First build: Am I doing it right ?

[amadeus42]

Hey guys,

After some readings in here, I have decided to buy myself a nice christmas gift: a NAS

Here is the use of the NAS:
- Storing (pictures, documents, ...)
- Media storage (so my TV/raspberry pi can access movies/audio files stored on it).
- I want go for a total encryption !

Soo, here is the configuration I have planned:

Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SLM-F
CPU: Pentium G3220
RAM: Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B (2*8GB)
PSU: Seasoning g-550
Storage: 6*3TB WD Red
Case: Fractal 304
Boot device: 2* SanDisk Cruzer 16GB

I have 2 questions for you guys:
1: Do I need 4*8 GB of RAM instead of 2*8 ?
2: I want to have a UPS, what would you recommend me ?

I am, of course, welcoming every comment you may have about this configuration.
I am a noobie in here, so I am willing to learn every advice you may have for me

Thanks !

 

[anodos]

I'd avoid full disk encryption. In most cases you're just asking for trouble (of the losing your data variety). The Pentium is fine for basic file storage. If you decide you want to run plex, etc. you may want a beefier processor. You should be fine with 16GB RAM, but you may want to add more if you plan to run jails / plugins.

 

[amadeus42]

Thanks for the answer

Would you have something to recommend me if I want to store to "important" data ?

I may end up doing some plex in the end, what CPU would your recommend me ?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Would you have something to recommend me if I want to store to "important" data ?

Encrypt the sensitive data in some other container and store that on the NAS.

 

[amadeus42]

Do you have examples of good containers ?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

No, sorry, I don't encrypt anything locally. I've heard TrueCrypt mentioned a lot, but it looks like that's discontinued. In OS X you can create encrypted disk images. TAR files can be encrypted. I'm sure there are lots of other options.

 

[anodos]

Do you have examples of good containers ?

I did some testing with veracrypt containers a while back. It seemed to work fine, but I didn't do a thorough job of it. I'd enable snapshotting on the dataset containing the container so that you can recover I'd the container gets corrupted.

 

[amadeus42]

Ok, thanks, I'll look for that.

Anybody has an input for a better CPU (to run PLEX, ...) and a UPS ?

 

[enemy85]

For 1 or 2 plex concurrent streams, an i3 is ok, for more go with a xeon

Inviato dal mio LG-D855 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[catnas]

I'd avoid full disk encryption. In most cases you're just asking for trouble (of the losing your data variety).

Can I ask where that's coming from, and if there are avoidable pitfalls you're concerned about? We wouldn't want to lose data...

 

[catnas]

Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SLM-F

Case: Fractal 304

That's a mini-ITX case but a micro-ATX board...

 

[catnas]

- I want go for a total encryption !

CPU: Pentium G3220

Your chip does not support the AES instruction set, which is going to slowdown your filesystem dramatically. You need to look for a proc that supports AES instructions.

http://ark.intel.com/products/77773/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G3220-3M-Cache-3_00-GHz

 

[catnas]

Storage: 6*3TB WD Red

3tb drives are, statistically, failure-prone. If you must go 3TB, you've done well to select WD instead of Seagate, though.

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...rom-service-details-post-mortem-failure-rates

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/01/why-you-should-buy-4-tb-hard-drives-and-skip-the-3-tb-ones/

 

[amadeus42]

Thanks for info !

I have seen the MotherBoard/case problem and moved to a Fractal 804.

I've changed CPU to a i3 4130

About the HD: that's indeed a point, but there are no Data for WD 2/4 TB, so it's hard to compare ...

 

[SweetAndLow]

I don't think they are trying to compare anything. Just looking at that chat you should see that something is wrong with Seagate 3TB and you shouldn't use them.

 

[catnas]

About the HD: that's indeed a point, but there are no Data for WD 2/4 TB, so it's hard to compare ...

HGST is owned by WD, and those 3tb drives, while not as bad as seagate, are not as good as the 4tb drives.

 

[Kevin Horton]

About the HD: that's indeed a point, but there are no Data for WD 2/4 TB, so it's hard to compare ...

The latest hard drive reliability data from BackBlaze has a table with reliability data from many types and sizes of HD.

2015 failure rates:
WD Red 2 TB: 6.87%
WD Red 3 TB: 8.79%
WD Red 4 TB: 2.97%
WD Red 6 TB: 5.73%

They also average the failure rates for all drives of a given size (i.e. data for all manufacturers is lumped together)

2 TB: 2.87%
3 TB: 4.33%
4 TB: 2.18%
5 TB: 3.84%
6 TB: 3.64%

There is a lot more data in that table, and you can download their whole data set. BackBlaze has over 50,000 HD in service, so their data is useful. It is hard to know though how their physical environment and use case compare to any given FreeNAS box though.

 

[Ericloewe]

Hmm, so they're publishing the raw data...That's good, since their statistical analysis has been mostly useless.