BUILD New Build - Medium Sized NAS

[cwxc818]

Hi Everyone,

I'm working on my first FreeNAS build. I've been reading through the forums and would like some feedback on components I've selected along with advice on other components. My goal here is to build a medium sized NAS that could grow to a larger NAS as my media collection grows.

I currently have a HTPC that I built in 2008 and really haven't upgraded aside from hard drives. I'll continue to use this to play media from the NAS but in the future I'll probably build a more compact HTPC. Both hard drives are filled to the max and I have a pair of 500GB hard drives with content on them collecting dust so I'd like to consolidate the media from those in the NAS. For reference, here are the current HTPC specs:
SILVERSTONE GD01B-R ATX Case
ECS A780GM-A Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane Dual-Core 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W
Antec earthwatts EA500 500W 80 PLUS Certified P/S
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
Western Digital Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (32-Bit)

If I could reuse any of the above components that would be cool. However, I'm more interested in choosing the right components for the NAS. I thought about reusing the Silverstone case but it's a pain to work with when it comes to adding/removing components. Part of the reason I originally selected this case was for looks as it currently sits in my living room under the TV. But for the NAS it will likely be out of sight so I don't care too much about what it looks like. I also thought about reusing the power supply but I'd prefer to use an 80 Plus Gold power supply. Maybe the hard drives could be reused but I plan on buying new, larger capacity ones.

I have a couple new components laying around that at one point I planned to use but never did. Not sure if they could be reused as I don't know if a SSD has a place in a NAS and the hard drives are only 640GB.

Crucial M500 CT240M500SSD1 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (1x)
Western Digital Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (2x)

For the NAS I've currently purchased a Case, 3 Hard Drives, and Power Supply. Since I've already purchased these I'd like to work with them but if it makes sense to go with something different them I'm all ears. I'm hoping I selected a Case that will allow me to add more hard drives as my media collection grows. Part of the reason I purchased 3 hard drives was because I got them as a bundle for $465 which I thought was a good deal and they seemed to have good reviews. I also didn't want to buy a bunch of hard drives now when they'll likely go down in price and up in capacity in a couple years when I'm potentially ready to upgrade my NAS. In my preliminary research I was toying with the idea of a RAID5 setup, but reading through the forums, that doesn't seem to be recommended. I'll admit I still have some learning to do when it comes to the different RAID setups. It seems like RAID-Z1 is similar to RAID5 but RAID-Z2 is recommended. I'd probably need to increase the number of hard drives to accomplish RAID-Z2?

NZXT Source 210 S210-001 Black
HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS40003272SN (0S03664) 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HD (3x)
Rosewill CAPSTONE-450 450W 80 PLUS GOLD

I was thinking of going with 8-16GB of ECC RAM but I wasn't sure if I should get 1x8GB, 2x4GB, 4x4GB, 2x8GB, or 1x16GB. I started looking at Server Motherboards from Supermicro but haven't decided on one yet. For CPU I was thinking one of the i3's but something I'm confused about is whether there is already a CPU integrated in the Supermicro Motherboards or if you need a separate CPU? I'll also add a 8-16GB flash drive to run FreeNAS. Any advice for selecting these components?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I'm looking forward to this build and I'll make sure to post pics along the way if anyone is interested.

-Mike

 

[marbus90]

The PSU is a nice thing to secure letters on your desk. Nothing for a NAS which you trust with your data.

raidz1 roughly works like raid5, whereas raidz2 works like raid6 (2 disk parity). And yes, with 1+TB drives, almost nobody would recommend you a z1 - if you can, grab another 3 disks and run a raidz2 across all 6. It'll be the highest disk count you could accomplish whilst using relatively cheap hardware. Need more space? replace the existing drives with bigger ones.

You'll want to buy 8GB DIMMs only and start at 16GB for a 6drive z2 on 4TB HDDs. As there are hundreds of supermicro mobos, please specify which one you do mean. However, the boards with a Atom C2550 or C2750 have an acceptable CPU already integrated.

 

[cwxc818]

The PSU is a nice thing to secure letters on your desk. Nothing for a NAS which you trust with your data.

raidz1 roughly works like raid5, whereas raidz2 works like raid6 (2 disk parity). And yes, with 1+TB drives, almost nobody would recommend you a z1 - if you can, grab another 3 disks and run a raidz2 across all 6. It'll be the highest disk count you could accomplish whilst using relatively cheap hardware. Need more space? replace the existing drives with bigger ones.

You'll want to buy 8GB DIMMs only and start at 16GB for a 6drive z2 on 4TB HDDs. As there are hundreds of supermicro mobos, please specify which one you do mean. However, the boards with a Atom C2550 or C2750 have an acceptable CPU already integrated.

Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the PSU, what is one you'd recommend that is 450W? The one I was looking at had the best rating for an 80 Plus Gold but if there's a better one for a NAS then I want to make sure I get it. I could also get one > 450W, but didn't think it would be necessary for my setup.

Regarding the Motherboard, after narrowing it down I'm looking at the following:
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
ASRock C2550D4I
The latter is enticing due to the Atom C2550 assuming it is sufficient. One of my concerns is having enough SATA connectors (6+) and I wasn't sure if it's ok to mix and match SATA2/3 connectors because it seems like several Motherboards have a combination of SATA2/3 connectors.

 

[marbus90]

You can mix all kinds of SATA Ports like 3Gbps, 6Gbps, LSI SAS 6Gbps, 12Gbps and so on. It doesn't matter as long it is Intel in AHCI mode and/or LSI flashed to IT mode.

It would help if you could finalize your disk count. Do you need max 6 NAS disks total? Are 8 enough? Do you need 12? Of the ASRocks SATA ports only 8 work well with FreeNAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the PSU, what is one you'd recommend that is 450W? The one I was looking at had the best rating for an 80 Plus Gold but if there's a better one for a NAS then I want to make sure I get it. I could also get one > 450W, but didn't think it would be necessary for my setup.

Regarding the Motherboard, after narrowing it down I'm looking at the following:
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O
ASRock C2550D4I
The latter is enticing due to the Atom C2550 assuming it is sufficient. One of my concerns is having enough SATA connectors (6+) and I wasn't sure if it's ok to mix and match SATA2/3 connectors because it seems like several Motherboards have a combination of SATA2/3 connectors.

Actually, the X10SL7-F will probably use around the same power at idle as the C2550/2750D4I. If you don't need more than siz drives in the near future, a cheaper motherboard like the X10SLM+-F is a better choice (and will use even less power).

The best 450W PSU you can easily acquire is the Seasonic G-450.

 

[cwxc818]

You can mix all kinds of SATA Ports like 3Gbps, 6Gbps, LSI SAS 6Gbps, 12Gbps and so on. It doesn't matter as long it is Intel in AHCI mode and/or LSI flashed to IT mode.

It would help if you could finalize your disk count. Do you need max 6 NAS disks total? Are 8 enough? Do you need 12? Of the ASRocks SATA ports only 8 work well with FreeNAS.

Thanks for your reply.

Right now I have 3x4TB HD's and I'm planning on purchasing another 3x4TB for a total of 6. My case has 8 3.5" bays so I probably wouldn't go > 8 anytime in the near future but I also don't want to limit myself on SATA connections.
I was doing some reading and it doesn't sound like a spinning drive will max out a SATA2/3 connection. Is that why it's fine to mix various SATA ports?

I'm trying to figure out which 8 SATA ports on the ASRock would work well with FreeNAS? Since we said they type of SATA port doesn't matter I couldn't put together a combination of 8 SATA ports based on the following SATA connections it has:

• 2 x SATA3 6.0Gbps, 4 x SATA2 3.0Gbps by C2550
• 4 x SATA3 6.0Gbps by Marvell SE9230, 2 x SATA3 6.0Gbps by Marvell SE9172

Either way, I think I'm leaning toward the X10SL7-F because of the 8x SAS2 (6Gbps) ports via LSI 2308 along with the 4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s + 2 x SATA 6.0Gb/s.

 

[cwxc818]

Actually, the X10SL7-F will probably use around the same power at idle as the C2550/2750D4I. If you don't need more than siz drives in the near future, a cheaper motherboard like the X10SLM+-F is a better choice (and will use even less power).

The best 450W PSU you can easily acquire is the Seasonic G-450.

Thanks for your advice on the PSU. I haven't received the one I ordered yet so I'll see if I can cancel/return it and get the Seasonic.

 

[cwxc818]

I'm 99% sure but I'd like a 2nd opinion on if this RAM is compatible with the X10SL7-F? It seems to be $20+ cheaper than any other place I've looked: Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3L 1600MT/s (PC3-12800) DR x8 ECC UDIMM 240-Pin S

I read through this thread (https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...or-supermicro-x10-lga1150-motherboards.23291/) then looked up compatible RAM on Crucial's website and came up with this (http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Supermicro/x10sl7-f). Filtering 2x8GB I see CT4484984 is compatible. There is a post in Crucial's forum (http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-memory-for-PC-systems/Crucial-Part-Number-conversion/td-p/150748) saying this crosses to CT102472BD160B which sure looks like what I found. If this is compatible RAM I'm debating picking up 4x8GB due to the lower cost and some Amazon gift cards :)