Intel Atom C3758, but which case?

[Scyntherei]

Prequel
I'm running a single mini-itx box right now with the following configuration:

CPU: Intel - Xeon E3-1225 V5 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock - C236 WSI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial - 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Memory: Crucial - 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Red 3 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: BitFenix - Phenom Midnight Black Mini ITX Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair - CX 430 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Other: SanDisk Ultra Fit 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive SDCZ43-016G-G46
Other: SanDisk Ultra Fit 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive SDCZ43-016G-G46

On that machine I'm running esxi and passing through a PCI-E sata card. I could not for the life of me get jails/vms/docker set up the way I'd like within FreeNAS itself. At someone point I just decided FreeNAS is doing too much. So I decided to simplify and let FreeNAS handle storage and set up another VM in esxi to handle my docker containers. This still isn't ideal-- I still face strange issues from time to time. So I'd like to take it one step further and physically separate the two machines.

Usage is not that heavy-- primarily for home file storage and streaming media to a handful of devices using plex. Plex would be running on the xeon machine, not the atom.

I'd really like to use an Atom C3xxx board for their feature set and low power consumption, however I've been having a heck of a time looking for my dream case for it.

Ideally I'd like it meet the following criteria

• 2-4U 12 3.5" bay hotswap
• backplane with 8 drives driven by mini-sas HD 4 drives driven by sata or all 12 sata
• compact (not full depth rack)

Board/CPU: ASRock C3758D4I-4L Mini ITX Server Motherboard SOC (link)

Existing hardware to carry over:
6xWD Red 3tb looking to expand to 12 drives

This isn't so much a question of will it freenas? But more a plea for help in finding a case for this thing. Also perhaps a discussion on whether or not the C3xxx is actually the right choice.

 

[Constantin]

The C3758 board you mention is the spiritual successor to the C2750D4I that FreeNAS has been using for years in the Mini and Mini XL. There is a lot to like, starting with the low power but powerful processor, the on-board 10GBe copper interface, and the support for 13 SATA drives.

I apologize to everyone ready to roll their eyes right about now but I'd suggest taking a closer look at the Flex ATX series from SuperMicro with D-15xx xeon chips instead. They offer units with HBAs' (up to 16 drives per HBA), Two PCIe 3.0 x8 slots, a mSATA slot, a M.2 slot @ PCIe 3.0x4, two SATADOM, two SATA 3 ports, and a variety of Gig and 10GBe networking options. SuperMicro offers a somewhat bewildering D-15xx universe that you can peruse at your leisure.

Around $500, the X10SDV-2C-7TP4F is awesome with 2 cores and 4 threads. Low power needs, SFP+ for 10GBe networking, and a on-board LSI 2116 HBA. More expensive Xeon boards exist, but they also consume more power (you may not need the extra oompf). For $100 more, there is the same board with a 4 Core / 8 Thread CPU, double the cost and you can have a $950 8-core 16-thread monster X10SDV-7TP4F. To me, the C-3xxx Atom series offers marginally less expensive hardware though with significant drawbacks (IMO) regarding future expansion (fewer PCIe buses / lanes, no m.2 PCIe 3.0x4 interface available, etc.).

In terms of a case, I have been happy with my Lian Li cases (Q26 and A76). The former is no longer available and will only fit a Flex ATX board under duress - two additional standoffs / board mounts have to be added, a SFX type power supply has to be used. The A76 will swallow a whale. I love how these two cases allow the use of backplanes for the SATA drives, which makes swapping them quick and painless without resorting to a hot-swap cage.

 

[Scyntherei]

Those boards are definitely something to consider! Question is though, with all of my shares being SMB would I be better off with the high frequency, dual core board or lower frequency quad core board?

 

[Constantin]

Matthew Steinhoff owns a couple of variants of these boards and he kindly counseled me to get the entry-level unit. He considered the transfer protocol (SMB is sensitive to CPU clock speed and is single-threaded), and the number of users who will use the server at once for my use case.

I don't have multiple D15xx boards and SSD arrays on hand to test out whether the D-1508 (in the -2C-) will outperform the D-1518 (in the -4C-) or the D-1537 in my application. I'd like to think that CPUs operating in the GHz range are unlikely to be a bottleneck compared to the storage subsystem (i.e. waiting for writes to get acknowledged and transferring the next file transfer).

The less-powerful but 2.4GHz 8-core Avoton C-2750D4I I use now never went over 80% utilization AFAIK (and that was during scrubs) and features a passmark of 3806 (each single thread good for 584). Meanwhile, the 1.7-2.2GHz D-1537 has a passmark of 7731 (each thread is good for 724) while the 2.2-2.6GHz D-1508 has a passmark of 3814 but a singe-thread rating of 1498.

I doubt (but cannot confirm one way or the other) that the CPU speed differences in that board series make a tremendous difference with SMB in a single-VDEV Z3 application like mine. Couple more things to consider:

1. Can the CPU turbo consistently? Remember, SuperMicro designs high airflow into its designs and a hot CPU will throttle itself. Note the long discussions at servethehome, tinkertry, Bussink, etc. re: how to cool the D-series of chips effectively. I'm still figuring that out.
2. Are you enabling potentially CPU-intensive processes / protocols like SMB encryption, transcoding, etc?
3. Are you using fast SSD pools? A fast SLOG will help a spinning pool for sure but it's not going to be fully comparable.

In the end, I chose the slower D-1537-based version of the board to get more cores to work with in the future. But between the cost delta ($500 vs. the -2C- I could have bought 64GB of RAM instead) and the higher clock speed, the D-1508-based -2C- variant would likely have been a better fit for my application right now.

 

[pro lamer]

@OP
I'd start with finding a case that meets your needs for 12 hot swap bays to make sure you are limited to small form factor. Small form factor is an extra cost... Anyway a compact case with that many hot swap bays might really be limited to SFF :)

Sent from my phone

 

[Constantin]

Above 8 bays it's hard to find tower-style cases that are not gargantuan and /or HDD roasters. For example, the NZXT 440 can gobble the disks but it's not hot swap and I'm not a fan of the HDD density in there. The drives are mounted in pairs and the fans are not high-static type. In other words, potential trouble.

If you have plans for a lot of drives, you're better off following in Chris Moore's shoes and getting a comparatively-speaking bargain professional rackmount case. Put in your own MB, then add up to 24 HDDs or more, knowing that the cooling system was built for the task.

 

[pro lamer]

not full depth

Are you considering a short-depth rackmount? (I guess ultra short don't have that many bays)

I'd start a new thread titled "Looking for small 12+ hot swap bays chassis" or something...

Sent from my phone

 

[Constantin]

I was just looking in eBay and saw bunches of Supermicro server cases w/16 or 24-drive hot swap for less than $400. If I was starting over, that's probably the direction I'd go - 16-drive unit with a dual 500W PSU in a 3U, then either stand it sideways like Chris or hang it from the wall with a vertical mount.

 

[Scyntherei]

Hey, I wanted to come back and thank you guys for your recommendations. I got this put together about a week or so back and it's been really solid. Running FreeNAS is actually enjoyable now that I'm not chasing strange issues here and there.

Chassis: https://www.supermicro.com/products...5igYy9Nmf6LEmcakJGEFkLWjrc1dfbVq0fckl-02nU6k4
Motherboard+CPU: https://www.supermicro.com/products...Zd2V4SkL4PmH5qlP9BAsawop-9cOyKr9dWQXCGjk95KH8
Memory: 4x16gb https://store.supermicro.com/16gb-ddr4-2133-mem-dr416l-hl02-er21.html

I have yet to load it up with more than 6 drives. I had an issue where half the (empty) drive bays had a solid red light. That... turned out to be user error. I had one sideband cable plugged in upside down. I didn't want to load it up not knowing if all the bays actually worked. So far though, it's taken everything I've thrown at it like a champ. It's a bit more enterprisey than I was initially going for, but I'm happy with it. I'm thinking I went a little overkill on the memory for my use case (no arc/no dedupe), but hey.