BUILD Review And/Or Recommendations

[iKersh]

Hello FreeNAS-ers,

Below, I have a proposed build (after reading Cyberjock's hardware recommendations thread) which I would like reviews and/or recommendations on please:

Case - Fractal Design Node 304
PSU - Seasonic G-450W 80 Plus Gold
Mobo - ASRock Avoton C2550D4I
HDDs - 2 x Western Digital RED NAS 3TB (WD30EFRX) (already have)
RAM - 1 x Crucial 8GB DDR3 ECC Unbuffered 1600MHz 240-pin DIMM (CT102472BD160B - will add another later, funds permitting)
Boot - 2 x nano-sized USB sticks (mirrored - already have)

Uses - PC and Laptop backups, movie and music storage, Minecraft server plugin instance (just me using this when I have a spare minute or three)

I believe this build hits the mark as far as future expandability - can anyone poke any proverbial holes in the build considering it's intended uses?

Update - edited list to reflect DrKK's reply
Update #2 - edited list to reflect jgreco's reply
Update #3 - SeaSonic G-450W 80Plus Gold I selected does not fit the selected case; the only SFX PSU that Seasonic produces which is 80 Plus Gold rated has been updated in the build list
Update #4 - Revised parts list after doing more research (it's a wonder what you find out ;))

 

[DrKK]

Looks fine...You almost certainly don't actually want a ZIL/SLOG device. And in any case, you can add such things later if you find (which you won't) that you need one.

Also, 2x SATA DOM's is *WAY* more expensive than a couple of 16GB Sandisk Cruzer Fit 2.0's. I, personally, do *NOT* think that's money well spent. You're hardly ever using the boot pool for anything, and the 30 seconds or whatever you save is simply not worth it. *PLUS*, you waste some actual SATA ports, that could be used for future hard drives.

 

[jgreco]

The Fortron power supply is probably okay, but people around here seem to really like the SeaSonics, which are well-regarded high quality power supplies. Might want to consider that.

 

[iKersh]

I am hoping the 300W PSU is enough to handle 4 drives in the chassis (future confg; only 2 drives to start) or should I just give a slightly bigger case like the Fractal Design Node 304 and a 450W PSU? I just don't want to shoot myself in the proverbial foot when it comes to powering the system...

Also, the ASRock board ranges from $380-480 here in Australia at the moment - am I paying too much or is there a better choice of board for a bit less that will fit the intended usage?

 

[nightshade00013]

If you're going to run a minecraft server for more than a handful of people I would think about stepping up to a board that supports a little better cpu. Likewise if you think you will use Plex for the media.

The cost of the ASrock board you mentioned in the US via NewEgg was about 300.

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Server/Requirements

 

[jgreco]

I am hoping the 300W PSU is enough to handle 4 drives in the chassis (future confg; only 2 drives to start) or should I just give a slightly bigger case like the Fractal Design Node 304 and a 450W PSU? I just don't want to shoot myself in the proverbial foot when it comes to powering the system...

We try to guide people away from "hoping." There's a great sticky on proper power supply sizing. Follow what it says and you won't need to hope.

 

[iKersh]

I have revised the build list after doing some more research over the weekend (the initial list was a bit 'half baked' looking back).

I also did some calculations based on the proper power supply sizing sticky that jgreco pointed to and, based on those calculations and assuming all drive bays (6 in total) are full in the future, it indicates that I'll should be aiming for a 450W PSU. In my calculations I did little over estimating on most parts just in case but I am wondering whether its worth stepping up to a 550W as the difference in price in Aussies dollars is about ~$15?

Also, I am beginning to wonder or second guess myself - is the ASRock board a bit overkill for my intended uses? A lot of people like this board for a NAS (low power consumption, etc.)...

 

[iKersh]

Anyone got any thoughts/suggestions/recommendations?

 

[jgreco]

Overestimating a little bit is good. However, be careful that you don't get too big. Power supplies do like to see a minimum load, and my gut says the 550 is getting a bit uncomfortably big. An Avoton plus two drives might only idle at 40ish watts, which is a bit below the 10% minimum load I would prefer to see on a 550W PSU. Best guess is it'd work fine, and obviously if you're going to expand into a 550, it'd be a dumb move to get a smaller PSU now and then replace it later.

 

[iKersh]

@jgreco - thank you for your response - I have pumped up the PSU to Seasonic G-550 to cater for future expansion.

I do have a question around SATA ports for the board I have selected - is there a performance hit running a vdev of HDDs which are a mix of connected SATA2 and SATA3?

Also, a more general question - I have been doing some reading of a few forum posts in which it is mentioned that the best 'bang-for-buck' build is the Supermicro X10SLM+-F with the Pentium G3220 - considering the build I have selected, am I potentially screwing myself over price-wise?

 

[danb35]

is there a performance hit running a vdev of HDDs which are a mix of connected SATA2 and SATA3

No--with spinning rust, you wouldn't even saturate SATA1, much less SATA2.

 

[nightshade00013]

Also, a more general question - I have been doing some reading of a few forum posts in which it is mentioned that the best 'bang-for-buck' build is the Supermicro X10SLM+-F with the Pentium G3220 - considering the build I have selected, am I potentially screwing myself over price-wise?

It would likely be better and slightly cheaper than the avoton you have listed above. The Avoton is going for 265 on newegg right now and the Supermicro board with the G3220 is about 235 (You could step up to a G3258 for 5 bucks and have just a touch more umph behind it and still be under the cost of the Avoton with better performance. The one major loss is AES but unless you intend to use encryption it will not affect your build. Plus you have the option of swapping out the CPU later on if you come across say a xeon E3 1241 V3 in a few years for 50 bucks on ebay.

 

[iKersh]

You could step up to a G3258

I had a look on the Intel site for info about this CPU; it doesn't support 1600MHz RAM which I have selected, only 1333MHz. I know that memory speed should step down to the lower frequency however will I take a performance hit FreeNAS-wise?

 

[jgreco]

No, not really. Your ethernet is only capable of 1Gbps. Or maybe 10Gbps.