LimeCrusher
Explorer
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2018
- Messages
- 87
Dear FreeNAS community,
After recently submitting an Intel Atom C3XXX build to the community and having had really valuable feedback, I thought a bit more about the kind of build I needed. I went back to the forum resources and would like to submit you a build answering the following key points:
A few thoughts:
What do you think of this build? Do you think an evolutive build like this one makes any sense? I recall that @Chris Moore said he frowns every time he reads people saying they'll "add disks later". Should I simply go with a more minimalist 4 disks build with a cheaper Supermicro board such as the X11SSL-F, a simple SATA SSD and a smaller case and PSU?
Please, let me know your thoughts. Much <3
After recently submitting an Intel Atom C3XXX build to the community and having had really valuable feedback, I thought a bit more about the kind of build I needed. I went back to the forum resources and would like to submit you a build answering the following key points:
- It will be used as a file server for our home backing up a couple laptops, storing raw photo files (25MB each) and serving them for edition on a remote machine.
- It will in addition hosts the following services:
- a NextCloud server serving two remote clients at max,
- a Plex server serving a local client (4K TV set mostly with 1080p content), no intention to remote yet,
- a bittorrent client.
- The build is thought to host a four disk array to start with. It is designed to be able to receive an additional four disks array in the future if needed.
- Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSH-F (195€),
- CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 (about 85€),
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 PC2400 ECC CL17 unb. Samsung (169€),
- Boot drive: Corsair MP300 120GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (43€),
- Case: Fractal Design Node 804 (125€),
- PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W (84€)
- Disks: 4 x Seagate Ironwolf or WD Red 2TB or 3TB each depending on the price and availability.
A few thoughts:
- The build is thought to be evolutive, what does that mean ? It means I am starting with a "small" setup (Pentium G, 16GB of RAM, four disks) that I can easily expand with time:
- The motherboard has 8 SATA connectors. I am starting with only four disks but I could totally add another four in the future if I feel like it.
- RAM can be expanded up to 64GB. Classic.
- The CPU can be upgraded from the Intel Pentium G4560 to a more capable Xeon E if needed because the are both compatible with the LGA1151 socket of the motherboard.
- The case can receive up to eight 3,5" disks.
- This motherboard has a M.2 PCIe connector, so I'm using it to boot from a NVMe SSD as a boot drive and consequently save the full eight SATA ports for disks.
- The Pentium G4560 can transcode a couple of 1080p video files and even have Intel Quick Sync technology for hardware transcoding by Plex as recently supported in FreeNAS 11.2.
- The case can accommodate many fans for sufficient cooling. It seems people (like @Kevin Horton) have managed to build cool and quiet machines with it. Also, it doesn't look too bad and will sit somewhere in my living room.
- I'm having a hard time picking up a PSU though. I estimate that a 450W PSU would be totally sufficient for the peak consumption of a Pentium G and four disks according to the method used by @xdma (see here). For eight disks, a 550W PSU is required though. I guess it's no big deal to oversize a PSU by using a Gold 550W where a Gold 450W would do the job. Any suggestion is welcome.
What do you think of this build? Do you think an evolutive build like this one makes any sense? I recall that @Chris Moore said he frowns every time he reads people saying they'll "add disks later". Should I simply go with a more minimalist 4 disks build with a cheaper Supermicro board such as the X11SSL-F, a simple SATA SSD and a smaller case and PSU?
Please, let me know your thoughts. Much <3