Suggestions around an existing WD Red NAS HDD

[vazquezjm]

Hi all.

I know this question's been asked a thousand times, but well... I'm planning on using an old PC (mini-ITX board) that runs an i3 processor with a WD Red WD40EFAX 4TB (Docker, HomeAssistant, URBackup, NextCloud, Plex, etc.)

The main concern is: should I buy a 2nd HDD (WD40EFAX) of the exact same size (RAID). Should I leave for other purposes within the NAS and buy a couple of "better" HDDs?

I know the main hardware is almost at its limit and also planning to buy a newer i5 processor, motherboard, and 32GB of RAM. But at the same time, this is just for personal/home office use.

Thanks all for your time!

 

[Samuel Tai]

Avoid the EFAX series entirely. They're SMR, which don't work well with ZFS file systems. Go with a Red Plus, which is CMR.

 

[vazquezjm]

Go with a Red Plus, which is CMR.

One of the items cleared, thanks!

 

[sretalla]

Avoid the EFAX series entirely

Or at least the ones under 8TB... the ones 8TB and larger are fine.

 

[Arwen]

Or at least the ones under 8TB... the ones 8TB and larger are fine.

At least until WD changes their products. So, always check any WD Red drive for CMR / SMR.

On the other hand, it appears WD has been hammered hard enough so they won't introduce SMR in the Red Plus or Red Pro lines.


@vazquezjm
What I3 CPU were you planning to use?
What amount of memory do you have now?
And last, what is the network controller chip on your board?

Basically, give us a full run hardware down and we can help you avoid some problems. Like Realtek network controller chips tend to be less performing than Intel. So for a NAS, (Aka NETWORK Attached Storage), good performing NICs are somewhat a high priority.

 

[vazquezjm]

What I3 CPU were you planning to use?
What amount of memory do you have now?
And last, what is the network controller chip on your board?

Hope this helps:

• Mobo: Gigabyte model: H61N-USB3
• CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge
• Memory: 7.69 GiB
• Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
• Local Storage
  • ID-1: Kingston model: SA400S37240G size: 223.57 GiB
  • ID-2: Western Digital model: WD40EFAX-68JH4N1 size: 3.64 TiB

 

[Samuel Tai]

• Memory: 7.69 GiB
• Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet

You need 16 GiB minimum. Avoid the Realtek NICs like the plague.

 

[vazquezjm]

Would this be a good (cheap) buy? Home NAS, mostly pictures, backup, and light Docker usage:

Cheap Server Combo! Supermicro X9SCL+-F, 16GB ECC RAM, Xeon E3-1270 4c/8t, SSD | eBay

The E3-1270 is a 4 core/8 thread CPU boosting up to 3.8 GHz, it has plenty of power to handle basic workloads. The motherboard has dual Gigabit LAN ports, with a third LAN port for the onboard IPMI 2.0 and KVM.

www.ebay.com

 

[sretalla]

Would this be a good (cheap) buy? Home NAS, mostly pictures, backup, and light Docker usage:

Looks like good value for that purpose and price.

Keep in mind it's 4 generations old, so support of some things may start to get sketchy.

 

[vazquezjm]

Keep in mind it's 4 generations old, so support of some things may start to get sketchy.

Is this one better? https://www.ebay.com/itm/275329812325

Or should I aim for something like this?

Intel Quad Core i7-7700T 2.9 Ghz + Mini-ITX + 32GB DDR4 + 128Gb M.2 Onboard SSD | eBay

Supermicro X11SSV-Q Mini ITX Motherboard. PART # TS128GMTS400S This makes for incredibly fast boot speeds. Onboard SSD (Installed). Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports.

www.ebay.com

X11 mobos are in the upper limit of my budget but don't want to upgrade next year because of the lack of support for X9 or X10 either.

Thanks!

 

[sretalla]

Is this one better? https://www.ebay.com/itm/275329812325

This one still only supports DDR3 RAM but has 1 PCIe3 slot, so it's not much better.

It will run OK, but no real option to add new gear like NVME drives.

Certainly OK for the price.

Or should I aim for something like this?

Intel Quad Core i7-7700T 2.9 Ghz + Mini-ITX + 32GB DDR4 + 128Gb M.2 Onboard SSD | eBay

Supermicro X11SSV-Q Mini ITX Motherboard. PART # TS128GMTS400S This makes for incredibly fast boot speeds. Onboard SSD (Installed). Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports.

www.ebay.com

You'll miss out on ECC, but all the other boxes for recent technology are ticked... no IPMI as it's not a real server board and the mix of NICs isn't ideal, but will both work.

 

[vazquezjm]

You'll miss out on ECC

You're right. Didn't read that

I'll keep searching