Mini-ITX Build / General Hardware Questions

[Narfski]

Hey all,

Just wanted to start out with I've been lurking on here for a while and have built a few FreeNAS boxes over the years. Gained lots of info from many guides / posts and just general information that has been found in this great forum.

So far I'm planning on building the following for my next setup:

CASE: Node 304 *PURCHASED*
MOTHERBOARD: UNKNOWN (asking questions bellow)
RAM: UNKNOWN (will know once decided on motherboard but will be ECC)
CPU: UNKNOWN (depends on motherboard)
HARD DRIVES: 6 x 8TB WD RED's *PURCHASED*
POWER SUPPLY: UNKNOWN MODULAR
NETWORK: Mellanox Connectx-2 10Gbe *ALREADY OWNED / TRANSFERRING FROM OTHER BUILD*

General notes:

This box will be mostly for 2 (3 at the most) light users for file storage and to play stored media from to a single TV. I "may" be in the future fooling around with Plex on this box but that isn't a big deal to not have or work with right now as a Kodi HTPC has been built a few yrs ago to just play media from a network drive / share. My concern is not knowing what motherboard to get. It seems right now there is lots of talk and posts, as well as info in the "Hardware Recommendations Guide" PDF from this forum saying that Intel C2000's and ASRock Rack C2750D4I / C2550D4I have been having lots of issues. Last thing I need to worry about is having to RMA a new motherboard that I just purchased due to issues that everyone has been talking about. On top of it all, there is a limited selection of mini-ITX motherboards. Another thing is I have no need for any on-board 10Gbe connections / cards but IPMI is a requirement for me. The Mellanox Connectx-2 10Gbe card will be for direct and faster transfers of larger files from one of the clients to the new NAS, already got a 2nd card and needed cable, etc for it to function. So 1Gbe onboard will be fine to go to my hub for anything else.

As for CPU, no clue what I should get, guess it will come down to what the overall recommendation is for a motherboard.

Thank you in advance for your hardware suggestions and advice.

 

[Stux]

I'm not 100% certain on what the current state is with mITX motherboards suitable for this. You can still get the Xeon D supermicro boards that I used in my build, and they will provide 6 SATA ports for you six HDs, and then you need to boot, either via USB, or with an M.2 drive. The Intel Optane M2 is probably a good option for that.

An alternative is the C2000 avoton boards, but I believe they're probably getting hard to get a hold of, and frankly, I'd steer clear of them.

BUT you now have the C3000 boards too, although not all manufucturers actually have their products out yet...

This thread runs through some of the C3000 options, https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/new-nas-with-c3000-series-cpu.60320/

C3000 is probably the smart option now, but be careful on PCIe lane widths, sata ports, etc.

And then the final option might be to get something with a socket instead, but only the C3000 and Xeon D board are going to allow you to break the 32/64GB ram limit. They both have a 128GB ram limit and can use Registered ECC memory.

If you get a Xeon D or C3000, then you should decide if you want 10gbit ethernet, or not, even though you already own a mellanox card... do you really want to use up the sole PCIe slot for it? when you could get it built into the board?

A C3000 core is a little bit less powerful than a Xeon D core, but you get twice as many, but the Xeon D has hyperthreading...

The C3000s seem to definately win when it comes to number of SATA ports.

 

[Narfski]

And then the final option might be to get something with a socket instead, but only the C3000 and Xeon D board are going to allow you to break the 32/64GB ram limit. They both have a 128GB ram limit and can use Registered ECC memory.

If you get a Xeon D or C3000, then you should decide if you want 10gbit ethernet, or not, even though you already own a mellanox card... do you really want to use up the sole PCIe slot for it? when you could get it built into the board?

A C3000 core is a little bit less powerful than a Xeon D core, but you get twice as many, but the Xeon D has hyperthreading...

The C3000s seem to definately win when it comes to number of SATA ports.

First, thanks for such great info and things to think about.

Main reason I'm not looking for 10Gbit on-board is to lower the motherboard cost, also if I ended up getting one with 10Gbit onboard I would have to get another card on my client that will be directly connected. I've already got the Mellanox ConnectX-2 10Gbit cards for both the NAS as well as the client. Looks like it would be a few hundred extra for another card in the client plus whatever the price difference is between the non 10Gbit on-board option compared to the on-board 10Gbit option. Hopefully my reasoning makes sense.

What sort of viable options would there be for "socketed" motherboards with what options I'm looking for?

Also, if I'm mostly doing network drive shares via Windows clients (CFIS??) will it matter if I go for Xeon based CPU or something else? Plus, say in the future if I wanted to fool around with maybe transcoding some media from the box to a single client would that change any options of mine motherboard or CPU wise? That would be a big MAYBE / IF in the future, lol.

Thank you again for everyone reading this

 

[MrToddsFriends]

What sort of viable options would there be for "socketed" motherboards with what options I'm looking for?

The variety of ECC capable Mini-ITX server boards with a socketed CPU is rather small. Or, in other words, the choice of a mini-ITX case without already having chosen the board before wasn't the smartest move possible.

Supermicro, probably the preferred motherboard brand here in the forum, doesn't have such boards at all AFAIK. ASRock Rack, probably the 2nd choice after Supermicro, do have some such boards, but they didn't play well for all forum participants during Avoton replacement (as far as I remember) so some members have some reservations (I really can't say if with good reasons or not without further research).

Also stay away from that "14S" Extended Mini-ITX ASRock Rack board, AFAICT this board won't fit into a Node 304 case. And be aware of the fact that most socketed Mini-ITX boards support less memory than their socket 115x micro-ATX counterparts (reduced number of memory sockets due to constrained space), which is just the opposite of Mini-ITX server boards with soldered CPUs, which often support more memory than their socket 115x contemporaries (for various reasons, sometimes due to compatibility with registered DIMMs).

 

[diskdiddler]

The more people buying and trying the C3000s the better, there's not enough info on the things, they're only just coming out it feels like.