Will it FreeNAS?

[sfinney]

I'm considering going all-in on FreeNAS for a home NAS, primarily for backup and eventually transcoding via Plex (don't want to get into that now but most likely 4K/1080 source files --> Mobile profile via cell network). Less than 5 users (MAX) and will be wired into 16 port 1Gb switch. It's either doing this build or picking up a Synology DS418play and throwing my existing drives (listed below) into it.

I have the CPU, Hard Drives. Purchasing MB and case. This leaves me with MB ($160), RAM ($80) and Case ($80-140).

My intention is to have a little more fun (and headache) building my own NAS out of some existing gear I have plus a new MB from ASRock Rack.

CPU: Intel i3-4170 (Haswell, ECC capable) https://ark.intel.com/products/77490/Intel-Core-i3-4170-Processor-3M-Cache-3_70-GHz
MB: ASrock Rack E3C226D2I https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157466
* Intel C226 storage controller with 6 ports on board
* Dual on-board i210 based LAN
* 2x DDR3 240PIN ECC (or Non-ECC) capable
RAM: (1x)8GB or (2x8GB)16GB of ECC - TBD but new and from Newegg/Amazon and cross-checked with what ASRock suggests
HD: 2X 4TB Desktop drives (i know, bad) plus 2X 2TB WD Greens (few years old). --- NOT SURE WHAT I AM DOING FOR RAID YET.... This is to get off the ground without needing to buy drives.
Boot/OS HD: OCZ Agility 4 SSD 120GB
Case: I like this one, looks nice and small.... Sans Digital ITX NAS case w/ 200W power supply (amazon: http://a.co/3O2SyjR)

 

[SweetAndLow]

200w power supply is pretty small. I would go with 360W for 4 drives. You need to also make sure to widle the WD greens and those desktop drives might have strange results.

Other than that things look good.

 

[sfinney]

200w power supply is pretty small. I would go with 360W for 4 drives. You need to also make sure to widle the WD greens and those desktop drives might have strange results.

Other than that things look good.

Thanks, I had thought the same thing on the case. Still working on finding out what type of supply it is (external, internal, etc.) as there isn't a part # on Amazon nor was I able to find it easily on the Sans Digital site though I only looked for a couple minutes.

widle must have to do with parking on the greens, right?

I'd like to start with what I have for drives, but I do plan to move to NAS rated drives as the next major step. That's the same plan I'd have if I was going to Synology route as well.

Appreciate the feedback!

 

[SweetAndLow]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5038747

here is another option if you are interested in buying a system. All you need to do is get some more memory and this will support your 4 drives.

 

[Inxsible]

Another option for the case is the Fractal Design Node 304. I have the case and it's great. It supports 6 HDDs and is mini-ITX.

If you are not constrained to the size of the motherboard, you can look at Supermicro X9/X10/X11 series boards plus an appropriate case which will fit m-ATX.

 

[Stux]

16GB of RAM max is a limiting factor that you won’t need if you don’t go with a mITX solution

 

[sfinney]

16GB of RAM max is a limiting factor that you won’t need if you don’t go with a mITX solution

Thank you, Stux. I've did some reading in the forums and believe that 16GB should be fine for my use case (Personal NAS/Cloud, less than 5 users, possibly trans-coding but that's not a priority). If there is a specific post or page you're aware of that breaks down what to consider with maximum RAM pass it along. I'll be happy to read it. :)

 

[sfinney]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5038747

here is another option if you are interested in buying a system. All you need to do is get some more memory and this will support your 4 drives.

Awesome, thank you! Though I had wanted to re-use parts on hand and go ITX.... This looks like a much better option for the long term.

 

[sfinney]

FYI, I ended up going with a newer Dell T30 (Skylake Xeon). Was able to get it for about $360.xx shipped!

https://www.techbargains.com/#d441788

Very similar to the HP server which was going to cost about $300.00 after adding 4GB of ECC and a 32GB SSD.

Key differences of why this Dell over HP:
* Xeon 1225 V5 (4C/4T) vs. HP has i3-6100
* 8GB ECC (1 dimm) vs. HP has 8GB ECC
* 1TB 7200 HDD included vs. HP no HDD
* DVDRW included vs. HP no DVDRW (not really needed, but nice to have)
* Dell motherboard has M.2 slot!

One potential downside is that the Dell only has 4 SATA ports on the motherboard, but again that should be enough for me. I'm planning on one boot drive, and two RAID drives moving to 3 (raid 5) in the future. For now I picked up a PCIe MSATA+SATA card which should allow me to re-use 16GB mSATA drive not in use and provide another SATA port that I can move the DVDRW to.

Thanks again for all the help.

Sean

 

[danb35]

two RAID drives moving to 3 (raid 5) in the future.

Be aware that you can't just turn a mirror into a RAIDZ1 volume--you'd need to back up your data, destroy the pool, recreate it as RAIDZ1, and then restore the data.