New Build after Botched Attempt

[Mike L]

Hello,

I tried to put together a FreeNAS build earlier, but jumped into it a little early with not enough research, and had a bunch of compatibility issues and got in over my head. ECC is what really kicked my butt, having a MOBO that "supports" ECC (as non-ECC), not understanding difference between Registered and unbuffered ram are the main issues that really caused most of the problems. Finally reread the hardware guide and think that I finally have put together a system that will work, hopefully well.

My use case will be a home box running 24/7. I plan on running a PLEX media server on it and hosting media files. Most stuff on the NAS will be mainly archival and read only for the media. There will also be a couple time machine shares. I might at some point want to set up a VPN as well on there, but that's about the extent of what I plan on running on it. Current storage needs are around 2-3 TB. I'm planning on using 4 older 2TB drives that I have (to be replaced as $$ allows to 4TB WD reds) with 2 new 4TB WD REDs. I know the 4TB drives will be only used as 2TB until I replace all the 2TB drives with 4TB drives, and the storage space isn't needed at this point. I do really like the hot swap idea and this will be in basement in a small networking rack, so I'm not too concerned about noise.

Case: Roswell 4U RSV-L4412
MOBO: Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O
CPU: Intel Boxed Core i3-6300 Dual Core Processor 3.8GHz LGA1151 BX80662I36300
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16G) DDR4 2133 Server Memory ECC DIMM (288-Pin) RAM KVR21E15D8/16
PSU: SeaSonic SS-500L2U 500W Single 2U Server Power Supply - 80PLUS Gold
SAS Card: Sas9211-8i 8port Int Single 6gb Sata+sas Pcie 2.0
SAS to SATA Cable: Cable Matters Internal Mini-SAS to 4x SATA Forward Breakout Cable 3.3 Feet

Please advise if I'm going in a wrong direction or doing something that would hurt me in the long run. I feel like its overkill in most regards, but also not like im spending WAY too much for not much benefit. When I upgrade system to have more storage and do more things, I plan on upgrading from the 16GB of ram at that time. I'm trying to build something that will do well now, and will still have the ability to be expanded on and upgraded at a later date.

 

[BigDave]

For your stated use case (four drives), the purchase of the add-on SAS card and SAS cables
is wasteful because the board already has 8 SATA ports, use the money for two more HDD.
The case you have listed (Roswell 4U) takes an ATX power supply, find another PSU.
Other than those two minor details, you are looking good...

 

[Jailer]

For your stated use case (four drives)

He said he was going to start with 6.

@BigDave advice is still sound though, the board has 8 SATA connectors so you don't need the HBA or cable.

 

[SweetAndLow]

get an atx power supply, you don't need the hba and sas to sata cable.

 

[gamedude9742]

If you are set on using an HBA (even thought as others mentioned you don't need to) I personally went with a Dell H310.
Its basically the exact same card just Dell branded. You crossflash it to LSI IT mode, and its the same. And its like 60 bucks cheaper.

 

[BigDave]

He said he was going to start with 6.

@BigDave advice is still sound though, the board has 8 SATA connectors so you don't need the HBA or cable.

Shouldn't that have been @BigDave's advice? :p:p:p

 

[Jailer]

Shouldn't that have been @BigDave's advice? :p:p:p

Grammar has never been my strong point.

 

[Mike L]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! The main reason I was looking at the HBA was to have the support for all 12 hot swap bays on the front of the case from the start. I agree that I don't need it yet. Thanks for the catch on the power supply! Totally saved me another pain in the butt exchange! Looks like 1 have 1 component that I can actually use from first attempt! I have build a fair number of gaming PC's, but this type of build is new territory for me. I'll be thinking of getting the HBA, probably will put it off until I really have the need to expand or pick one up cheap.