bcurran3
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2019
- Messages
- 13
I'm been planning on building a FreeNAS box for almost 10 years. I bought a Norco RPC-3216 3U rackmount server case to start the project back in November 2009. It's been sitting collecting dust (a lot!) as well as a triple redundant power supply I shoved in it way back then. It's got an old Asus mobo (P5K?) in it and some drives that I haven't pulled out yet. I probably fired it up and played with it at one time (It's been 10 years!) but it's time to get serious now.
I've been running a Drobo Pro (walking really as it has notorious slow read/write speeds) for ten years and it has served me well all this time. I'm just REALLY sick of its slow speed and I'm already pushing it over supported capacity so I figure I'll build a nice new (sic) box that can handle a lot of storage and move my Plex server and torrent downloader over to the new NAS out of a VM running on my main Dell PowerEdge R710 that is also due for a refresh in the future.
I'm going to move 25-30 TB on to the new NAS as soon as it's built. (I'm sure it will take weeks.) So I figure 5x10 TB drives is a good immediate start and I can expand more later (12 bays available!). I'll re-purpose the Drobo to (slow) backup storage.
I've read the HCL, but it's out of date. I've read some of the forums and see many references to SuperMicro boards. I'm more of an Asus fan and would prefer to go that route. So before I hit the purchase button on Amazon or eBay, I figure I should hit up the FreeNAS community for advice before I push those little orange boxes in ignorance.
This is my current thinking:
MOBO - with dual gigabit NICs though it would be nice to have 10 GB...but there's always the add-on card upgrade path for the future. Currently I'm thinking of the Asus WS C246 Pro but I'm not set on it and up for suggestions.
CPU - I'd prefer 9th gen, but I guess 9th gen Xeon's aren't out yet. So 8th gen it is. I need QSV to lighten the load on Plex, I'm thinking the E-2144G. It's 3.6Ghz, 4 cores, 8 threads, and sucks up 71 watts. I'd prefer to go 65W, but from what I can see that would only get me a 4 core 4 thread with the E-2104G. My server closet already sucks up an estimated $300+/mo in juice! (My math could be wrong.)
RAM - 16 GB to start or 32 GB ECC DDR4. I just plan to buy a brand I trust at the best price point. (Lifetime warranty is a big plus!)
HDDs - I'm ready to push the orange button on 5 Seagate IronWolf 10TB NAS or 5 WD Red 10TB NAS, whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase. I'd be fine with the Enterprise versions, but just don't want to drop the extra ~$30@.
BOOT - The mobo will have unused SATA ports since I'll be using an HBA, so I'll most likely throw in a small SSD for boot up; possibly a M.2 if it's available on there. I have a spare SSD someplace or I'll upgrade some other computer with a bigger one and use it's old one.
HBA - Here's where I don't have a clue yet. I've got a Adaptec ASR-5805-512MB in the case now but inclined not to use it since it's RAID and only 3 Gb/s. I could use it temporarily and swap in something less mature in the future... but I have fears of swapping controllers! My ears are all open on suggestions here.
Now let the discussion/comments/suggestions being!
... and TIA!
I've been running a Drobo Pro (walking really as it has notorious slow read/write speeds) for ten years and it has served me well all this time. I'm just REALLY sick of its slow speed and I'm already pushing it over supported capacity so I figure I'll build a nice new (sic) box that can handle a lot of storage and move my Plex server and torrent downloader over to the new NAS out of a VM running on my main Dell PowerEdge R710 that is also due for a refresh in the future.
I'm going to move 25-30 TB on to the new NAS as soon as it's built. (I'm sure it will take weeks.) So I figure 5x10 TB drives is a good immediate start and I can expand more later (12 bays available!). I'll re-purpose the Drobo to (slow) backup storage.
I've read the HCL, but it's out of date. I've read some of the forums and see many references to SuperMicro boards. I'm more of an Asus fan and would prefer to go that route. So before I hit the purchase button on Amazon or eBay, I figure I should hit up the FreeNAS community for advice before I push those little orange boxes in ignorance.
This is my current thinking:
MOBO - with dual gigabit NICs though it would be nice to have 10 GB...but there's always the add-on card upgrade path for the future. Currently I'm thinking of the Asus WS C246 Pro but I'm not set on it and up for suggestions.
CPU - I'd prefer 9th gen, but I guess 9th gen Xeon's aren't out yet. So 8th gen it is. I need QSV to lighten the load on Plex, I'm thinking the E-2144G. It's 3.6Ghz, 4 cores, 8 threads, and sucks up 71 watts. I'd prefer to go 65W, but from what I can see that would only get me a 4 core 4 thread with the E-2104G. My server closet already sucks up an estimated $300+/mo in juice! (My math could be wrong.)
RAM - 16 GB to start or 32 GB ECC DDR4. I just plan to buy a brand I trust at the best price point. (Lifetime warranty is a big plus!)
HDDs - I'm ready to push the orange button on 5 Seagate IronWolf 10TB NAS or 5 WD Red 10TB NAS, whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase. I'd be fine with the Enterprise versions, but just don't want to drop the extra ~$30@.
BOOT - The mobo will have unused SATA ports since I'll be using an HBA, so I'll most likely throw in a small SSD for boot up; possibly a M.2 if it's available on there. I have a spare SSD someplace or I'll upgrade some other computer with a bigger one and use it's old one.
HBA - Here's where I don't have a clue yet. I've got a Adaptec ASR-5805-512MB in the case now but inclined not to use it since it's RAID and only 3 Gb/s. I could use it temporarily and swap in something less mature in the future... but I have fears of swapping controllers! My ears are all open on suggestions here.
Now let the discussion/comments/suggestions being!
... and TIA!
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