Moving from an old HP Data Vault x310 to a real (tm) server

[donsev]

Hi everyone,

I have nas4free installed on an HP Data Vault x310. It works great, although we are running out of storage space pretty soon. Since we also have a soon-to-be failing hard drive, I thought this is the perfect excuse to upgrade our server.

I was looking through the hardware recommendation pdf guide and put together a build like this. Buying the i3 off of ebay the total would come to around $500. I don't have a PSU since I (should) have a spare 500W one I accidentally bought last year. Looking long term, would this be an ideal set up for a larger home server? So far I am using my current nas4free as a general NAS, Nextcloud/Owncloud server. This will also be the primary place for family photos and videos (including digitized older photos), so data redundancy and security is priority. I'm not entirely sure whether this set up would be overpowered or underpowered. I don't have a graphics card listed since this will be headless, like the x310 is now.

Parts (updated):

• Motherboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F
  
• CPU: This is where I'm a bit a stuck. I realize the X10 above is LGA1150 so I'm debating
  • i3 4330 - $180 (was recommended in the guide)
    
  • i3 4150 - $130
    
  • Pentium G3220 - $70 (was recommended in the guide)
  • Pentium G4560 (recommended by a redditor, but I can't find it anywhere. G4500 and G4600 are what I see for $73 and $90 respectively)
• RAM: Crucial 16GB DDR3 1600MT/s ECC UDIMM
• Boot: KingSpec 32GB SSD
• Case: Rosewill 4U server chassis RSV-L4500
• HD: 3x Western Digital Green 2tb; 1x WL2000 2tb; - so far

I do intend to upgrade to WD Red hard drives once finances allow, although is there a significant different between a WD Red 4tb and 2x WD Blue 2b?

 

[tvsjr]

I'd suggest looking at a cheap SSD for your boot partition. It's a matter of personal preference, but you'll see lots of threads around here regarding dying USB boot sticks. Anything that's 16GB or larger will work... I bought a handful of 40GB Intel 320s off eBay for $20/ea. If you do go the USB route, you might want to consider a second stick and mirror them. Make sure to back up your config as well.

On your drives, ensure your Greens (which aren't intended for NAS service) are reconfigured with WDIDLE3 to prevent them parking and unparking repeatedly, which will kill the drive fairly quickly.

What specific motherboard do you intend to use? There are quite a number of LGA1150 uATX boards from Supermicro.

 

[Arwen]

I also suggest using a small SSD for boot, or using mirrored USB. Plus,
of course backing up your configuration. There is a script that can be
croned which will backup your configuration, (like to your data pool).

Case is a bit of overkill, but if you have the space, looks good. (And
the price is not bad.)

 

[donsev]

I'd suggest looking at a cheap SSD for your boot partition. It's a matter of personal preference, but you'll see lots of threads around here regarding dying USB boot sticks. Anything that's 16GB or larger will work... I bought a handful of 40GB Intel 320s off eBay for $20/ea. If you do go the USB route, you might want to consider a second stick and mirror them. Make sure to back up your config as well.

On your drives, ensure your Greens (which aren't intended for NAS service) are reconfigured with WDIDLE3 to prevent them parking and unparking repeatedly, which will kill the drive fairly quickly.

What specific motherboard do you intend to use? There are quite a number of LGA1150 uATX boards from Supermicro.

I was looking at this one specifically, but to be honest I'm pretty new at the server building game so would definitely welcome any input! I put the amazon wish list in the OP, but here it is: https://smile.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/307B76ASE9MYV/

 

[donsev]

I also suggest using a small SSD for boot, or using mirrored USB. Plus,
of course backing up your configuration. There is a script that can be
croned which will backup your configuration, (like to your data pool).

Case is a bit of overkill, but if you have the space, looks good. (And
the price is not bad.)

Yeah, I figured the case would make it easier to expand my storage pool. It should be a good investment, especially once we redigitize all our old photographs (digitized once, then lost them all in the great hard drive crash of '08. Been storage pooling since)

Looking through Amazon there are tons of SSDs <60gb that are pretty cheap, I'll look into them thanks! (32gb for $20 can't be beat!)

 

[tvsjr]

I was looking at this one specifically, but to be honest I'm pretty new at the server building game so would definitely welcome any input! I put the amazon wish list in the OP, but here it is: https://smile.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/307B76ASE9MYV/

Check the hardware guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

You've chosen one of the lower-end variants of that family... you may find it valuable to bump up to the more feature-filled versions for reasons covered well in the guide.

 

[donsev]

Check the hardware guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

You've chosen one of the lower-end variants of that family... you may find it valuable to bump up to the more feature-filled versions for reasons covered well in the guide.

I chose it solely based on the guide saying it is entry level.

Although looking a bit deeper, it looks like the Supermicro X10SL7-F is more future proof? I'm thinking because of the 14 sata ports and how it includes a controller which, from what I understand, will allow me to set up a physical raid in the future. My main problem is the price, I'm not seeing it for much less than $240 (although that extra $60 may be worth it because of the 8 extra sata ports as compared to the x10slm+-f or x10sll-f?)

Is there a significant difference between the x10sl7-f versus the x10sl7-f-o?

Edit: I am also looking at the i3-4330 and i3-6300. The guide doesn't really differentiate between the two, although price wise the 6300 is around $20 cheaper. Is there a difference between the two, or are most people looking at price when comparing?

 

[Ericloewe]

dit: I am also looking at the i3-4330 and i3-6300.

They're completely different generations and thus sockets.

 

[tvsjr]

I chose it solely based on the guide saying it is entry level.

Although looking a bit deeper, it looks like the Supermicro X10SL7-F is more future proof? I'm thinking because of the 14 sata ports and how it includes a controller which, from what I understand, will allow me to set up a physical raid in the future. My main problem is the price, I'm not seeing it for much less than $240 (although that extra $60 may be worth it because of the 8 extra sata ports as compared to the x10slm+-f or x10sll-f?)

Danger... what is "physical RAID"? If you're referring to configuring a non-ZFS RAID, that's a Bad Idea. FreeNAS should be talking directly to the drives, not through the abstraction layer of a RAID controller.

Is there a significant difference between the x10sl7-f versus the x10sl7-f-o?

The -O merely indicates the packaging type. O is retail, B is bulk pack I believe.

Edit: I am also looking at the i3-4330 and i3-6300. The guide doesn't really differentiate between the two, although price wise the 6300 is around $20 cheaper. Is there a difference between the two, or are most people looking at price when comparing?

There are many differences, starting with the socket. Make sure you're buying what's compatible with your motherboard. There's nothing wrong with a Skylake chipset, but you'll need the right X11 motherboard for that. There are quite a few threads around here on issues with Skylake; however, I believe most of the problems have been ironed out. One advantage to Skylake is the support for 64GB RAM.

 

[Ericloewe]

There are quite a few threads around here on issues with Skylake; however, I believe most of the problems have been ironed out.

Just about all the problems were fixed about a year ago. The only thing left are BIOS annoyances that permeate all products using AMI BIOSes, which, to my great disappointment includes every single motherboard I've bought in the last three years.

 

[donsev]

Thank you everyone. Based on all of you guys' replies I did a bit more research and have the following:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F
  
• CPU: This is where I'm a bit a stuck. I realize the X10 above is LGA1150 so I'm debating
  • i3 4330 - $180 (was recommended in the guide)
    
  • i3 4150 - $130
    
  • Pentium G3220 - $70 (was recommended in the guide)
  • Pentium G4560 (recommended by a redditor, but I can't find it anywhere. G4500 and G4600 are what I see for $73 and $90 respectively)
• RAM: Crucial 16GB DDR3 1600MT/s ECC UDIMM
• Storage: KingSpec 32GB SSD
• Case: Rosewill 4U server chassis RSV-L4500

Regarding the CPU, which would you recommend for a home server with NAS and Nextcloud functionality, and the occasional "messing around" with email servers or things like that as a hobby. This will also be the primary place for family photos and videos (including digitized older photos), so data redundancy and security is priority. I'm not entirely sure whether this set up would be overpowered or underpowered.

 

[tvsjr]

I'd go with the 4330 at a minimum. Honestly, I prefer staying with Xeon processors for "server class" systems, but that's strictly a matter of personal bias. If you intend to run substantial jails and/or VMs (which, as I understand, will be better supported under FN10), then I would suggest more CPU is better. Keep in mind that a mail server isn't a "trivial" amount of horsepower. You're also going to need additional memory... and the 32GB limit might come into play at some point.

 

[donsev]

Thanks a lot. I think for now this is where I will end up:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F - $237
  
• CPU: i3 4330 - $120
  
• RAM: Crucial 16GB DDR3 1600MT/s ECC UDIMM - $104
  
• Boot: 16GB SSD - $10
• Storage: WD Green 3TB WD30EZRX - $50 maybe, found on Craigslist still thinking
  
• Case: Rosewill 4U server chassis RSV-L4500 - $90

Hopefully this will last me a couple years. Looks like I can sell the old x310 for around $100-150 which should shave a bit more off the final price.