Second-Hand Learning/Testing NAS - Did I screw up?

[LimeCrusher]

After weeks of reading and scrapping the web for deals, I finally decided to indulge myself and buy components to assemble a NAS that I will use to learn, test and become familiar with FreeNAS and it's plugins. Here's what I got:

• Supermicro X9SCM-F from the US via Ebay, 90€, half of which in taxes and shipping. I may have found a better deal but it was the only available at that moment.
• Intel Pentium G2130 from the UK via Ebay, 25€, I think actually more than half in shipping :D
  
• 8GB of Kingston Unbuffered ECC DDR3 1600 PC3 12800 from the US via Ebay, 82€ taxes and shipping included.
• Crucial BX500 120GB from some retailer here, 25€ shipping included, the only stuff that's supposed to be brand new. Sorry but buying used was eventually more expensive
  
• Seasonic G360 from my region via Ebay, 60€ shipping included. I know it is not recommended to use second-hand PSUs in a NAS but this is some learning hardware and I was decided to go full recycling here.
• Zalman R1 case second-hand from my town, 40€.

That's a total of 322€. I'm sure I could have gone cheaper but overall I'm quite happy and this feels like an actual capable build to start with. Everything as been bought and is to be delivered/picked up. Did I screw up somewhere? I plan to buy a couple disks as soon as the machine is up, tested and FreeNAS is set up and working.

I lack a CPU fan but a colleague has an unused Intel i7-4770 stock fan that I could use. It's a LGA1150 socket CPU but I think the fan should be compatible with the LGA1155 socket of the X9SCM-F.
He's got some Arctic MX-2 thermal paste as well which judging by its specs, has high thermal conductivity.


Five days later EDIT: I realized a local business super close to me actually sells that same stick of RAM for 13€ less (basically the shipping cost that would be free here) so I could actually have brought the total bill down to 310€ or so. Whatever.

 

[Chris Moore]

Did I screw up somewhere?

No. It looks fine, except for the processor being a little under powered and having integrated graphics that the system board does not need and FreeNAS can't use.

I lack a CPU fan but a colleague has an unused Intel i7-4770 stock fan that I could use. It's a LGA1150 socket CPU but I think the fan should be compatible with the LGA1155 socket of the X9SCM-F.

Yes. The fan should be compatible.

 

[LimeCrusher]

No. It looks fine, except for the processor being a little under powered and having integrated graphics that the system board does not need and FreeNAS can't use.

I know, the single core clock is actually decent but it's only two cores and no hyper-threading. If I need moar powaa I'll eventually buy a used Xeon E3-1230 V1 or V2 to replace that Pentium. The price though :D
If the Plex plugin hardware (iGPU) transcoding eventually comes up, I'll be happy to test it with the iGPU.

 

[rvassar]

I know, the single core clock is actually decent but it's only two cores and no hyper-threading. If I need moar powaa I'll eventually buy a used Xeon E3-1230 V1 or V2 to replace that Pentium. The price though :D
If the Plex plugin hardware (iGPU) transcoding eventually comes up, I'll be happy to test it with the iGPU.

You'd be surprised how far a little CPU can take you if you don't transcode. I have a similar board, the X9SCL, which omits one PCIe slot, and run an i3-2120 with both 1GbE & 10GbE networking... My CPU is almost never above 30%.

 

[LimeCrusher]

You'd be surprised how far a little CPU can take you if you don't transcode.

I am certain those cheap little guys are actually capable. This is the main reason I bought it.

 

[jgreco]

I am certain those cheap little guys are actually capable. This is the main reason I bought it.

Those of us who virtualize typically only run a few CPU cores and it's fine.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Starting building and realized I have done a mistake and bought that Supermicro X9SCM-F board from Ebay. As the ad says:
Please note: Board is a working pull from Supermicro server. The board has Supermicro BKT-0028L heatsink bracket attached with adhesive on the bottom. It is required to be used with Supermicro SNK-P0046P CPU Heatsink.
And yes, there is the adhesive-attached heatsink bracket at the bottom :-/
Can I remove it without damaging the board to use the i7-4770K stock fan? Or am I condemned to buy that Supermicro SNK-P0046P CPU heatsink?

 

[rvassar]

That's going to be a low-profile 1U heatsink with no fan. It's for the positive pressure airflow environment of the 1U chassis, it won't have any way to attach a fan, it's designed for the airflow enter from the side. From the look of image on the net, it is an open fin top. Which poses the possibility of placing a fan on top of it. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with 1U Supermicro chassis to be able to comment on the bracket removal.

 

[jgreco]

And yes, there is the adhesive-attached heatsink bracket at the bottom :-/
Can I remove it without damaging the board to use the i7-4770K stock fan?

I don't recall what the mounting hardware for the stock fans are. Probably sucky plastic spreader pins.

The adhesive-attached heatsink bracket is a very good thing as long as you can make it work out. Unlike a conventional plastic pin mount, once you have a heatsink screwed down to the thing, you can have Jim Carrey "UPS" it and it'll be fine. But it does suck if you don't have the parts.

Trying to remove the adhesive is a little dicey and if you don't have an appropriate solvent you can damage the board.

 

[LimeCrusher]

That's going to be a low-profile 1U heatsink with no fan. It's for the positive pressure airflow environment of the 1U chassis, it won't have any way to attach a fan, it's designed for the airflow enter from the side. From the look of image on the net, it is an open fin top. Which poses the possibility of placing a fan on top of it. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with 1U Supermicro chassis to be able to comment on the bracket removal.

Indeed, that's what it is. I guess one could technically place a fan on top of it but I don't know how you could attach the fan to the heatsink of the motherboard.

I don't recall what the mounting hardware for the stock fans are. Probably sucky plastic spreader pins.

The adhesive-attached heatsink bracket is a very good thing as long as you can make it work out. Unlike a conventional plastic pin mount, once you have a heatsink screwed down to the thing, you can have Jim Carrey "UPS" it and it'll be fine. But it does suck if you don't have the parts.

Trying to remove the adhesive is a little dicey and if you don't have an appropriate solvent you can damage the board.

Yes, the stock fan is the classic intel plastic pins thing and the heatsink bracket fills the motherboard mounting holes with threaded holes to receive the heatsink screws.

Would that heatsink provide sufficient cooling in my tower build?

I have strength and a heatgun. I am reluctant to use any of them. I also have acetone (probably a bad idea on a PCB) and some alcohols (methanol and isopropanol) I could use but I am not sure that would be sufficient.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Just talked to the technical support of Supermicro NL about removing that bracket. Fun conversation with useful information:

• the recommended way to do it is with a heat gun, the guy I talked to had successfully done it before,
• the way to do it is to heat up the metal bracket by blowing hot air perpendicular to its surface, on the metal bracket only, not at the border between the bracket and the motherboard (as if you tried to heat up the adhesive straight up)! That way, the bracket will act as a shield, heat will slowly diffuse in the adhesive.
• He recommended blowing hot air in regular circles around the bracket,
• temperature-wise, 200°C should be fine (start lower and increase), put a few centimeters between the heat gun and the bracket.
• Once the bracket is hot, a flat screwdriver should do the job, but do not use excessive strength.

FYI, at 320°C, components will come out of the board after approximately 20 to 30s of exposure. So do not increase the temperature further.

So what's your opinion on the cooling solution? Would the passive heatsink be adapted to my tower build? If not I have no problem taking the risk to remove that bracket.

 

[rvassar]

So what's your opinion on the cooling solution? Would the passive heatsink be adapted to my tower build? If not I have no problem taking the risk to remove that bracket.

Well... The heatsink can handle the thermal load, and does work with the attached bracket, but it requires airflow which is not provided by your case. Provided the bracket doesn't interfere with your choice of case, your option is risk damage to the motherboard, removing the bracket, or adapting a fan to that heatsink. Adapting a fan is less risky from a permanent damage standpoint. You get multiple iterations if it doesn't work. However, it likely requires hand tools & minor fabrication skills. I know I could do it. But... That's one of those questions we can't answer. It depends on your skills and resources.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Well... The heatsink can handle the thermal load, and does work with the attached bracket, but it requires airflow which is not provided by your case.

Thanks. That was my intuition.

Adapting a fan is less risky from a permanent damage standpoint. You get multiple iterations if it doesn't work. However, it likely requires hand tools & minor fabrication skills. I know I could do it. But... That's one of those questions we can't answer. It depends on your skills and resources.

I feel you. I don't have the heatsink though, neither a fan I could adapt but the stock Intel I planned to use, not much hand tools at home or really poor ones and my fabrication skills are poor to be honest :-/

Question: any idea what fan you would pick up if you were to adapt one on that heatsink?

 

[LimeCrusher]

Just talked to the technical support of Supermicro NL about removing that bracket. Fun conversation with useful information:

• the recommended way to do it is with a heat gun, the guy I talked to had successfully done it before,
• the way to do it is to heat up the metal bracket by blowing hot air perpendicular to its surface, on the metal bracket only, not at the border between the bracket and the motherboard (as if you tried to heat up the adhesive straight up)! That way, the bracket will act as a shield, heat will slowly diffuse in the adhesive.
• He recommended blowing hot air in regular circles around the bracket,
• temperature-wise, 200°C should be fine (start lower and increase), put a few centimeters between the heat gun and the bracket.
• Once the bracket is hot, a flat screwdriver should do the job, but do not use excessive strength.

Following that procedure I was able to remove the bracket last night using a minimal amount of force to remove the bracket.

The motherboard is now bolted in the chassis with the single UDIMM in the appropriate slot, the CPU and its fan installed and plugged in Fan4. The main PSU cable is in place. The is still a lot of wiring to do and I have to install the SSD. Will let you know if I fucked up the motherboard when I light things up.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Fan connection question!
I have a total of four fans: the stock Intel fan on the CPU and three case fans (front inward, back and top outward). The CPU fan is a 4-pin fan, the other are 3-pin fan. The motherboard has 4-pin fans connectors which speed is controlled by the BIOS: Fan1-4 and FanA. My chassis has a 4-pin female Molex connector and a 2-channel speed controller (high, stop and low) with only two 3-pin fan connectors.
I am wondering how to best arrange all this. I have plugged the CPU fan on Fan4 but I am not sure what to do with the chassis fans. Connect only the front and back fans to the chassis controller and forget about the top fan? If I wanted to use all three chassis fans I would need to plug one on the motherboard (to FanA for instance) but it would run at full speed. Which one would be more appropriate? The front to cool the HDDs or the back one?

 

[jgreco]

Fan connection question!
I have a total of four fans: the stock Intel fan on the CPU and three case fans (front inward, back and top outward). The CPU fan is a 4-pin fan, the other are 3-pin fan. The motherboard has 4-pin fans connectors which speed is controlled by the BIOS: Fan1-4 and FanA. My chassis has a 4-pin female Molex connector and a 2-channel speed controller (high, stop and low) with only two 3-pin fan connectors.
I am wondering how to best arrange all this. I have plugged the CPU fan on Fan4 but I am not sure what to do with the chassis fans. Connect only the front and back fans to the chassis controller and forget about the top fan? If I wanted to use all three chassis fans I would need to plug one on the motherboard (to FanA for instance) but it would run at full speed. Which one would be more appropriate? The front to cool the HDDs or the back one?

Do not mix 3- and 4-pin fans when attaching to the motherboard. You can purchase replacement 4-pin fans for the chassis which is probably the best fix.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Little update over that build.

Everything booted as expected, FreeNAS installed flawlessly, its web interface is available and looking neat, the IPMI web interface is available as well. Chassis temperature is about 31°C (two different temperatures are displayed, "System" and "Peripherals", I am not sure who is what), CPU temperature (as reported by PECI Agent 0) is about 41°C idle, considered as "Low" by Supermicro IPMI. For information, my home is regulated at about 20°C.
The chassis stock fans (not PWM) are running at "Low" speed (there is another manual in the front setting: "High", that gets them spinning faster).
I performed a few burn-in tests to make sure everything worked using ultimatebootCD:

• The UDIMM stick passed 29+ pass of Memtest86+ in about 44 hours without errors.
• Stressed the CPU using CPU Burn-in, Mersenne28 and Intel LINPACK Benchmark (using the CPU intensive test). I saw the following temperatures:
  • CPU temperature (PECI Agent 0) never rose over 47.5°C, still considered as "Low" by Supermicro IPMI.
  • Chassis temperatures never rose over 35°C.

I have ordered two 3TB Seagate Ironwolf drives for 87€ each. I will receive them this week, install them, test them and burn them before I mount them as mirrors and proceed with setting up shares.

Notes for beginners like myself:

• I have ordered an I/O shield back plate for the motherboard as it came pretty naked. Found it for 12€ shipping included from Latvia on Ebay.
• Making a bootable USB stick of ultimatebootCD was a pain on my Linux laptop until I discovered that the ISO contains instructions (in a README file) about how to make the stick bootable using Linux.
• The Zalman R1 chassis has a front fan equipped with a blue LED. It is a disgusting "gaming" feature. I will try to see if I can disconnect that LED lightning.

 

[LimeCrusher]

Update!

I received and installed the back plate and the drives. Also switched the disgusting chassis front LED fan for the top one that has no LED.
Performed S.M.A.R.T tests on the drives, short, conveyance and long came up clean. Tested the read write speed with dd. Ran a full pass of destructive badblocks (full four patterns) and another long S.M.A.R.T test after that. That last test came up clean for both drives. To summarize:

• First disk : 33°C at max while badblocks, read/write speed 184MB/s
• Second disk : 31°C at max while badblocks, read/write speed 171MB/s

I think that closes it and we can consider that this build is ready to go. I'll create a ZFS pool and datasets asap and proceed with setting up shares and then plugins. Thank you everyone for your help and your advises. It has been a great experience and I can't wait for this thing to fully go in production.