Will it?... All components at just over £500

[felippe]

Hello,

I am a huge fan of Open Source and Self-Hosting.

"Storage-wise", I've been using a Nextcloud server built from a Supermicro 1U low-depth chassis (SC502L-200B) with a 200W power supply, a Supermicro motherboard with a soldered ATOM CPU with heatsink (X7SPE-HF-D525), 4GB of RAM, and a Seagate IronWolf 1TB hard drive (5900 RPM), and running on Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS - no issues whatsoever for the past couple of years.

My storage requirements are extremely low (I have just made a backup of ALL my data (pictures, music, video clips, ISO's, documents etc) and everything summed up at just under170 GB. Nonetheless, this data is extremely valuable to me and I want it protected, as well as ready accessible to me and my family at any time.

For some reasons, I would like to replace the Nextcloud server with TrueNAS server.

For my new build, I don't want to compromise with case, power supply, and hard disk drives, so I chose:

• Case: Fractal Design Node 804 Black Micro-ATX Cube Case (£99.98)
• PSU: Corsair RM650 650 Watt 80+ Gold Fully Modular PSU (£82.98)
• HDD: two WD Red™ Plus (CMR) - 2TB (2x £69.99 = £139.98)

For the other components, I am happy to shop for pre-owned or "not-so-server-grade" components:

• Boot device (SSD): PNY 120GB CS900 2.5" Solid State Drive (£14.39)
• Motherboard: because of my Nextcloud server mentioned above, I trust Supermicro, so I don't want to change the manufacturer: SuperMicro X11SSL-F MicroATX (£70.00)
• CPU: Intel Core i3-6100T Socket LGA 1151 6th Generation 3.2GHz, or Intel Pentium G4400 - 3.30GHz Dual-Core (£15.00 TO £40.00)
• CPU cooler: Akasa Intel Aluminium CPU Cooler (£6.98)
• RAM: 1x Samsung 16GB ECC Registered DDR4 2400 MHz Server RAM Memory Module (£69.98)

Any advice or feedback based on your experience will be highly appreciated.

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks reasonable, but a few suggestions:

CPU cooler: Akasa Intel Aluminium CPU Cooler (£6.98)

I suspect the stock cooler might end up being better. Save the cash.

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100T Socket LGA 1151 6th Generation 3.2GHz, or Intel Pentium G4400 - 3.30GHz Dual-Core (£15.00 TO £40.00)

Sure, but skip the T versions.

 

[felippe]

I added the cooler just because the CPUs I looked on eBay are just CPUs, they are not bundled with a cooler. Thanks for the tip with the "T".

Cheers,

Valentin

 

[Etorix]

That's a lot of a case and PSU for just two HDDs… If you plan to progressively fill the case with 8-10 HDDs, your list is fine. (There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the T CPU, but it won't necessarily use less power: because it's clocked lower, and throttles faster, it takes longer than a non-T to complete tasks and return to idle.) If your needs amount to 20% of the raw storage of a single 2-way mirror, I'm sure you may find a case for £50-60, with a 200-300W PSU included.

Why don't you reuse your Nextcloud server by the way? It only needs a second drive to make a ZFS mirror.

 

[felippe]

That's a lot of a case and PSU for just two HDDs… If you plan to progressively fill the case with 8-10 HDDs, your list is fine.

[...]

If your needs amount to 20% of the raw storage of a single 2-way mirror, I'm sure you may find a case for £50-60, with a 200-300W PSU included.

Thank you for your feedback.

I had a quick look at other cases and couldn't find another one with similar cooling properties. I would still need to buy good quality, quiet fans. I will do another, thorough search for other cases.

Why don't you reuse your Nextcloud server by the way? It only needs a second drive to make a ZFS mirror.

This was my first thought, and I would very much like to keep the current Nextcloud case. The problem is this case can take only one 3.5" drive or two 2.5" drives; the later requires a special mounting bracket which I don't have. In short, there is no room inside the case for a second 3.5" drive and I don't trust the 2.5" spinning drives. Good, big capacity, server grade SSD drives are still too expensive for my budget. I wouldn't buy smaller than 2TB drives - the amount of data I have is currently 170GB, but it's very likely to increase in the future.

 

[felippe]

I was looking at the Kolink Satellite case. The specs are stating that this case has "Support for Micro-ATX Motherboards
(Up to 22.6cm x 18cm)". The Supermicro X11SSL-F motherboard I plan to use has the standard micro-ATX size: 244 mm x 244 mm. Confusing...

To add my previous message, even if I manage to squeeze a second 3.5" drive, I wold still need to find a good quality, low profile CPU cooler, like this one.

 

[felippe]

Will a Xeon E3 v5/v6 CPU run safely with a passive heatsink?

Until I find a better case, I would like to use the Supermicro SC502L-200B 1U chassis from my current Nextcloud server which, obviously, cannot accommodate a bigger cooler, nor a cooler which blows the air vertically (there are no ventilation holes in the top cover of the chassis).

If the passive heatsink is safe to use, I wold like to keep using it, even after replacing the 1U chassis with a micro-ATX case. I could get a cooler which blows the air sideways, but I am not sure this is a viable option when used in a micro-ATX case.

 

[ChrisRJ]

[..] I don't trust the 2.5" spinning drives.

Why is that? And are you aware that for a while (basically before SSDs started to take over) 2.5" hard disks were quite popular for servers? Yes, those are different from your cheap notebook drive, but they are still 2.5"

I don't want to convert you away from building something new, that is always fun. But if budget plays a role, there other options (esp. encrypted backup to a cloud provider, a couple of USB hard disks, etc.) that will get you more data safety.

And last but not least, you could also look at used enterprise gear. My new FreeNAS (see signature for details) was built in October 2020 and the board and CPU are basically 7+ years old. I don't say it is a fit for everyone, but certainly worth consideration.

 

[felippe]

Why is that? And are you aware that for a while (basically before SSDs started to take over) 2.5" hard disks were quite popular for servers? Yes, those are different from your cheap notebook drive, but they are still 2.5"

You may be right. It's just that because of my experience with them, I wouldn't trust my data to these hard disks. I prefer the 3.5" ones.

I don't want to convert you away from building something new, that is always fun. But if budget plays a role, there other options (esp. encrypted backup to a cloud provider, a couple of USB hard disks, etc.) that will get you more data safety.

It is exactly because the budget plays a role, I need my own server. Currently, my storage needs are modest, but, as I mentioned, they will increase. The monthly payment for a VPS with Linode or alike, goes in excess of £50 for less than 300GB. My £500 budget will last for less than an year. I am paying Linode but for self-hosting other type of servers, where storage or computing power are not essential.

With SaaS providers (DropBox, Google Drive etc) it's even worse. I like my data to be MY DATA, and I want to know exactly where this data is. I may have no NSA, CIA, or MI5 secrets, but still. I don't even have a Google account. Even more, what if one of services becomes unavailable and I can't access an important document? You must remember what happened to Google just a few weeks ago.

I always had my own NAS - OpenMediaVault, Nextcloud, or just a Raspberry Pi and an external USB drive converted to a Samba or NFS server.

And last but not least, you could also look at used enterprise gear. My new FreeNAS (see signature for details) was built in October 2020 and the board and CPU are basically 7+ years old. I don't say it is a fit for everyone, but certainly worth consideration.

I thought I AM looking at enterprise gear. Supermicro, WD RED Plus, Xeon CPU, ECC unbuffered RAM?... If you mean buying a fully assembled server like Dell or HPE, then thank you, but no thank you My energy bill will offset the savings I am making by self-hosting. Not mentioning the noise (I have no electricity in the garage).

 

[ChrisRJ]

It is exactly because the budget plays a role, I need my own server. Currently, my storage needs are modest, but, as I mentioned, they will increase. The monthly payment for a VPS with Linode or alike, goes in excess of £50 for less than 300GB.

That had been my concern as well. I am now using OneDrive (as part of Office 365) for that. I got a 1 year subscription on Amazon for 52 Euros, which is basically half the regular price. That gives me 6 accounts with 1 TB each. And FreeNAS has the ability to encrypt the contents as well as file and directory names. That is good enough for me. I still have various other measures in place, because the exfiltration would take a long time, but that is another topic.

I thought I AM looking at enterprise gear.

My emphasis was on "used" ;-). Older Supermicro boards are considerably cheaper where I live, and the same goes for DDR3 ECC RDIMMs (if you can wait for a bargain offer).

 

[felippe]

[...]
My emphasis was on "used" ;-). Older Supermicro boards are considerably cheaper where I live, and the same goes for DDR3 ECC RDIMMs (if you can wait for a bargain offer).

You are absolutely correct, Chris. You have indeed a much better market for used Supermicro servers in Germany. I remember a couple of years ago I purchased a Supermicro chassis from a German eBay seller who advertised their business on eBay UK. It appears there are not so many now. Do I hear [Coughing] Brexit?

 

[felippe]

After shopping around for a week, I ended up with the below components. Due to the fact that the eBay seller didn't want to sell the Jonsbo case without the Noctua fans, I had to pay for the lot (this case is discontinued and I liked so much, I didn't care it was slightly overpriced). I should change the topic's title from "... just over £500 to "... well over £500".

I hope they will work nicely together.

Thank you all for your feedback and advice!

Type	Description	Manufacturer Code	Supplier	Price	P&P	Quantity	Total
Case	Jonsbo micro-ATX V4 Black	V4	eBay	£ 50.00	£ -	1	£ 50.00
Case Cooler	Noctua NF-A8 PWM 80x80x25mm, 4-pin, 2200RPM	NF-A8 PWM	eBay	£ 22.50	£ -	2	£ 45.00
PSU	Corsair RM650 650 Watt 80+ Gold Fully Modular PSU	CP-9020194-UK	ebuyer	£ 82.98	£ 3.49	1	£ 102.45
Boot Drive	PNY 120GB CS900 2.5" Solid State Drive/SSD	SSD7CS900-120-PB	ebuyer	£ 15.98	1
Motherboard	SuperMicro X11SSL-F MicroATX	MBD-X11SSL-F	eBay	£ 70.00	£ 6.00	1	£ 76.00
I/O Shield	STD I/O Shield for X11SSL-F with EMI Gasket	MCP-260-00042-0N	eBay	£ 2.92	£ 4.04	1	£ 6.96
CPU	Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1220 v5	E3-1220V5	eBay	£ 70.00	£ -	1	£ 70.00
CPU Cooler	Arctic Freezer 7 X CPU Air Cooler (*)		eBay	£ 25.96	£ -	1	£ 25.96
RAM	Samsung 8GB DDR4 SDRAM ECC UDIMM PC4-2400, 1Rx8, 1.2V, 288-PIN	M391A1K43BB1-CRCQ	eBay	£ 24.08	£ 1.84	2	£ 50.00
HDD	WD Red™ Plus - 2TB	WD20EFRX	Western Digital (shop.westerndigital.com)	£ 69.99	£ -	2	£ 139.98
						Total	£ 566.35

Later edit: (*) see this post below.

 

[Gramelia]

great table dude, thanks

 

[felippe]

Thanks.

I made a couple of "compromises":

• At the time of purchase, the two 8GB RAM DIMMs were considerably cheaper than one 16GB RAM DIMM. Memory can be easily increased though.
• The CPU is an E3 v5 which support DDR4 up to 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000); v6 works with PC4-19000 (2400 MT/s), same as the motherboard. Unfortunately, the Xeon E3-1220 v6 price was more than twice the price for the v5. This allows for a future upgrade - I am considering multiple 4K concurrent streams.

Anyway, I am looking forward to have all the parts delivered, assembled, and thoroughly tested (especially the DIMMs which the seller packed in scrap cardboard with no anti-static bags). Then, the fun begins.

 

[koli]

Initially I was going to say that 2tb drives are relatively expensive at £35/GB, sweetspot starts from 4tb drives at around £25/GB. But If you don't need more space than that would be a waste.
However, you say you data is extremely important to you so I am going to suggest enterprise drives, e.g. WD Gold or Seagate Exos 2tb @ £100 a piece. You get 5 year warranty and enterprise level reliability. Downside is they run hotter and are much louder. Anyway, something to consider.

 

[felippe]

Thanks, koli. I went for WD Red Plus as they are CMR and also preferred by iXsystems for TrueNAS systems with up to eight drives.

 

[felippe]

Just in case anyone else decides to go the same route I went with the case, motherboard, and CPU cooler: DO NOT get the "Arctic Freezer 7 X CPU Air Cooler" because:

1. It obstructs the DIMMA1 slot.
2. The heatsink is too high and the ATX PSU cannot be fitted to the case.

As the CPU I purchased wasn't bundled with a cooler, I went for "Arctic Alpine 12 LP Air Cooler" from the same eBay seller.