New to FreeNAS and looking for suggestions on first build

[cere19]

I came across this site a week ago after I had a storage drive fail and realized that I wanted a more secure place to backup my stuff. I built my own computer 6 years ago and have had fun working on that and would like to build a small NAS. I'm having trouble with picking out stuff that will work because so much of the stuff on the site for recommendations is older stuff and not as readily available. So I am looking for help to get a small NAS up and running for my house.

What I'm planning to use it for is a place to backup my main computer, I have my music which I had to rebuild from the hard drive crash, personal documents as well as pictures being they are all digital. I also would like to be able to stream movies anywhere to a tablet, like when traveling or to the TV up to 2 in my house so I was thinking PLEX like a lot of people use. With reading through the site as well as other sources I've learned a lot but can't stop my head from spinning.

I purchased (2) 3 TB Seagate IronWolf harddrives yesterday during prime day. I also ordered (2) 120 GB SSD PNY brand hard drives (1 for boot and 1 for jail??) as well as a 450W Corsair semi-modular power supply. I still need to buy a case but am waiting till after I know what motherboard I end up with and to find a good case. My plan is to mirror the (2) 3TB drives for my storage to start with and then in the future possibly add another volume when I run out of room. Right now I'm fine with 3TB of storage to start out with it's plenty of storage to get my feet wet bringing my movies into digital.

Here's where I'm looking for help, I want to make sure that I get a Motherboard, CPU and memory that will work/play well together. I'd like to keep those 3 things under $500 if at all possible.

Here's a link for Supermicro X11 is this a good motherboard? Right now the board is $160 with their discount
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183013&cm_re=X11SSm-_-13-183-013-_-Product&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-FlexOffers.com,+LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=12079868&PID=8192570&SID=1187656FOF177225686365008&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-FlexOffers.com,+LLC

Is this a good board? If so what would others suggest for a CPU and also memory, I know memory is your friend with NAS and I have read about ECC and are looking for components that use ECC. Memory for what I'm looking to do will 16 GB be enough to start with?

I've read other threads and I've looked at the resources area and such, I just know that certain computer products interact with others better. 1 other thing I don't need it to be large so if there's a good smaller setup that works to for me, I know the board I found is a MicroATX but I'd be open to suggestions on a miniITX system. Thanks for your help

 

[Chris Moore]

I know that this build will work because I used the same model parts in one of my previous builds.

I just suggested something like this to someone else a couple weeks ago, but I couldn't find the post to point you at. Here is what I would suggest for a tower build that you want quiet and inexpensive while still capable.

CASE: Fractal-Design-Define-R5-FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK-Black-Silent-ATX-Midtower-Computer-Case - US $99.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263674323506

POWER: Corsair-Certified-CS-M-Series-CS650M-650W-80-Plus-Gold-Active-PFC-Modular-Power - US $64.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/382130407495

System Board: Super Micro X9SCM-F Motherboard w/ Heatsink/Fan & I/O Shield - US $75.00
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273350608871

CPU: Intel SR00H Xeon E3-1230 3.20GHZ Socket 1155 - - US $55.09
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273313040616

Memory: 8GB Memory RAM for SuperMicro X9 Series - - US $82.00 * 2 = $164
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163130855012

Drive Controller: LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCI-E-Internal-HBA-Both-Brackets-IT-MODE - US $59.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152937435505

Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste Grease Conductive Compound for CPU/GPU - US $6.95
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302624513215

I may have missed something like zip ties, and I didn't include drives, but this should get you all the key components and it is at $539 as of 18 July 2018
I just picked these on eBay and they are all available right now.

There is nothing wrong with using used components, especially to get your feet wet on a first build.

You should read some of the guides to get familiar with the technology and terminology and be sure to ask questions:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

 

[Chris Moore]

Here's a link for Supermicro X11 is this a good motherboard? Right now the board is $160 with their discount

Nothing wrong with that. However, unless you have a problem with used parts, I would suggest doing an economy build for your first system and in a couple years you can pick one of those up for cheap (used) and do an upgrade. With FreeNAS, there is really no need to go with new hardware. The bottleneck on performance is the disks, not the CPU.

 

[Chris Moore]

PS. I noticed that you already bought a power supply, and you can use that instead of the one I suggested. No big thing.

 

[Chris Moore]

Also, since you want to start with only 2 drives, you could skip this controller and cables.
They would allow connection of up to 8 drives to the system. SATA drives work on a SAS controller.

Drive Controller: LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCI-E-Internal-HBA-Both-Brackets-IT-MODE - US $59.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152937435505

Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

 

[garm]

The Define Mini is also a good case, slightly smaller, houses 6 drives before expansion and is sound proofed out of the box as well. I had one for my previous server and it’s the home for a Dell based gaming rig at the moment. Fractal makes very nice cases, not server grade but easy to deal with in any case.

 

[cere19]

Awesome that's exactly what I was looking for Chris, I picked up the Supermicro as well as the CPU off ebay that you recommended and I made an offer on 2 of the sticks of memory.

Garm that is a sweet case and I want it. With looking around it looks like there's 2 different versions of the Fractal Design Define Mini C? Looks like the current one is the one with the shroud at the bottom which holds 2 HDD and 3 SSD and there appears to be one that has 6 hard drive slots with 2 ports up top or is that the just Mini? I want the one with 6 drive slots so that I can add another Vdev in the future when the 3TB Vdev fills up.

 

[Chris Moore]

I want the one with 6 drive slots so that I can add another Vdev in the future when the 3TB Vdev fills up.

I pointed out the Fractal Design Define R5, even though it has been replaced by the R6, because it has 8 drive bays. It is a nice, compact tower, and it could last you for a decade or more, easily. It gives you a lot of room to grow your system and it is quiet with good air flow over the drives.
It is a very good choice.

 

[garm]

Not the Mini C, the Fractal Design Define Mini.
http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-mini

 

[richfear]

I know that this build will work because I used the same model parts in one of my previous builds.

I just suggested something like this to someone else a couple weeks ago, but I couldn't find the post to point you at. Here is what I would suggest for a tower build that you want quiet and inexpensive while still capable.

CASE: Fractal-Design-Define-R5-FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK-Black-Silent-ATX-Midtower-Computer-Case - US $99.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263674323506

POWER: Corsair-Certified-CS-M-Series-CS650M-650W-80-Plus-Gold-Active-PFC-Modular-Power - US $64.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/382130407495

System Board: Super Micro X9SCM-F Motherboard w/ Heatsink/Fan & I/O Shield - US $75.00
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273350608871

CPU: Intel SR00H Xeon E3-1230 3.20GHZ Socket 1155 - - US $55.09
https://www.ebay.com/itm/273313040616

Memory: 8GB Memory RAM for SuperMicro X9 Series - - US $82.00 * 2 = $164
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163130855012

Drive Controller: LSI-SAS-9211-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCI-E-Internal-HBA-Both-Brackets-IT-MODE - US $59.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152937435505

Drive Cables: Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable - - US $12.99
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371681252206

Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste Grease Conductive Compound for CPU/GPU - US $6.95
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302624513215

I may have missed something like zip ties, and I didn't include drives, but this should get you all the key components and it is at $539 as of 18 July 2018
I just picked these on eBay and they are all available right now.

There is nothing wrong with using used components, especially to get your feet wet on a first build.

You should read some of the guides to get familiar with the technology and terminology and be sure to ask questions:

Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Terminology and Abbreviations Primer
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/terminology-and-abbreviations-primer.28174/

Hi Chris,

I have a couple questions about this system, and don't mean to threadjack ( I'll create my own if it's an issue), but how would this system fare with doing 1 or 2 4K Plex Streams and up to 2 HD streams? Will it need a more powerful processor and if so which do you recommend? Also, anything wrong with this power supply? http://www.microcenter.com/single_p...&MccGuid=36437038-48ac-4aa3-99b1-9758c87e9c98

 

[Chris Moore]

If I were to be planning on transcoding that many streams at once, I would have to go with a Xeon E5 processor and that would change the system board and RAM too.

That's not a bad power supply, but it is only bronze and that means that the components are lower quality and it is not as efficient. I like to have a better supply so I can feel confident that it will last. I have had to replace several of the lower rated supplies over the years, but all the gold rated ones are still going strong.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[richfear]

If I were to be planning on transcoding that many streams at once, I would have to go with a Xeon E5 processor and that would change the system board and RAM too.

That's not a bad power supply, but it is only bronze and that means that the components are lower quality and it is not as efficient. I like to have a better supply so I can feel confident that it will last. I have had to replace several of the lower rated supplies over the years, but all the gold rated ones are still going strong.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply and suggestions! If I decide to go with that kind of setup do you have any cpu, motherboard and memory suggestions? I appreciate your help.


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[pro lamer]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions! If I decide to go with that kind of setup do you have any cpu, motherboard and memory suggestions? I appreciate your help.

Is the transcoding h.265/hevc or h.264? My colleagues do some CPU based decoding but I'd need to look for my notes to recall details...

 

[richfear]

Is the transcoding h.265/hevc or h.264? My colleagues do some CPU based decoding but I'd need to look for my notes to recall details...

It’ll be h.264. There won’t be much transcoding going on as my nVidia shield will handle all the workload. After a lot of talking with Chris Moore I went for the gusto. E5 2650 v2, 32GB ECC RDIMMs so it should have plenty of power for whatever I throw at it.


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