dstufft
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2020
- Messages
- 2
I'm planning a build that I expect to scale up to about 72TB of raw storage (not all at once, going to be doing mirrored vdevs and adding in over the next 1-3 years).
This is expected to support a home office which includes storage of raw assets for graphic design, as well as archival storage for photos and videos.
In addition to the above, it is also going to serve as a Plex server that supports streaming to up to 6-10 sources at once, though typically no more than 1-2 at at time.
It is *possible* that at some point it will also be used as the backing storage for a VM cluster using iSCSI.
I'm currently considering a refurb server that has the following components:
Chasis: SuperMicro 846E16-R1200B
Motherboard: SuperMicro X9DRi-F
CPU: 2x Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0 GHz
Memory: Brand not specified, configurable from 8GB up to 256GB of DDR3 memory.
Storage Controller: LSI 9210-8i which has been flashed to IT mode.
PSU: Either 2x PWS-1K21P-1R or 2x PWS-920P-SQ
As far as the memory goes, there is no indication if the memory is ECC or not, I've reached out to the seller to to verify, and if it is it not ECC RAM than I'm not going to use the RAM that comes with it, and will either source ECC ram or find another option for the build.
There are a few configuration options that I'm not quite sure what the best price point would be.
As far as the CPU goes, this particular server only supports dual CPU, since I plan to run Plex on this box it seemed reasonable to get a beefy CPU for it, and the Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0 GHz was the beefiest that this seller is currently offering. They full line of CPUs they offer is:
* Xeon E5-2630 v2 2.6GHz
* Xeon E5-2650 v2 2.6GHz [+$100]
* Xeon E5-2695 v2 2.4GHz [+$400]
* Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0GHz [+$520]
As I understand it, SMB is mostly limited to single thread performance, which would be better supported by a higher clock CPU, and Plex is able to take advantage of multiple cores and is particularly CPU hungry if doing transcodes, so I selected the E5-2690 for the overall higher performance (at least, according to passmark) and the higher clock.
The system comes with 8GB of RAM standard, however as I understand FreeNAS/ZFS is particularly memory hungry I don't plan on pinching pennies on the amount of RAM. Treating 64GB as the baseline, the options are basically 64GB, 128GB (+$96 over 64GB), and 256GB (+$416 over 64GB). That seems to suggest price was the best bang for the buck is at 128GB. Is there a compelling reason to go for 256GB of RAM? I don't believe that Plex streaming is going to be greatly influenced by the ARC, and the total file sizes for any one specific design project are not likely to be anywhere near 128GB so I think that use case is unlikely to greatly influenced by the jump to 256GB. I'm not sure about the iSCSI use case though?
If it generally makes sense to just throw as much RAM as possible even past 128GB, I'm not opposed to ordering it with 256GB.
For the PSU, from my research here it sounds like the PWS-920P-SQ is likely going to be much quieter. While noise isn't a major deal breaker (this is being installed in a half rack in the basement) quieter is preferred if possible.
The last missing piece is a 10GbE SFP+ port, they offer them but from what I've read it's best to go with a chelsio NIC, and they do not offer that, so my current plan is to order it with just the 1GB ethernet ports, and order a chelsio NIC from somewhere else.
Am I missing anything? Does this build seem reasonable?
This is expected to support a home office which includes storage of raw assets for graphic design, as well as archival storage for photos and videos.
In addition to the above, it is also going to serve as a Plex server that supports streaming to up to 6-10 sources at once, though typically no more than 1-2 at at time.
It is *possible* that at some point it will also be used as the backing storage for a VM cluster using iSCSI.
I'm currently considering a refurb server that has the following components:
Chasis: SuperMicro 846E16-R1200B
Motherboard: SuperMicro X9DRi-F
CPU: 2x Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0 GHz
Memory: Brand not specified, configurable from 8GB up to 256GB of DDR3 memory.
Storage Controller: LSI 9210-8i which has been flashed to IT mode.
PSU: Either 2x PWS-1K21P-1R or 2x PWS-920P-SQ
As far as the memory goes, there is no indication if the memory is ECC or not, I've reached out to the seller to to verify, and if it is it not ECC RAM than I'm not going to use the RAM that comes with it, and will either source ECC ram or find another option for the build.
There are a few configuration options that I'm not quite sure what the best price point would be.
As far as the CPU goes, this particular server only supports dual CPU, since I plan to run Plex on this box it seemed reasonable to get a beefy CPU for it, and the Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0 GHz was the beefiest that this seller is currently offering. They full line of CPUs they offer is:
* Xeon E5-2630 v2 2.6GHz
* Xeon E5-2650 v2 2.6GHz [+$100]
* Xeon E5-2695 v2 2.4GHz [+$400]
* Xeon E5-2690 v2 3.0GHz [+$520]
As I understand it, SMB is mostly limited to single thread performance, which would be better supported by a higher clock CPU, and Plex is able to take advantage of multiple cores and is particularly CPU hungry if doing transcodes, so I selected the E5-2690 for the overall higher performance (at least, according to passmark) and the higher clock.
The system comes with 8GB of RAM standard, however as I understand FreeNAS/ZFS is particularly memory hungry I don't plan on pinching pennies on the amount of RAM. Treating 64GB as the baseline, the options are basically 64GB, 128GB (+$96 over 64GB), and 256GB (+$416 over 64GB). That seems to suggest price was the best bang for the buck is at 128GB. Is there a compelling reason to go for 256GB of RAM? I don't believe that Plex streaming is going to be greatly influenced by the ARC, and the total file sizes for any one specific design project are not likely to be anywhere near 128GB so I think that use case is unlikely to greatly influenced by the jump to 256GB. I'm not sure about the iSCSI use case though?
If it generally makes sense to just throw as much RAM as possible even past 128GB, I'm not opposed to ordering it with 256GB.
For the PSU, from my research here it sounds like the PWS-920P-SQ is likely going to be much quieter. While noise isn't a major deal breaker (this is being installed in a half rack in the basement) quieter is preferred if possible.
The last missing piece is a 10GbE SFP+ port, they offer them but from what I've read it's best to go with a chelsio NIC, and they do not offer that, so my current plan is to order it with just the 1GB ethernet ports, and order a chelsio NIC from somewhere else.
Am I missing anything? Does this build seem reasonable?
