New User, some tech knowledge, would like input

[Josh Slone]

Hello everyone, real quick before I get into my questions I just wanna say that I've been outta the loop on the open source/linux/uinx/bsd world for a few years and thus have forgotten a ton of stuff so please bear with me lol. I used to be a Windows user until I switched to Macs. That background being said here goes...

I want to build a personal media server/personal file server from which I can store all my stuff and then stream it to (and from) my home theater, mobile devices (Apple and Android) and home computers (all Apple machines at the moment). This need has arised out of my Xbox not being able to play a lot of various formats as well as my exasperation with moving hard drives all over the house all the time.

I've played around with various Linux distros in the past (mainly Ubuntu and Mandrake) but I never really got deep into the systems other than to just play with them.

My original plan was to have a simple Linux box with a Drobo on it but the Drobo turned out to be too limited in capabilities for what I want. I then headed over to the Ubuntu forums and was quite surprised when they recommended FreeNAS to me. Prior to that I hadn't heard of FreeNAS so I did a bit of research and liked what I saw.

Here's an itemized list of what I want out of my server:

1) Host and stream HD movie and audio content to home theater, mobile devices, and home computers
2) Use the server as a backup medium for all my computers and devices
3) Be able to securely access my server anywhere I am (provided I have wifi/data connection)

Now here's a list of the hardware components I've selected to date (subject to change):

-CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell LGA 1150 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681911690) $300
-MOTHERBOARD: MSI B85-G41(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130699) $80
-OS DRIVE: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SATA III SSD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247) $90
-STORAGE DRIVES: Seagate Desktop HDD.15 ST4000DM00 4TB Drive (x6) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178338) $165 ea
-GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS HD7770-1GD5 Radeon HD7770 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121663) $108
-RAM: GSkill Budget Series 4GB Sticks (x2) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231634) $39 ea

-CASE: NZXT Source 210 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146075) $40


Input on my hardware selection is much appreciated (budget is a high priority here) as well as guidance on initially installing FreeNAS and then subsequently setting up the server and enabling the features I need. I would like to use Plex to handle my media. And a recommendation on a simple and easy to use file manager client for my mobile devices and home computers would be great as well.

Thanks everyone!

Josh

 

[gpsguy]

Read the "So you want some hardware suggestions" thread to get a better idea of what you'll really need. With those drives, you'll need a minimum of 16Gb RAM. And, it's imperative to get a mobo/cpu/ram that support ECC. Search the forum and read the thread about ECC vs non-ECC RAM.

Don't waste a SSD for the boot drive. The recommendation is to use a 4Gb USB flash drive. Anything larger isn't usable by FreeNAS.

 

[cyberjock]

All that stuff gpsguy said plus I wouldn't spend more than $20 on a video card. It's going to be text only, so any video card you have(even onboard) is more than sufficient. If you are buying a Supermicro board(heavily heavily recommended) then you can expect to use the onboard. It'll save you from heat and power usage that you don't need, and simplifies the build! You are going to need to get server-grade stuff. It's not much more expensive than desktop stuff, and if you look at the fact that you don't need that $108 video card or $90 SSD, you will probably pay the exact same price or less for your server-grade build if done right.

Take a look at my noobie guide(link in my signature). That'll help you clear up some confusing terms we use in the forums and warns you of many common noob mistakes with FreeNAS.

 

[Josh Slone]

Excellent help guides/articles! I had no idea ECC was that critical! (goes to show how much/little I know...).

I took a look at the two SuperMicro boards in the Hardware suggestions thread and then read on through it a bit more and I didn't see anything that supports the Core i7's (I see plenty about the i3's and Xeons though). I have been leaning towards the i7 because of it's ability to handle transcoding very well. In theory, the highest workload my server would have to handle at once would be simultaneous HD video streams out to 2 TV's and up to 4 mobile devices (tablets and smartphones), so 6 streams total all at the same time. Would the Xeons and/or i3's be able to handle that kind of work load?

I'll nix the video card (old habit from building tons of gaming machines back in the day...always have a discreet card...)...and I'll also go the Thumb Drive route vice the SSD (you're right...way cheaper)

Should I max out at 32GB RAM to play it safe for now or will I be ok with just 16GB? (even though I have 6x4TB drive space listed I won't be filling that any time soon).

(continuing to read....................)

 

[cyberjock]

16GB will probably be fine for home use. But 32GB of RAM maxes out the system, so you can always just go for broke and never touch the RAM side again. ;)

Yeah, ECC is very important. That's one thing I never skimp on. When people pay for me to provide a hardware list for their needs, I don't even consider non-ECC as an option.

 

[Josh Slone]

Ok...I'll prolly stick with 16GB for now (unless I catch a really good sale)...cause it's easy to add RAM in the future should I need it.

Another question that just came to mind...when I was initially researching ZFS I read about using SSDs as supplemental caches (in addition to the RAM...now I know that would be expensive but is the performance benefit worth the cost?

 

[Yatti420]

ZFS loves ram.. Shouldn't have a need for ssd arc or ssd zil etc.. don't need GPU etc..

 

[cyberjock]

They aren't really good options unless you have more than 32GB of RAM. So don't consider it with your hardware unless your hardware can use >32GB of RAM. :)

The reason being that the options consume RAM. This is discussed in my guide. Something tells me that you haven't read it yet... I haven't kept it in my signature because I forgot. ;)

 

[Josh Slone]

Ok, yeah I haven't fully read your guide yet...I'm still working through the Hardware thread at the moment but I promise I'll read it! :)

 

[cyberjock]

I'd give it a read(or two) before you ask more questions. Many questions are answered there. Some will be questions you didn't even know you had!

 

[Josh Slone]

cyberjock...awesome guide! as a former Marine who endured hundreds of hours of "death by power point" your guide was outstanding and very easy to follow and understand! The graphical representation of zpools and zdevs really helped the concept click for me! I'll be referring to it (and the freeNAS man) often over the coming months and I'm gonna pass it on to a Linux buddy of mine that I'm collaborating with on some stuff. Thanks for taking the time to make it

 

[cyberjock]

You're welcome! I did 8 years in the Navy, so I was right there next to you during "death by Power Point". :)

 

[Josh Slone]

Haha nice! (sidebar, what did you do in the Navy?)

So I searched the forum for info relating to Core i7's and transcoding/streaming but couldn't find much/anything...I'm on the Plex forums right now trying to find info there but perhaps you or someone else could answer the question of whether the i7 I listed (4770 Haswell) will be worth the expense over the i3's that everyone here seems to love?

 

[Josh Slone]

Ok after lurking on the Plex forums and reading what users there had to say about the Core i3's, 5's, and 7's and 1080p streaming + transcoding I'm gonna stick with the i7-4770...now I need a motherboard...

I headed over to Newegg and looked at LGA 1150 server mobo's (filtered by socket, ECC, and dual NIC and then sorted by reviews) and found the following boards that appear to be attractive...

SuperMicro MBD-X10SAE-O http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182831 ($220)
ASRock Q87WS-DL http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157415 ($175)
SuperMicro MBD-X10SL7-F-Ohttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182821 ($250)

All support up to 32GB ECC memory, have Dual NIC (from what I've read that seems to be the best way to go even if you don't use it right off the bat...future proofing yah know?), support Haswell i7's, and have onboard video...both of the SuperMicro boards seem to be well accepted on here and there wasn't any data about the ASRock board on here (hmm...probably a good reason for that...) :p

So out of those two motherboards (asking for op ed here), which one is better/more suited to my needs?

EDIT: Gonna go with the MBD-X10SL7 because it has IMPI which is just frikin cool!

 

[cyberjock]

You're lost bro.

Your i7-4770 isn't compatible with those Supermicro boards.

You want to use ECC RAM and go with a CPU capable of handling Plex transcoding, you are talking about a Xeon. Probably an E3-1230v2/v3 is a good place to look.

 

[Josh Slone]

The i7-4770 is a 4th gen Core series... (just double checked now) and the MBD-X10SL7 does support them (confirmed on SuperMicro's website)...is there something blatantly obvious that I'm missing here??? Or am I just that n00b?

I looked up the tested RAM offa SM's site and I'm think about the Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CK0 modules (8GB, DDR3-1600, ECC) (http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...8b3ffee33ce4&gclid=CJWxu5X95bwCFUOVfgodOxYAtA)

EDIT: I misread i3 as i7...my apologies...

Will that Xeon handle 3+ 1080p streams including transcoding?

EDIT (again): gonna do x10SLy with E3-1230v3...thanks for bearing with me...

 

[cyberjock]

I haven't personally transcoded 3 streams, but 1 stream hit about 10% CPU usage. So I'd think it could do 3 streams without a problem.

 

[Josh Slone]

Ok cool...

So here's my revised parts list...more expensive than I had originally hoped for but buy once, cry once:

INTEL XEON E3-1230V3 HASWELL 3.3GHZ 1 $250
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F 1 $250
SEAGATE HDD.15 ST4000DM00 4TB 6 $165 EACH
SAMSUNG M391B1G73BH0-CK0 (8GB, ECC, 1.5V) 4 $93 EACH
LG WH14NS40 1 $68
SEASONIC SSR-650RM 650W 80 PLUS GOLD 1 $105
NZXT SOURCE 210 1 $40
TOTAL COST
$2,075

BluRay Drive is for hard copy backups and other usage.

 

[cyberjock]

You do realize you can't actually burn Blu-Ray/DVD disks from FreeNAS, right? I'd put that in a desktop or something.

With that case, you're going to need more fans than it comes with. As for the hard drive mounts, if you don't put fans in there that directly blow air over your hard drives, you're going to cook them.

Other than that, pretty good choices.

 

[Josh Slone]

Rats...no big deal...

Oh yeah...LOTS of fans haha. Might even house it in a mini freezer... O

Thanks