BUILD First build, for a friend

[Doug Hall]

I made a public Amazon wishlist to collect what I'm looking at, for my first FreeNAS build. This is for a friend of mine who will be collecting a fair amount of video for her business.

Please help me vet this list. If I'm spending too much on a particular component, for example, I'd love to hear your comments. Most of this list is based on the "So, you want some hardware suggestions" list. Also, if I'm missing something, let me know. For example, will I need to get SATA cables to connect the drives to the motherboard, or are they included with the case?

Also, the case will hold six drives, but I read somewhere, that I need to only include 3,5,7 or 9 drives to the ZFS pool. So, even though my case will hold six, I'll only buy five, but I'd prefer to have a case that would allow seven, without being gigantic. If anyone has an alternative, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Thanks! Here's my wishlist...

 

[jgreco]

Sadly, you're not likely to get a lot of feedback because that link is broken.

Fixing that, though, few comments:

1) I'm cynical (ok period stop sentence complete ... sigh ... he goes on anyways) about the quality of the cheap Back-UPS units. The sine wave units are a better choice but significantly more expensive. Your choice of a larger power supply does help offset that concern somewhat, as it has more headroom to tolerate noise and other crap.

2) How much RAM were you planning on? Buy 16 if you can. Oh and that KVR16E11/8EF part is overpriced, you shouldn't be paying more than maybe $70 per 8GB. This is ECC and you can opt for the non-"premium" KVR16E11/8 part if it happens to be cheaper. Your data will be safe either way (or at least you'll get obvious warning the module's bad).

3) That X9SCM seems way overpriced. You can get them in bulk pak for $150 ("may not include a box") or $160 more generally.

4) The WD 3 red's are $150. The Seagate 4TB NAS drives are $200. Looking at it from a cost-per-TB point of view, that would seem to be a draw, but once you factor in the cost of the server, 4TB is a better option. Also the Seagate 4TB non-NAS drives have been as low as $150 lately.

5) SATA cables typically included with motherboard. If you buy a bulk pak board ("-B" like "X9SCM-B") then not included. Also may be included with retail pak hard drives.

6) Do not totally freak out about vdev width. OPTIMAL widths for vdevs are for best performance. But you should shoot for RAIDZ2 once you've got more than a few drives - I like RAIDZ2 even with just 4 disks. Get six drives and do RAIDZ2 and you have an optimal width AND double failure protection. Cases are a totally personal thing in my experience so whatever works for you and doesn't cook the drives.

 

[Doug Hall]

Thanks jgreco. I didn't realize the UPS mattered much. I appreciate the heads-up. I chose the more expensive X9SCM motherboard because it supported DDR3 1600, not 1333. I followed the directions in "So, you want some hardware suggestions", and used the Kingston memory finder to find ECC memory for that particular board. Are you saying there is an ECC "valueRam" option that works just as well? Some links would be great, because I can't seem to locate any. Maybe I just don't know what part of the model number to paste into NewEgg/Amazon. Does this even matter, or would the DDR3 1333 work just as well? I figured that since ZFS was such a memory hog, that faster RAM = faster system. But, maybe this would be a good place to cut costs?

Okay, I like the Seagate 4TB NAS drives. I wish they had a few reviews, though. I think I'd rather pay a little more for the NAS drives, too.

Oh, and I'm hoping 16GB will be enough RAM for the 6 4TB drives. Should I get more?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[jgreco]

The Supermicro 1155 boards (all of them I've checked at least) will support 1600 - iff the CPU supports it. The Kingston memory locator lists the part I suggested, just lower on the list. You can buy the 1600 and run it at a lower speed if your CPU doesn't support it, future-proofing part of your system. Since the price at NewEgg for the KVR16E11/8 is $76, and the KVR1333D3E9S/8G is $76 normally, well... but the thing is, NewEgg is only sometimes a good retail source. Memory prices are somewhat volatile and you can do a little searching to find stuff for cheaper, there are also other memory mfrs to check. But for the negligible price differential between 1333 and 1600, buy 1600. 1333 isn't going to make your system painfully slow and honestly you would probably not even be able to tell, but why not get the best thing for the job.

I think 16GB is quite possibly enough RAM for 6 4TB drives for a small system ... as long as you get the 8GB modules. That way, if it turns out that there's some reason to go to 32GB, you have slots free.

 

[Doug Hall]

Okay, I've revised my wish list. Thanks again for your suggestions. One more question. The CPU doesn't include embedded graphics chips. Now, I know I won't need a monitor on the computer for the most part. The main configuration is web-based. But what about the very first things that must be retrieved/configured, like getting the IP address of the machine? I work mostly with Macs, so I don't have a separate graphics card that I can throw in there, temporarily. Is this easily overcome? How would you suggest I work around this problem?

 

[Bairesman]

Okay, I've revised my wish list. Thanks again for your suggestions. One more question. The CPU doesn't include embedded graphics chips. Now, I know I won't need a monitor on the computer for the most part. The main configuration is web-based. But what about the very first things that must be retrieved/configured, like getting the IP address of the machine? I work mostly with Macs, so I don't have a separate graphics card that I can throw in there, temporarily. Is this easily overcome? How would you suggest I work around this problem?

Hi Doug, there is a VGA port on the Motheboard, unless of course you don't have a VGA Monitor in which case I can see your issue...

 

[survive]

Hi Doug,

The X9SCM-F-O board actually has a dedicated video card built in that is completely independant of the CPU video.....so the CPU's capabilities don't matter\aren't used at all. The board you have picked out actually has IPMI included as well so if you connect the 3rd ethernet port up you can manage the system from the BIOS screen, OS install & everything....once it's installed, cabled in & has power you never really have to be physically near the box again.

-Will

 

[Doug Hall]

Awesome! I knew about the IPMI, but didn't know it was plug and play. I'm ready to order! Thanks, guys.

 

[cyberjock]

The X9SCM-F-O used 34watts with ESXi installed on an SSD and no hard drives attached. I was pretty impressed to say the least.

 

[Sir.Robin]

Or the newer X9SCM-iiF wich is almost the same except for Ivy support and a bit different nic setup.
Looks nice though.. anyone know if you can mount ISO's directly via IPMI/KVM on this mobo?

Edit: Yes you can :)

 

[jgreco]

All the X9S support Ivy, maybe a BIOS upgrade needed though.

35 watts, that's pretty awesome.