Noob to NAS with a Dell R410

[JoelR]

I've decided I would like to convert my dedicated Plex Server running on a Dell R410 into a sometimes-on dedicated NAS used solely for data archiving.

For some background, we recently installed solar panels and a PowerWall so energy consumption has become a major focus so I have shifted the Plex Server role to a Nvidia Shield. The NAS will be turned off and on via a schedule and backups of computers and my QNAP NAS which hosts all my media files will be done via a schedule as well.

I currently have 4 3TB SATA drives in the R410. The storage controller is currently configured to handle the raid configuration. The question is, am I best served leaving as-is or should I break the individual drives back out and let the FreeNAS software handle this? I know in this setup Its just a fancy backup drive, but I can see me changing my mind in the future and putting it back into full-time service so I'd rather set it up optimally from the get go.

 

[iseebirdsfly]

I'm only running my personal Freenas so someone may know better. But here are my 2 cents anyway. I built my Freenas machine because of ZFS. With controller you don't get any benefits of ZFS - checksums, scrub, repair, snapshots, replication and independence from hardware.

 

[JoelR]

Good point.

 

[JoelR]

Just realized that i had upgraded the i6 controller with an H700 controller - neither of which will do JBOD. Looks like this will be a no-go for me unless I invest in a breakout cable to use the on-board SATA ports or change controllers. Anyone have any feedback on the breakout cable option? Specfically looking at https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-De...-SATA-HDD-Hard-Drive-Cable-P459G/163474484194. Again, this is basically going to be a cold storage machine at the moment.