Worry free nas box to go with linux home server

[nixbert]

After reading lots of threads here, esp those with recommended hardware, I think I have figured my wishlist. Please let me know if following hardware appears sensible to you for my requirements.

First off, following are my requirements for NAS:

WANTS
- Ability to saturate gigabit ethernet
- AES-NI encryption
- Torrent downloading
- Need CIFS/Samba usage
- 5 year upgrade cycle (see below)

Dont Care at all:
- No transcoding
- No de-dupe
- No Compression
- no VMs or access from VMs

Essentially a worry-free appliance that serves files as fast as network stack will allow i.e. the NAS hardware should not be the bottleneck to the observed file transfer speeds (up to saturating GbE with large files).

Further, 6 x 3TB drives in raidz2 will be more than enough space for me for at least next 5 years, which is when I will look to upgrade/replace the whole thing (if space runs out).

I will separately build a linux server which will do all the heavy lifting for transcoding and my other applicaiton needs such as plex, owncloud, dev-platform etc. I am going down this route because I need a linux server for my other requirements i.e. other than what freenas can do. So why not engineer a solid freenas box that is coupled with a linux box which is powerful but built on non-server hardware.

With above in mind, I think cheapest way to accomplish my goals will be with following configuration:
- Asrock C2550D4I board
- 16GB compatible Crucial ECC RAM
- Seasonic SSR-360GP 360W PSU
- Case: Still to figure this out.

Ericloewe suggests in below post that above board should be able to saturate GbE. Do you guys agree?
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...powerful-enough-for-raid-6.24259/#post-148946

Do you think there might be cheaper way to accomplish above? Is 16GB ram enough for above storage requirements?

Many thanks!

 

[SweetAndLow]

16g of memory is just fine for that storage requirements, you will have 10.9 TiB total and remember to not go over 80% usage on that. So around 8.8TiB usable storage.

 

[marbus90]

Owncloud and transcoding is also doable on the FreeNAS box via jails. Linux might work well with virtualbox, just no win2012r2 server.

Personally I think with your other projects you could use a better CPU. I'd take a Core i3-41xx with an Asrock E3C224D2I. It's should be capable of roughly 4 plex transcoding sessions. Also it could handle 10GBe, since that might be coming in the 5 years. the C2x5x Atoms will top out at 200 to 350MB/s via CIFS due to singlethreaded design, the i3 should be able to saturate a 10GBe link.

 

[nixbert]

Thanks for your replies.

@SweetAndLow: thanks and yes, I figured I will get appx 9 TiB of storage. That is enough to last me 5 years or more.

@marbus90 : I agree that owncloud and transcoding are doable on FreeNAS but I need a separate linux machine anyway for other random crap I keep on doing. Also there will never be a win server with or without virtualbox on either of the boxes (freenas and linux) that i am planning to build.

So given that I have to build a linux box anyway. I am thinking of using SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-S-O as my platform for linux box. May be add an i3 or even a xeon to it. My intent is to then let it do all the heavy lifting for high cpu load.

Given above do you still think I should beef up the hardware on FreeNAS box? A transfer rate of appx 200MB/s might actually be acceptable to me via CIFS. I'll think about it again but my initial thought is that I could live with that.

 

[Ericloewe]

X10SLL-S? Very bad choice. You'd be limited to 16GB of RAM. The X10SLL-F is the minimum we recommend.

 

[pjc]

In another discussion regarding RAM, it came up that you definitely want lots of RAM for torrents, since they do lots of random I/O, which will kill your spindles' throughput if the torrent doesn't fit in memory.

16GB for 12TB is probably enough, but more never hurts.

 

[marbus90]

You should check on following mobos:
X10SLL-F
X10SLL+-F
X10SLM-F
X10SLM+-F

Sometimes there is a deal on one of the boards which would make them the cheapest. Also you could think about buying the same mobo for both servers and probably even get a backup server with that one.

 

[Ericloewe]

The X10SL7-F is also a good option, if you plan on expanding beyond 6 HDDs (and/or if it's only a very small premium over the others).

 

[bestboy]

I will separately build a linux server which will do all the heavy lifting for transcoding and my other applicaiton needs such as plex, owncloud, dev-platform etc. I am going down this route because I need a linux server for my other requirements i.e. other than what freenas can do. So why not engineer a solid freenas box that is coupled with a linux box which is powerful but built on non-server hardware.

That's a good way to handle it, but please consider the chance to consolidate those 2 server into one. When it comes to services there is not much Linux can do that does not also run in a FreeBSD jail on FreeNAS. Unless you need a Linux desktop or workstation you have the option to build one fat FreeNAS box for storage and services instead of building 2 separate boxes.

 

[nixbert]

Thanks for your replies and thoughts so far.

Interesting point about torrents. I will keep that in mind.

X10SLL-S? Very bad choice. You'd be limited to 16GB of RAM. The X10SLL-F is the minimum we recommend.

Sure. Yes. For FreeNAS I understand that. But I was talking about a separate non-zfs linux box there. Do you think, for some reason, I need to supply more ram for a separate linux box that will mostly store and use important files from a FreeNAS server?

You should check on following mobos:
X10SLL-F
X10SLL+-F
X10SLM-F
X10SLM+-F

Sometimes there is a deal on one of the boards which would make them the cheapest. Also you could think about buying the same mobo for both servers and probably even get a backup server with that one.

Indeed. good point. I am going to keep my fingers crossed for a deal around christmas/new year. Currently C2550D4I is retailing for appx GBP170 on newegg UK. If I can snag one of X10SLL-F/X10SLM-F etc and say a core-i3 upto GBP 200 then I will definitely consider it. But I am unwilling to spend more than that on a motherboard+cpu combo esp given that so far it seems that C2550D4I may be good enough to last me 5 years.

That's a good way to handle it, but please consider the chance to consolidate those 2 server into one. When it comes to services there is not much Linux can do that does not also run in a FreeBSD jail on FreeNAS. Unless you need a Linux desktop or workstation you have the option to build one fat FreeNAS box for storage and services instead of building 2 separate boxes.

Yes. I did consider that line of thought. However, reason I am actively considering a separate linux box is because I do intend to use it as my part-time desktop.

So thanks again for taking time to respond. This is very helpful. So far it seems that it wont be a terrible idea to go with C2550D4I, for my specific needs.

Please let me know if you seem something I may have missed. If I do find a deal that buys me an X10SLL/X10SLM and a core i3 below GBP200, I will flip my choice in a heartbeat.

Other than that any bright ideas on where to buy online in UK or EU (provided they ship to UK)?

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, I'll let you be the judge of what's appropriate for your Linux server. I guess I glossed over that part.

In any case, I'm partial to the X10SLL+-F, X10SLM+-F, X10SLH-F and X10SL7-F, because they list Crucial/Micron RAM as supported and have matched GbE controllers - the former doesn't matter if you're going with Samsung or Hynix, but boards with two different NIC models seem to have a very slightly higher incidence of weird networking issues.

I recommend Amazon to buy stuff in Europe. Any one of them, wherever the price is better (careful with their rather high exchange rates - your bank probably does better if you buy in Euros. Obviously doesn't apply to .co.uk).

 

[DKarnov]

Your original separate-box plans and listed hardware sound fine to me for your described usage. I recommend the Fractal Design Node 304 as the common 6-drive Mini-ITX case. Going to one of the AsrockRack C224/C226 Mini-ITX + Core i3, for roughly the same cost as the C2550, will limit you to 16GB RAM but give you the option to upgrade to a Xeon if down the road you find yourself wanting to take advantage of more compute.

 

[Tywin]

Your original separate-box plans and listed hardware sound fine to me for your described usage. I recommend the Fractal Design Node 304 as the common 6-drive Mini-ITX case. Going to one of the AsrockRack C224/C226 Mini-ITX + Core i3, for roughly the same cost as the C2550, will limit you to 16GB RAM but give you the option to upgrade to a Xeon if down the road you find yourself wanting to take advantage of more compute.

Slightly off-topic, but this is the thing keeping me from deploying a FreeNAS box -- in Mini-ITX, you can choose processing grunt or memory, but not both. Independently, the C2550 and 16 GiB RAM are "just enough" for my current usage pattern, so either way there is very little head-room. Give me a ASRock E3C224D4I that is not extended, and I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Use SO-DIMM or lose the LSI controller if you have to!

 

[nixbert]

Thanks for comments and clarifications.

After reading all replies and some more price comparisons later I have come to the conclusion that if I am prepared to wait and keep on tracking prices, there is a good chance that I will be able to buy a recommended supermicro X10 board (X10SLL+-F, X10SLM+-F, X10SLH-F) and a core-i3 4150/4130 within my target of £200. Just to be sure those are the appropriate core-i3 to buy for my needs? Right? (Sorry I am a newb)

This is appx £25-30 more than what I planned for initially but this option will give me more than enough performance for now and good headroom for upgrades in future.

Since I am in no particular hurry, that is exactly what I am going to do - Stalk Amazon and other retailers for price cuts

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks for comments and clarifications.

After reading all replies and some more price comparisons later I have come to the conclusion that if I am prepared to wait and keep on tracking prices, there is a good chance that I will be able to buy a recommended supermicro X10 board (X10SLL+-F, X10SLM+-F, X10SLH-F) and a core-i3 4150/4130 within my target of £200. Just to be sure those are the appropriate core-i3 to buy for my needs? Right? (Sorry I am a newb)

This is appx £25-30 more than what I planned for initially but this option will give me more than enough performance for now and good headroom for upgrades in future.

Since I am in no particular hurry, that is exactly what I am going to do - Stalk Amazon and other retailers for price cuts :)

Sounds good. For those motherboards, you can also check crucial.com. Their prices are quite competitive.

 

[Middling]

If you're not fixed on a Supermicro board you could go the Intel server board route.

I recently purchased an Intel S1200BTLR board from Amazon for under £100. They have since gone back up to over £200 but there is a seller on Amazon with one board left selling at £79.99.

It's a fantastic board if you don't mind the CPU being a slightly older Sandybridge or Ivybridge. It takes ECC RAM (and only ECC, so you'll also need to either use a Celeron, Pentium, i3 or Xeon E3 CPU), has built-in IPMI (no KVM though without additional module), dual Intel NICs and has worked flawlessly for me with FreeNAS.

In fact, the only complaint i have is that the board runs fans at full-speed if it's not in an Intel chassis. This can be supposedly fixed by editing the SDR file and loading it into the BIOS but the file is huge and i couldn't be bothered to try and decipher it. I just switched the fans out in my server for larger, slower moving ones. It's now whisper quiet and stays cool during its duties (serving media to half-a-dozen XBMC machines using SMB, two machines via Plex and a couple of machines over the Internet using Nginx).