer 8 to match the case its gonna go in.

This Gigabyte board is aimed to small workstations. The Supermicro X11SSM-F as mentioned in the Hardware Recommendations Guide is a better choice for a small server (IMPI, 8 SATA ports, ...).

Network card?? Is it worth getting a dedicated NIC or will the onboard one suffice? It will only really be for serving media to two PC's and two laptops.

Onboard Intel GBit NICs are fine.

 

[Thorax2015]

Speedy reply! Thanks for the link to the guide. Very useful.

Motherboard looks an excellent choice. I don't necessarily need microATX. The fractal R4 will easily take an ATX. Is it generally recommended to go ATX over microATX?

I will double check the PSU make and model when I get home from work. But afair, it's a Seasonic 500w

Thanks for the pointers!

 

[MrToddsFriends]

Motherboard looks an excellent choice. I don't necessarily need microATX. The fractal R4 will easily take an ATX. Is it generally recommended to go ATX over microATX?

For a Socket 115x board microATX isn't a bad choice in most cases as this platforms have a limited number of PCIe lanes.

I will double check the PSU make and model when I get home from work. But afair, it's a Seasonic 500w

While you are at 8 SATA ports on the motherboard and 8 HDD bays in the case have a look at the Seasonic Focus Plus 650 Gold/Platinum models (having 8 SATA power ports).

 

[Inxsible]

Has 6 SATA 6 Gb/s, would prefer 8 to match the case its gonna go in.
Should I bother with lots of SATA 6 Gb/s connections or get a PCI card to manage it?

An HBA can easily fix that.

Is it generally recommended to go ATX over microATX?

Only if you plan to upgrades later in terms of PCIE. Example, putting in multiple HBAs or 10Gbe cards etc etc.

I have a single 6TB WB Red to go in it aswell.

You should add at least 1 more to get some redundancy