So you want some hardware suggestions.

[Ericloewe]

Hey guys,

I wanna get X10SL7-F, but I wanna put in a cabinet. The thing is, that supermicro advises to use this beauty. The thins is, I would prefer 3.5 drives. What do you think about this one. Depending the size it should fit in, but looking at photos makes me feel, that MB's ports are mixed. Or it shouldn't be a problem?

You mean the back panel stuff? Every ATX (and related format) motherboard comes with its own shield. If the case fits microATX motherboards, you're good to go.

 

[Thousandbuckle]

Hello All,

After lot of extensive reading (19 Pages) I have come up with three scenarios and want your opinions on which would be best bang for the buck based on intended usage and possible future expansion.

The NAS will be used primarily for photo and document storage to be accessed from laptops within the home. I am thinking of installing and setting up Plex Media Server just to host photo slide shows mainly. Probably will have a few movies as well to show but only to one or two clients max. Based on this information which of three New Egg wishlists would you recommend?

Option 1: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=30712307
Option 2: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=30712327
Option 3: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=22611811

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, you're never going to fit more than 6 drives in that case, so the X10SL7-F is overkill. The X10SLM+-F is a cheaper, more realistic alternative. Of course, neither of them actually fits in the case.

If you're not doing transcoding, the Xeon is overkill. An i3 should be plenty.

Spare the 50 bucks and use the stock cooler.

You'll probably want something better than a Corsair CX 430. It's not dangerous, but it's just an average PSU. I recommend a Seasonic G-450.

 

[Thousandbuckle]

What motherboard would you recommend that fits in the Fractal 304, supports minimum of 6 drives preferably all on the same controller, and supports ECC RAM, and an i3 chip?

I thought UATX and Mini ITX were basically the same board and that the UATX would fit in the mini ITX case.

 

[Ericloewe]

What motherboard would you recommend that fits in the Fractal 304, supports minimum of 6 drives preferably all on the same controller, and supports ECC RAM, and an i3 chip?

I thought UATX and Mini ITX were basically the same board and that the UATX would fit in the mini ITX case.

microATX is much larger than miniITX. Check it out on Wikipedia if you're curious.

In any case, the Asrock you suggested is used by a few people around here and seems to work well.

 

[Strahan]

Hello all. I'm currently running a Chenbro RM-4140U chassis with 16 WD10EACS 1 TB drives driven by an Areca ARC-1160ML2 controller. Server is an Opteron 2.6ghz plugged into an ASUS M2N-LR with 4 GB of RAM. It's running Windows 2003 and setup as RAID6. Worked fine since 2007. However, I'm out of space. I was going to just swap drives but I think I'm gonna also swap OS. I am going to max the mobo's memory (32 GB) and swap the 1 TB drives for 3 TB.

Just wondering if A) anyone knows if an Areca ARC-1160ML2 in JBOD mode will be OK with FreeNAS and B) if the "white label" drives Newegg is selling are OK? I was a little nervous given how cheap they are.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5AD1S78925

I was planning on getting Seagate NAS drives, but these WL drives would save $500. I know one shouldn't cut costs when it comes to your data, but then, this is home stuff not enterprise so losing it wouldn't be that big of a deal. That said, I still would rather pony up another $300 or so to at least step up to Seagate's ST3000DM001 if the WLs have a bad reputation.

Thanks!

 

[DJ9]

The thing that worries me about those drives is that they only have a 1 year warranty.

 

[tromba]

Hello everyone,

I just registered to say thank you very much for the useful discussions and forum entries. I'm really busy these days and apparently getting sloppy in my old age. I had really underestimated the amount of time (.. and money..) I would have to invest in my freenas build and would have been in for a world of hurt if it hadn't been for this forum.
So, BIG thumbs-up!

Cheers
M

 

[Z300M]

Hello all. I'm currently running a Chenbro RM-4140U chassis with 16 WD10EACS 1 TB drives driven by an Areca ARC-1160ML2 controller. Server is an Opteron 2.6ghz plugged into an ASUS M2N-LR with 4 GB of RAM. It's running Windows 2003 and setup as RAID6. Worked fine since 2007. However, I'm out of space. I was going to just swap drives but I think I'm gonna also swap OS. I am going to max the mobo's memory (32 GB) and swap the 1 TB drives for 3 TB.

Just wondering if A) anyone knows if an Areca ARC-1160ML2 in JBOD mode will be OK with FreeNAS and B) if the "white label" drives Newegg is selling are OK? I was a little nervous given how cheap they are.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5AD1S78925

I was planning on getting Seagate NAS drives, but these WL drives would save $500. I know one shouldn't cut costs when it comes to your data, but then, this is home stuff not enterprise so losing it wouldn't be that big of a deal. That said, I still would rather pony up another $300 or so to at least step up to Seagate's ST3000DM001 if the WLs have a bad reputation.

Thanks!

IIRC, the term "IntelliPower" indicates that they are made by WesternDigital, but since the 1-year warranty is merely the vendor's warranty, I wouldn't jump at these.

 

[Ericloewe]

IIRC, the term "IntelliPower" indicates that they are made by WesternDigital, but since the 1-year warranty is merely the vendor's warranty, I wouldn't jump at these.

Yeah, IntelliPower is WD marketing for "we imply that the drive varies its angular velocity even though it doesn't".

HDDs are problematic enough when acquired through regular channels... I don't think I'd trust a drive not even the manufacturer (let's face it, HDD manufacturers tend to have lax standards for "reliable") will stand behind.

 

[Strahan]

Thanks all, I'll stop being cheap and just get the Seagates.

 

[michaelkoehler]

So, I want to build a NAS. I've been reading the forums for a week or two. This thread is particularly helpful, as well as CyberJocks slideshow.

It will be mainly for backups & media with a Plex server. I'll rarely have more than a couple users, but would like to be able to stream 1080p. I have 5 WD 3T red's, plus another 3 TB. I don't see expansion being an issue for quite some time.

I was pretty much set on the following hardware (and wanting advice on the 4130 vs. 4130T):

Motherboard - TYAN S5533GM2NR-LE Mini ITX Server Motherboard
CPU - Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor
Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor
Case - Fractal Design FD-CA-NODE-304-WH Node 304 (White)
Mem - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model CT2KIT102472BD160B

That was until I got to the last few pages of this thread and saw the ASRock C2550D4I. Now I'm leaning toward that.

Does anyone have any advice to push me off the fence in one direction or the other?

Also, I guess any 80+ Gold around 400W - 450W?

I appreciate any constructive criticism.

 

[BigDave]

Without expansion being a consideration, it's all good.
The ASRock board has an embedded CPU doesn't it?
I personally would not go for that one, if that's true.

 

[BigDave]

Just wondering if A) anyone knows if an Areca ARC-1160ML2 in JBOD mode will be OK with FreeNAS
Thanks!

The support list of controller cards are to be found here in section 3

 

[michaelkoehler]

Without expansion being a consideration, it's all good.
The ASRock board has an embedded CPU doesn't it?
I personally would not go for that one, if that's true.

Thanks Dave. The C2550D4I does have the integrated CPU. Someone posted a video a few pages back showing that it was capable of 4 simultaneous 1080p streams on FreeNAS. It's used by several people in the forum. It also supports 64GB of mem, whereas the Tyan only supports 16GB. I'm just wondering how much more umph I'd get from the i3 to support plugins I might want down the road.

 

[B34N]

Looking to build a FreeNAS server for personal home use. Most data will be from my media server but some data (small percentage) will be critical data I can't risk loosing. I'll run Plex Media Server, SABnzbd, CouchPotato, Sick Beard and maybe headphones. I'll likely add a few more as I get comfortable. There will be some very limited transcoding for now and I don't ever anticipate anything extreme.

Power supply: Corsair CS450M (modular ATX - already own)
Case: I want rack-mount: 4U no problem but 2U supporting ATX power supply works too
HDs: I'm thinking four 3TB-4TB. WD Reds?
MB + CPU: No clue – not overly price sensitive but don't want to overspend
Memory: 16GB ECC

I'm looking for something that “just works” and would really appreciate some fill in the blanks for the above. Also, am I missing anything? How many fans should I have? I'm thinking about a microSD with USB adapter for the OS. Any reason why I shouldn't do that?

Thank you,
B34N

 

[indy]

@B34N
Best make your own thread, try to pick the components as best as you can and surely someone will comment on it.

 

[Zou]

Hi,

finally, yesterday i've decide to buy the hardware for my new NAS (Raidz)

MB : Gigabyte GA-h87m-E35
CPU : Pentium G3240t
Ram : Kingstone HyperX 4 Go DDR3 1333 non ECC
HDD : 5 x 3To
Case : Fractal Design Node 605 (I know there are only 4 3.5" slots but I'll tinker, there is a lot of unused space inside)
Useage

and just before go sleep i juste checked the compatibility of the Motherbord NIC card compatibility with FreeNAS. When suddenly I came accros this ECC Vs Non-ECC topix (yet I searched a lot before chosing FreeNas and then the hard ware, wrong searches, I certainly found some topix saying ECC is usless , more expensive and high resource consumption. True ... for Normal use)

Total panic . I had to cancel my order an quickly find an alternative config. (Need the Nas for next week). Fortunately I also find this topix who helped me to find the config.

So I'll certainly go for (quite common I have to admit) :
MB : Asrock c2550d4i
CPU : Integred with MB
Ram : Crucial DIMM 8 GB ECC DDR3-1600 (CT102472BD160B)

Hope this will be the good one

thx :D

 

[Nishant]

Hey Guys,
Anyone know if i could use 8gb ECC Crucial CT102472BA160B Memory with Supermicro X10SLM-F?
This memory is the only one that's available (easily) in Singapore. None from the list of tested memory in Supermicro Website (except kingston whose support was removed for 8gb ram stick).

While at it,
i also need to decide if i need more Memory.
I'm planning to build ZFS Z2 FreeNAS with FOUR 3TB WD Reds.

Is 4gb memory enough? or 8gb or do i need more ?
I am not sure on what parameter does the rule "1gb ram for 1 tb hdd" apply on? Usable hdd space (5.5tb for my build) or total hdd space (12tb)?
I do not plan on using deduplication.

Thanks for help.

 

[cyberjock]

FreeNAS needs 8GB of RAM minimum, so don't do any less unless you want to risk losing your data suddenly (this is covered in the manual thoroughly).

For a pool that size I'd do 16GB of RAM if you can.