Home NAS for media work file storage/streaming

[ZeroNight]

I work with a lot of video editing, photography, and 3D modeling, and need some kind of reliable, long term storage. Something that I'll be able to maintain and upgrade without losing any files, ever. I want to be able to come back to a project I worked on in 10 years and find the files without any random corruption or anything like that. That's why I'm looking at FreeNAS, since above all else, what matters most to me here is reliability. Everything else is secondary to that.

As someone with -already- two computers next to the desk (desktop and render computer/workstation), something that really matters to me on this is it being as quiet as possible. I understand that when writing files with a ton of drives, that's impossible to avoid to some extent, but other than that, I really don't want to be hearing an extra couple of fans blasting for no particular reason 24/7.

Secondarily, it wouldn't hurt to be able to do some extra things on it, like owncloud or running a plex server. While I would not complain about being able to do some basic work off of it using it for storage, it's not a requirement (or expectation) by any means, since the files I work with are fairly large.

For the case, the Fractal Design Node 804 is the clear choice for my needs. I'm running out of floor space to shove computers into, and of all the small form factor cases I was looking at, it had the most options for storage and a layout I think I could work with when building the computer pretty easily. Going with a larger case I just don't think is an option right now, with where I currently live.


So far, here's the build I worked out:

Case - Fractal Design Node 804 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352047
CPU - Core i3-6300T 3.3 GHz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016O796JS/
CPU cooler - Noctua NH-U9B SE2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065SFEE8/ (not sure if this will fit in the case)
Motherboard - Supermicro - MBD-X11SSH-LN4F https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182996
Power supply - SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 600W 80+ Titanium Fanless https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9OLE9X/
RAM - Crucial 16gb DDR4 2666mhz ECC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078N7HC6L/
Hard drive primary - Western Digital WD Green 120GB M.2 SSD https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Green-WDS120G2G0B-Internal/dp/B078WYRR9S
Hard drive primary adapter - Some random StarTech adapter? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IR05DLK/
Hard drive storage - WD Red 4TB 5400 RPM (x8 drives in RAID-Z2) - https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-NAS-Hard-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE


Already considering changing:

Motherboard - Supermicro X10SRM-F https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183597
Maybe recycle an old Samsung 830 SSD I have lying around uselessly and use that with this motherboard instead? The price gap is the same as buying the adapter+drive for the cheaper one anyway. I was looking at storage controllers, and they all generally seem to be more expensive than a higher capacity motherboard, and I don't EVER see the need for more than the 2 extra SATA slots in ths build since the case has no more space.

And again, something I'm seeing in a lot of reviews for these Supermicro boards, everyone seems to be complaining about fan noise. Is there anything equivilent to the ASUS X99-E WS board I have in my workstation for this kind of form factor without sacrificing total drives? That workstation is dead silent, even with a Xeon E5-2630 v3 inside when rendering a project.

The motherboard selection was just something I've seen on a few other NAS builds online and it happened to have the right amount of SATA ports for all the drives. That is the extent of my logic behind it, so if someone recommends something else, I'll probably go with it.


RAM:

Again, only going with it because it was the cheapest 16GB ECC stick I could find by Crucial, and a few FreeNAS guides said Crucial was a good company to go with on it. Also, since it's a single stick, I can easily add more later on.


CPU:

The i3-6300T had a really low TDP (35W), supports 64gb of ECC ram, and was fairly cheap. Seemed like a pretty clear choice, especially if I want to do anything with Plex, but I'm not really familiar with any of Intel's CPUs below the i7 line so there may be something I'm overlooking.


But yeah. Honestly, kinda new to this whole FreeNAS thing, so I don't doubt that there are things I'm completely overlooking. Any feedback at all would be useful, nothing is really set in stone here. I'm just trying not to go too far over the budget I currently already worked out for these parts.

 

[websmith]

Hi,

I'm no expert on ZFS, I have built my own computers for the last 25 years or so, and I have a few comments.

I would cut back on the power supply, Titanium level effeciency is awesome, but paying that much for a power supply is crazy in my opinion. You can easily get a silent power supply that has more than enough power for your usage for less than half the price. Check out this page with reviews: https://www.custompcguide.net/10-most-quiet-power-supply-units-your-computer-will-love/ - most newer power supplies does not even spin up before being loaded above 50%.

I dont know that cooler exacly, but Noctua makes great fans if you like them silent, so you cannot go wrong there.

If you go with the other motheboard you have to be aware that it takes Registered ECC, where the first one takes Unbuffered. Registered is for servers that need to take a very high capacity, i.e. 512GB or more.

Skip the m.2. drive, you dont need anything that fancy, and m.2 drives tend to get hot, which causes your fans to have to work harder. Your old samsung drive will do fine and the money you save you can either pocket or spend on a real SAS card, which is the recommended way of running FreeNAS as far as I know. Something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-U039M...-Port-6Gb-s-SAS-SATA-Raid-0-1-10/253503995794

I would probably echange the i3 for a xeon, but thats just me. I am not even sure the i3 will fit into the second board you are considering. And you should not worry so much about TDP - unless you intend to have it running @ 100% all the time, then processors will clock down and not generate much heat or use much power, so just pick one that fits your motherboard and get one with a high clock speed.

I would probably put in another 16GB stick of ram, but you can probably get by with what you have, just don't expect stellar performance.

Edit:
The second motherboard will not support the core i3, but comes with what looks like a SAS port for 4 drives onboard. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10SRM-F.cfm - so if you buy that, then you dont have to buy an extra SAS controller to support your 8 drives + boot drive.