Home NAS - First Time FreeNAS build

[theOneAndOnlyMrT]

All,

I've been lurking around the forums for quite some time but have never used FreeNAS. I've read all of the must reads and tons of other builds. I'm finally at a point in my research that I feel like I should get the community opinions.

My current setup:

• High end desktop with i7 and 32GB ram (Windows on bare metal)
• Running a couple VMs (Plex, ZNC, Rtorrent) (VMWare)
• Two 1.5TB drives in RAID0 (very close to full)
• Two 1TB drives in RAID0 (used = 500GB); These are old so I'm hesitant to use them
• One 200GB SSD for boot and VMs
• Max of 4 Plex streams at a time (3 transcoding at one time max)

Fortunately, I've never had a drive fail ever in any machine (I probably just jinxed myself).

I would like to do the same things that I do now except I want to run it in a little bit more stable environment. The RAID0 has been putting me living on the edge. I do have offsite backup for critical items but I'd like to be a little more careful. FreeNAS 10 looks absolutely amazing and I want the build to be able to run it as soon as it is stable (docker is super exciting).

My thoughts for my build:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSL-CF ($286.37)
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V5 ($272.99)
• RAM: Crucial 16GB (x2) DDR4-2133 ($253.98)
• CASE: NZXT H440 ($109.99)
• PSU: SeaSonic 760W 80+ Platinum ($134.60)
• HDD: Western Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM (x6) in RaidZ2 ($875.94)
• BOOT/VM: To be determined by the question below
• UPS: CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD UPS ($106.47)

Total Cost So Far: $2040.34

Questions:

• HDD Selection: I'm really torn on what I should do here. I am using the spreadsheet from the forums to do cost analysis. 6x4TB (11.46TiB usable; $875.94) or 8x3TB (12.89TiB usable; $857.94)? The 3TB will give me more usable space but is more drives and wider RaidZ2. With the case that I've selected, I'll have space for 13 3.5" drives so it gives me the option to add additional vdevs in the future to the pool. The conflict is....Is it better to go large disk size and add another vdev later? or is it better to go more small drives now to get that bit extra space considering that more 3TB drives are cheaper too? (7 free spots in the case vs 5)
• HDD Purchase: Do I need to purchase the drives from multiple vendors to have a better chance of not getting a bad drive? (ie: Half and half?)
• BOOT/VM: If I want to run docker and/or VMs with FreeNAS 10 in the future, do I need to separate the boot from the VM store? Also, everything that I have read says that it is safer to have FreeNAS run on a small SSD instead of USB due to failures. Do I need to mirror them too? Ideally, I'd like to get a single SSD for boot and VM storage (assuming I do a nightly offsite backup of config)
• SAS Breakout Cable: I am assuming I will need a breakout cable from SAS to 4 SATA?

Please feel free to criticise. Also, let me know if I'm trying to plan too much for the future (size of case, hard drive sizes, etc)

 

[CraigD]

I'll have space for 13 3.5" drives so it gives me the option to add additional vdevs in the future to the pool. The conflict is....Is it better to go large disk size and add another vdev later? or is it better to go more small drives now to get that bit extra space considering that more 3TB drives are cheaper too? (7 free spots in the case vs 5)

I would use a 6 4TB RAIDz2 vdev and stripe in another vdev at a later date with larger drives if needed

This also means you have one HDD bay free. This is useful for replacing faulty disks, and growing vdevs without degrading it, or if you must a hot spare

Have Fun
EDIT: Your case says it supports 11 3.5" drives... If you know you can fit more drives in great (I can get 16 3.5" in my Zalman MS800 case)

 

[SweetAndLow]

I would go with the largest drives you can afford right now. So that means go with the raidz2 setup.

When purchasing hdd it doesn't matter who you buy them from you will test all of them before using them. This way if they fail they will fail during testing. most drives fail in the first 48h or hard usage. Follow the hdd burnin guid in my signature.

 

[theOneAndOnlyMrT]

I finally pulled the trigger. I changed a couple things up:
* Motherboard: I went down to the SSM. It's a lot cheaper and I can add an HBA later when I add more drives. It also had a good combo deal at newegg.
* Larger SSD: A little more space to store VMs

Here is everything I ordered:
CPU/Motherboard Combo: Xeon E3-1240 V5 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor and MBD-X11SSM-F-O Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($454.98)
Memory: 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($137.17 @ B&H)
Memory: 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($137.17 @ B&H)
Storage: SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Digital Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($145.99 @ B&H)
Case: H440 (Glossy White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($126.99 @ Newegg)
UPS: CP1000AVRLCD UPS (Purchased For $109.68 from Amazon)
Total: $2016.90

 

[Constantin]

Hi there, how did you end up liking the case? The H440 looks like a great case and a good upgrade from what I have now.

 

[Chris Moore]

I finally pulled the trigger.

So, where is the build report? How did it work out?