Building a 8/10 port custom NAS

[spacecabbie]

Hi all i am thinking of building my first custom NAS.

I see a lot of great ideas on the forum but not exactly what I am looking for.

So my question is could someone point me to a couple of low power consumption motherboards?
Size is not an issue actually prefer bigger. The whole rig is going to be in the attic and with 8 drives I plan to place it in the biggest case I can find so minimal fans are needed.
I need at minimum 8 sata ports 10 prefered for expansion.
And I like to have not a CPU on board i am thinking of an Intel Xeon E3-1220V6 as a CPU but I still need to research power consumption. (Need good CPU for plex transcoding multiple users) so i5 or good i3 i am not sure yet like to start with the basics and find a good motherboard then go from there.

I understand its a bit of a contradiction to go powerful and want low power. I have to make compromises I understand that but atm I have a hard time finding power consumption values of any boards I look at.

 

[Stux]

And i like to have not a cpu on board i am thinking of an Intel Xeon E3-1220V6 as a cpu but i still need to research power consumtions. (need good cpu for plex transcoding multiple users) so i5 or good i3 i am not sure yet like to start with the basics and find a good motherboard then go from there.

I'd suggest E3-1230v6 over the 1220 if you're interested in maximum plex streaming. The 1230 adds hyperthreadingbehich can get you up to an extra 60% transcoding performance relative to the 1220

All post haswell CPUs tend to idle at similar ratings no matter what their top speed/tdp is.

Sounds like you're interested in the X11-SSM-f board

For 8 bay you could go with the UNAS 810A on the small side. Or perhaps a 24 bay case on the large side ;)

Or just a Fractal Define R5 sort of case in the middle.

Make sure to check this out:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

 

[spacecabbie]

Thanks for the help the hardware suggestion pdf is helpfull but unfortunately no power consumptions why is so hard to find a powerconsumption per board site or something :)

The board looks good although confusing its says here 6sata but sunmicro says 8 so i am assuming that's correct.
That CASE is AWESOME (Fractal one) exactly what i need. Does FreeNAS support hotswap? How would that work without a special made hotswap bay ?

According to this post it uses 55 watt idle i was hoping to get lower preferable 40 is that just a dream then?
I hope there are some more motherboards out there maybe a non server board but i see no one recommends them is that a real no no?

I like the build you recommend but nets me at least 800 doable but i was hoping to go a bit cheaper around 600 but then again if that means compromising.... I am just not sure.

 

[Stux]

Thanks for the help the hardware suggestion pdf is helpfull but unfortuanly no power consumtions why is so hard to find a powerconsumtion per board site or something :)

The board looks good although confusing its says here 6sata but sunmicro says 8 so i am assuming thats correct.

By employing the C236 PCH, the X11SSM-F provides 8 SATA ports,

SSM is 8 ports.

That CASE is AWSOME (Fractal one) exactly what i need. Does freenas support hotswap how would that work with out a special made hotswap bay ?

FreeNAS supports hot swap, but you need a hot swap back plane.

Accoording to this post it useses 55 watt idle i was hoping to get lower preferable 40 is that just a dream then ?

With a full fat board, yes. You would need to go with a XeonD or Denverton to get there.

I hope there are some more motherboards out there maybe a non server board but i see no one recomends them is that a real no no ?

The server boards BMC does use a few more watts, but imo it's worth it.

I like the build you recommend but nets me atleast 800 doable but i was hoping to go a bit cheaper around 600 but then again if that means compimising.... i am just not sure.

600$? Pretty low end for a good NAS

 

[spacecabbie]

600$? Pretty low end for a good NAS

The down side of being poor :( i need the sale of my old qnap and intel-nuc to cover my new NAS :)

Could you point to some reading material that explains why these server boards are recommended?
Power wise/price wise they do seem to make a big difference.

 

[Chris Moore]

The down size of being poor :( i need the sale of my old qnap and intel-nuc to cover my new Nas :)

Could you point to some reading material that explains why these server boards are recommended?
Power wise/price wise they do seem to make a big differance.

The IPMI remote control over the system is the best reason for the server board.

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