Hi everyone! I've finally decided to take the plunge and build a FreeNAS home server.
I will list the components that I'm thinking of getting, with some reasoning as to why, given my use case. Feel free to add your $0.02 and/or constructively critique my choices. Hopefully it will be useful for others in my shoes.
Speaking of use case - mine is as follows:
With that in mind, here is what I found:
Case: Fractal Design Node 804.
Motherboard (not decided yet):
X11SSH-CTF
or
X11SSL-CF
blend boot?) and total cost vs. going for X11SSH-CTF directly. Will have to investigate.
CPU: Xeon E3-1230 v6 - cheapest 8 threads/4 cores Xeon I could find. Should be enough.
RAM: 2x Micron 16 GB ECC VLP UDIMM DDR4-2400 (on the Supermicro QVL)
PSU: Seasonic Prime SSR-750TD - 750W is probably overkill, but I am hoping that would translate into less generated heat and less fan noise. Has glowing reviews and cabling to power 10 SATA drives out of the box.
GPU: optional, only if I decide for HTPC use. 2 concerns here:
3.5" HDDs: Initially I wanted HGST 8TB Deskstar NAS drives:
2.5" HDDs: Don't know - potentially 2x 1TB WD Reds in a mirror or just individually. One could be used by SSD for FreeNAS if I decide for an M.2-free/cheaper MB. I probably won't need L2ARC or SLOG device, if I understood cyberjock's powerpoint/pdf correctly (excellent work by the way!)
So...am I reasonable or are the above components nonsense?
I will list the components that I'm thinking of getting, with some reasoning as to why, given my use case. Feel free to add your $0.02 and/or constructively critique my choices. Hopefully it will be useful for others in my shoes.
Speaking of use case - mine is as follows:
- room for at least 8 drives, ideally 10-12 for 2 raidz2 pools or 1 raidz3 + mirror
- small physical footprint, definitely not a rack or full tower
- used as media/personal archive with potential to stream 720p/1080p content to TV/PC (1-2 streams at most)
- system backup destination for my PC
- download station - BT and/or FTP
- clients (PC + laptop) will likely use home WiFi to upload/download data (but will connect via Cat5/6 for initial data load/dump)
- possibly (depending on system noise level) act as HTPC as well, but that's secondary to above uses
With that in mind, here is what I found:
Case: Fractal Design Node 804.
- Pros - space for up to 12 drives: 10x3.5" + 2x2.5"; decent ventilation options; compact - 35x31x39 cm (WxHxD)
- Cons - no hot-swap support (hopefully won't need that often); cable management could be tricky
Motherboard (not decided yet):
X11SSH-CTF
- Pros: 16 ports (SATA+SAS), M.2 PCI-E slot
- Cons: expensive (515 USD)
or
X11SSL-CF
- Pros: cheaper than X11SSH-CTF (by 35%/185 USD); 14 ports; no useless 10Gb LAN chip - home router can handle 1Gb
- Cons: no M.2 PCI-E - I wanted to use that for booting FreeNAS - overkill?
CPU: Xeon E3-1230 v6 - cheapest 8 threads/4 cores Xeon I could find. Should be enough.
RAM: 2x Micron 16 GB ECC VLP UDIMM DDR4-2400 (on the Supermicro QVL)
PSU: Seasonic Prime SSR-750TD - 750W is probably overkill, but I am hoping that would translate into less generated heat and less fan noise. Has glowing reviews and cabling to power 10 SATA drives out of the box.
GPU: optional, only if I decide for HTPC use. 2 concerns here:
- Driver support on OS level
- Conflict with onboard IPMI card (Aspeed AST2400 BMC). Don't want the two to fight and potentially brick my install/corrupt pool data
3.5" HDDs: Initially I wanted HGST 8TB Deskstar NAS drives:
- Pros - supposedly better reputation in terms of reliability
- Cons: 7200RPM => could be noisier/hotter than WD Reds. Also pricier than WD Reds, but not by much (adds up though, if you do x10 :))
2.5" HDDs: Don't know - potentially 2x 1TB WD Reds in a mirror or just individually. One could be used by SSD for FreeNAS if I decide for an M.2-free/cheaper MB. I probably won't need L2ARC or SLOG device, if I understood cyberjock's powerpoint/pdf correctly (excellent work by the way!)
So...am I reasonable or are the above components nonsense?