paylesspizzaman
Explorer
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2015
- Messages
- 92
Hello everyone,
I'm looking for some hardware recommendations for my FreeNAS server build. Basically, I want to use some parts from my current machine, and buy a few "required" parts to build a low-power FreeNAS server. Once my PC parts start failing I will slowly replace them with what is appropriate for a server. What I currently own and would like to use is:
A.) Custom case with 30 - 3.5" bays, 2 - 5.25" bays.
B.) 16 - 4TB Green drives.
C.) 3 - 2TB drives.
D.) 3ware 9650SE-24M8 Raid Card (I know RAID controllers are heavily frowned upon, but it's what I have).
E.) SeaSonic X850 80Plus Gold PSU.
I need to buy a Mobo/CPU and ram. For fitment, Mobo form factor doesn't really matter for me (case is ATX, but can be adapted).
I intend to use the server to store and stream all my media and documents for my home. I'm planning to use Kodi, VLC and explorer via Windows machines to stream and access, so no transcoding. Right now I have no intention of running any jails or anything else either. I also have about 10 3MP IP cams that will be writing to the server via NFS shares, unless I can get CIFS working in the cams. The cams are pretty low bandwidth. At some point I might try to backup my PCs to the server also (I don't know how to do that yet). All the machines in my house are Windows machines, so I will be using CIFS for everything except the IP cams. I was going to use 4TB drives to make two 8 disk Z2 vdevs striped together for one large pool/volume. If I need more space in the future, I will add a 3rd 8 disk Z2 vdev to the pool. I was planning to use 2TB drives to make a completely separate 3 disk Z1 vdev and pool/volume for the IP cams. I don't intend to ever resilver the vdev for the cams. I just don't want to completely stop recording if 1 drive fails. There will never be more than 2 users (plus the cams) accessing the server at the same time. I also keep a second backup of all my data on external HDDs. I'm trying to decide which motherboard/CPU would best suit my needs. I don't know how much CPU power I really need. I was looking at low-power C2750 boards. I looked a little at the Asrock 2750d4i board, but I will be running an expansion card, so I really don't need 12 onboard sata ports (maybe save a couple watts). Plus I heard one of the sata controllers eats up a considerable amount of power (turns out it's more the added PCIe switch). I particularly like the Supermicro A1SAM-2750F because it does NOT use soDimm RAM and it has an extra expansion slot (if I ever need it). One thing I did notice about that board, is it doesn't look like freeBSD 10 is a "supported" OS. I was also planning to use 32GB of ECC RAM. If I need more CPU power or RAM, I was looking at an e3-1230v3 CPU, since it idles at about the same watts. I haven't looked into motherboards for that CPU yet. It would be cool to have more than 4 RAM slots though (16GB modules are expensive!). I will also be moving toward Red drives as my Greens fail. I've done a lot of FreeNAS reading over the past few weeks, but I'm sure I still fit into the Noob category. As such, any advice and hardware/software configurations would be greatly appreciated. Also, this is my second FreeNAS build, the first was just to learn a little about FreeNAS. I will not go into details on it, for fear of being flamed ;) So my questions are:
1.) Does scrubbing or resilvering take much CPU?
2.) Do you think a C2750 will be powerful enough for up to thirty 4TB disks with no encryption or dedup?
3.) Any idea why FreeBSD 10 (not sure what version FreeNAS uses) wouldn't be listed as supported on the A1SAM-2750F, but is on the other Supermicro C2750 boards?
4.) Is 32GB of RAM enough for now, how about if I add another 8 disk vdev?
5.) What make/model RAM should I buy? The supported list only shows 4 different models.
6.) If you don't think the C2750 is a good choice, how do you feel about the e3-1230v3 and what Mobo/RAM should I be looking at for low power consumption?
7.) Any idea if smart data is obtainable in FreeNAS when using a 3ware controller? The latest firmware suposedly doesn't support JBOD mode. Disks must be exported as single volumes.
8.) Should I flash the 3ware controller back to a previous version that does support JBOD? Although I'm not sure if it would support 2TB+ drives then.
I'm looking for some hardware recommendations for my FreeNAS server build. Basically, I want to use some parts from my current machine, and buy a few "required" parts to build a low-power FreeNAS server. Once my PC parts start failing I will slowly replace them with what is appropriate for a server. What I currently own and would like to use is:
A.) Custom case with 30 - 3.5" bays, 2 - 5.25" bays.
B.) 16 - 4TB Green drives.
C.) 3 - 2TB drives.
D.) 3ware 9650SE-24M8 Raid Card (I know RAID controllers are heavily frowned upon, but it's what I have).
E.) SeaSonic X850 80Plus Gold PSU.
I need to buy a Mobo/CPU and ram. For fitment, Mobo form factor doesn't really matter for me (case is ATX, but can be adapted).
I intend to use the server to store and stream all my media and documents for my home. I'm planning to use Kodi, VLC and explorer via Windows machines to stream and access, so no transcoding. Right now I have no intention of running any jails or anything else either. I also have about 10 3MP IP cams that will be writing to the server via NFS shares, unless I can get CIFS working in the cams. The cams are pretty low bandwidth. At some point I might try to backup my PCs to the server also (I don't know how to do that yet). All the machines in my house are Windows machines, so I will be using CIFS for everything except the IP cams. I was going to use 4TB drives to make two 8 disk Z2 vdevs striped together for one large pool/volume. If I need more space in the future, I will add a 3rd 8 disk Z2 vdev to the pool. I was planning to use 2TB drives to make a completely separate 3 disk Z1 vdev and pool/volume for the IP cams. I don't intend to ever resilver the vdev for the cams. I just don't want to completely stop recording if 1 drive fails. There will never be more than 2 users (plus the cams) accessing the server at the same time. I also keep a second backup of all my data on external HDDs. I'm trying to decide which motherboard/CPU would best suit my needs. I don't know how much CPU power I really need. I was looking at low-power C2750 boards. I looked a little at the Asrock 2750d4i board, but I will be running an expansion card, so I really don't need 12 onboard sata ports (maybe save a couple watts). Plus I heard one of the sata controllers eats up a considerable amount of power (turns out it's more the added PCIe switch). I particularly like the Supermicro A1SAM-2750F because it does NOT use soDimm RAM and it has an extra expansion slot (if I ever need it). One thing I did notice about that board, is it doesn't look like freeBSD 10 is a "supported" OS. I was also planning to use 32GB of ECC RAM. If I need more CPU power or RAM, I was looking at an e3-1230v3 CPU, since it idles at about the same watts. I haven't looked into motherboards for that CPU yet. It would be cool to have more than 4 RAM slots though (16GB modules are expensive!). I will also be moving toward Red drives as my Greens fail. I've done a lot of FreeNAS reading over the past few weeks, but I'm sure I still fit into the Noob category. As such, any advice and hardware/software configurations would be greatly appreciated. Also, this is my second FreeNAS build, the first was just to learn a little about FreeNAS. I will not go into details on it, for fear of being flamed ;) So my questions are:
1.) Does scrubbing or resilvering take much CPU?
2.) Do you think a C2750 will be powerful enough for up to thirty 4TB disks with no encryption or dedup?
3.) Any idea why FreeBSD 10 (not sure what version FreeNAS uses) wouldn't be listed as supported on the A1SAM-2750F, but is on the other Supermicro C2750 boards?
4.) Is 32GB of RAM enough for now, how about if I add another 8 disk vdev?
5.) What make/model RAM should I buy? The supported list only shows 4 different models.
6.) If you don't think the C2750 is a good choice, how do you feel about the e3-1230v3 and what Mobo/RAM should I be looking at for low power consumption?
7.) Any idea if smart data is obtainable in FreeNAS when using a 3ware controller? The latest firmware suposedly doesn't support JBOD mode. Disks must be exported as single volumes.
8.) Should I flash the 3ware controller back to a previous version that does support JBOD? Although I'm not sure if it would support 2TB+ drives then.