Looking at an upgrade.

[kjc200763]

Hi all

I bought a used mini NAS system less drives a couple of years ago based around a Gigabyte GA-D510UD mini ITX, Intel ATOM 4GB RAM (so its pretty low on the specs but is doing the job.
Case has 4 hot swap drive bays and I'm running a ZFS mirror of 2 3TB western digital red drives. My thought is to up grade the size as drives fail or my space requirement increases.
Primary as a home back up and plex server.

I'm thinking of doing an upgrade retaining the case and drive configuration. I've built a few PC's but not for a few years now other than my Media centre PC which is largely redundant with a Firestick running Plex so I'm thinking of re purposing the SSD that's the boot drive in the HTPC in this upgrade as well.

I've gone no further than FreeNAS-9.2.1.9 as I'm aware the 4GB is a limiting factor.

This is what I've looked at on the https://www.scan.co.uk website. Currently tipping in at £460

ASRock E3C226D2I, Intel C226, S 1150, DDR3 ECC, SATA III 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), VGA, Dual GbE, COM, Mini ITX

16GB Crucial DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), 240 Pins, ECC Registered, CAS 11

Intel Core i3 4170, LGA 1150, Haswell, Dual Core, 3.7GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 1150MHz GPU, 37x Ratio, 54W, CPU, Retail

Arctic Freezer 11 LP Low Profile Processor Cooler for Intel Socket 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 775 - 100 Watts Max Cooling

The SSD is a OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 2.5" 120GB could I use this as cache to any advantage? or should it just be a boot drive which seems a waste compared to a 16GB USB flash drive.

I appreciate any advice given, thanks in advance

Kev Cornwall UK

 

[Dice]

Hello,

I suggest you take a look at the recent hardware guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

It'll probably point you towards getting at least a 1151 CPU, where you'll find yourself with a far more future proof system than the 1150 can deliver :) (that is - RAM, and potentially future optane support)

 

[kjc200763]

Thanks for the link to the hardware guide, interesting read, I feel very out of touch with recent developments in hardware.

I have to have an eye on the cost but the selection below is only around £50 more, than my original selection.
Interesting that this low price chip is offering EEC support above pricier options.

Thoughts?

Supermicro LGA1151 Xeon Micro ATX Server Motherboard MBD-X11SSM-F £219.98

Intel Core i3 6100, S 1151, Skylake, Dual Core, 3.7GHz, 3MB Cache, 1005MHz GPU, 37x Ratio, 47W, CPU, £106.49

16GB Crucial DDR4 Server Memory, PC4-17000 (2133), ECC Registered, CAS 15, Dual Ranked, 1.2V, Single Module £156.98

Arctic Freezer 11 LP Low Profile Processor Cooler for Intel Socket 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 775 - 100 Watts Max Cooling £13.99

Kev

 

[kjc200763]

Cheaper from Newegg with delivery :) Grand Total: £459.42

 

[Dice]

Thoughts?

Supermicro LGA1151 Xeon Micro ATX Server Motherboard MBD-X11SSM-F £219.98

Intel Core i3 6100, S 1151, Skylake, Dual Core, 3.7GHz, 3MB Cache, 1005MHz GPU, 37x Ratio, 47W, CPU, £106.49

16GB Crucial DDR4 Server Memory, PC4-17000 (2133), ECC Registered, CAS 15, Dual Ranked, 1.2V, Single Module £156.98

This is a very nice motherboard and CPU combination.
However you've managed to pick out ECC REG, which you do not want.
You need ECC UDIMM (unbuffered).
1x 16GB stick is perfect.
I would personally prefer samsung memory. This one in particular:
Samsung 16GB DDR4 ECC 2400Mhz 1.2V UDIMM x8 DR ( M391A2K43BB1-CRC )[/B][/S]

 

[kjc200763]

This is a very nice motherboard and CPU combination.
However you've managed to pick out ECC REG, which you do not want.
You need ECC UDIMM (unbuffered).
1x 16GB stick is perfect.
I would personally prefer samsung memory. This one in particular:
Samsung 16GB DDR4 ECC 2400Mhz 1.2V UDIMM x8 DR ( M391A2K43BB1-CRC )[/B][/S]

Thanks, I was getting confused on memory specs.

I'm sure I can find an excellent guide somewhere, but as far as software, If I back up my config, fresh install FreeNas to the currently installed build, reload my config file I'll be back up and running, drives recognised etc. I've no encryption keys etc. I can then upgrade to the latest builds.

Kev

 

[Dice]

yes.

 

[ChriZ]

Does your case support uATX motherboards?

 

[kjc200763]

Excuse my ignorance, I thought that was the same as micro atx, I attach some pics just incase I've the wrong end of the stick. No idea of the make.


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[ChriZ]

MicroATX and uATX are the same thing. Apologies for confusing you.. :)

Your case seems to be mini-ITX only, though, which is smaller than micro/uATX, so a micro/uATX mobo (like the X11SSM-F ) won't fit there - you'll need a new case, or a mini ITX motherboard.

 

[kjc200763]

MicroATX and uATX are the same thing. Apologies for confusing you.. :)

Your case seems to be mini-ITX only, though, which is smaller than micro/uATX, so a micro/uATX mobo (like the X11SSM-F ) won't fit there - you'll need a new case, or a mini ITX motherboard.

Just when you think you've got it figured out. Ho hum. I've massive htpc case. That might have to do the job.

http://www.zalman.com/contents/products/view.html?no=395

Kev


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[ChriZ]

Or you can get an 1151 mini-itx server motherboard, like the ASRock E3C236D2I and reuse your NAS case.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Dell t20/t30 or Lenovo ts140 might be a good choice for you. Pre built and cheap. Just add money and drives.

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[danb35]

Dell t20/t30 or Lenovo ts140 might be a good choice for you. Pre built and cheap.

Or Proliant ML10. Cheaper yet.

 

[kjc200763]

Thanks all for help and advice. I went with the ASRock Rack E3c236d21. 1151 i3-6100 and 16gb eec memory. Couldn't get my older version of freenas to install initially. Eventually went to 11 and on it went no troubles. Installed my saved configuration. I added a 128gb ssd drive from my hpc installed my plex jail there. Took me a while to figure the mount paths as the browse option didn't appear in plex configuration. Only issue I have now is it can't create an optimised version video file, as plex doesn't seem to have permission to right back to the mount point. Other than that up running stable[emoji106]


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