Hi!
I have been a lurker for a while, and done some searches before asking, but I still don't have the "warm fuzzy feeling" for pulling the trigger to make the purchase (again)! Regarding my general background, I have built most of my PCs, I am comfortable with administering linux at home, but no wizard. I was about to pull the trigger on setting up a freenas system last fall, and purchased a used HP blade server with 2CPUs, 6x2GB ECC memory, but ran into some problems.
1. Too noisy, and no CAT5 wiring to my garage. HP ProLiant DL180 G6
2. No access to SATA hard drives as JBOD (just a bunch of disks), on boot, the server would automatically assign the disks to a RAID array. This was if putting hard drives in the disk plane of the blade server.
I am restarting the project, with the intention of salvaging the CPUs and memory from the server, the CPUs are L5630 40W XEONs.
The target freenas is a 6 disk system of RAIDZ2, which should give me capacity of 4 disks, if I understand it right.
The purpose is to store family photos and videos without bit rot and also provide a general reliable network drive for my home. I would prioritize quiet operation and low power consumption over performance. Currently, I probably have on the order of 500GB of data I care about, but I expect it to keep growing.
Here is the proposed system:
1. Motherboard: X8DTU-6TF+
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTU_.cfm?TYP=SAS&LAN=10
2. CPU(s): one or two XEON L5630
3. Memory: 6x2GB DDR-3, 10800 ECC
4. Drives: 6x?TB WD red drives. I am leaning towards 4TB, as that seems like price sweet spot, but I don't see myself exceeding 16 TB for 5-10 years.
5. Case TBD
6. Power supply TBD.
7. Boot drive TBD, perhaps recyle a 110GB SSD.
Q1: Is there any problem with the proposed motherboard?
I have seen a few suggestions for cost effective systems on this website, but they do seem to use much more power hungry processors than what I have.
Q2: Any suggestions for cases and power supplies? I would like a tower with somewhat quiet operation, I don't mind opening it for access to the drives.
Q3: Can I use a more compact tower case if using a different motherboard, for example this one?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...rd-Dual-LGA-1366-Intel-5520-DDR3/123944859819
Anyway, sorry if I am asking the obvious or posting in the wrong forum, this is an honest attempt at following the guidelines.
PS: Thanks for hosting this very informative site
I have been a lurker for a while, and done some searches before asking, but I still don't have the "warm fuzzy feeling" for pulling the trigger to make the purchase (again)! Regarding my general background, I have built most of my PCs, I am comfortable with administering linux at home, but no wizard. I was about to pull the trigger on setting up a freenas system last fall, and purchased a used HP blade server with 2CPUs, 6x2GB ECC memory, but ran into some problems.
1. Too noisy, and no CAT5 wiring to my garage. HP ProLiant DL180 G6
2. No access to SATA hard drives as JBOD (just a bunch of disks), on boot, the server would automatically assign the disks to a RAID array. This was if putting hard drives in the disk plane of the blade server.
I am restarting the project, with the intention of salvaging the CPUs and memory from the server, the CPUs are L5630 40W XEONs.
The target freenas is a 6 disk system of RAIDZ2, which should give me capacity of 4 disks, if I understand it right.
The purpose is to store family photos and videos without bit rot and also provide a general reliable network drive for my home. I would prioritize quiet operation and low power consumption over performance. Currently, I probably have on the order of 500GB of data I care about, but I expect it to keep growing.
Here is the proposed system:
1. Motherboard: X8DTU-6TF+
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTU_.cfm?TYP=SAS&LAN=10
2. CPU(s): one or two XEON L5630
3. Memory: 6x2GB DDR-3, 10800 ECC
4. Drives: 6x?TB WD red drives. I am leaning towards 4TB, as that seems like price sweet spot, but I don't see myself exceeding 16 TB for 5-10 years.
5. Case TBD
6. Power supply TBD.
7. Boot drive TBD, perhaps recyle a 110GB SSD.
Q1: Is there any problem with the proposed motherboard?
I have seen a few suggestions for cost effective systems on this website, but they do seem to use much more power hungry processors than what I have.
Q2: Any suggestions for cases and power supplies? I would like a tower with somewhat quiet operation, I don't mind opening it for access to the drives.
Q3: Can I use a more compact tower case if using a different motherboard, for example this one?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro...rd-Dual-LGA-1366-Intel-5520-DDR3/123944859819
Anyway, sorry if I am asking the obvious or posting in the wrong forum, this is an honest attempt at following the guidelines.
PS: Thanks for hosting this very informative site