Cooling and Power Suggestions, Please.

[PenultimateNoobie]

This is my first post. I wish to thank the many and constant contributors who make this such an excellent forum.

I am developing the hardware list for my initial FreeNAS build. I plan to implement a 6x4GB raidz2, but I may want 10x6GB at a later moment. Plex and other jails will likely be running.

I'm considering the Fractal Design Node 804, the X10SL7-F, the Xeon E3-1241 v3 at 3.5 mhz, and 16GB to start (Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B).

I am thinking of a gold certified 550 to 650 watt power supply. Might I need more? Corsair and SeaSonic seem likely choices, but I am open to all suggestions. Very quiet would be nice.

Now the cooling questions. The 804 comes with three 120mm, 3-pin fans. I suspect I will need much more cooling for a cube with ten drives, especially if I put it inside a closed entertainment cabinet with other equipment. Should I plan for fans alone liquid cooling as well? Four pin fans? Multiple radiators? Other cooling inside the cabinet? Or, must the NAS be outside the cabinet?

Thank you for your guidance.

 

[hertzsae]

That's a completely overkill solution for even 10x6GB :)

Assuming you meant TB drives, then that solution will be fine for your current plan. That cpu/motherboard will only support up to 32GB of memory which won't be enough memory for the recommended 1GB of memory per 1TB of storage if you go 10x6TB.

 

[jgreco]

Your plan to put it inside a closed entertainment cabin is essentially creating an EZ-Bake oven. Reconsider. Three fans would be plenty if you weren't circulating air in a closed space. Three hundred fans with liquid cooling won't keep it cool in a closed space. Heat is the natural enemy of the hard drive (along with vibration, crappy power, and your preference in brand name).

As far as the rest goes, the way to select a power supply isn't just to pick a random wattage. Figure out the maximum power required for normal operations, then add an additional two amps per HDD on the 12V rail for start current, and make sure your power supply is suitably sized.

 

[solarisguy]

I would be seriously afraid of the hard drive mounting not being rigid enough for that many (8) drives operating 24x7. Unless you go for high-end enterprise hard drives. The space for two drives at the bottom is not really well suited for 3.5" drives, only 2.5" would be perfect there (with uATX you would be OK with two 3.5" drives there).

I used used eight drives (maximum power draw for the entire system with 16GB RAM and Xeon CPU was below 200W) with a quiet http://www.corsair.com/en-ca/cx430-80-plus-bronze-certified-power-supply

 

[solarisguy]

Your plan to put it inside a closed entertainment cabin is essentially creating an EZ-Bake oven. Reconsider. Three fans would be plenty if you weren't circulating air in a closed space. Three hundred fans with liquid cooling won't keep it cool in a closed space. Heat is the natural enemy of the hard drive (along with vibration, crappy power, and your preference in brand name). [...]

@PenultimateNoobie, please place 3 halogen bulbs totalling around 200 Watts in that closed entertainment cabinet for 24 hours with a thermometer. Let us know the temperature reading in Celsius afterwards ( in Celsius since that is what equipment makers are quoting :) )

P.S. Observe your local fire code..., so no touching...

 

[jgreco]

@PenultimateNoobie, please place 3 halogen bulbs totalling around 200 Watts in that closed entertainment cabinet for 24 hours with a thermometer. Let us know the temperature reading in Celsius afterwards ( in Celsius since that is what equipment makers are quoting :) )

P.S. Observe your local fire code..., so no touching...

wot... a... smart@$$.... ;-)

 

[DKarnov]

wot... a... smart@$$.... ;-)

He's only being like that so when the ultimate noobie rolls around, he doesn't ask the same questions.

If it is not obvious, don't put the NAS inside the cabinet.

The default config of the 804 is more geared to cooling hot CPU/GPU, since that's what the vast majority of PC builders - but not you - are concerned about. The HDD area gets cooled by whatever the PSU is doing, plus one exhaust fan. Throwing another intake fan or two in the HDD area of the case isn't a bad idea, and the matching Fractal Design fans are pretty cheap and quiet. You are not in a scenario where water cooling should come into consideration.

 

[marbus90]

Lian Li Q26 and ASRock E3C224D4I-14S could be another idea. For light home usage 32GB RAM for a 48TB working set _might_ be okay.

For a fullsize tower in case you want to upgrade to a Xeon E5 system: Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 looks nice.

PSU-wise: 20A on the 12V rail is provided by many 300W PSUs. No need to look further.

 

[solarisguy]

About Nanoxia Deep Silence 5, it does look nice, but it would be definitely better if it had grill and not full front.

 

[no_connection]

http://what-if.xkcd.com/35/
Think of the children!

 

[jgreco]

PSU-wise: 20A on the 12V rail is provided by many 300W PSUs. No need to look further.

FAIL.

For 10 disks, at 2 amps start current, that 20A is required exclusively for startup current, leaving no 12V for the remainder of the system. Motherboards require a substantial amount of 12V power - that's the thing that those extra ATX power leads
Also, you always want a power supply to be sized such that absolute peak load is less than 80% of its rated capacity, because as it ages, and components get stressed to their design tolerances, you will get catastrophic failures on reboot.

If you do not have the equipment available in your shop to actually measure the load on each rail under stress, follow the advice I give in the hardware recommendations thread:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/so-you-want-some-hardware-suggestions.12276/

Don't buy a cheap power supply. It's your data, don't let a crummy power supply eat your system and take your data with it.

Do consider that a 24/7 supply that is less efficient costs a lot of money in the long run. Do yourself a favor and buy an 80Plus Gold rated supply, at least. You probably will never recover the cost differential of an 80Plus Platinum supply though.

Sizing a power supply is kind of a multidimensional problem. Remember that drive spin-up takes a LOT of current.

1) In terms of watts, a supply that is running at about 30-50% of its rated load is likely to be within its peak efficiency window, but is also likely to be relatively unstressed, leading to a longer life and reduced likelihood of premature failure.

2) You also need to estimate (by adding up the start currents for all the drives, usually around 2 amps each, and then estimating other 12V loads such as fans, CPU's, etc.) the 12V load, and verify that that will remain under the rated capacity of the power supply. You can CHEAT at this by hooking up the system without powering on the drives, letting it run memtest86, and checking power consumption. Take the watts, divide by 12, and that's a bad overestimate of the maximum 12V amps that the base system takes. Then you add the peak amps for all the drives, maybe add 10% more, check against the power supply rating, and there you have an easily derived pass-or-fail.

But you need BOTH these tests to pass and be reasonable, or you need to adjust your gameplan (mandatory staggered spin, etc). And for a NAS or other server with lots of 3.5" disks, this typically means selecting a power supply that runs at something closer to 30% of its rating, in my experience.