Home Business build?

[MunkaySteve]

Hi all,

I've read a lot on these forums over the last few months, and around 5-6 weeks ago I built my first FreeNAS box using 9.2.1.5 x64 version.

I built it for myself for home purposes - storing family photos, wedding video etc, but also as a media platform. I carefully considered all the recommendations put forward by many individuals (cyberjock in particular stands out as somebody I read a lot of posts from. For my use, I decided on a decently clocked basic Pentium grade chip and non ECC hardware in a Fractal Node 304 case. To protect myself from issues and mishaps, I have a comprehensive backup policy in place using Crashplan. I know it's not quite as good as having ECC, but this was a budgetary decision made due to the otherwise steep cost of processor / mobo combination to be able to use ECC RAM.

This backdrop of my experience leads me to my question.

A friend of mine and his wife are both independent business people in their own area. I have advised them that they need to seriously consider their data storage strategy for their businesses (his wife's data is particularly prone to risk due to the nature of her business against his). I've demonstrated my setup this evening, but have explained I made some calculated cost cutting measures for mine because my livelihood is not dependant on it.

Use case is predominantly Windows file share, BT Sync for phone backups and distributed working, Crashplan to provide key data backups distributed to multiple locations. It's likely their photos etc will be stored on it, so Plex may also be installed to provide a more integrated use. At least for now, transcoding doesn't appear to be high on the likely use case here. I don't think the volume of data is going to be especially high either, so thinking 4 x 1TB WD Reds will be used in RAIDZ2 for storage as these can be upgraded in capacity should it ever come to it.

For the record, I am in the UK.

He's gone away to think about it, so in the meantime I wondered if anybody had some suggestions on:

Suitable mobo / CPU combo for the Fractal Node 304 case that would provide ECC support and operation.

If no sensible priced / featured mobo exists for the Mini-ITX format, then the same question for a Micro ATX (and I'll source a bigger case that will fit the bill).

Sensible size and supported UPS unit (I might even get one of these for myself if it turns out to be a decent price).

Ultimately, I'm looking to try and get him the system he needs to provide some data centralisation and redundancy - we are looking at a home office unit here.

Any feedback you guys can give on this, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks

MunkaySteve

 

[cyberjock]

To be honest I'd say you have two options:

1. Shop around for your own parts.

The problem is your availability of parts in your country and the cost varies widely around the world. What is available to many of us may not be available to you. You'll get better answers if you provide your own parts list first as we can tell you what is good or bad about the setup and you can decide how much or if you should care about our concern.

We get so many requests for builds nobody answers them anymore. In fact, we get so many requests for build reviews that many of us just don't bother anymore. There's got to be a thousand examples in the forums already.

2. Buy a FreeNAS Mini and just add your own disks.

This is by far the easier solution. Usually the cost is only slightly more than the cost of building yourself, but you have a system that is pretty much "just gonna work" and doesn't have any of those noob mistakes that often turn what would have been a great FreeNAS box into something that won't even connect to the network.

 

[Ericloewe]

2. Buy a FreeNAS Mini and just add your own disks.

This is by far the easier solution. Usually the cost is only slightly more than the cost of building yourself, but you have a system that is pretty much "just gonna work" and doesn't have any of those noob mistakes that often turn what would have been a great FreeNAS box into something that won't even connect to the network.

Unfortunately, this might be prohibitively expensive for us Europeans, since those things ship from the US... (Too bad, the BSD Daemon doll really rounds out a nice package)

Good news is that most parts are easily available around here at mostly reasonable prices (The Avoton motherboards are a bit overpriced, but LGA 1150 stuff is in line with expectations).

There have been a few Build Checks for small systems lately, check them out.

 

[MunkaySteve]

Thanks for the input guys. I will do a bit of a sweep through again to find any information that might be relevant.

I did actually look into the freenas mini before building my own machine as outlined above. I'm looking at the LGA1150 kit as that is what I built my box around. Just not server grade hardware.

I've seen mention of Xeon E3 processors a few times, so unless there are more suitable processors for the described workload, I guess I will start there.

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks for the input guys. I will do a bit of a sweep through again to find any information that might be relevant.

I did actually look into the freenas mini before building my own machine as outlined above. I'm looking at the LGA1150 kit as that is what I built my box around. Just not server grade hardware.

I've seen mention of Xeon E3 processors a few times, so unless there are more suitable processors for the described workload, I guess I will start there.

Some low-end processors also include ECC support, so they're a viable alternative if the goal is simple file serving. An i3 with ECC support (check ark.intel.com) will do fine in most cases.

 

[MunkaySteve]

Sounds right up the guy's Street. Thanks for that, should prove energy efficient over a Xeon! I will keep investigating. I am coming to realise there really isn't a lot of choices for server mini itx boards.

 

[Ericloewe]

Sounds right up the guy's Street. Thanks for that, should prove energy efficient over a Xeon!

Not really. Power consumption is the same when idling (they're the same processor with different stuff fused out and maybe just two cores instead of all four) - the only difference is that the faster parts have the potential to work faster and thus use more power under load. In fact, the Xeon E3s without an iGPU may be slightly better at idle, since they don't have a GPU to power.

I am coming to realise there really isn't a lot of choices for server mini itx boards.

I find miniITX overrated. It's not like there are many miniITX cases that'll take tons of HDDs anyway... I believe Asrock has a few interesting miniITX server motherboards, though.

 

[MunkaySteve]

I am only looking at mini itx as it's a small home office unit required. I am really pleased with my fractal node 304 build. I suspect my friend would be equally happy with such a unit, but where I am happy to risk consumer grade hardware given my understanding of the potential issues, I can't recommend the same for him as he will be using it for business.

I have spotted a reasonably decent sounding ASRock board which I think will fit the bill. Also think the i3 might be more within budget.

Been checking the FreeBSD forums for UPS support and looks like an APC SUA750 should do nicely.

 

[danb35]

Any reason not to just buy a FreeNAS Mini for his office?

 

[Ericloewe]

Any reason not to just buy a FreeNAS Mini for his office?

Shipping and local taxes probably make it prohibitively expensive for anyone outside the US.

 

[danb35]

Ah, missed that he was in the UK. Shipping would be $185, definitely undesirable, and taxes are another issue altogether. I wonder if iX would work on a consulting basis to spec parts that would be locally acquired and still support the finished build--might be worthwhile for a business system, but of course that would add to the cost.

 

[Whattteva]

I've actually been eying the mini for a while. I've just been holding back cause it only has 4 3.5" trays, which is sort of low if you want to run anything higher than RAIDZ-1. I wish they just scrapped the 2.5" trays and add 2 or even just 1 more 3.5" instead.

 

[Ericloewe]

I've actually been eying the mini for a while. I've just been holding back cause it only has 4 3.5" trays, which is sort of low if you want to run anything higher than RAIDZ-1. I wish they just scrapped the 2.5" trays and add 2 or even just 1 more 3.5" instead.

Well, you can build a very similar system using the same motherboard (or a different one of your choice) and the Silverstone DS380, which has 8 hot-swap HDD bays.

 

[Whattteva]

Well, you can build a very similar system using the same motherboard (or a different one of your choice) and the Silverstone DS380, which has 8 hot-swap HDD bays.

Your solution certainly solves that problem, but I'm trying to support iXSystems here ;)

 

[MunkaySteve]

That case sounds intriguing. Will have to take a look.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Might want to check out my build in my signature. It's a pretty decent itx build.

 

[MunkaySteve]

Got the same case here and love it. That Silverstone case looks awesome for a bigger system though. I scaled mine with 4x 1TB red drives. Going to upgrade them as space requires it.