BUILD ready make supermicro server

[snakelimit]

Hi and welcome to all I'm new to the FreeNAS but I did read it from around year about it and was trying to buy/build one, but with lack of time (working 6 days per week) I started to look for ready made servers.

And few days ago I did found one which I did like it and I hope its not so bad.I did win on ebay for about £300 with postage and its brand new (but not so new)

Supermicro server SYS-6027R-WRF http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/6027/SYS-6027R-WRF.cfm
CPU:Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2609 @ 2.40GHz (Quad Core)
MB: Super X9DRW-iF
RAM:8GB
PSU: 80 platinum 740 1+1
Case: SC825TQ-R740WB 2U

I hope it will be OK for my needs please let me know if something is not right.
I do not have any HDD yet but will go for the RED's

I'm not need for massive storage then will look for 1TB or 2TB I have 8 bays should I use all or not?
maybe buy 4tB but use half of bays?
Please help what will be the best, Mostly I will using for file back up from 2 mac's 2 iPad, 3 iPhone's
For PLEX possible 2 clients in same time maybe more (not sure if will need trans-coding)if any friends will want share they movie collections with me XD
lastly for torrents (was thinking to use single HDD for it in separate pool if will die then nothing important will be lost)
Lastly for this moment I can buy lets say 4 HDD 1TB, 3 2TB, 2 3TB then I have short budget right now not to mention I need to buy another 8 GB memory to make 16GB total.

What you guys thinking about buying used HDD? I did see used 2TB red for £50 per one and this person have 5 of them maybe will give me discount if i take them all, warrant till February 2016 I should upgrade some of them till feb.

Thank you for any help and comments good and bad one.
Marek

 

[Mr_N]

I don't think used HDD's have any place in any redundant/nas system unless you can get a significant quantity of them, for a very very cheap price, and don't mind having hot spares running and spending more of your time replacing them as they die...

 

[danb35]

That looks like a nice machine--if anything, the motherboard is a bit of overkill for what you can fit in the chassis. The RAM is on the low side, but your board supports up to 1 TB, so you should have plenty of room to expand. You'll probably want at least 16 GB if you're going to be using Plex. If/when you need more drive space, you could always add a SAS controller and connect to a JBOD chassis.

I'd also steer clear of used drives unless they're less than half the price of new. In the US, 2 TB WD Reds are $89 each, while the price you're quoting works out to $77 each. I wouldn't take them for that price.

For number of disks, it's kind of tough. We tend to prefer RAIDZ2 arrays, but unless you're using at least 6 disks, they're very wasteful of capacity (half of your total capacity is parity). You could certainly put 6 disks in your chassis, but that leaves only two spaces free, making pool expansion kind of tough. I would probably lean toward using all 8 disks in a single RAIDZ2 pool.

 

[snakelimit]

Hi
Thank you for helping, sure will not use used HDD if they not for free XD
I agree the price is not good as new cost £69 on amazon that's why I did ask him for price of 5 of them as he did put make offer XD
Before I will put all my data I will need some time to learn FreeNAS then using used HDD is not so bad as for testing and still got some warranty only if the price will be low other wise I go for new HDD's

I just check and need to buy hynix PC3-12800R which is not possible in UK then will go for Crucial XD http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/superserver-6027r-wrf/CT3369530
I just find I have a 15k SAS segate in as well CD bay which will be going out to make space for another HDD

 

[ChriZ]

You will probably want to buy the same (type of) Ram as the one already installed.
In case it has unbuffered, you can not mix it with registered. So getting the same type will not waste the already installed 8GB.

 

[Darren Myers]

I would shoot for 16Gb of RAM minimum, since 8 is the bare minimum for FreeNAS....i'd be more comfortable with 16Gb. if youre gonna get used harddrives, get alot of them, burn them ALL in, return any that fail within whatever return/exchange window is given.

 

[snakelimit]

Hi thank you all for helping me out.
The guy say his minimum is £45 per drive then I say no thank you XD
Yes I will buy more RAM don't worry guys I do research which one will be the best, this one installed is register. I did read most of supermicro boards should be using unbuffered RAM need read more if register is OK with mine.
I did find on ebay same as mine but all from USA if I will buy 4x4GB I still should be below Import tax hopeful and should be around £60 with shipping

 

[danb35]

Most folks here are using Socket 1155/1150 boards, which use unbuffered RAM and max out at 32 GB. You have a Socket 2011 board, which supports registered ECC RAM, and requires it for maximum memory capacity. You should use registered RAM with your server, and really shouldn't use anything smaller than an 8GB module (and really, 16GB modules would be better).

 

[snakelimit]

I did research and found some in UK 8GB, 16GB are overprices and can buy only from USA :( (hynix)
I will go as Danb35 pointed and buy possible 8GB and then sell 4GB
Do I should buy Hynix or go after Crucial?
Hynix http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hynix-8GB...NPRYK18C-8G-/291556913447?hash=item43e2257127
Crucial http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/x9drw-3f/CT2940089
Or I should go crazy and buy this http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/superserver-6027r-wrf/CT3369375 Will need wait little longer for HDD's
What is difference with 1.5V and 1.35V ? as is a same price
http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/superserver-6027r-wrf/CT3369523
http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en/superserver-6027r-wrf/CT3369530

 

[danb35]

Registered DIMMs for 16 GB shouldn't be too bad. Though we don't tend to be too fond of Kingston, here's one for 95 pounds. Crucial is fine RAM, and they have their own compatibility testing that they stand behind.

 

[snakelimit]

Then I will go after Crucial is only £13 more per module and most ppl using on they FreeNAS