Spare Parts and HDs build

[MikeMcMike]

Hi All,

Looking to build my first FreeNAS (and NAS) box. I have a bunch of spare parts lying around and am planning on utilizing them.

Need: PSU (i can find a good one, not worried)

Have:
Intel Core i-5 4760k
16gb DDR3 Ram
Gigabyte mAtx Mobo
Carbide Air 240

As of now, the mobo does not do dual-channel. it will use all 16gb, but refuses to do dual channel. Want to verify this won't be a massive issue

I plan to get 3 more 4TB Red drives as I have one already (unopened) 16TB total.
Plan to also purchase a 32TB SSD for boot disk. (or best deal for small boot disk)

Will this build allow for streaming use on 2/3 devices at once?
Will this build allow for a backup partition of about 1TB of photos? (will be backed up on NAS and Google and desktop, so one remote backup)

It is personal use so ECC ram is not necessary imo.

Thoughts?

 

[nightshade00013]

Ram on FreeNAS from what I am told is more important to have a ton rather than worry about dual channel. IMHO getting dual channel to work however will make things go just a little faster for some tasks but ultimately for file transfer the slowest link will be the NIC.

As far as streaming it depends on how you intend to do it. With Plex you can easily get buy with an Atom CPU as long as you are not attempting to transcode. So that means you need to have the video's in a format that all your devices are happy with. Otherwise you will need to have a look over on the Plex site and figure out what you will be able to live with https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/

You have more than enough drive space to backup 1TB without issue but that will also depend on what else you want to use it with. Again you need to figure it out.

I have to disagree with your "It is personal use so ECC ram is not necessary imo." statement. Just because it's personal use doesn't necessarily make the stuff stored on it less important, in fact I value my data very highly. You should always have backups but if there is a gap in a backup period and you loose everything for say two weeks are you going to be upset over it? How about if the data you are backing up has been getting corrupted for six months due to a flaw in RAM that crept up? How much are you willing to risk your data... It's kinda like taking the value of everything you own and going down to the track to bet on the horse that just did it's business knowing you could be well off or lose everything. How is that opinion holding up? There are recommendations for a reason as they are proven to be safer and honestly ECC parts are not that expensive. If I can make it work anyone can.

 

[wblock]

Last I looked, dual-channel gives maybe 10% more memory bandwidth.

With four drives, RAIDZ2 would give approximately half the capacity for storage, a bit less than 8TB.

Don't go shopping for a special small SSD. A 64GB or 120/128G version might not be any more expensive, and the extra space is useful.

 

[MikeMcMike]

Last I looked, dual-channel gives maybe 10% more memory bandwidth.

With four drives, RAIDZ2 would give approximately half the capacity for storage, a bit less than 8TB.

Don't go shopping for a special small SSD. A 64GB or 120/128G version might not be any more expensive, and the extra space is useful.

Yea, that's the thought with "or a good deal drive" statement.

 

[kdragon75]

ECC is important. If you building with parts you have and don't have a budget to buy a new mobo and CPU, dont lose sleep over it. ZFS with non-ECC RAM is still safer than any windows desktop setup. That said be sure to do a proper burn in (even on the old parts). Run a memtest for at least 12hr.

I know this will start an argument but we need to be practical. If everyone in IT always followed best practices, I wouldn't have a job. Sometimes you have a budget and parts to work with. Do the best you can. ZFS is still WAY safer than backing up photos to a USB HDD.

 

[kdragon75]

Hi All,

Looking to build my first FreeNAS (and NAS) box.

Welcome to FreeNAS!

As of now, the mobo does not do dual-channel. it will use all 16gb, but refuses to do dual channel. Want to verify this won't be a massive issue

As noted, this will be negligible for a small NAS application even if transcoding with Plex.

Will this build allow for streaming use on 2/3 devices at once?

With that CPU, yeah you should be able to do at least two unless you using crazy bitrates or 4k.

Will this build allow for a backup partition of about 1TB of photos? (will be backed up on NAS and Google and desktop, so one remote backup)

Yes. I would recommend setting up separate data sets for each use, one or backups, one for media, etc..
This will allow different snapshot settings, compression, and lots of other settings per use case. On the subject of backups, snapshots can be handy to keep long term backups around even if the backup software does not provide for something like 1 per year, one per month, one per week.

It is personal use so ECC ram is not necessary IMO.

Just depends on how paranoid you are. Do a memtest and let it run for at least 12hr. ANY errors mean that RAM gets tossed.

As for plex, the "plugin" does not always get timely updates... if you are even a tiny bit Linux/BSD savvy you can setup your own jail in install Plex from the latest version. Jails, once you get familiar are a handy tool. They are *like* containers but simpler. I run one for Plex, and Minecraft all on an i5-650 and 8GB of RAM. Minecraft suffers for the lack of RAM but works when tuned.