Preorder Hardware Check!

[Wallybanger]

Alright guys, I've been lurking on this site and combing the web for about 3 months now and I believe it's time to place an order. I haven't yet researched the power supply but I'm guessing any 80 plus gold or platinum PS in the 650-750 watt range will do the trick (I'll do the math before placing an order).

So here we go! Please comment if you spot any problems with the build or unnecessarily under/over powered components or if there are any ways to save money on the build.

Case -- Fractal Design Define R5 $135
Mobo -- SuperMicro MBD-X11SSH-LN4F-O LGA 1151 Intel C236 $310
CPU -- Intel Xeon E3-1225 v5 SkyLake 3.3 GHz LGA 1151 80W $300
RAM -- 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 or 2400 non-registered $200
HDDs -- 8x HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" $1400
PS -- SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready $114

For the OS I'll probably just run a SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16gb flash drive and if that causes problems the mobo has an M.2 port so I could go to a DOM.

I was considering going with the X11SSL-CF mobo but the Intel C232 is a concern and I don't know that I'll really need more than 8 SATA ports. My intention is to upgrade to 8x 8tb drives some time down the road but I don't know if I'll need to run ZIL or L2ARC drives? I'm guessing not but I imagine I could just get a PCIe card with more sata ports.

The X11SSH-CTF also looks awesome but costs about 150% of the X11SSL-CF and I imagine a 10G ethernet card will probably be available for pretty cheap by the time I'm ready to upgrade. I think this guy is just too expensive for what I'd be getting.

Right now I'm looking at about $2750 Canuckistani dollars after tax and shipping.

Config will be:
1x 8 drive RAIDZ2 zpool

Uses will be:
1. First and foremost, work/personal file backup and light file sharing through some sort of FTPish protocol.
2. Security camera system using 4 1080p POEIP surveillance cams (Ideally I would like to run ZoneMinder).
3. Run a torrent client
4. Stream movies over the network but probably not multiplexed, most likely to other computers in the house which will just access the files and play them off of the server. Probably to no more than 2 computers at a time.
5. Might encrypt a small amount of space for financial/sensitive documents that would be accessed infrequently (maybe 500gb which is probably massively overkill).

Pretty sure that will be the extent of this systems use.

 

[Mirfster]

Toss in a comment about what your "use-case" is expected to be (VM DataStore, CIFS, ISCSI, Plex, etc). That way it will assist in providing input. ;)

 

[Wallybanger]

Toss in a comment about what your "use-case" is expected to be (VM DataStore, CIFS, ISCSI, Plex, etc). That way it will assist in providing input. ;)

Done. Thanks :)

 

[Sakuru]

I haven't yet researched the power supply but I'm guessing any 80 plus gold or platinum PS in the 650-750 watt range will do the trick (I'll do the math before placing an order).

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

For the OS I'll probably just run a SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16gb flash drive and if that causes problems the mobo has an M.2 port so I could go to a DOM.

I highly recommend getting 2 and mirroring them.

 

[Wallybanger]

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.38811/

Thanks, that was the thread I was going to use ;) Think I should be fine with a SeaSonic SSR-650RM

I highly recommend getting 2 and mirroring them.

OK, I will do that.

 

[Wallybanger]

@jgreco, would you mind weighing in, please and thank you? :)

 

[jgreco]

@jgreco, would you mind weighing in, please and thank you? :)

Um, what? I guess I'm wondering why an E3-1225 ... the graphics are useless and the 1230's a bit faster and has hyperthreading, so the 1225's about 2/3 the CPU (though probably cheaper too). Running extra stuff on your NAS without hyperthreading seems like it'd kinda suck....?

But it's been a long week and a long day.

 

[Wallybanger]

Um, what? I guess I'm wondering why an E3-1225 ... the graphics are useless and the 1230's a bit faster and has hyperthreading, so the 1225's about 2/3 the CPU (though probably cheaper too). Running extra stuff on your NAS without hyperthreading seems like it'd kinda suck....?

But it's been a long week and a long day.

Well the NewEgg site says the chip supports Hyperthreading but perhaps I'll go confirm that on the intel site. Good catch. And yes, I was going to go with the 1225 instead of the 1230 because of the $50 price difference. I will gladly pay $50 more if it can be justified but the only difference I could spot between those chips was .1Ghz.

Yes, I realize the graphics are useless but it seems like a good chip for the price. I'm very open to suggestions and I'm not even stuck to the 1151 socket so if you have any other recommendations I'm happy to take another look.

 

[Wallybanger]

@jgreco you were right! Stupid NewEgg almost screwed me! Ok, I'm going with the 1230

http://ark.intel.com/compare/88182,88168

Any thoughts on the RAM? It's seeming a little difficult to source unbuffered/unregistered ram. I would like to go with Crucial but Kingston ValueRAM has a product that would work. Any red flags there? I have read the hardware guide advising to avoid Kingston but there don't seem to be a lot of options.

 

[jgreco]

@jgreco you were right! Stupid NewEgg almost screwed me! Ok, I'm going with the 1230

http://ark.intel.com/compare/88182,88168

Any thoughts on the RAM? It's seeming a little difficult to source unbuffered/unregistered ram. I would like to go with Crucial but Kingston ValueRAM has a product that would work. Any red flags there? I have read the hardware guide advising to avoid Kingston but there don't seem to be a lot of options.

Some of the people here got hosed by a bit of a fiasco with Kingston compatibility back when Haswell was introduced, and it turned out that some of the modules that Kingston initially listed as being compatible with Supermicro X10+Haswell weren't, and then Kingston kinda left people holding the bag. Some of them took to swearing off Kingston forevermore, but while I have no issue with people deciding to avoid a brand, trash-talking them for the rest of eternity isn't really reasonable or useful. Here, we've bought thousands of sticks of Kingston over the decades. Very few problems overall.

Honestly, every manufacturer has issues. So every once in awhile we see someone claim that they're never going to buy from {Seagate, WD} ever again because {whatever}, which is irrational as I describe here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/st4000dx002.42219/#post-273017

If you want a pragmatic approach, what you do instead is to not be the first guy to jump on a bandwagon, especially for something like a new CPU architecture. If you cannot afford the risk that the stuff you're buying will have a problem and will be a giant paperweight, let someone else take that risk. Especially for CPU's, the gains made between the year 2011 and 2016 are very modest: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...kylake-freenas-build.40711/page-2#post-259082

So really, the Skylake-with-64GB thing is the only compelling bit of improvement in Skylake over Sandy Bridge, and specific boards like the X10SL7 are attractive for specific reasons. Until they actually released the X10SL7 I was actually kinda sitting here snickering at all the guys on the forum going out and buying the X10 versions of older trusty X9 boards and then having all sorts of problems especially with USB. Totally pointless frustration-fest.

But I do encourage you to go Skylake because of the 64GB thing. It's fairly compelling, even if you don't plan on 64GB now. As to specific RAM, since we haven't been buying E3 systems for awhile now here, I don't have any particular recommendations, sorry. Take a manufacturer's memory advisor tool and plug in the Supermicro board you have. As always, prefer two larger modules over four smaller ones, unless the price premium for the higher density module is so out of line (50%+) that you can't justify it.

 

[Wallybanger]

Some of the people here got hosed by a bit of a fiasco with Kingston compatibility back when Haswell was introduced, and it turned out that some of the modules that Kingston initially listed as being compatible with Supermicro X10+Haswell weren't, and then Kingston kinda left people holding the bag. Some of them took to swearing off Kingston forevermore, but while I have no issue with people deciding to avoid a brand, trash-talking them for the rest of eternity isn't really reasonable or useful. Here, we've bought thousands of sticks of Kingston over the decades. Very few problems overall.

Honestly, every manufacturer has issues. So every once in awhile we see someone claim that they're never going to buy from {Seagate, WD} ever again because {whatever}, which is irrational as I describe here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/st4000dx002.42219/#post-273017

If you want a pragmatic approach, what you do instead is to not be the first guy to jump on a bandwagon, especially for something like a new CPU architecture. If you cannot afford the risk that the stuff you're buying will have a problem and will be a giant paperweight, let someone else take that risk. Especially for CPU's, the gains made between the year 2011 and 2016 are very modest: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...kylake-freenas-build.40711/page-2#post-259082

So really, the Skylake-with-64GB thing is the only compelling bit of improvement in Skylake over Sandy Bridge, and specific boards like the X10SL7 are attractive for specific reasons. Until they actually released the X10SL7 I was actually kinda sitting here snickering at all the guys on the forum going out and buying the X10 versions of older trusty X9 boards and then having all sorts of problems especially with USB. Totally pointless frustration-fest.

But I do encourage you to go Skylake because of the 64GB thing. It's fairly compelling, even if you don't plan on 64GB now. As to specific RAM, since we haven't been buying E3 systems for awhile now here, I don't have any particular recommendations, sorry. Take a manufacturer's memory advisor tool and plug in the Supermicro board you have. As always, prefer two larger modules over four smaller ones, unless the price premium for the higher density module is so out of line (50%+) that you can't justify it.

Well that sounds reasonable. The Kingston ram is a little cheaper. I believe they both list the X11SSH-LN4F as compatible mobos.