Would appreciate some advice on my FreeNAS build

[Giraff]

Hi,

Long-time fan of the forum but its finally time for me to build my own freenas too.

But I am a bit stuck with what I should got with, So I would value your opinions.

I am thinking about going the 10gbe route because I feel that its so close to becoming common that it would be a shame to not pay a bit the premium for 10gbe.



Use case will be smb/iscsi and maybe VMs(for testing and depending how good they run on the nas but not the main reason it will be mostly used a fast storage/ backup nas.



The basics will be:

6 hard drives(wd reds4TB) in raidz2 would love to expand this later with an extra vdev later

32GB ram to start with.

Fractal Design Define R5

Seasonic 550watt

Usb for bootdrive(want to upgrade if I have an old ssd)

Maybe a small pool of ssds that backup to the hard drive pool for fast storage.



Now the part I am having trouble deciding on should I go:

X10SDV-4C-TLN2F xeon d 1521 6 sata x4-m.2( but enough speed to max out 10gbe but not enough sata)



A2SDi-H-TF atom c3758 12 sata x2-m.2(such a shame intel did not push the cpu a bit more but should still get a samba performance of roughly max 1475MB-read and 581MB-write)



Cant really decide between the two the xeon d is 100 euro cheaper but on paper more power hungry(live in the netherlands power is not cheap here, so better to invest a little more then to pay to the power company)

And to get the max out of the xeon d need to buy a hba which makes it more expensive.

But the c3768 will always be the little train that could not get to the top of the mountain.



Any body have some advice, a different opening or a different route I can go?

Would appreciate any help or suggestions you might have and thank you for your time.

 

[Inxsible]

X10SDV-4C-TLN2F xeon d 1521 6 sata x4-m.2( but enough speed to max out 10gbe but not enough sata)

A2SDi-H-TF atom c3758 12 sata x2-m.2(such a shame intel did not push the cpu a bit more but should still get a samba performance of roughly max 1475MB-read and 581MB-write)

Is there any reason that you want an onboard 10Gbe? Couldn't you just as easily add a PCIE card? That would open up a lot more options in terms of boards and affordability.

Chelsio and Intel XT are the 2 10Gbe cards that are mostly used by users on this forum

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, I'd recommend an LGA115x platform instead. If you really want 10GbE today, the X11SSH-CTF is a good option and already includes an SAS 3008 controller. However, I'd recommend starting with an X11SSM-F and then adding an HBA and 10GbE NIC later if/when needed.

 

[Giraff]

Is there any reason that you want an onboard 10Gbe? Couldn't you just as easily add a PCIE card? That would open up a lot more options in terms of boards and affordability.

Chelsio and Intel XT are the 2 10Gbe cards that are mostly used by users on this forum

The reason of looking at onboard is that it is cheaper than buying loose cards.

At the moment here, the xeon d 1521 is around 400 euro and the c3758 around 500 euro and x550 t2 cards are around 350 euro and used x540 depending on the moment between 200 to 260.

That more why, a bit weird that the nics are almost as expensive as the embedded boards.

Yeah, I'd recommend an LGA115x platform instead. If you really want 10GbE today, the X11SSH-CTF is a good option and already includes an SAS 3008 controller. However, I'd recommend starting with an X11SSM-F and then adding an HBA and 10GbE NIC later if/when needed.

Lets say I would go the X11SSM-F way which cpu would you recommend?

And Do you know how it will compare power usage wise against xeon d?

 

[Ericloewe]

Lets say I would go the X11SSM-F way which cpu would you recommend?

Depends on what you need to do. An i3 is pretty competent, but if you really want to use some serious VMs, a Xeon E3 would be better.

And Do you know how it will compare power usage wise against xeon d?

Should be pretty close when idling.

 

[Giraff]

Depends on what you need to do. An i3 is pretty competent, but if you really want to use some serious VMs, a Xeon E3 would be better.


Should be pretty close when idling.

Do you know at wat your system is idling?

 

[Ericloewe]

Under 50 W.

 

[Giraff]

Okay thanks, though decision