BUILD Time to Rack this up a level

[INCSlayer]

So I have been running a smallish Freenas server that started out as a Xpenology se

rver but i moved to Freenas because i felt that Xpenology was too limited for my needs going forward.
Specs:
Case: Silverstone DS380
PSU: SilverStone SST-SX500-LG
Motherboard: Asrock C2750D4I
RAM: Kingston 4x8GB ECC 1600MHZ KVR16E11/8
HDD: 8x3TB WD Red in a single RAIDZ2 vdev
SSD: 2x240GB OCZ ARC 100
UPS: Eaton 3s 700

now i know that this is not an optimal setup
I have 4 Red drives connected to the Intel Ports
the SSDs to the SATA3 ports
which mean to fit the last 4 Red Drives i have to use the Marvel SE9230 which i know is not a good solution
even though it has worked out fine for me so far but i dont exactly trust it.

The other big issue is ofc the Kingston Ram which while it is ECC ram and i bought it before i knew about the Kingston issues that i have seen people have here on the forum.

Now i have expansion needs since I'm starting to fill my HDDs

Now I'm planning to get some new gear:
Case: X-Case RM 424 Pro
Motherboard: Supermicro X9SRL-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2 3.7 GHz Not sure what the performance difference is going from a 8core 2.4Ghz Avoton to 4 core with HT 3.7 GHz but i don't really expect to get a performance loss.
HBA: 3xIBM ServeRAID M1015 and reflash it ofc (well id start with one but you get the idea)
RAM: When it comes to the ram i think I'm going to be able to use at least 2 of my old sticks but I'm not sure if this will/can cause any instability issues. i can get Samsung DDR3 M391B1G73QH0-CMA but if obviously if i don't need to buy more ram that would make me happy.
I'm keeping the UPS since its working fine

Now I am thinking about getting the version of the X-Case RM 424 Pro with a SAS expander instead since i only need to buy 1 HBA card and it would be cheaper for me but I'm not sure if that is recommended with Freenas since i don't know how the M1015 behaves with SAS expanders when it comes to smart information.

The Server is mostly for storage and Plex with I have 14 friends that all use the Plex service thankfully not all at once at most i have 3-4 users on at a time and most of my content is not to heavy

So does my upgraded setup look like it would work or am I making some big misstake somewhere in my setup?

 

[Darren Myers]

Why not get a supermicro 4u chassis that has the built in expander? Such as this http://www.ebay.com/itm/321835852460?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT me and a few other members use this exact chassis with great results. The built in exxpander means we only need 1 M1015, but we could add another or add a LSI HBA with external connections to add another storage chassis like https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/supermicro-x10srl-f-3-846-chassis-72-disks.30431/ .I dont think you should bother with ARC, after all the reading i've done it doesnt seem worth it

 

[INCSlayer]

im not using the SSDs for ARC i use it for small scale storage of my jails

 

[Darren Myers]

OCZ ARC 100

Ah my bad, i read the above as using the SSD's for arc...not the product name lmao

 

[INCSlayer]

easy misstake to make :D
that case is alot cheaper than what i had been looking at. which i like :D
but i would need a new PSU with that one i dont think i can use my old PSU got any recommendations on that front?

 

[Darren Myers]

easy misstake to make :D
that case is alot cheaper than what i had been looking at. which i like :D
but i would need a new PSU with that one i dont think i can use my old PSU got any recommendations on that front?

for that chassis you have 2 choices, a 900watt psu, or a 1200watt psu. I would suggest getting 2 of either one, just so its redundant and in theory the servers load would be split between the 2 psu's. the 1200watt psu's are found here http://www.ebay.com/itm/PWS-1K21P-1...ower-supply-/141673165793?hash=item20fc60f3e1 and the 900's found here http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-2-Super...ly-100-240V-/291538057290?hash=item43e105b84a .

 

[INCSlayer]

i see they have a version with psus and rails
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-...plane-RAILS-/201383846294?hash=item2ee369a196

i am gonna guess that those 1u PSU are not exactly quiet which might be an issue but im not sure since this is in home.

 

[Darren Myers]

i see they have a version with psus and rails
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-...plane-RAILS-/201383846294?hash=item2ee369a196

i am gonna guess that those 1u PSU are not exactly quiet which might be an issue but im not sure since this is in home.

i wouldnt select that one....it doesnt have the SAS2 backplane. The backplane in that server has a hdd limit of 2Tb, while its not listed and it WILL do 4Tb hdds...it just wont do fully populated with 4Tb hdds, or half populated.

 

[INCSlayer]

I did just realize that since they are shipping from the US i would have to pay import duty on it which would hike the prices up quite a bit actually making it about as expensive as the X-Case one i was planning on from the start so i think i might go back to that one. With that one i also dont have to buy a new PSU immediately since it comes with brackets for other PSUs.

 

[Darren Myers]

I did just realize that since they are shipping from the US i would have to pay import duty on it which would hike the prices up quite a bit actually making it about as expensive as the X-Case one i was planning on from the start so i think i might go back to that one. With that one i also dont have to buy a new PSU immediately since it comes with brackets for other PSUs.

ah gotcha, import taxes must suck....i always forget when people arent in US have to pay to import ant all :/

 

[INCSlayer]

yea that's one of the good things the EU did no Import tax between EU countries :D

also i just noticed that X-Case put up a youtube video about rev2 of the case and they are apperently lowering the price abit which makes it nice. :D

 

[INCSlayer]

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a CPU cooler with Narrow ILM that fits in a 4u? i know the Noctua NH-U9DX i4 should fit but if anyone else has a suggestion that would be helpful?

 

[Darren Myers]

i cant think of any tower coolers that i can think of, i really like the noctua U9DX's , thats what i have in my supermicro 4U

 

[INCSlayer]

So as i am continuing to go through the options for this (i plan to order it all around october) i have come up with 3 options basically working around the intel sockets of 1150 2011 and 2011-3 2 of which are reasonable and one that... isnt so much reasonable as it is expensive but would be cool :p

I am only changing about the internals so im still planning on using the case i listed in my original post and if they work with the motherboard im keeping the ram i have on 2 of the builds even though it is kingston ram.

All Three builds share
PSU: Seasonic X-1250 1250W 80+ Gold (i dont know if this is overkill but i intend to run the machine with 16x3TB wd red drives to start with and then upgrade with another 8 drives as when i need that storage)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2

1150
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 3.4Ghz

2011
Motherboard: Supermicro X9SRL-F
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620v2 3.7Ghz

2011-3 (and now for the expensive option at around twice the cost)
Motherboard: Supermicro X10DRL-i
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 2.4Ghz
RAM: 4x8GB Samsung DDR4 M393A1G40DB0-CPB

The main contenders are obviously the 1150 and the 2011 setups the price difference is about 120USD (converted from swedish currency)
This is a multi use server its main use is File Storage and Plex with 3-4 clients concurrently of which maybe 2 will need transcoding at any one time. I will probably host a smallish minecraft server for me and some friends aswell.
the 2011-3 is only really interesting if i need to replace all my current ram since then the price goes up quite a bit for the 2 other systems then. Am i going over board with my setups or am i ballparking this setup more or less correctly?
Il spend more money if needed but since this is for private use saving as much money as possible without shooting myself in the foot by being stingy is kinda what i am aiming for.