BUILD New build - review and recommendations?

[zoom555]

I'm new to FreeNAS and looking to build a system. My current picks for hardware are below and I'd appreciate knowledgeable eyes looking over my build for glaring problems or opportunities for parts that would offer a better price/performance return.

This will be a system for home file server use, as well as running Plex Media Server for a limited amount of transcoding. (My main home theatre has an XBMC HTPC; it doesn't require transcoding. Transcoding would be to a maximum of two 1080p streams at a time - both to Roku boxes running the Plex client).

Planned Build

MB: Supermicro MBD-X10SLL-F-O
CPU: Xeon E3-1220v3
RAM: Crucial 16GB (2x8) CT2KIT102472BD160B (not listed in MB compatibility list, but this post suggest it is compatible)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
Drives: 6 x 3TB Seagate ST3000VN000
PS: Corsair 450w CS450M Modular PS (I think this would give me enough power to reach the 8 drive capacity of the drive cages later if I added a SATA controller card - thoughts?)

Thanks in advance for any advice you folks can offer!

 

[Ericloewe]

I'm new to FreeNAS and looking to build a system. My current picks for hardware are below and I'd appreciate knowledgeable eyes looking over my build for glaring problems or opportunities for parts that would offer a better price/performance return.

This will be a system for home file server use, as well as running Plex Media Server for a limited amount of transcoding. (My main home theatre has an XBMC HTPC; it doesn't require transcoding. Transcoding would be to a maximum of two 1080p streams at a time - both to Roku boxes running the Plex client).

Planned Build

MB: Supermicro MBD-X10SLL-F-O
CPU: Xeon E3-1220v3
RAM: Crucial 16GB (2x8) CT2KIT102472BD160B (not listed in MB compatibility list, but this post suggest it is compatible)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804
Drives: 6 x 3TB Seagate ST3000VN000
PS: Corsair 450w CS450M Modular PS (I think this would give me enough power to reach the 8 drive capacity of the drive cages later if I added a SATA controller card - thoughts?)

Thanks in advance for any advice you folks can offer!

The RAM, while not validated by Supermicro for that board, has worked for a those who have tried it (and posted, obviously). If possible, Samsung or Hynix are validated, so they're better options. For most boards (the ones with the validated Micron modules), it's a wash between those two and Crucial.

I'd personally go with a Seasonic G-450 PSU, as the quality is quite a bit better than Corsair CX/CS stuff. 450W should be enough for 8 drives. Even the G-360 would probably be fine, but it's not modular.

 

[anodos]

If you plan to add more drives, you might want to consider an LSI 9211-8i or M1015 rather than a sata controller card (or find an X10 with the LSI HBA built into it - i.e. the X10SL7).

 

[zoom555]

Thanks for the tips anodos and Ericloewe.

I am amending the motherboard in the planned build to the Supermicro X10SL7-F-O as suggested by anodos. I've had very good luck with Corsair power supplies in two prior main/gaming rigs which are always on, and there's a really good deal locally on that CS450M, so I think I'll stick with that instead of Seasonic. I'm having a great deal of trouble finding the Supermicro validated RAM and Crucial's website claims compatibility for the RAM I've chosen, so I'm hopeful the memory I've picked will work. If not, I should be able to return it given Crucial's claim of compatibility. I'll run a memory test for a while before I get into installing FreeNAS.

Reading more about RAIDZ arrays in the forums here (and now having the room on the upgrade mobo to connect them), I think I'll bump the number of drives up to 8 x 3TB, allowing for a RAIDZ2 array that can tolerate the loss of up to two drives.

Since I've just pumped up my cost on two items in the build (MB and drives), is it worth considering a $100 savings on my processor? I can pick up an Intel Core i3-4130 for CDN$120 locally, as compared to CDN$235 (including shipping) from Newegg for the Xeon E3-1220V3. It looks to me like the Core i3-4130 has enough guts to provide up to two transcoded streams and it does support the ECC RAM which lots of posts tell me is essential to data integrity. Am I crazy to consider a consumer-grade CPU for this rig?

 

[hertzsae]

I'm putting together a very similar build, which I haven't finalized yet. Don't think of the i3 as "consumer grade" like the marketing people want you to. Think of whether it has the power you need or not. I want to be able to push 4 streams, so I'm going with the Xeon. If you'll only be pushing two transcoded streams at a time, then there's no reason to get the Xeon.

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks for the tips anodos and Ericloewe.

I am amending the motherboard in the planned build to the Supermicro X10SL7-F-O as suggested by anodos. I've had very good luck with Corsair power supplies in two prior main/gaming rigs which are always on, and there's a really good deal locally on that CS450M, so I think I'll stick with that instead of Seasonic. I'm having a great deal of trouble finding the Supermicro validated RAM and Crucial's website claims compatibility for the RAM I've chosen, so I'm hopeful the memory I've picked will work. If not, I should be able to return it given Crucial's claim of compatibility. I'll run a memory test for a while before I get into installing FreeNAS.

Reading more about RAIDZ arrays in the forums here (and now having the room on the upgrade mobo to connect them), I think I'll bump the number of drives up to 8 x 3TB, allowing for a RAIDZ2 array that can tolerate the loss of up to two drives.

Since I've just pumped up my cost on two items in the build (MB and drives), is it worth considering a $100 savings on my processor? I can pick up an Intel Core i3-4130 for CDN$120 locally, as compared to CDN$235 (including shipping) from Newegg for the Xeon E3-1220V3. It looks to me like the Core i3-4130 has enough guts to provide up to two transcoded streams and it does support the ECC RAM which lots of posts tell me is essential to data integrity. Am I crazy to consider a consumer-grade CPU for this rig?

The i3 might start choking with two streams, depending on how complicated they are. It should be enough in most circumstances. To add a bit of headroom, you can also go for one of the faster-clocked i3s.

 

[zoom555]

Well, I got the system built, did an overnight memory test, a half-hour stress test to check out system temps and then installed FreeNAS. I decided not to cut corners and went with the originally planned CPU (Xeon E3-1220v3) and substituted the Seasonic G-450 power supply as suggested by Ericloewe. I also added a small SSD to the build which will be strictly for jails for additional applications.

The Crucial RAM (Crucial 16GB (2x8) CT2KIT102472BD160B) had no problems during 8 hours of testing.

Here are some pictures of the build process:

Empty case, PSU installed

Motherboard installed

Memory installed (and CPU)

SSD installed (behind front panel of case)

Hard drives - cabling not yet complete

Starting some cable management
(I found this a tough case to clean up cables in, but maybe it's
just because I've never installed 9 drives in one system.)

Thanks for the help in this thread and in many others I read on the boards. I'm now struggling to get my jails all configured properly, so I'm sure I'll be back with a few more questions.

Cheers!

 

[mjws00]

I sure like this combo. Though I spotted empty RAM slots, wtf? ;) Thanks for the pics.

 

[Fraoch]

Looks nice! Everyone seems to recommend the E3-1230 but I went with the E3-1220 like you did and haven't been disappointed. Though I'm still testing and haven't tried transcoding, I never seem to break 10% CPU load (most of the time it's below 5%). Even CPU stress-testing with Prime95 using a Linux live distro only pushed it up to 50-60 C at 100% load, much lower than my desktop Core i7-4790K.

Make sure you do some intensive drive testing, if they're defective, you're going to want to find out now. I'm in week two of this and only had one hiccup:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cant-boot-anymore.24306/

Recovered now and still testing.

Don't depend on your drives until they can prove themselves.

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks nice! Everyone seems to recommend the E3-1230 but I went with the E3-1220 like you did and haven't been disappointed. Though I'm still testing and haven't tried transcoding, I never seem to break 10% CPU load (most of the time it's below 5%). Even CPU stress-testing with Prime95 using a Linux live distro only pushed it up to 50-60 C at 100% load, much lower than my desktop Core i7-4790K.

Make sure you do some intensive drive testing, if they're defective, you're going to want to find out now. I'm in week two of this and only had one hiccup:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cant-boot-anymore.24306/

Recovered now and still testing.

Don't depend on your drives until they can prove themselves.

It's a higher-binned i5, so lower temperatures than the i7 (which is basically the i5 with Hyper-Threading switched on) are to be expected.

 

[Fraoch]

It's a higher-binned i5, so lower temperatures than the i7 (which is basically the i5 with Hyper-Threading switched on) are to be expected.

True.

Over at pcpartpicker there are lots of people recommending E3-1230+ Xeons over locked Core i7s for desktop use. This works well in the U.S. where low-end Xeons are priced lower than their Core i7 equivalents, but elsewhere, Xeons are always priced higher. Incidentally my E3-1220 worked just fine as a desktop chip when I was initially testing it.