Advise on my FreeNAS build

[didwebringbatteries]

Hi,
I am using the below parts (chose the best for my need from what I can find where I live):

Code:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7800X
Motherboard: Asus TUF X299 MARK 1 LGA-2066
Chassis: ThermalTake CA-1F2-00F1WN-00 Core W100 Chassis
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake CLW0222-B Water 3.0 Performer Liquid Cooler
RAM: 4x HyperX 16GB  DDR4-2400 RAM
PSU: Thermaltake Gold 600W Toughpower SFX PSU
GPU: Zotac ZT-71113-20L GT 730 2GB DDR3
Storage: 8x WD 8TB WD80EFZX Red HDD

My wallet would prefer to go with 32GB instead of 64GB for RAM and for storage 4x8TB. And upgrade later based on my needs. However, I've read that this will not be possible because it is not possible to add drives to existing raidz2 setups? is there a way around this?

It will run FreeNAS with plex possibly (might do another machine for plex and mount FreeNAS shared drives). CPU might be an overkill but I couldn't find a motherboard that has 8 SATA ports except this one. and this is the cheapest 2066 cpu around.

Comments/suggestions/concerns please...

 

[Chris Moore]

Why do you think a LGA2066 CPU is the best choice?
Please look at the resources section of the Forum and review the hardware recommendations found there.
You can use much less expensive parts to achieve the goal.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[didwebringbatteries]

I am limited on hardware choices and the only MB I found that has 8 sata ports is a 2066. the only part I can save money with is RAM and storage. but this bring me back to one of my first query: will I be able to expand in the future?

 

[Chris Moore]

When looking for a system board, you should not concern yourself with the number of SATA ports. An additional interface can easily be added and the cost of adding an interface is probably less than the cost premium of that CPU.
Did you review the hardware guide I suggested? There are actually two, here are the links:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/freenas®-quick-hardware-guide.7/
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
The i7 processor is also not recommended due to it not supporting ECC memory.

 

[Chris Moore]

The gaming system board you selected is not a good choice.
I am not familiar with any limitation you may suffer from with regard to obtaining hardware in your geographical region, however this would be a far superior system board to the one you have selected and it cost over $100 less.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-SuperM...Motherboard-Xeon-E5-2600-1600-V2/202124920240
I imagine that the CPU and memory for it would be similarly less expensive while being better suited to the purpose of FreeNAS.

 

[Chris Moore]

but this bring me back to one of my first query: will I be able to expand in the future?

You can expand by adding additional vdevs. When a RAIDz2 vdev (virtual device) is created in ZFS, the number of member devices is fixed. You can't add more drives to the vdev. There is work being done to change this and it may be different a year from now, but right now, you can't change it. You can add additional vdevs to a storage pool. This is what I did. I established my pool initially with 6 drives in a RAIDz2 vdev and added a second vdev with an additional 6 drives later. There are ways to expand the storage, and you can expand the number of drives into the hundreds. I have a server at work with 60 hard drives attached.

 

[didwebringbatteries]

as I said, I am limited in options and just wanted to check if the build i chose would be OK for freenas. supermicro boards are nice, and unavailable where i live. shipping + customs = twice its price. Same goes for xeon and ecc ram. those will be probably available in used servers, but those servers will be at least priced same as retail when they came out in the US. There is no market for this here, finding an 8 sata port board wasn't easy, hence the gaming board. and that is the cheapest X299 because there isn't a market for that either... so, no amazon, no ebay, no newegg... i just want to know if this works. the only thing i can do is go for 32gb and 4x8TB

 

[Chris Moore]

Because it is an Intel CPU and Intel NIC, I would say it should work, but I don't know if anyone has used this hardware for FreeNAS. If you give it a try, please let us know how it works.

 

[didwebringbatteries]

deciding not to take the risk giving the amount and pay extra for the international shipping. Would the below work to replace motherboard/cpu/ram while everything else is the same?


Intel Xeon E3-1275 Processors BX80677E31275V6
Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O
4x Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 ECC

Some places say that the X11SSM-F-O doesn't support V6. Amazon page says v5, supermicro page says v6/v5. Any ideas?

Will this cpu be enough to run freenas, plex (2-3 1080p streams) and some jails? Since I am going for this, i don't want any future limitations (at least for 3-5 years)

 

[Chris Moore]

Intel Xeon E3-1275 Processors BX80677E31275V6
Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O
4x Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 ECC

This should work well, the only problem might be...

Some places say that the X11SSM-F-O doesn't support V6. Amazon page says v5, supermicro page says v6/v5. Any ideas?

Support here depends on the firmware that is loaded into the board. If the system board has been sitting in inventory and has an old firmware, it will not support the new CPU. If the board has the latest firmware, it will work fine. You will not know until you get it unless you have a vendor that will check the firmware for you before they ship it.

Will this cpu be enough to run freenas, plex (2-3 1080p streams) and some jails? Since I am going for this, i don't want any future limitations (at least for 3-5 years)

It should do nicely.

 

[didwebringbatteries]

Thanks Chris for your support. I am assuming firmware cannot be upgraded without a functional CPU?

also amazon says E3 1245 v5 is 2 cores while intel says it is 4 cores?

edit: also says that 2 memory channels on intel site... does that mean i can only install 2 sticks?