BUILD New build - feedback requested.

[Houe]

So I've been learking around here for a few days and been reading up on FreeNAS and decided to pull the trigger on a build. My goal is to serve approx 6TB to start and an eye towards more in the future. My wife has a small photo business and tons of family photos (probably 2-3TB - all on external hard drives without backup as of now). Budget is somewhat of a concern as well, but I'm willing to do what is needed to secure these files.

I picked up a TS440 Thinkserver (70AQ0009UX) from tigerdirect a couple days ago. Looks like a decent start:
Intel Xeon E3-1225V3
4GB ECC RAM
CDROM
450 gold PSU
HD hot swap bays
5 SATA ports

I plan to add a stick of 8GB ECC memory from crucial.com to bump me up to 12GB total.
I have an old 80GB intel SDD laying around I can throw in for the OS (probably unplug the CDROM to free of a SATA port for it).
Add 4x3TB hard drives to round off the build (I need to buy 4 HD Thinkserver trays too I think).
Future expansion would require some card for another 4 hard drives.

So thoughts on this build? I'm also looking for recommendations on hard drives since I haven't picked them out yet. WD green would save me about $100 over WD Reds. Worth it? Thanks for the feedback - this is a great community!

 

[BigDave]

WD green would save me about $100 over WD Reds. Worth it?

Greens are being phased out, Reds are here to stay (at least it appears that way).
I have both and have not noticed any difference (they are all just about a year old).
I had to use the wdidle.exe on the greens to fix the firmware's head parking issue.
There's a huge thread here in the forums about this, but really, I would go Red or
HGST Deskstar models

 

[Houe]

Thanks for the feedback BigDave. I have been leaning towards the red drives but just wanted a 2nd opinion. Now an interesting prospect is before me now. I can get some refurbished western digital 2TB black drives for $35 a pop. Would it be foolish to attempt to use such hard drives. I maybe could swing 5x2TB in Z3 mode. Hmmm...

 

[BigDave]

Would it be foolish to attempt to use such hard drives.

You have indicated the possible use of RAIDz3 which is a serious level of redundancy, but of course if you use
refurbished drives for your data, I can see the reasoning behind it ;)
I have a 6 drive (3TB Red) RAIDz2 pool which has not given me one bit of trouble so far.
Those drives are going on sale tomorrow for right around $100 each on most of the big etailer sites
I personally would buy a few extras to have on hand, if you chose the $35 drives :p

 

[DrKK]

An important piece of philosophy here: if you are going to use ZFS and FreeNAS, then not using good equipment, to include good, appropriate, new hard drives (e.g., WD reds), then what the hell are you doing? Don't be penny-wise, and pound-foolish, as they say. If money is such a constraint that you are not able or inclined to use good, proper, equipment for FreeNAS, then I would recommend to not use FreeNAS, and to content yourself with something else.

Just my two cents.

 

[Houe]

Fair enough. I passed on the refurbished drives (but the price was tempting!). I'll see what I can find for reds.

 

[Fuganater]

3TB Reds were just on sale for $90. I am sure they will hit that price again this week.

 

[Houe]

I purchased a 2nd matching 4GB module. I'll only have 8GB but at least it will be matched running in dual channel mode. Still watching and waiting for hard drives.

 

[Houe]

I've picked up 3 4TB seagate nas drives (ST4000VN000) over the holiday deal season. I Still would like to get 1 more but maybe 3 drives in Z1 would suffice?

 

[mattbbpl]

I've picked up 3 4TB seagate nas drives (ST4000VN000) over the holiday deal season. I Still would like to get 1 more but maybe 3 drives in Z1 would suffice?

Strongly recommend Z2. You can't add a drive later and make it Z2, so don't make a permanent concession for a short term solution.

 

[Fuganater]

Strongly recommend Z2. You can't add a drive later and make it Z2, so don't make a permanent concession for a short term solution.

What he said.

 

[Houe]

I picked up a 4TB HGST Deskstar NAS for the 4th drive (other 3 are Seagate 4TB NAS drives). Odd config but I needed 1 more drive and I found a pretty good price for the Deskstar. Hopefully these 4 drives will play nice together for a Z2 setup.

 

[mattbbpl]

You did well. Unless there's some gotcha I'm not aware of with those drives, you shouldn't have a problem.