First FreeNAS Build

[analyst79]

You will save a lot of money if you buy the Seagate Barracuda/Seagate Desktop drives instead of WD Reds.

Some on these forums will lose their sh!t over using desktop drives in NAS application. But @Chris Moore and I both use Seagate drives in our boxes and have not had problems.

I have a Samsung Spinpoint (a Seagate Barracuda re-badge) in my NAS.

That's great news! Recommend any places to purchase or will Amazon/Ebay be the best bet for savings?

 

[Chris Moore]

As for the SSD pool, I have read on other forums of people buying used enterprise SSD drives, which is ok with me as I will be using it for testing mostly. But they are ?? at this time because I won't be actively be thinking about it for a while.

What do you intend to use them for? How much storage do you need?

 

[Inxsible]

For hard drives - I like to stick with NEW because then you can test them and RMA them if there are any errors. Also you know from day 1 how those drives were used etc.

Although, I did buy a used Supermicro server that came with 4x500GB Seagate Constellation drives. I tested them and they had 3-7 bad sectors on each, so I have them in my NAS, but I keep an eye on the scrubs and the SMART results and will pull them out the minute the bad sector count goes up.

For new drives, keep tracking the price on Newegg and Amazon. Newegg prices tend to be cheaper by $5 or so for the same drive most times.

 

[analyst79]

What do you intend to use them for? How much storage do you need?

I'm thinking for fast VM's that may need that speed. Still open ended though for me.

 

[analyst79]

For hard drives - I like to stick with NEW because then you can test them and RMA them if there are any errors. Also you know from day 1 how those drives were used etc.

Although, I did buy a used Supermicro server that came with 4x500GB Seagate Constellation drives. I tested them and they had 3-7 bad sectors on each, so I have them in my NAS, but I keep an eye on the scrubs and the SMART results and will pull them out the minute the bad sector count goes up.

For new drives, keep tracking the price on Newegg and Amazon. Newegg prices tend to be cheaper by $5 or so for the same drive most times.

Noted. I'll stick with new.

 

[Inxsible]

I'm thinking for fast VM's that may need that speed. Still open ended though for me.

You will find that the regular platter drives will be plenty fast. Again I don't know what VMs you plan on running but if you do find yourself needing more speed, upgrading your 1GB NICs to 10GB would probably gain you more speed in your network.

Of course that means getting a 10GB capable managed switch and also every device in the network should be 10G capable to realize that speed throughout the network.

 

[Chris Moore]

Under $3000. Everything that I looked at (some I already have) fall just below this so I am content unless there is an alternative that would give me more for less money.

I still think you should seriously consider that rack chassis I pointed out. It might not be less expensive, but it gives you so many more options. I thought it was a good investment for the future, which is why I bought one.

 

[Inxsible]

Noted. I'll stick with new.

If you do go with desktop drives, go ahead and look across brands as well. I have used Seagate Barracuda, but HGST/Hitachi and WD desktop drives would work as well.

I just would stay away from WD Green because they spin down the platters which would mean each access each access after the platters are parked would require a 30W pull from the PSU thereby killing the drives sooner. However there are scripts to disable the parking of the platters if you are so inclined. You will need to search the forums for those scripts.

 

[analyst79]

I still think you should seriously consider that rack chassis I pointed out. It might not be less expensive, but it gives you so many more options. I thought it was a good investment for the future, which is why I bought one.

Thanks Chris I will research this for sure!

 

[analyst79]

If you do go with desktop drives, go ahead and look across brands as well. I have used Seagate Barracuda, but HGST/Hitachi and WD desktop drives would work as well.

I just would stay away from WD Green because they spin down the platters which would mean each access each access after the platters are parked would require a 30W pull from the PSU thereby killing the drives sooner. However there are scripts to disable the parking of the platters if you are so inclined. You will need to search the forums for those scripts.

I wanted to stay with the best practices for FreeNAS and looked the WD Red NAS drives, but will look at what you and Chris use. May even be worth it to use that saved money on.the Chassis Chris recommended.

 

[Inxsible]

I wanted to stay with the best practices for FreeNAS and looked the WD Red NAS drives, but will look at what you and Chris use. May even be worth it to use that saved money on.the Chassis Chris recommended.

While we are on the subject of drives, as I mentioned I have a couple of 6TB Seagate Ironwolfs which are 7200RPM disks. These tend to run a bit hotter than WD Reds which are 5400RPM drives. WD Red Pros however are also 7200RPM disks which may run hotter. Seagate has also divided their Ironwolfs into "Ironwolf - 5900RPM" and "Ironwolf Pro - 7200RPM" for some capacities (at least 1,2,3 & 4TB drives have both regular and Pro versions). So you might want to make sure which you are buying based on whether you want faster access or lower temperatures.

Something to think about if you are going to go with NAS drives.

Desktop drives are a bit difficult to find in the 5400RPMs these days. 7200RPMs are much more common.

 

[Chris Moore]

I wanted to stay with the best practices for FreeNAS and looked the WD Red NAS drives, but will look at what you and Chris use.

Here is a pricing guide that is updated regularly, it is a good resource for comparing the prices all in one place:

Disk Price/Performance Analysis Buying Information 07-Mar-2018
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...e-performance-analysis-buying-information.62/

 

[analyst79]

Here is a pricing guide that is updated regularly, it is a good resource for comparing the prices all in one place:

Disk Price/Performance Analysis Buying Information 07-Mar-2018
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...e-performance-analysis-buying-information.62/

Thank you Chris! I appreciate the time you and Inxsible have put in to answer my questions. You are both valuable resources to this community.