Supermicro 10 x 10TB build.

[Swiz]

I'm building an ESXi server to host three light Windows VM's, but I also want to run FreeNAS and Plex. The Plex server will have 4-6 clients using 1080p and one or two streams possibly doing 4k transcoding. I may also run pfSense in the future, so I wanted a board with 4 NICs. I am posting this thread, because I'm still confused about LSI cards and HBA expanders, even after reading the LSI card confusion thread. My build will contain 10 x 10TB Seagate IronWolf Pro drives. I was planning to use the onboard 3008 LSI controller (flash to IT), but it looks like I will only be able to use 8 drives with this motherboard. I'm guessing I would need a SAS expander to use the other two drives. My question is which one should I buy? The ones I've seen cost as much or more than what it would cost to buy a second LSI HBA x16 controller with more ports and forgetting the onboard 3008 entirely. I'm wondering if an expander (RES3FV288) makes any sense given the prices? Also, the cables I'm going to need appear to be forward breakout cables (mini-SAS to SATA), but let me know if I'm wrong here. Do I need anything else for the expander? I'm reading posts from people on here about how SATA drives don't work as well with SAS expanders. Should I spend a bit more and get HGST 10TB SAS enterprise drives instead? There also seems to be issues with SMR and I should only buy PMR drives instead? Then I'm reading things about SLOG and L2ARC, which seems to require additional SSD's. Specifically devices like the DC S3710. Do I really need this? None of my VM's will contain critical data. If I lost them, it's easy to reinstall.

MOBO: Supermicro X10SRH-CLN4F
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 @ 2.60GHz (Based on the Passmark scores, I'm going to need something like this.)
RAM: (4) Crucial 32GB 2133MHz DDR4 ECC RDIMM (128GB total)
HDD: (10) Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB SATA (100TB RAW)
BOOT: 1TB Samsung 850 Pro (Already have this from a different computer)
PSU: SeaSonic PRIME 850W Titanium
FAN: (5x) Noctua 120mm

 

[melloa]

but it looks like I will only be able to use 8 drives with this motherboard

Am I looking at the right board: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c600/x10srh-cln4f.cfm. It says: 10x SATA3 (6Gbps) via C612, or are you saying 8 drives on the SAS3 (12Gbps) via LSI 3008 SW controller?

 

[Swiz]

Correct. From what I've read on here, the 10x SATA3 ports shouldn't be used, because the Intel C612 controller is more dodgy vs LSI for FreeNAS. Is this wrong?

 

[melloa]

ah, ok. I don't like to mess with my motherboards if not necessary, so I'd add couple HBAs or one LSI 9201. What will be the chassis for this build?
I don't know your need, but 100 TiB is a lot of space.

 

[Swiz]

I'm trying for a quiet build (or at least as quiet as I can make it). I will be storing a lot of 4k content, so I'm trying to fit as much space into this box as I can. I don't want an external NAS.

Chassis: https://www.amazon.com/quiet-black-...&qid=1486512087&sr=8-1&keywords=dark+base+900

5.25 bay converter: https://www.amazon.com/EverCool-Dua...=1486512203&sr=8-1&keywords=5.25+bay+evercool

^I'm swapping out the default fan with a higher rpm Noctua with less dB/A.

 

[Jailer]

Good lord a 1TB SSD, and an 850 Pro at that, for a boot drive??!! Seems you'd be better off selling that if you don't need it and getting something smaller and cheaper for your boot drive. It's your build and your parts but that just seems to me a terrible waste of such a good drive.

 

[melloa]

Chassis: https://www.amazon.com/quiet-black-...&qid=1486512087&sr=8-1&keywords=dark+base+900

I have one like this for my test box and my HDs get hot. If you have where to have yours out of the way, go with something like a 4u rack chassis (Norco or another one), hot swap or not, I've gotten a 4u without hot swap with 12 bays and am happy for my home setup (I can un-rack if need to replace a HD and don't need to deal with a failed backplane).

Good lord a 1TB SSD, and an 850 Pro at that, for a boot drive??

That seems to be a waste of money and space for sure. You won't that space, so either sell it and get something small (two smaller ones), or keep and buy two smaller SSDs.

If you add up: 10 HDs, 2 boot SSDs = 12, so plan for that # of bays ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

Correct. From what I've read on here, the 10x SATA3 ports shouldn't be used, because the Intel C612 controller is more dodgy vs LSI for FreeNAS. Is this wrong?

Where the hell did you read that? It's just as good as the C2xx PCH SATA controller...

 

[jaytoo]

Good lord a 1TB SSD, and an 850 Pro at that, for a boot drive??!! Seems you'd be better off selling that if you don't need it and getting something smaller and cheaper for your boot drive. It's your build and your parts but that just seems to me a terrible waste of such a good drive.

I think he's using that drive for the whole OS and not just freenas. If I read correctly he's building an ESXi server with a virtualized Freenas.