New Self Build NAS

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

Hey there,

Im just about to build a NAS, I have been looking for hardware for quite some time and have finally decided on the components im going to use, can anyone offer any advice on the following spec and let me know if it is suffice.

Lian Li - Mini ITX PC-Q08B Case,
Asus P8H77-I M-ITX Motherboard,
Intel i3-2100 Sandybridge Core Duo Processor,
Kingston Hyper-X 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM,
Evo Labs Silent Modular ATX 650W PSU,
4GB San Disc Flash Drive,
6 x 3TB WD Caviar HDD's

I dont have the luxury of an old computer or any spare parts so its going to be a new build.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Phil

 

[survive]

Hi Phil-Kent-Rifles,

Assuming you are going to use ZFS I would suggest you buy more RAM. Better to spend the cash now...the board only has 2 DIMM slots so those 2GB sticks could wind up on the shelf right quick.

-Will

 

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

Cheers for the reply Will,

I could up the RAM to 2 x 4GB or if I can I could use 2 x 8GB, would that be adequate?

The NAS is mainly going to be used for Media.

I will probably use ZFS as that looks to be the better option from what I have read.

I wanted something small but relatively decent, my only concern was with the On-Board LAN:Realtek 8111F 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller on the Motherboard as I read somewhere that FreeNAS isn't compatible with it or something. Is this true?

Is the rest of the Spec OK for a small NAS? Could there be any other compatibility issues with what i want to use?

Sorry for more questions but you gave me one answer which in turn opened up a couple more haha. Sods Law.

It all helps with the understanding of all this tech stuff.

Cheers for the reply and thanks for your help.

Regards

Phil

 

[Stephens]

Use 2x8GB.

Yes, use ZFS, preferably in RAID-Z2, but minimally in RAID-Z1 (I'm building a 6x3TB RAID-Z2 mysef shortly).

I believe the REalTek 8111F is supported in FreeNAS 8.3, which isn't out yet, but there are BETA and daily builds. Even if you use 8.2, there are people here who have "ported" a driver. There's a thread here if you choose to do that.

 

[tirsojrp]

Avoid using consumer level hardware for such tasks. Try to get a server/workstation motherboard and ECC RAM. Also most server motherboards includes 2 Intel NIC's. If this is not possible due to budget constrains at least bump the ram to 16gb and add an Intel gigabit card to your build.

 

[Stephens]

Avoid using consumer level hardware for consumer level tasks? ECC for a media server? 2 Intel NIC's? You sure you responded in the right thread?

 

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

@ Stephens,

Thanks for the reply mate, much appreciated. I have reconsidered the RAM situation and have decided to go with 2 x 8GB Kingston Hyper-X DDR3s instead of my previous choice of just 2 x 2GB. My Dad mentioned something about 1GB of RAM per 1TB of HDD Space which would make a lot of sense.

If the On-Board Realtek 8111 F LAN Controller is supported in FreeNAS 8.3 that would be great. When is it due to be released? I have no clue what "Ported a Driver" means but that also seems like an option.

I was a bit mythed at the replied Thread by tirsojrp because it didn't really make much sense to me... However if I did have issues with the On-Board Realtek 8111F LAN Controller would installing the Intel Gigabit Card resolve the problem? Again just another problem solved if it did work.

Thanks again Stephens, and, tirsojrp (if that Thread was intended for me), all info is very much appreciated.

Cheers

Phil

 

[Joshua Parker Ruehlig]

Intel NIC would be a cheap temporary or permanent solution. You could use the realtek slot as a second NIC or not at all when you decide to switch to 8.3

 

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

Sounds good Joshua,

That seems like a sensible solution. The Card is only about £25-30 so wouldnt break the bank either.

Thanks buddy

Phil

 

[Stephens]

If the On-Board Realtek 8111 F LAN Controller is supported in FreeNAS 8.3 that would be great. When is it due to be released? I have no clue what "Ported a Driver" means but that also seems like an option.

I can't speak for the developers and in all honestly, I'm not even sure they'd want to go on record with a release date. I know I wouldn't if I were them. There's a general roadmap (because they understand people want to make plans) but it's only general. All signs point to "soon" (this month?).

"Porting" essentially means there's a driver elsewhere that can be made to work with FreeNAS. There are instructions here at the forum if that becomes an issue. Like Joshua says, a relatively cheap alternative is just getting the Intel NIC (which is better anyway). Personally, I use the on-board RealTek NICS so far, but that's mostly because with Mini-ITX, I only have one slot, and it isn't critical to me to saturate gigabit speeds.

 

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

Thanks again Stephens,

It's making more sense to me now, just one quick little question though.

Does the Asus Motherboard have a slot I can use for this Intel Gigabit Card? I mean, I know there are the 2 slots for the RAM and another PCI Express slot for a graphics card (which I won't be using as im not intending to use the NAS for anything other than storing Media etc).

So is there another smaller slot specifically for the Intel Gigabit Card? or will this card sit in the PCI Express slot where the graphics card usually goes? the reason I ask is the Intel Gigabit card is a lot smaller than that of a graphics card.

Sorry if it seems like a dumb question, but i have always been taught to ask any questions if unsure however silly it may seem as no doubt someone else will be thinking the same thing.


Anyway

Again many thanks

Phil

 

[pirateghost]

yes, a PCI-Express X1 card can sit in a PCI-Express X8/16 slot and function just fine.
a PCI-Express X16 slot is compatible with X1/X4/X8/X16

no worries there.

i refuse to use anything but Intel GIG NICs in all of my servers. The only alternative I have come to accept is well supported Broadcoms, but I usually use those for my ESXi implementations. Any linux server or BSD server I stand up has Intel NICs.

 

[Phil-Kent-Rifles]

Many Thanks pirateghost.

That has cleared it up dude :D

Thanks for all the advice peeps.

Regards

Phil

 

[dbanck]

650W PSU?
Why do you need so much power?

I would go for a bequiet! Pure Power 430W with cable management
or even a 300W 80+ without CM should be enough