First Build- X11SSH-TF

[pjuser115]

Hello all, I am new so sorry if this is a dumb post. I think I have done enough research and reading to feel confident about this build, but a yes that will work would be great to see. Of course if I am completely wrong let me know that too. I know there are 50 different people with 100 different ideas of what will work.

First off, anything I build will be overkill and excessive for my uses. This all started because we have family photos on a media server drive and no redundancy. Instead of just mirroring one of those drives I decided to make an actual NAS, and found about freeNAS. Uses will include max 2 vpn low usage, max 1 ftp, and local storage and media streaming. I really want to set myself up for a 10G network so I have tried to find the best (affordable) options for that.

I have found a lot of the guides to be somewhat old, 2 years or so and it looks like those guides weren't really directed towards 10g Lan or Xeon V6 CPUs. So I am posting.

I already have and will use
3x 6Tb WD Blue
3x 4TB WD Green
4x 16G ECC DDR4 2133

I am looking at
Supermicro X11SSH-TF
xeon E3-1220 V6
m.2 ssd


Now before the first post is read the guides, I have and studied them fairly well.
FreeNAS Hardware Minimum Requirements
Ericloewe's FreeNAS Hardware Guide
Supermicro X11 board resource page
Just to mention a few.

I like the x11SSH-TF over the x11SSH-CTF because it is about $100 cheaper and I don't see myself using SAS3 drives. Are there other boards with 10g LAN that I should consider at or under $360?

I like the Intel Xeon E3-1220 V6 Kaby Lake 3.0 GHz vs the Intel Xeon E3-1220 V5 SkyLake 3.0 as it is $8 more and 8W less so in my mind should be a bit faster and a bit cooler. The Newegg site under the x11SSH-TF board says supports Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v5. But after going to supermicro website I found the manual and it does say it supports V6 (page 82).

Supermicro X10 and X11 motherboard FAQ
"Kaby Lake CPUs require the 2.x BIOS or later. Additionally, Kaby Lake i3s do not support ECC"
This guide said something about having to update the bios to use a V6 xeon over a V5 which meant you had to install an OS which he suggested some basic DOS. Is that still accurate or was that old? Will this CPU with this board boot out of the box? Are they good options? For about the same amount of money are there better options?

M2 ssd I haven't picked one, I see there are wd blue 250g $69 and 970 evo 250g $77 and crucial 2280 250g for $44. Any of which would work just fine.

That's probably all for now, but I am sure I will have more questions soon.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Yorick]

Reading through the 10Gb networking primer, maybe an X11SSH-F with a Chelseo T420-BT instead? If 10Gb-T is the desired connectivity, I'm not sure you specified. There were some concerns about Intel drivers in FreeBSD. The Intel X550, which is what you plan for, may work great in the latest version for all I know; others who've tried it might chime in. Edit: This claims the X550-T2 is as good or better a choice as the T420-BT in FreeNAS. As you were. :)

Edit: Given the power draw of 10GBase-T, which is brutal, I'd consider SFP+ instead. DAC cables aren't expensive, and SFP+ switches can be affordable on the secondary market. Personally, I'm more interested in an mGig network, because that will work with WiFi 6 (802.11ax) APs, and we'll see clients using the 2.5G functionality, and it scales as 1G/2.5G/5G/10G, depending on the mGig switch. Some "only" do 2.5G. The timeline for that doesn't work, though. mGig isn't mainstream in the Enterprise yet, though interest is starting. 11ax needs to be widely deployed before mGig becomes affordable. For now, SFP+ or 10GBase-T if your heart is set on speeds > 1G on an individual link.

 

[pjuser115]

Thanks for your help. Certainly things to consider