upgrading motherboard...

[SirLars]

So I started my freenas with a project I purchased used. I purchased a server that was set up as a NAS STUFFED with 9 - 750gb hdd and 4gb ram. I upgraded the ram to the max supported by the board 8gb and changed 5 of the 750gb hdd with 4- 3tb wd red drives and installed freenas with two ZFS pools (the 4-750gb drives in one pool for about 1.8tb and the 4-3tb drives in another pool with about 10.1 tb) the OS is on a 16gb usb 3.0 stick.
It was amazingly fast at first, and so handy having all of my data on one server, easily accessed anywhere I wanted. I loved it!
However now that it is filling up (about 400GB on Volume 1 and 6.5 tb on Volume 2) I can tell the RAM is not enough as it has gotten much slower and I am getting heat warnings... I add about 50-100 GB per week, so I dont have long before it becomes unusable...

I am considering replacing the other 4- 750gb hdd with 4 more 3tb or 4tb wd red drives, but there is no way the current mobo / ram setup can support that as it's RAM is already maxed out.

This is a home NAS with mostly media and my home computer backups on it.
I want to re-purpose this server so I am purchasing a new case with better airflow, 8 sata port mobo, 24-32GB ram, and 4 more 3tb wd red drives. Obviously I want to save the data on the old NAS...

My questions as I am still kind of new to this;

What is the best method for retaining my data, but rebuilding the NAS to use the 8 wd drives on the new motherboard and case and ram.
I was considering building the new NAS with the 4 new drives, copying the data from the old NAS to the new NAS, then erasing the old drives and adding them to the new one as a second pool... is there a better method that won't take days to copy over?

and hardware wise, do I really NEED a Xeon processor, server board and ECC RAM? it seems much more cost effective to use a decent AMD am3+ board, 6 or 8 core processor and 32gb of DDR3 than going with server grade hardware and ECC ram. Considering this is a home setup, not mission critical data and performance isn't as important as "upgradability" and cost effectiveness...
looks like almost $1000 difference...

$964.91​

https://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=31703728

1,924.87​

https://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=31703688

any help would be appreciated.

 

[cyberjock]

You could just pull the drives out of the old machine and put them in the new one. Poof, instant upgrade.

 

[JohnK]

hmm, can't seem to see those wish lists..

 

[cyberjock]

I didn't look at your wish lists, but I got my motherboard, CPU, and RAM for less than $1000 total...

Supermicro X9SCM-F ($160)
Xeon E3-1230V2 ($235)
32GB of ECC RAM ($400)

Where are you getting the idea there's $1000 difference?

And please don't post wish lists. They'll expire and nobody will ever be able to look at your build after that.

 

[JohnK]

and if you are on a tight budget and are willing to hop around it is closer to $550, no Xeon though.
SUPERMICRO X10SLM-F ($135)
DDR3-1600 32GB ($345)
Pentium G3420 3.20 GHz ($72)

 

[SirLars]

Thanks, for the response, especially about just moving the HDDs over, that will definitely save some time. Do I just take the USB stick from the current NAS and use it to keep my settings? or do I need to install it again to a new USB drive, and then add the drives and the data will be recognized and available.

re: Hardware wishlists. I made them public, not sure why they cant' be seen. I checked and the actual difference was about $450 (I was missing 3 drives in the first one), mostly in the RAM and motherboard and 100$ for the recommended sata card on e-bay.



Using the recommendations in your signature, I made this new list

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCA-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard

209.99​

Supermicro X9SCM-F ($160) is not available on Newegg.ca
Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31230V2

239.99 (lowest price 69W cpu I could find)​

Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory w/TS Intel Model KVR16E11/8I
4x 108.49 =

433.96​

total =

883.94 ​

plus I will need to add (again, according to your hardware recommendation link) to get 8 sata ports...
IBM ServeRAID M1015
approx $125 on eBay
http://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=ServeRAID+M1015+-key
for total of around $1000.00 (plus case, psu and drives)

(the savings using AMD 6 core ​

AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6300WMHKBOX @$125
and motherboard
ASRock 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard @ $

154.99​

and memory ​

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model BLS8G3D1609ES2LX0 @ 4x 74.99 =

279.96​

for total of

559.94 (plus case, psu and drives)​

is there another "cheaper" recommendation for sata controller?
I could probably just use the sata controllers in my current setup, I know they work on this system, but have no idea if they will work on the xeon board,
I am not sure if they are optimal. I think they are cheapo 2 port units. I can't make out the model.
I suppose, for $440 difference (330 if I re-use my sata controllers), that isn't a totally bad idea... there would be some saving in electricity and a definite increase in reliability.
Thanks.

 

[JohnK]

I have seen ppl recommending the SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600 ($260)
Saves you from getting the M1015.
Also note that these "Xeon" boards can take both i3 and Pentiums.

 

[SirLars]

Thanks for that mobo recommendation, I am definitely going for that.

I was concerned that the i3 processors didn't support ECC?
I figured, if I didn't use an ECC supported processor, wouldn't that remove the necessity of the ECC RAM and mobo?
I don't see ECC support on the newegg site for any of the "desktop grade" 1155 chipset cpus.

I would happily use an i3 if I can still get the benefit of ECC for half the price.

 

[warri]

The board JohnK recommended uses sockel LGA 1150 (not 1155).
Haswell i3's (4th gen) have ECC support: Intel ARK. In fact even the cheaper Pentium G's support ECC.