BUILD New to FreeNAS; looking for build advice

[HAL]

So I'm yet another newbie to FreeNAS and I've been trying to read all the documentation I can. I've read over the manual, cyberjock's recommendation guide, and DrKK's price recommendation guide.

I've been thoroughly convinced that ECC and Intel are the way to go.

I'm mostly looking for advice on motherboards/CPU; it seems everything else falls out fairly simply from there. I saw this on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HIDQG6E/?tag=ozlp-20 and like the price, but I'm not sure on the motherboard (read: It's not SuperMicro).

Usage: This build is primarily going to be a home backup/storage/media server. I plan on using the Plex and owncloud plugins as well as some kind of vpn functionality. 2 primary users. I'm ok with spending a little bit more money *now* to keep the build running for as long as possible. It'll be hardwired into the router. Plex will be for media streaming only, there's a separate box for transcoding.

Other things on the home network include windows and various flavors of Linux. This server is the first of 3-4 planned ... the others being a virtualized personal pen testing range, a web development host for my partner's business, and something something music recording something (Whatever. That one is the partner's domain.). Ideally, this build should play nice with all that on the network ... not like the pen testing range will be able to touch much, just trying to give "complete picture" of home use.

Thank you!

 

[danb35]

I believe that board is the one used by iXSystems in the FreeNAS Mini. The Avoton 2750 is, by all accounts, an entirely adequate chip for most home use of FreeNAS, but the board is expensive. If the mini-ITX form factor isn't critical, you could get an X10SL7 (which is micro ATX) and a Xeon E3 for the $440 that board costs--and though the 2750 is a good CPU, an E3 will eat its lunch. Or you could save $100 or so, replace the Xeon with an i3, and still be in very good shape. If you have to have mini-ITX, though, your options are much more limited. And the X10SL7 will support up to 14 drives without any of the stability issues that the Marvell ports on the ASRock board can demonstrate.

 

[Mirfster]

Hmm, so with the link the OP provided if they got the "Frequently Bought Together" (Board and RAM) they are already in for ~$560.00? Now you need a Case and Power Supply just to get started. Not including Drives or a HBA (although I am not sure a HBA would be need at this point). Seems a little bit on the expensive side to me.

I guess my questions would be
1) How many drives are you wanting to support off the bat (meaning housed by the unit/case)?
2) Are you wanting expansion ability as far as adding more drives to the unit/case or are you willing to simply add headless units later?

 

[Mirfster]

For about $420.00, you can grab a 2U that is basically "turn key"
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerE...790552?hash=item3f578ce2d8:g:DFoAAOSwlV9WT1x8

Just need to add the drives and flash the H200 and you are pretty much rolling...

Of course I am partial to the PowerEdge C2100/FS12-TY model....

 

[PenalunWil]

Hi HAL...
If you get the SM X10SL& then that has an on board LSI 2308 SAS controller which you'll have to flash to IT mode. There are plenty of threads on the forum to tell you how to do this... This is mine but you'll find a few more like it on the forum... https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...micro-x10sl7-f-motherboard.38884/#post-237489

Also get yourself the correct ECC RAM as recommended by Supermicro. Again there are a few threads were this has been discussed in length.

Wil

 

[HAL]

I'm not partial to any one form factor. I do have half a thought to just get a half-rack and go that route, since there's so much more to come .... but that seems like more effort than I have time for and more cash for little benefit.

For hard drives, we'll need 6 TB worth of drive, minimum. I'd prefer to have more like 12. I've had problems with 3TB drives before (they seem to be rather fragile) but that was a while ago. Are the WD Reds reliable? Expansion is a key factor for me.

 

[HAL]

What about the SuperMicro X10SL7F with this chip: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117374

And this RAM, per Amazon's "Recommended With" the SM board: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EMA5VU/?tag=ozlp-20
I also see this RAM, per SM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147344

I see links to the Intel Xeon processors on Amazon from the SM board page, too. Are they worth the price jump from that Pentium? Again, I'm looking for long-term use of this build. I don't want to have to replace my CPU in 3 years if I can help it now.

I'm also eyeballing a small SSD for the boot drive.

With that, a PSU, and case ... that seems like it, but I feel like I'm missing something.


Thanks for the link, Wil. I'm sure I'll need it.

 

[Mirfster]

I have 12 x 2TB Drives (Hitachi Ultrastar HUA723020ALA641) in one server and recently did another server with 12 x 3TB Drives (Hitachi HUA723030ALA640). Only had one drive out of all of them give me SMART errors in a couple years (the 2TB drives were previously in an ESXi build). If you don't mind them being a little used, you can grab the 2TB (with a 1 year warranty) for ~ $50/each or the 3TB for ~$80/each on eBay. The drives are rated at 2.0 million hours MTBF, so to me even if it had 10,000 hours already that is not even a drop in the bucket IMHO.

As far as the WD Reds go, I would only have second hand knowledge and would prefer if someone who owns them would chime in.

*** Side note, if you do go with the C2100/FS12-TY make sure you do NOT flash the BMC to anything higher than version 1.79. If you stay below version 1.8, it will be super quiet (I mean really really quite).

 

[HAL]

So here's where I am:
SM 10SL7F: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D65EHQY/?tag=ozlp-20
Intel G 3258: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPRWAZQ/?tag=ozlp-20
Crucial 16 GB: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EMA5VU/?tag=ozlp-20
SeaSonic PSU at appropriate size ... I just found the power supply sticky.
Case of some variety
Boot SSD, probably cheap via ebay

My back-of-envelope math puts all that at ~$750.

I still feel like I'm missing something, and that RAM *looks* like its compatible with the mobo and CPU, but I'm not sure. I'm SO not a hardware person.

Thanks for all your help, guys.