Home NAS server build advice

[plissje]

Hi guys,
I've started collecting parts for a FreeNAS build for my home. Will mostly be used as a shared file server for videos, photos, files & movies. I plan on running at least Plex and owncloud on it in jails.

This is what I have so far:
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231v3
Mainboard: Supermicro X10SLM+-F
RAM: 32GB (4x8) DDR3 ECC RAM (I actually have no idea atm which RAM is it exactly as I've picked it up from ebay with the mb, ram & SSDs)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 550W G2

I've picked-up the board, cpu, RAM & x2 200GB Intel S3700 for about 300$ (Looked like a good deal to me, is it?). Might use the SSDs for the SLOG and/or L2ARC.
Anyhow, back to my thoughts from this point on what I'm missing:

Case - Since I can't really ship server cases to where I live as it is way too expensive, I thought about going for the Fractal R5 or S (With HDD cages). Saw that its pretty recommended in the forums.
HDDs - Been reading quite a lot on this. There is a good deal on HGST Deskstar 6TB for around 175$. The problem is I keep reading they are quite noisy. If anyone has those and can comment that would be great. Secondary option is the WD Reds. I'm looking to get around 4 drives at this time. RAIDZ2 seems like a fine option for my needs.
HBA - Kind of lost here as I've never messed around with this. Was thinking about LSI 9211 as it is in the recommended hardware, something like this. Will it work on my board?
10GbE - I know that Chelsio & Intel are the go to here, but since this is a home build, I was thinking I could get away with using 2 Mellanox cards (MNPA19-XTR) with a DAC SFP+. This connection will only be from my NAS to my workstation as 10GB switch is not something I see in the near future :)
Boot Device - Nothing much here. Still deciding whether to go with a dual mirrored USB or maybe some simple low capacity SSDs.

So, any comments or thoughts about the build would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)

 

[kdragon75]

RAM: 32GB (4x8) DDR3 ECC RAM (I actually have no idea atm which RAM is it exactly as I've picked it up from ebay with the mb, ram & SSDs)

That board only supports unbuffered ECC or non-ECC memory. Double check that yours is correct. This one got me a few times (you would think I would learn)

I've picked-up the board, cpu, RAM & x2 200GB Intel S3700 for about 300$ (Looked like a good deal to me, is it?). Might use the SSDs for the SLOG and/or L2ARC.

I wouldn't bother with the L2ARC as it often requires lots of tweaking/maths to get any substantial benefit especially given your use case. A SLOG would go mostly unused as well as most SMB clients don't request sync writes. you can always add one later or take it back out.

HBA - Kind of lost here as I've never messed around with this. Was thinking about LSI 9211 as it is in the recommended hardware, something like this. Will it work on my board?

This or any 2008 based card. It may need to be cross flashed to IT mode. If it says ANYTHING about RAID when booting, STOP and look into flashing the card.

Otherwise to me this looks good. Be sure to use 11.1U6 unless your willing to risk your data and like debugging or at least filling bug reports.

 

[IQless]

Fractal R5 or S

If you decide to go for one of these, go for the R5. Much more convenient, it can hold 8x3,5" out of the box, and you can always add a 3in2 hdd cage in the 2x 5,25" bays if needed. :)

S (With HDD cages).

How did you plan to use hdd cages in the S? I'm curious about how that would be solved actually.

 

[plissje]

If you decide to go for one of these, go for the R5. Much more convenient, it can hold 8x3,5" out of the box, and you can always add a 3in2 hdd cage in the 2x 5,25" bays if needed. :)

How did you plan to use hdd cages in the S? I'm curious about how that would be solved actually.

I saw a photo of the S looking similar to the R5, with 6 HDD cages. But seeing that the case is basically the same size with just the difference that the S was made more towards watercooling, I think R5 is the better way to go. This is how it looks like: http://prntscr.com/l37tyw

That board only supports unbuffered ECC or non-ECC memory. Double check that yours is correct. This one got me a few times (you would think I would learn)

Does it support non-ECC? because from the description here http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c220/x10slm-f.cfm I can only see the ECC memory. What am I missing?

I wouldn't bother with the L2ARC as it often requires lots of tweaking/maths to get any substantial benefit especially given your use case. A SLOG would go mostly unused as well as most SMB clients don't request sync writes. you can always add one later or take it back out.

I forgot to add that I might be looking to do some virtualization, probably with a separate server to run some of the VMs. Might need it there but thanks for the info that it has no effect on SMB. I might add some storage as an ISCSI disk on my workstation though.

This or any 2008 based card. It may need to be cross flashed to IT mode. If it says ANYTHING about RAID when booting, STOP and look into flashing the card.

Otherwise to me this looks good. Be sure to use 11.1U6 unless your willing to risk your data and like debugging or at least filling bug reports.

Thanks, will check it out and I planned on going with 11.1 :)

 

[kdragon75]

Does it support non-ECC? because from the description here http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c220/x10slm-f.cfm I can only see the ECC memory. What am I missing?

From the manual: Note: The X10SLL-SF/-S supports up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory in 2 DIMM slots.

I forgot to add that I might be looking to do some virtualization, probably with a separate server to run some of the VMs. Might need it there but thanks for the info that it has no effect on SMB. I might add some storage as an ISCSI disk on my workstation though.

Yeah a separate VM host would be ideal as this would be a bit underpowered. As for iSCSI to a windows box, I'm not sure off hand if windows would default to sync writes for everything but I suspect it would honor any applications request for such. In any case where block storage is being mounted from remote storage (especially over ethernet/TCP/IP) I would prefer to set sync always.

 

[IQless]

This is how it looks like: http://prntscr.com/l37tyw

This looks to me like the Define Mini?


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