Please look over my parts list

[Leek Soup]

I am building a NAS. I am new to TrueNAS. My current NAS is running Windows 10. It will be used for:
-File Storage
-Backup location for a PC and a Mac
-Plex Media Streaming
-Possibly more as I become more comfortable/learn about TrueNAS

It will be running TrueNAS core with 2x 10TB drives in RAID 1. I would appreciate if someone could look over my parts list and point out optimisations/improvements.

CPU: Intel i5 11400
Motherboard: ASRock Z590 Pro4
Boot Drive: Crucial MX500 250GB
Mass Storage: 2x 10TB Seagate Exos X16 (Already owned)
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (2x8GB) (Already owned)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650X (Already owned)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C (Already owned)
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S Redux (Already owned)

Notes:
-I have researched ECC RAM and decided not to use it for a couple of reasons.
-The case has already been modified to have 4 3.5" bays.
-The motherboard is the cheapest I could find that has 2.5Gb Ethernet and 6 SATA ports.
-As you can see, I already have some hardware, so I'm trying to fit the new parts into a configuration where I can use the parts I already have.

Let me know if I should include any more information.
Thanks

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

If you don't mind me saying, you've a great gaming setup, ...
...though the RAID, LAN, memory, and a few custom mainboard features are going to grief you.

That hardware would be better suited to Windows or Ubuntu, but TrueNAS is going to stick a fork in your plans, spray them with cognac, then light them on fire.

[Inexpensive] hardware designed for server use will probably save you a lot of frustration and lost data. Members here want you to succeed, and that requires a different mindset-- it's not snobbery or an "exclusive hardware click" or anything similar, it's honesty about building a reliable NAS.
---
Experience says a person in your position is not going to take the advice of members who try to save them that grief...but, uh, hey, not my problem, I just tried to help with an honest answer.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Please read this carefully for important background information.

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

Introduction to ZFS

This is a short introduction to ZFS. It is really only intended to convey the bare minimum knowledge needed to start diving into ZFS and is in no way meant to cut Michael W. Lucas' and Allan Jude's book income. It is a bit of a spiritual...

www.truenas.com

 

[Leek Soup]

If you don't mind me saying, you've a great gaming setup, ...
...though the RAID, LAN, memory, and a few custom mainboard features are going to grief you.

That hardware would be better suited to Windows or Ubuntu, but TrueNAS is going to stick a fork in your plans, spray them with cognac, then light them on fire.

[Inexpensive] hardware designed for server use will probably save you a lot of frustration and lost data. Members here want you to succeed, and that requires a different mindset-- it's not snobbery or an "exclusive hardware click" or anything similar, it's honesty about building a reliable NAS.
---
Experience says a person in your position is not going to take the advice of members who try to save them that grief...but, uh, hey, not my problem, I just tried to help with an honest answer.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah after doing more research I probably will try to find an old workstation and use that instead. Only thing is I’m in Ireland and this stuff is mot very common here. There are a few Dell R610s here for kind of cheap, but they seem to run very loud and use lots of power, and I don’t have a rack to put it on. I will try find an HP Z or Dell Precision workstation that has ECC and use that. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[Leek Soup]

Please read this carefully for important background information.

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

Introduction to ZFS

This is a short introduction to ZFS. It is really only intended to convey the bare minimum knowledge needed to start diving into ZFS and is in no way meant to cut Michael W. Lucas' and Allan Jude's book income. It is a bit of a spiritual...

www.truenas.com

I will have a read of these, thanks.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah after doing more research I probably will try to find an old workstation and use that instead. Only thing is I’m in Ireland and this stuff is mot very common here. There are a few Dell R610s here for kind of cheap, but they seem to run very loud and use lots of power, and I don’t have a rack to put it on. I will try find an HP Z or Dell Precision workstation that has ECC and use that. Does that sound reasonable?

I do appreciate the extreme fortune granted me concerning hardware availability. The U.S. is an outlier in that regard, most of the world is under a vastly different reality.

Do DELL R610 series use ECC memory? TrueNAS is really heavy on RAM usage, so you don't want data sitting in there corrupting (mains power fluctuations can cause this, an Uninterruptible Power Supply cures many issues).

I have an older DELL Precision workstation that uses ECC, it's quite solid and very reliable. It would probably require a LSI HBA (like the IT flashed H310 from @jgreco), and some additional drive mounting space. Your idea seems perfectly reasonable and logical.

---

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803047193198.html

Amazon.com

 

[Leek Soup]

I do appreciate the extreme fortune granted me concerning hardware availability. The U.S. is an outlier in that regard, most of the world is under a vastly different reality.

Do DELL R610 series use ECC memory? TrueNAS is really heavy on RAM usage, so you don't want data sitting in there corrupting (mains power fluctuations can cause this, an Uninterruptible Power Supply cures many issues).

I have an older DELL Precision workstation that uses ECC, it's quite solid and very reliable. It would probably require a LSI HBA (like the IT flashed H310 from @jgreco), and some additional drive mounting space. Your idea seems perfectly reasonable and logical.

---

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803047193198.html

Amazon.com

Ah ok. Yeah it seems R610s can use ECC.
I found this machine, seems to be a good choice. (Based on my very limited knowledge lol) It has 16GB of DDR3 with ECC, an E3-1270 with 4 cores, and it’s relatively nearby. It has 4 3.5” bays too, which is more than I need right now. Does it look to you like a good choice?

Servers for Sale in Ireland | Adverts.ie

Servers for sale in Ireland. Buy and sell Servers on Adverts.ie

www.adverts.ie

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

If it's a good system depends on your needs, some of the hardware gurus here can probably dig into it and give the pros/cons. From a quick look it seems it would work well for you, though with meetings this week I unfortunately cannot look into it as closely as it deserves.

• Thankfully it does take ECC memory (pg 25).
• The on-board SATA controller "probably" won't work with TrueNAS (pg 35), so an LSI HBA is probably needed ($35, plus cables $30).
• Maximum RAM is 32GB (pg 7), so that will be a bit tight though should work for your needs. It has 4GB x4 (16 GB), though for what you want to do I *think* it needs to be replaced with 8GB x4 (32 GB).
• The Network Interface is an integrated Broadcom BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, someone should look that up to make sure it's solid, my guess is it should be. (I'm unsure)
  
• It has remote management (not needed but nice), though that "probably" requires an older browser that supports TLS-2. (I'm unsure)
• I'm guessing the processor is an Intel Pentium 6th generation,
  not Celeron (lower value),
  but also not a Xenon (the Xenon has benefits when used as a server).

I *think* that looks like a good find.

 

[Leek Soup]

If it's a good system depends on your needs, some of the hardware gurus here can probably dig into it and give the pros/cons. From a quick look it seems it would work well for you, though with meetings this week I unfortunately cannot look into it as closely as it deserves.

• Thankfully it does take ECC memory (pg 25).
• The on-board SATA controller "probably" won't work with TrueNAS (pg 35), so an LSI HBA is probably needed ($35, plus cables $30).
• Maximum RAM is 32GB (pg 7), so that will be a bit tight though should work for your needs. It has 4GB x4 (16 GB), though for what you want to do I *think* it needs to be replaced with 8GB x4 (32 GB).
• The Network Interface is an integrated Broadcom BCM5722 Gigabit Ethernet Controller, someone should look that up to make sure it's solid, my guess is it should be. (I'm unsure)
• It has remote management (not needed but nice), though that "probably" requires an older browser that supports TLS-2. (I'm unsure)
• I'm guessing the processor is an Intel Pentium 6th generation,
  not Celeron (lower value),
  but also not a Xenon (the Xenon has benefits when used as a server).

I *think* that looks like a good find.

Thanks a lot for your help and advice, I really appreciate it. I will do a bit more research and then probably make an offer on it.
Thanks again!

 

[ChrisRJ]

I would frankly caution a bit against this system. It is just one generation too old. The main drawback will be the CPU power consumption, which is considerably higher than for Sandy Bridge (the next generation). Also, buying a system today that only accommodates 32 GB of RAM is going to limit you.

You should be able to find plenty of R720 which was a very popular machine. Alternatively, something from Supermicro would also be a good choice (X9 generation or higher).,

 

[Leek Soup]

I would frankly caution a bit against this system. It is just one generation too old. The main drawback will be the CPU power consumption, which is considerably higher than for Sandy Bridge (the next generation). Also, buying a system today that only accommodates 32 GB of RAM is going to limit you.

You should be able to find plenty of R720 which was a very popular machine. Alternatively, something from Supermicro would also be a good choice (X9 generation or higher).,

Oh ok, thanks for the advice. The only R720s I can find cost upwards of €500, which is out of my budget unfortunately. There are some relatively cheap R610s, but I have heard they run hot and loud. Is this true?

There is one Supermicro X11, but it has only 8GB of RAM, a 7th gen i3 and costs 2.5 times what I could get the T110 for.

Unfortunately, reasonably priced server hardware is relatively hard to find here. :( And most of the stuff that is, is a 250KM drive away.

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

The good thing about remote management is the system can be connected to remotely via a web-browser or Command Line Interface and powered on even when off, meaning your remote machines could run a script to ping the server and if it is not powered on could send a wake command and in 3 minutes or so the server would be up and running. That is a security risk, but nowadays everything is a security risk.... This would potentially limit idle power consumption and noise during sleeping hours.

Anyway, when done the remote machines could have an icon to run a script to power off the server; it's a little bit of work to write the scripts, though not that much, and it would save on power and possibly extend system life. (One thing we must remember is that electronics outside of the U.S. are extremely hard to come by and may be stolen anywhere along the delivery route because of their relative value, and "gone" often means "you're out the money." Things work differently outside the U.S.) I would presume members here would help you get things tweaked (though not do the work for you). Alternatively, there are several Russians on fiverr that, for a small amount, would love to code a few bangup scripts (meaning excellently coded scriptsto do what you want to accomplish).

As far a hot, that's an issue. "Hot" means power draw and noise, unfortunately. There are some things that can be done nonetheless.

"Loud" can be dealt with. Some of the best fans I've come across are Noctua as they are affordable, very, very quiet, have a very low power draw, last a relatively long time, and create good static pressure. They aren't industrial-quality fans though are an excellent balance of price/performance/longevity. Changing fans is a one-time expense,* but is not inexpensive. On the cheap, soda cans can be recycled into aluminum housing components to block airflow, and milk jug plastic into air ducts.**

• There are far smaller server solutions than TrueNAS, though they require a lot of time and experience to roll-your-own.
• If you can sacrifice some money to get a system TrueNAS and Plex will run on you'll gain time and system stability,
• if you can sacrifice time you'll save money and have stability/reliability dependent on how much time you invest.***

I mention this because with time the software platform you choose will add new features and be larger and slower, so if you buy a system where the hardware is fully utilized (today) you'll lock yourself in to what you're running today, so plan for the future.****

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*By the time the fans wear out it's probably time for a hardware refresh. Дву́м смертя́м не быва́ть, одно́й не минова́ть (Two deaths cannot happen, one cannot be avoided.)
**I understand many members will cringe at these solutions, however, when resources are limited ingenuity is an asset. Бедность вдохновляет на изобретения (Necessity is the mother of invention).
***bez truDAH ni VYtashish i RYBku iz pruDAH (No pain, no gain).
****Кто не рискует, тот не пьет шампанского (Buy once, cry once).

Noctua value-minded fans:

Amazon.com

Amazon.com