Optimum pool Configuration and/or suggestions for hardware

[kalixaq]

I have quite a few parts lying around after moving into my new pc and planning to convert these into a NAS.
Just before getting started I am struggling to create a reasonable pool setup with all these different size drives and SSDs.
Can anyone recommend a good setup which may include an ssd cache, I also want to use a ramdisk for plex transcoding temporary directory.

Here is what I have:

Code:

intel i5-4670K 3.4Ghz
32G Ram
SSDs:
256G Samsung SSD 840 PRO
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 1Gb Cache

mechanical:
3TB WD30EZRX Western Digital Caviar Green
2TB WD2002FAEX Western Digital  Caviar Black
4 TB WD40EFRX Western Digital Red
4 TB WD40EFRX Western Digital Red

I have room to possibly add 2 more mechanical SSDs. If you think this might massively improve my setup I can buy 2 more 4TBs.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Sasquatch]

first of all why you think L2ARC or SLOG are necessary in your use case? l2arc with insyfficent ram(32G is probaly too little) can slow you down.
get 2 extra 4TB HDDs and sell others, or use them as cold backup.

 

[kalixaq]

first of all why you think L2ARC or SLOG are necessary in your use case? l2arc with insyfficent ram(32G is probaly too little) can slow you down.
get 2 extra 4TB HDDs and sell others, or use them as cold backup.

Hi Sasquatch, thanks for the reply.

This is the first time I am building a DIY NAS. I had to google what "l2arc" is :) apparently it is the 2nd level caching achieved by (typically) SSDs.
I did not say, I 100% need this. I was just pointing out the hardware I have at the moment.
And since my mobo has 2 dimm slots, the ram I have 16GBx2 sticks is maximum. Well theoretically I can try to find 32G sticks compatible with this old board, but I don't think they'll be cheap or common.

I have been doing some reading about this, and I think it might be better for me to go with a system with BTRFS instead of ZFS due to my mixed bag of hard drives. any opinions on BTRFS?