BUILD Question about RAM and HDD

[Spreizu]

Hello everyone.
So I've done my homework and bought most of the stuff I need for a solid FreeNAS build - a NAS for home use.

Here are the specs:
Motherboard: SM X11SSH-F
CPU: Intel Pentium G4400, 3.3GHz
RAM: 16GB (2x8) DDR4 ECC Hynix (SM tested), 16GB sticks were not available at the time of purchase
PSU: SeaSonic G-450 80+ Gold
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini
HDDs: 3TB WD RED (5? 6?) - not yet purchased

I've read that using 6 HDDs in RAIDZ2 might be better than using 5 drives. Does it actually make a huge difference?
I'm planning to use this build as my fileserver, media server (Plex) and web server (Apache+DB). Should I upgrade RAM to 32GB (edit: or even 48GB?) (now that I already have 8GB sticks) or is 16GB enough?

Thanks in advance. :)

 

[nojohnny101]

Does it actually make a huge difference?

It makes no technical difference.

Should I upgrade RAM to 32GB (edit: or even 48GB?) (now that I already have 8GB sticks) or is 16GB enough?

My opinion, I believe 16gbs is fine for you starting out. FreeNAS will always take more RAM (as you have probably read) but the system will still be stable at 16gb for your usage.

Great build!

 

[Stux]

Re: 5 or 6 drives, it comes down to do you want a 9TB or 12TB pool?

(remembering that you shouldn't fill your pool much past 80% before thinking about upgrading it)

Its quite difficult to switch from a 5 disk RAIDZ2 to a 6 disk RAIDZ2 down the road, unless you have a backup of your pool.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

16GB's should be good depending how much your web server is doing. The board has room for 2 more DIMMs if you find out you need the extra RAM.

As Stux eluded to, upgrading to another 5 disk pool is a bit easier than another 6 disk pool. If you can save up for 4TB drives that would be ideal because they usually have the best $/GB ratio compared to other drive sizes.

 

[Spreizu]

Web server is pretty much just for coding random web projects locally, nothing special.

Just did a price comparison between different WD Red drives. These are the cheapest offers I found:
3TB - 113.30€ (37.77€/GB), 679.8€/6 drives
4TB - 161.50€ (40.38€/GB), 969€/6 drives

So 4TB would actually cost me about +300€ more, which is... well, a bit too much. I think I'll buy a total of 6 3TB drives (1-2 each month) and 'till then I'll just play around with FreeNAS and random hard drives I have laying around + random data. I thought I'd test "hard drive failure" before I actually start using the system and until I can buy all of the WD drives. I'm sure this experience will come in handy once actual data needs to be saved *knocks on wood* :D.

 

[nojohnny101]

I thought I'd test "hard drive failure" before I actually start using the system and until I can buy all of the WD drives. I'm sure this experience will come in handy once actual data needs to be saved *knocks on wood* :D.

smart man!