SearchEngine27
Dabbler
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
- Messages
- 24
So I took a look at the PDF for "FreeNAS Community Hardware Guide" to get me started, and I came up with a list of things to buy, but I must admit I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to hardware (and in the case of NAS, software as well). And seeing as how expensive this whole endeavor is turning out to be, I was hoping anyone could give me a second opinion before I dive in, wallet first.
My usecase is mostly media servicing - I have a hard drive full of movies and TV shows right now that I've backed up onto a single drive, which comes in handy instead of swapping around DVDs all the time, and if a DVD gets scratched or I lose it then no big deal because I have it saved anyway. I'd like to host this on a NAS for two reasons. Firstly, the collection grows the longer I'm alive. And secondly, the system I host this on is a bit older, and I'd like some redundancy in case the single drive all this is on fails, so I don't have to spend a good month re-backing up all the data on it if it does.
I thought I could repurpose the media machine I'm currently using, with a few hardware upgrades (mostly drives), but the guide kind of indicates that's a terrible idea. But on that note, the Amazon shopping cart I've assembled has a hefty price tag now, and I'd like to avoid the hassle of negotiating a return just because I didn't buy the right hardware. Any help would be appreciated.
The only thing Ive absolutely settled on, is essentially the drives themselves:
- WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFRX
- RELPER 6pcs SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable with Locking Latch (blue)
And, to suit my purposes, I was thinking 6 drives in total - 4 for capacity and speed, and 2 for data redundancy.
For cases, this might sound trivial, but does anyone know a good case that's expansion-friendly? The guide even mentions it, but there aren't a lot of NAS friendly cases around. The core of this, is I just want to make sure I'm not buying a new case in 3 years when I learn something new I don't know now, and it requires extra space. I found:
- Silverstone Technology CS380B Silverstone DIY ATX NAS Storage Case with Hot Swap Cases
which has more drive capacity than I'm currently looking for (6), plus an extra 4 bays (if I'm counting correctly) if I decide to expand in the future.
Alternatively, I found
- Thermaltake Core V21 SPCC Micro ATX, Mini ITX Cube Gaming Computer Case Chassis, Small Form Factor Builds, 200mm Front Fan Pre-installed, CA-1D5-00S1WN-00
which is a gaming case (sure), but is appealing because you I can stack these up in a modular fashion for exactly how much space I need. Plus it's cheap for each case-expansion, versus buying a whole new case, or god forbid, server rack + server(s).
As far as I understand it, the motherboard is the most important thing for building a NAS. Which, admittedly, I read the guide and from the type that sounded most applicable to me, I kind of picked (almost at random) two boards that seemed appropriate. Between the two, I'm trying to trade off future drive expansions via SATA slots, versus lower SATA slots and higher RAM. So both boards have more SATA than I need for the 6 drives I want to buy (one MOBO has 8, the other 14), but I'm fuzzy on how much processing power and RAM I will need for video transcoding (or even what that really means and how it affects me streaming video off the NAS). I saw that 16GB is recommended for a media NAS, and both meet that with room to spare (one maxes out at 32GB, the other at 64GB). I'm focusing on this closely because of price (obviously), but more specifically price with regards to upgrading later - I understand that when picking hardware for a NAS it's very important to leave room for expansion later. I just am afraid of going too small on the amount of room I'm leaving for expansion, and then I'll end up either having to 'suffer' (in quotes because I don't know what future me knows) the smaller system I've built, or just outright spend another $2k+ on a brand new NAS because my old system just can't cut it.
So the two boards have different chipsets and pins for RAM, so it ends up being different everything else. The first is:
- Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O (maxes out at 64GB of RAM, 8 drive slots)
- 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-2133MHz PC4-17000 ECC UDIMM 2Rx8 1.2V Unbuffered Memory for Server/Workstation
- Intel Core i5-9600K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.6 GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W
subtotal: $872.97
or the second is:
- SUPERMICRO X10SL7-F Server Motherboard - Intel C222 Chipset - Socket H3 LGA-1150 (maxes out at 32GB of RAM, and 14 drive slots)
- Intel BX80646E31220V3 Xeon E3-1220V3 Haswell 3.1GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W Quad-Core Server Processor
- 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 PC3-14900 DESKTOP Memory Modules (240-pin DIMM, 1866MHz) Genuine A-Tech Brand (I guess this is the minimum amount for a media NAS)
subtotal: $633.79
Again, I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to hardware in general, even more when it comes to server hardware, and I have very little understanding of how a NAS needs to work to fulfill my needs, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
My usecase is mostly media servicing - I have a hard drive full of movies and TV shows right now that I've backed up onto a single drive, which comes in handy instead of swapping around DVDs all the time, and if a DVD gets scratched or I lose it then no big deal because I have it saved anyway. I'd like to host this on a NAS for two reasons. Firstly, the collection grows the longer I'm alive. And secondly, the system I host this on is a bit older, and I'd like some redundancy in case the single drive all this is on fails, so I don't have to spend a good month re-backing up all the data on it if it does.
I thought I could repurpose the media machine I'm currently using, with a few hardware upgrades (mostly drives), but the guide kind of indicates that's a terrible idea. But on that note, the Amazon shopping cart I've assembled has a hefty price tag now, and I'd like to avoid the hassle of negotiating a return just because I didn't buy the right hardware. Any help would be appreciated.
The only thing Ive absolutely settled on, is essentially the drives themselves:
- WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFRX
- RELPER 6pcs SATA III 6.0 Gbps Cable with Locking Latch (blue)
And, to suit my purposes, I was thinking 6 drives in total - 4 for capacity and speed, and 2 for data redundancy.
For cases, this might sound trivial, but does anyone know a good case that's expansion-friendly? The guide even mentions it, but there aren't a lot of NAS friendly cases around. The core of this, is I just want to make sure I'm not buying a new case in 3 years when I learn something new I don't know now, and it requires extra space. I found:
- Silverstone Technology CS380B Silverstone DIY ATX NAS Storage Case with Hot Swap Cases
which has more drive capacity than I'm currently looking for (6), plus an extra 4 bays (if I'm counting correctly) if I decide to expand in the future.
Alternatively, I found
- Thermaltake Core V21 SPCC Micro ATX, Mini ITX Cube Gaming Computer Case Chassis, Small Form Factor Builds, 200mm Front Fan Pre-installed, CA-1D5-00S1WN-00
which is a gaming case (sure), but is appealing because you I can stack these up in a modular fashion for exactly how much space I need. Plus it's cheap for each case-expansion, versus buying a whole new case, or god forbid, server rack + server(s).
As far as I understand it, the motherboard is the most important thing for building a NAS. Which, admittedly, I read the guide and from the type that sounded most applicable to me, I kind of picked (almost at random) two boards that seemed appropriate. Between the two, I'm trying to trade off future drive expansions via SATA slots, versus lower SATA slots and higher RAM. So both boards have more SATA than I need for the 6 drives I want to buy (one MOBO has 8, the other 14), but I'm fuzzy on how much processing power and RAM I will need for video transcoding (or even what that really means and how it affects me streaming video off the NAS). I saw that 16GB is recommended for a media NAS, and both meet that with room to spare (one maxes out at 32GB, the other at 64GB). I'm focusing on this closely because of price (obviously), but more specifically price with regards to upgrading later - I understand that when picking hardware for a NAS it's very important to leave room for expansion later. I just am afraid of going too small on the amount of room I'm leaving for expansion, and then I'll end up either having to 'suffer' (in quotes because I don't know what future me knows) the smaller system I've built, or just outright spend another $2k+ on a brand new NAS because my old system just can't cut it.
So the two boards have different chipsets and pins for RAM, so it ends up being different everything else. The first is:
- Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O (maxes out at 64GB of RAM, 8 drive slots)
- 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-2133MHz PC4-17000 ECC UDIMM 2Rx8 1.2V Unbuffered Memory for Server/Workstation
- Intel Core i5-9600K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.6 GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W
subtotal: $872.97
or the second is:
- SUPERMICRO X10SL7-F Server Motherboard - Intel C222 Chipset - Socket H3 LGA-1150 (maxes out at 32GB of RAM, and 14 drive slots)
- Intel BX80646E31220V3 Xeon E3-1220V3 Haswell 3.1GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W Quad-Core Server Processor
- 16GB kit (8GBx2) DDR3 PC3-14900 DESKTOP Memory Modules (240-pin DIMM, 1866MHz) Genuine A-Tech Brand (I guess this is the minimum amount for a media NAS)
subtotal: $633.79
Again, I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to hardware in general, even more when it comes to server hardware, and I have very little understanding of how a NAS needs to work to fulfill my needs, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
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