BUILD Win Home Server -> FreeNAS Build

[Caladin9]

I currently has a Windows Home Server I built a few years back buts it's time for more room and some new media options. So I thought I would move to FreeNas at the same time.

All advice and recommendations welcome!

CASE
Fractal Design Node 304 FD-CA-NODE-304-BL Black Aluminum / Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case

MB
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600

RAM
2 8GB Stick? Not sure what brand or model? Will work up to 4 8GB stick when I can afford.

Processor
Intel Xeon E3-1231V3 Haswell 3.4 GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W BX80646E31231V3

CPU Heatsink
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

CPU Fan - Maybe?
Noctua Anti-Stall Knobs Design,SSO2 Bearing 120mm, PWM Case Cooling Fan NF-S12A

PS
CORSAIR CSM Series CS550M 550W ATX12V v2.4 and EPS 2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Power Supply

--

I currently have these items laying around so I hope they will work for now.

HARD DRIVES - Attached to the SAS
(6) WD Green 2TB Drive

BOOT DRIVES - Attached to the SATA 3.0
(2) Intel SSD 320 160GB <I knows the size is overkill but they are just rotting in a drawer>

 

[Caladin9]

Saved for software questions.

 

[hyperq]

Motherboard won't fit in node 304. Try Node 804 or Define R5.

 

[Caladin9]

Motherboard won't fit in node 304. Try Node 804 or Define R5.

Node 804 is nice just wish it did not include a window. Thanks!

 

[Johev]

As I'm already on my 2nd and 3rd build let me just advise you regarding a few things:
1) RAM - Get CT2KIT102472BD160B for dual channel 16GB ECC low voltage (2x8GB) or CT102472BD160B if you don't want dual channel and you just want 8GB of ECC RAM (which is the minimum requirement for FreeNAS 9.3). for more information please check the sticky here (https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...or-supermicro-x10-lga1150-motherboards.23291/)
2) PSU - I'm not sure how good the CORSAIR CSM Series is for a server 24/7 workload. Most people here advise to use Seasonic G series (there is a G-550 which would be a good alternative).
3) WD GREEN are not ideal - and when I say not ideal I mean greatly discouraged around here. There are some hacks you should do to them in order to extend their life spam. Please research more before you go and and use them for your production data.

For the boot drive I like to use the USB as it leaves my SATA free, however if you have an SSD which you would like to use, people usually advise to partition and not use it's full capacity for FreeNAS in order to extend it's life duration. If you would partition, I would not allocate more than 32GB (but I'll leave more experienced people to elaborate on this one). Personally, I would probably use the SSDs for my jails, instead of for FreeNas as you would see more benefit in running things like Vitrualbox with another OS from it..

By going Supermicro and the E3-1231v3 you're already investing in good hardware, so you're onto a good start.

Good luck with your build.

 

[Caladin9]

As I'm already on my 2nd and 3rd build let me just advise you regarding a few things:
1) RAM - Get CT2KIT102472BD160B for dual channel 16GB ECC low voltage (2x8GB) or CT102472BD160B if you don't want dual channel and you just want 8GB of ECC RAM (which is the minimum requirement for FreeNAS 9.3). for more information please check the sticky here (https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...or-supermicro-x10-lga1150-motherboards.23291/)
2) PSU - I'm not sure how good the CORSAIR CSM Series is for a server 24/7 workload. Most people here advise to use Seasonic G series (there is a G-550 which would be a good alternative).
3) WD GREEN are not ideal - and when I say not ideal I mean greatly discouraged around here. There are some hacks you should do to them in order to extend their life spam. Please research more before you go and and use them for your production data.

For the boot drive I like to use the USB as it leaves my SATA free, however if you have an SSD which you would like to use, people usually advise to partition and not use it's full capacity for FreeNAS in order to extend it's life duration. If you would partition, I would not allocate more than 32GB (but I'll leave more experienced people to elaborate on this one). Personally, I would probably use the SSDs for my jails, instead of for FreeNas as you would see more benefit in running things like Virtualbox with another OS from it..

By going Supermicro and the E3-1231v3 you're already investing in good hardware, so you're onto a good start.

Good luck with your build.

Great info thanks

Could you please elaborate on this.
"Personally, I would probably use the SSDs for my jails, instead of for FreeNas as you would see more benefit in running things like Virtualbox with another OS from it."

 

[Johev]

@Caladin9

Benefits of installing FreeNas to an SSD/SATA DOM:
- It will load faster and update faster. However because most of the system is running from RAM, once loaded, you'll not see great speed benefit. Furthermore for me a good NAS is one that is running without a reboot for as long as possible.
- Greater reliability, however a good brand USB's and a backed up configuration of your FreeNas should not make it unreliable. I am using a mirrored USB, therefore something needs to really go wrong with both of them. Even if it does a quick installation to a 3rd USB and the use of my configuration file will restore things quickly enough for me.

Benefits of using an SSD for your jails:
- Basically you just have to create a separate volume with your SSD. If you have two with the same size you can even mirror them (like RAID1) just to make your Jails safer. If they don't have the same size a mirrored volume will have the size of the smallest one.

When creating your jails you can than point them to your SSD zvol and you can benefit from the faster SSD speeds. phpVirtualbox is one of the template jails that exists in FreeNas and it allows you to create a virtual machine with a different OS, like Windows/Linux etc.

I hope that this clarifies a little bit what I wanted to say.

I would however like to ask more experienced members to comment and point out any inaccuracies in the above post.