First Build with encryption and possibly video encoding

[biophemoc]

Hey,
I used a cheap out-of-the-box NAS for 2 HDDs, but it was never really sufficient. After considering some cheap solutions with desktop mainboards I came to the conclusion that building a real NAS would be way more time and pain saving. I want to encrypt my drives, but with the AES support of the Xeons this shouldn't be a problem, I guess. Additionally I would want to try if encoding videos would work. I've seen that some(one) use handbrake-cli on their FreeNAS machines. 24/7 is not planned.

Mainboard:
Supermicro X10SLM-F or X10SLH-F. The latter would be nice because it has 6x SATA3, but in the end that's not necessary. Advantage of the SLM is, that it officially supports 1.35V RAM, and it seems as if I can only get 1.35V modules of the official support list in my country. Plus it's 30€ cheaper, so I could get a faster Xeon (which would be helpful if video encoding works).

CPU:
Intel Xeon E3-1230V3, E3-1231V3 or E3-1220V3. I would get either the 1230 or 1231 if I buy the cheaper mainboard.

RAM:
2x Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 (each module: 8GB, 1600MHz, CL11, ECC, 1.35V, listed as officially supported on the Supermicro Website)

Harddrives:
4x 4TB, 2x3TB, either WD or Toshiba.

PSU:
SeaSonic G-450 (360 would be fine for now I guess, but if I get more drives…)

I haven't chose a boot USB and case yet, but there is enough info on those here in the forums.

My question is mainly: Which of the two boards would you choose? And which processor?

Thanks in advance,
biophemoc

 

[joeschmuck]

I would like to drop a little advice... Do not use encrypted hard drives within FreeNAS. If there is specific data you need to keep encrypted then use a product like TrueCrypt and only encrypt certain data. Read these forums about encryption and the pitfalls that may have encountered. If you must encrypt your entire hard drive, do lots of reading and build your system and crashing, replace hard drives, do your worst to it and ensure you can recover from every scenario and then write up some good instructions you will understand 3 years down the road when you have an issue. Only then should you use the NAS for your data.

Once FreeNAS 10 comes out then running VMs will be much better than what we have today, but today you should still be able to run handbrake.

With respect to the hard drives, I'm not sure what you are planning to do with two pairs of drives, maybe you could explain.

I believe there were some concerns about the X10 boards and FreeBSD/NAS, I don't recall specifically what that was but search the forums for it, you should be able to find it.

 

[Ericloewe]

I believe there were some concerns about the X10 boards and FreeBSD/NAS, I don't recall specifically what that was but search the forums for it, you should be able to find it.

X10? No concerns I can think of, besides USB 3.0 (which, with an XHCI driver not loaded, works normally as USB 2.0).

Supermicro X10SLM-F or X10SLH-F. The latter would be nice because it has 6x SATA3, but in the end that's not necessary. Advantage of the SLM is, that it officially supports 1.35V RAM, and it seems as if I can only get 1.35V modules of the official support list in my country. Plus it's 30€ cheaper, so I could get a faster Xeon (which would be helpful if video encoding works).

I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but it's inaccurate. In fact, I just checked and the X10SLL-F/X10SLM-F have now been validated with all the DDR3-1600 8GB DIMMs previously validated for the X10SLL+-F/X10SLM+-F/X10SLH-F and X10SL7-F. Looks like I'll be updating my X10 RAM guide.

 

[biophemoc]

@joeschmuck:
Thank you for advice on encryption, I will dive into encryption info then.
The HDD number is a typo, I will correct that, I meant 4x4TB, the 3TB drives are for "data transportation" (to go in dock thingies or so), but as FreeNAS does not support filesystems except for ZFS I'm not too sure about them.

@Ericloewe: I got the info about supported voltages directly from the Supermicro website: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLH-F.cfm 1.35V is not listed, on other pages I find different information, so I wasn't sure and as the 6 SATA3 Ports are the only advantages I thought I can safe that money and use the cheaper board where 1.35V is listed.

 

[Ericloewe]

@Ericloewe: I got the info about supported voltages directly from the Supermicro website: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SLH-F.cfm 1.35V is not listed, on other pages I find different information, so I wasn't sure and as the 6 SATA3 Ports are the only advantages I thought I can safe that money and use the cheaper board where 1.35V is listed.

Well, the QVL most certainly has 1.35V parts:

http://www.supermicro.com/support/r...FFDAAEFCDAAE1&prid=0&type=0&ecc=0&reg=0&fbd=0

 

[biophemoc]

That's a bit odd. I read on another website that Supermicro once wrote on that page you linked, that 1.35V modules would be supplied with 1.5V. I barbecued RAM on a desktop a few years ago, because the company made an error with supported voltages, I don't want to try that again.
The manual of the SLH is not really consistent either. In there they say, that 1.35V and 1.5V will work, but in the troubleshooting section I find the sentence:
"You should be using unbuffered ECC DDR3 (1.5V) 1600/1333 MHz memory recommended by the manufacturer."
I'll just go with the SLM to be on the safe side I think.

 

[Ericloewe]

That's a bit odd. I read on another website that Supermicro once wrote on that page you linked, that 1.35V modules would be supplied with 1.5V. I barbecued RAM on a desktop a few years ago, because the company made an error with supported voltages, I don't want to try that again.
The manual of the SLH is not really consistent either. In there they say, that 1.35V and 1.5V will work, but in the troubleshooting section I find the sentence:
"You should be using unbuffered ECC DDR3 (1.5V) 1600/1333 MHz memory recommended by the manufacturer."
I'll just go with the SLM to be on the safe side I think.

I'm not recommending the X10SLH-F over the X10SLM-F, but it should be known that 1.35V DIMMs are 100% supported and functional.

In any case, 1.35V DDR3 is always rated to run at 1.5V, so it wouldn't be a problem.

 

[joeschmuck]

10? No concerns I can think of, besides USB 3.0 (which, with an XHCI driver not loaded, works normally as USB 2.0).

Maybe it was the X11 boards I was thinking of. I should not answer postings early in the morning after a crappy night sleep.

 

[Ericloewe]

Maybe it was the X11 boards I was thinking of. I should not answer postings early in the morning after a crappy night sleep.

Yeah, the X11s are not for everybody, yet.

I have an X11SSM-F on the way, so I hope to test all the reasonable scenarios I can come up with around early February.

 

[biophemoc]

After more reading and going through different setups I changed my mind here and there (changes marked in blue):
Mainboard:
Supermicro X10SL7-F - Simply because it has the SAS controller onboard. Adding a second vdev is planned in near future, so in the end I do save money as I don't have to buy an extra controller.

CPU:
Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 or E3-1220V3. No changes here really, but does not matter really on this thread/forum, it's just a question about how much performance I'd gain while compressing.

Harddrives:
4x4TB (RAID-Z2) for a start, 4x3TB (RAID-Z2) to be added later (as another vdev to the same zpool)

RAM:
4x Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 - will cost me about 100€ more, but then I've got enough RAM for the second vdev and I don't risk that I can't get the same modules later

PSU:
SeaSonic G-550 - A bit oversized for now, but also with 8 HDDs in future and a Xeon probably better.

Chassis:
Fractal Define R4 Black Pearl - Enough space for 8 HDDs and I can place 2 fans right in front of the HDD cage

Does anyone have serious doubts about this system to be working, have I made some idiotic mistakes or should it normally be okay?

 

[Ericloewe]

After more reading and going through different setups I changed my mind here and there (changes marked in blue):
Mainboard:
Supermicro X10SL7-F - Simply because it has the SAS controller onboard. Adding a second vdev is planned in near future, so in the end I do save money as I don't have to buy an extra controller.

CPU:
Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 or E3-1220V3. No changes here really, but does not matter really on this thread/forum, it's just a question about how much performance I'd gain while compressing.

Harddrives:
4x4TB (RAID-Z2) for a start, 4x3TB (RAID-Z2) to be added later (as another vdev to the same zpool)

RAM:
4x Samsung M391B1G73QH0-YK0 - will cost me about 100€ more, but then I've got enough RAM for the second vdev and I don't risk that I can't get the same modules later

PSU:
SeaSonic G-550 - A bit oversized for now, but also with 8 HDDs in future and a Xeon probably better.

Chassis:
Fractal Define R4 Black Pearl - Enough space for 8 HDDs and I can place 2 fans right in front of the HDD cage

Does anyone have serious doubts about this system to be working, have I made some idiotic mistakes or should it normally be okay?

Looks good. Is that the RAM from the board's QVL?

 

[biophemoc]

Yes, it's on Supermicros "Tested Memory List".