TrueNAS Scale: vDev Design for PLEX, HA, NC

[DigitalMinimalist]

Thank you Ok - SR2 are out then as I want the flexibility to use DAC cable (I assumed it's the same card with optical transceiver included - didn't know it's non-removable)

I saw some used X710-DA2 in Germany, which are offered cheaper than the X520-DA2 - seem less popular

 

[NugentS]

Chelsio are the IX Network Card of choice - but can be hard to find
Intel Cards are the next choice (as you say). Best place to find these is at a system dismantler

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Just got 2x X710-DA2 (Dell H54180) for 100€.
Let’s see if I see any speed or compatibility differences vs. The X520-DA2

 

[NugentS]

Thats a damned good price for a couple of X710-da2 - it would cost me twice that for one

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Thank you to everyone - my first TrueNAS Server Build is nearly complete:

Asrock Rack X470D4U
Ryzen 2700X
Noctua NH-U9DX i4
2x16GB ECC DDR4 Samsung 2666Mhz -> hunting for two additional 16GB to get to 64GB RAM

Crucial P2 250GB for OS
Asus Hyper V2 with 4x Micron 7300 Pro 960GB (PLP, 1.9PB TBW)

• 2x mirrored for VMs
• 2x mirrored for special vDev

Intel X710-DA2 NIC

5x 3.5 Backplane RaidSonic Icy Box IB-555SSK

• initially 4x 4TB CMR for performance testing: striped mirror or RAIDZ2 -> upgrade later to 16TB drives

Seasonic Prime TX-1000

Case: I have an old and really large Chenbro RM31408 3U rackmount & Coolermaster Stacker case available for for initial testing, but plan for a small 3U/4U rackmount case, which fits a standard ATX PSU, mATX Mainboard, 3x5.25 ext., e.g. Unykach 4329 (35L) -

UPC: APC Smart-UPS X 1000VA

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

One additional question...

I just realized that the Icy Box IB-555SSK only supports SATA-2, but I do not think it is an issue as this is still max 300MB/s per HDD, which is "sufficient" as even the potential new Toshiba HDDs have max 262MB/s.

As an alternative, I could mis-use the Chenbro RM31408 custom backplane which supports SATA-3 - I anyhow hate that case (very deep, but with 3U no standard ATX PSU, nor proper CPU coolers possible)