Media + File backup server need

[shetu]

Hello
I try to build a home Plex Media (3/4 user) and file backup server (2 pc and 1 laptop). I have little knowledge about hardwar. What is best budget home Freenas server now?
Due to budget problem I purchase server parts monthly bessis. I bought cpu from my country then motherboard and ram import from Amazon.
CPU : Intel® Core™ i3-8100 Processor
MB: Supermicro Micro ATX DDR4 LGA 1151 Motherboards X11SSM-F-O
RAM: Kingston Technology ValueRAM 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 ECC CL17 DIMM 2Rx8 Desktop Memory (KVR24E17D8/16)

 

[Stevie_1der]

Hello!

The i3-8100 is a "Coffee Lake" CPU with socket LGA1151v2, but the Supermicro X1SSM-F has a 1151 socket and a C236 chipset, and doesn't support the i3-8100.
For Coffee Lake CPUs, you would have to buy a mainboard with LGA 1151v2 socket and C242 or C246 chipset like for example the X11SCH-F or X11SCL-F.
But these boards are brand new, and I don't know if they already are available in your country.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Hi Shetu. If budget is a primary concern it is a good idea to get used equipment if you can find it. You can get a lot more performance for your money buying used.

If you want a plex server and you need to do any transcoding the cpu is important. Before you purchase more parts it might be good to figure out exactly what you want the machine to do so you can find the best budget hardware for that.

I try to build a home Plex Media (3/4 user)

Do you know if you will need to do any transcoding? And if so, at what resolution? You can use a CPUs PassMark score to work out whether it will transcode at the level you need. You might also want to check out more information on Plex and transcoding. Specifically, the part below . . .

Media that is incompatible with your device will be transcoded to a playable format. The process is automatic and you don’t need to worry about specific details. However, there are some things that happen during transcoding that deserve your consideration.

If you know what resolution and file formats your devices accept and you can store media in those formats you can avoid a lot of transcoding. This will allow you go with a cheaper CPU to fit your budget.

 

[shetu]

Thanks for your input. I want use this serve4 next 5 years without change anything. i need basic file server and plx media server (not a lot of hw transcoding). I need 24 tb usable space after raid.
Do you provide some used configuration server spec?

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Do you provide some used configuration server spec?

You can use this calculator to figure out how much usable space you'll get. Keep in mind that you don't want to completely fill up your pools either. If you have 24TB of usable space and you fill that completely up you're gunna have a bad time. (Read extremely slow performance etc)

The board you picked will certainly be able to take the necessary hardware for a basic file server and plex media server. Have you picked out a CPU to fit your needs?

 

[shetu]

You can use this calculator to figure out how much usable space you'll get. Keep in mind that you don't want to completely fill up your pools either. If you have 24TB of usable space and you fill that completely up you're gunna have a bad time. (Read extremely slow performance etc)

The board you picked will certainly be able to take the necessary hardware for a basic file server and plex media server. Have you picked out a CPU to fit your needs?

No. I did not pick anything. I just gather information which one is best for me.
Thanks

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Sorry, I meant to ask if you decided on a CPU, not if you purchased one. :)

Once you look over CPUs, HDDs, etc feel free to reply with updated parts list. Happy to offer advice about specific hardware lists. I think @Stevie_1der gave a good suggestion for how to find CPUs compatible with your motherboard.

For HDDs it really depends on your budget and how much storage you need.

 

[Stevie_1der]

I need 24 tb usable space after raid.

If you need 24 TB usable space, you could go with 6x 8TB or 7x 6TB HDDs in RAIDZ2.
RAIDZ2 uses 2 disks worth of space for parity.
And you should not fill your pool more than about 80%, plus the file system needs some space too.
The 6x 8TB configuration has 32TB net capacity, 80% would be 25.6TB.
The 7x 6TB configuration has 30TB net capacity, 80% would be 24TB.
Of course you could also use 5x 8TB, 6x 6TB or 8x 4TB, all of them give 24TB of capacity, but you shouldn't fill them up completely.

As you want to use Plex, do you need UHD or HD transcoding, or can you play your media as-is?
If you need transcoding, then you would need a huge load of CPU power, especially for UHD content.
Or you could wait until IGP-assisted transcoding is available in Plex/FreeNAS, I read this is work in progress, but I don't know when it will finally be available.
GPU-assisted transcoding will most likely never ever happen, so a graphics card is no use.

Do you provide some used configuration server spec?

Regarding used parts, it depends on your local market.
I'm in a similar situation right now, and in the process of deciding between used and new, so here is a part of what I came up with (all Micro-ATX boards):

• If I were buying new today, I would choose a
  • Supermicro X11SSH-F mainboard (C236 chipset, socket 1151, 4x DDR4 UDIMM, 8x SATA, 1x M.2 PCI-E (for a small boot SSD))
  • Intel Pentium Gold G4560 (2x 3.5GHz), Core i3-7100 (2x 3.9GHz) or Skylake (v5) / Kaby Lake (v6) Xeon E3 (maybe upgrade later if you really need the transcoding feature and still lack power)
  • Samsung DIMM 16GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC (M391A2K43BB1-CRC)
• Or wait a little until the new mainboard generation becomes more widely available (you said you wanted to buy step by step)
  • Supermicro X11SCH-F (C246 chipset, socket 1151v2, 4x DDR4 UDIMM, 8x SATA, 2x M.2 PCI-E)
  • Intel Pentium Gold G5400 (2x 3.7GHz), Core i3-8100 (4x 3.6GHz) or Coffee LakeXeon E3 (maybe upgrade later if you really need the transcoding feature and still lack power)
  • Samsung DIMM 16GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC (M391A2K43BB1-CRC)
• Used Supermicro X9 boards are often recommended here, but are rarely on ebay in Germany (where I live), and are about half the retail price of the up-to-date models.
  • Supermicro X9SCL(+)-F (C202 chipset, socket 1155, 4x DDR3 UDIMM, 6x SATA) or X9SCM(+)-F (C204 chipset, socket 1155, 4x DDR3 UDIMM, 6x SATA)
  • Intel Xeon E3-1225 v2 (4x 3.2GHz) or other Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge (v2) Xeon E3, are quite cheap on ebay in Germany
  • Samsung DIMM 8GB, DDR3-1333, CL9-9-9, ECC (M391B1G73BH0-CH9) for example is on the mainboard compatibility list, but used ones are a little bit rare, and prices are almost the same as DDR4
• The X10 boards are also often recommended and newer than the X9, especially the X10SLL-F are quite often on ebay in Germany at about 1/4 the retail price of of the up-to-date models.
  • Supermicro X10SLL-F (C222 chipset, socket 1150, 4x DDR3 UDIMM, 6x SATA), X10SLM-F (C224 chipset, socket 1150, 4x DDR3 UDIMM, 6x SATA) or X10SLH-F (C226 chipset, socket 1150, 4x DDR3 UDIMM, 6x SATA)
  • Intel Xeon E3-1225 v3 (4x 3.2GHz) or other Haswell (v3) / Broadwell (v4) Xeon E3
  • Samsung DIMM 8GB, DDR3-1600, CL11-11-11, ECC (M391B1G73BH0-CK000) also a little bit rare on ebay in Germany and not really much cheaper than DDR4

So you'll have to do a little search, what is available and how the prices are.
Sometimes there are complete kits (mainboard, CPU, RAM) on ebay which are even cheaper than if you would buy each item separate on ebay, or used servers including chassis.

Maybe @Chris Moore can suggest some configurations and parts for you, he is the expert in picking parts.

By the way: I just think it would somehow be nice, if there were a sticky thread/document with some example configurations.
I know the hardware recommendations guide, but a more detailed list would come in handy, because questions for that come quite often.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

Supermicro X11SSH-F mainboard (C236 chipset, socket 1151, 4x DDR4 UDIMM, 8x SATA, 1x M.2 PCI-E (for a small boot SSD))

Does a boot SSD benefit in some way from the super fast M.2? When I was looking at boards I actually opted to not get M.2 slots since I preferred those PCIe lanes to be available for a PCIe drive with PLP if I wanted to add a ZIL later. Perhaps I erred?

 

[Stevie_1der]

Does a boot SSD benefit in some way from the super fast M.2?

No, it certainly won't benefit from the possible speed.
But if I put for example a 16GB Optane in the M.2, I would have all 8 SATA ports available for data disks, that's all.
And a 16GB Optane is about the same price as 2 USB thumb drives, and thumb drives are far more likely to fail than SSDs.

When I was looking at boards I actually opted to not get M.2 slots since I preferred those PCIe lanes to be available for a PCIe drive with PLP if I wanted to add a ZIL later.

That choice is perfectly fine. If I planned on using a ZIL or multiple HBAs, I would for sure drop the M.2 as well, as it is PCI-E x2 only (but I don't want to go that big at the moment).
Except for some new C246 boards which actually have 2x M.2 ports at PCI-E 3.0x4 speed, you could put in 2x Intel SSD DC P4511 or something like that as a ZIL there...

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

@Stevie_1der Definitely see the use of M.2 for a SLOG device, provided it has PLP.

If I planned on using a ZIL or multiple HBAs, I would for sure drop the M.2 as well, as it is PCI-E x2 only (but I don't want to go that big at the moment).

You've exposed my bias. I generally figure you'll eventually want more drives than your onboard SATA ports can handle, hence an HBA anyway. I'm sure that isn't the case for everyone though. :)

Interestingly, the X11SSH-F has 2 8xPCIe and 1 4xPCIe with an M.2 running at 2x PCIe whereas the X11SSM-F has 2 8x PCIe and 2 4xPCIe. They use the same NICs and Graphics. Looks like they removed 1 4xPCIe and repurposed it as a 2xPCIe M.2. Curios they couldn't give that M.2 the full 4xPCIe. We have clearly reached the limits of my understanding of how the PCIe bus and M.2 bus gets architected.

 

[Chris Moore]

You've exposed my bias. I generally figure you'll eventually want more drives than your onboard SATA ports can handle, hence an HBA anyway. I'm sure that isn't the case for everyone though. :)

I generally feel that the expansion slots are more useful.

 

[Stevie_1der]

Interestingly, the X11SSH-F has 2 8xPCIe and 1 4xPCIe with an M.2 running at 2x PCIe whereas the X11SSM-F has 2 8x PCIe and 2 4xPCIe. They use the same NICs and Graphics. Looks like they removed 1 4xPCIe and repurposed it as a 2xPCIe M.2. Curios they couldn't give that M.2 the full 4xPCIe. We have clearly reached the limits of my understanding of how the PCIe bus and M.2 bus gets architected.

The 2 "missing" SATA lanes are wired to LAN3 and LAN4 on the X11SSH-LN4F board.
X11SSH-LN4F and X11SSH-F share the same board design, the X11SSH just lacks the additional LAN jacks, PHYs and related stuff.
I think they just used up all the available lanes of the C236 on the -LN4F with LAN and expansion slots, and the remaining 2 were simply hooked to an M.2 connector. Because the two models share the same board design, the lanes for LAN3 and 4 remain unused.

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

@Stevie_1der Very cool, thanks for enlightening me! Sad to think of those two 1GB/s lanes sitting there unused. Think of all the IOPS potential going used there.

 

[shetu]

Sorry, I meant to ask if you decided on a CPU, not if you purchased one. :)

Once you look over CPUs, HDDs, etc feel free to reply with updated parts list. Happy to offer advice about specific hardware lists. I think @Stevie_1der gave a good suggestion for how to find CPUs compatible with your motherboard.

For HDDs it really depends on your budget and how much storage you need.

Hi. I am thinking to buy i3 8100 and getting Supermicro X11SCH-F and Ram from outside country. There are any single DIMM of 32gb?

 

[Chris Moore]

There are any single DIMM of 32gb?

Not compatible with that system board:
https://www.supermicro.com/support/...1&prid=86426&type=DDR4 1.2V&ecc=1&reg=0&fbd=0

The board maxes out at 64GB which is four 16GB modules.