BUILD New FreeNas build (3 possible builds) - looking for your input

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Johev

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@NiKiLLst

It's in Germany :). My concern is if freenas will be compatible or not with it.

Well I've lost, hope it went for you hehe.
 
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NiKiLLst

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I saw it on the Bay.
Seems fine.
Not sure about compatibility. I'm pretty newb round here.

Did you get it?
 

Johev

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@NiKiLLst

I've tried to keep it below 400€ with the shipping. Apparently someone wanted it more :).

Still waiting for Dell to come back to me regarding a server they are selling. So not a big issue hopefully
 

NiKiLLst

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There are plenty of Dell T20s on Ebay with "buy now" options.
I'm still looking to build it since I already have some components (CPU and Ram).

Does Dell have particular offer on their server?
 

Johev

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I went to their website (Belgium) and they have a builder there where you can choose your own configuration. The Dell T110 II at about 50% discount.
http://www.dell.com/be/fr/entreprises/p/poweredge-t110-2/fs

It comes with the E3 v2, however it has a lower watt (69w vs 80w for v3) and for what I'll be using the server, it should not matter that much.

I have chosen a few configurations, however when I de-select the hard drive (500GB for which they charge 150 EUR), I can't finish the order (gives an error, hard drive missing). So I've called them and they asked me to send them an e-mail and they would make a configuration based on my request without the hard drive,

As we're now in holiday season they're reply times are not very good, which is understandable so I'm waiting to hear from them before I make up my mind.
 

NiKiLLst

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I see.
Still think that buying all on your own will come out a lot cheaper and for sure compatible with freenas.
Don't be in a hurry. That's the standard price for T110. Even in Italy and without any particular offer. ;-)

What's seriously professional is Dell support. Really fast in response. Not always perfect (it's not directly Dell to fix your problem) but fast.
 

Johev

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@NiKiLLst

I've done a lot of research and there is no way that buying the components will be cheaper. As you can see in my first post is about 800€ just for the system with a basic HT enabled Xeon (1230 v3).

The Dell T110 II with a Xeon 1270v2 is below 300 EUR if they sell it without the hard drive. So I would say it is about 50% cheaper and has the basic 1 year warranty.

So my quest continues :)
 
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NiKiLLst

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Hi, @Johev

look at what I found today: http://brontastor.com/
Basically a NAS with the same configuration we are looking for.
Moreover they produce a chassis with a closed loop cooling for CPU.
Obviously it's not cheap. But I sent them an email asking if is it possibile to have just the chassis, since I already have most of the hardware.
I'll report back any info.
 

NiKiLLst

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I checked T110 II.
It can hosts maximum 4x 3,5" drive:

"Up to six 2.5” SATA SSD or SAS drives or
Up to four 3.5” SAS, nearline SAS, or SATA drives"

SOURCE

For me is not enough. Did you checked it?
 

Johev

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@NiKiLLst

Wow, that server that you have linked to looks prefect. The case rocks and ticks all the things I would want in a server / nas box.

If you get the quote for the case, let me know. The only price I've seen was around 2.3K pounds which was basic 8GB, 1230v3 and no discs. So I'm excited however not sure how much they'll ask just for the case, in case that they actually sell it.

As for the T110 II. I only looked at it because of the price. I knew about the 4 SATA and I would need to add some more with a card.

At this moment I'm looking at some Dell T20. They are relatively cheap, have the newest Intel remote management and several people on this forum used them for the NAS.

The disappointing part is that Dell has not come back to me, so I'm looking for different places to buy it and not overpay.

Maybe someone from here could link to a place with EU shipping at a reasonable price ;).

Thanks for all the support in my search.
 
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NiKiLLst

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Little update @Johev.

They don't sell chassis only. :-(
But they do sell chassis and mobo only. So I asked for a quote.
For both air and liquid cooled ones.

I'll be back as I recieve the quote.
 

Johev

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@NiKiLLst
Thanks for the information. I would be probably interested in the basic version without the LCD and with air cooling. I also hope that they'll include 1 power supply in that quote and not ask for +1.000 EUR. Lets see what will come out of this, hehe

@marbus90
Thank you very much for linking to that store. I am still evaluating some options, and I'm a little sad that I can't find the Dell T20 for anything less than what you have linked to, given that they were selling -100 EUR a few months before.

Do you think that these types of promotions are normal with newly released hardware? I'm new to server grade components / servers, and I recall reading somewhere that it is normal in the beginning of the year or with launch of new servers to have these types promotions. Could anyone confirm this?

Many thanks in advance for all your support.
 
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marbus90

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I guess that was also around the Black Friday time. That wave is slowly swashing across the pond. At that time, the systems were sold for 299EUR, therefore 10% off the regular price. I guess Dell realized that they were selling those too cheap and bumped the price by ~15%.

Still a damn good price for an entry-level server/workstation.
 

NiKiLLst

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I got my question answered at a pretty-nice-but-not-fast seller of Brontastor.
Their product is REALLY amazing but I think it's a little overpriced.
It's an 8 hot plug bay + 2 hotplug bay +2 internal ssd cache bay.

Basic barebone config: no cpu, no ram, no disks, no raid card, just chassis and motherboard provided from Intel is more than 1100£. (1400€) VAT and shipping not included. That's HUGE.
Even for the best chassis i've found lately, IMHO.

Search keep going.
 

Ericloewe

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I got my question answered at a pretty-nice-but-not-fast seller of Brontastor.
Their product is REALLY amazing but I think it's a little overpriced.
It's an 8 hot plug bay + 2 hotplug bay +2 internal ssd cache bay.

Basic barebone config: no cpu, no ram, no disks, no raid card, just chassis and motherboard provided from Intel is more than 1100£. (1400€) VAT and shipping not included. That's HUGE.
Even for the best chassis i've found lately, IMHO.

Search keep going.

At that price, I'd rather get a new Supermicro 3/4U chassis and a Haswell-EP X10 board...
 

Johev

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@NiKiLLst
Thank you very much for your initiative. I was already expecting that quote, however we can still dream :). In order for me to start considering the basic barebone it would have to be at a 50% discount from the above price ;).

Now back to my quest. Based on all my research, revaluation of my needs and good advice from @marbus90 I'll probably buy the Dell T20 from cyberport.de.

Before I order it I would like to ask a few questions.

It's not the ideal system however I'm deciding to go for it because of the price/quality. I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM with +8GB (making the total 12GB) and team it up with 3 HDD (still deciding between 3TB or 4TB). I'll be using the ZFS file system. I'll use the included 1TB HDD as a target for the TV recordings as that is not sensitive data, thus no redundancy is needed.

It's my first freenas setup and I hope that it'll help me finally organise all the documents in the household, and to let me access them remotely.

It should also be able to do some plex (1 to 2 devices simultaneously) and to download and share torrents.

Regarding the types of drives, I was thinking of WD RED, however I've read that it is possible to get the WD Green and flash it in a way that it can actually be used for a NAS.

Many thanks everyone for all your assistance.
 
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NiKiLLst

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@Johev
Sorry for the delay but lately work was too much for 24-hours-day.

I ended up in buying a stock of components which included a Lian Li Q08 that can host 6x3,5" and 2/3 SSD in the 5,25" slot.
Problem is that it only support mini-itx mobo, even if there's room to place a mAtx one. So it needs a little mod. But it will be nice.

Make yourself a favor and don't buy green. they're painfully slow and not made for NAS. imho.
 

Johev

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Thank you all for your input, I have had some complication which delayed my purchase.

After further research I am going to buy one of the two below options. Please let me know which one you would choose and why. By the way I'm going to buy it from Cyberport.de as suggested by @marbus90.

Option 1 (low cost :) )
  • DELL PowerEdge T20 - 20-3708 (# Intel Xeon E3-1225 v3 (3,2 GHz, Quad-Core-Prozessor, 8 MB Cache) # 4 GB DDR3 PC3-12800, 1 TB SATA, 24 Month Warranty) - 349,00 EUR
  • DELL 8GB DDR3L-1600 UDIMM 2RX8 ECC RAM A - 108,42 EUR
  • Seagate Surveillance HDD ST3000VX002 (3TB) 115 EURx3= 345 EUR
  • Total of RAM 12GB
Total 802,42 EUR

I have decided to choose the Seagate Surveillance instead of WD RED/PURPLE and Seagate NAS, as the performance was similar and they had the best price per TB ration. I have read a few things about using the WD Greens but decided against them, even though they were the cheapest.

Option 2 (not so low cost :) )
  • Lenovo TS140 70A5-A002 GE (# Intel Xeon E3-1245 v3 (3,4 GHz Quad-Core-Prozessor, 8 MB Cache) # 8 GB DDR3 PC3L-12800, DVD Double Layer Brenner # 4 36 Month Warranty) - 529 EUR
  • Lenovo 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 0C19500 - 114,32 EUR
  • Seagate Surveillance HDD ST3000VX002 (3TB) 115 EURx3= 345 EUR
  • Total of RAM 16GB
Total 988,32 EUR

Price difference = 185,9 EUR

So here you have it. Months of research and price / quality analysis got me to the above options.

PRO's for Lenovo TS140: 6 SATA ports on the motherboard, E3-1245v3 has HT enabled, which means 8 vCOREs to use, comes with a slim DVD burner (nice to have as I can share it between all the PC's at home).
Cons: Price

PRO's for Dell T20: 1TB HDD included (would use it as a target for the TV recoding), lower price
Cons: only 4 SATA ports, CPU with HT disabled, only 4 GB of RAM.

So the question I have, are the 186 EUR worth the Lenovo investment or should I just get the Dell and call it a day.

Thank you all for your input.
 
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marbus90

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I haven't seen someone being able to share out the internal DVD drive of the server. HT or not doesn't matter.

Since my feet are already resting on 2 dust collectors... er Xeon T20's from cyberport, I'd go for them. :P
 
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