BUILD My $1000 build

[katit]

Ok, here is what can be done for $1000 today. I have rack at home and wanted to have rack mounted storage, otherwise FreeNAS mini would do.

Anyway, components I got so far (and I don't think I'm missing anything)

1. Case supermicro SCE846, quick rails, 1x 80+ GOLD PSU 1200W, SAS2 backplane $315.00
2. Supermicro X10SL7-F MB as per recommendations here $246.59
3. Intel G3470 CPU (easy to upgrade, but should be plenty for my needs) $79.50
4. Memory 16Gb CT2KIT102472BD160B $152.00
5. 2x 32Gb half slim SSDs Phison one will be system, another for .system and jails $32.00
6. 2x 4TB WD Red(new, eBay find) $190.00
7. Reverse breakout cable (connect MB SAS ports to SAS2 backplane) $12.99
8. HDD screws $6.49
9. Round to square hole converter set (my rack has round holes, need this to install rails) $10.00

Total $1044.57

2x drives will go in mirror giving me 4TB of storage. This is plenty and more for me. I also have 4x 1TB WD Blacks that I will use as separate strip volume for junk data. If I feel like I'm missing out on storage I will get more 4TB drives and re-do one volume.

Main use - file storage and sharing (documents) + backups (via network share).
There will be crashplan installed in one jail.

I picked CPU with following rationale:
- SAMBA needs speed - this one 3.6GHz
- PLEX (if I use it) can use one thread.
So, 2 threads will be plenty good and it's got pretty good clock speed.

I _may_ setup torrents/couch potato later, but this is not my immediate need.

What do you think about whole setup?

 

[ALFA]

Looks nice, but I don't see any UPS in your building. I suggest you to read this thread

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/needing-a-ups-for-freenas-server.35532/#post-216348

and check that the UPS is a Pure Sine Wave than a Simulated/Modified.

 

[katit]

I already have APC Pro 1500 Backup-UPS. If I find another use for it - I will be looking at rack-mounted one next time..

 

[SweetAndLow]

That cpu will not work well if you plan to transcode using plex. If you do dirct stream it will be fine but that depends on the media you have and the device you plan on using.

 

[katit]

System I have now doing OK transcoding one stream. New CPU should be batter. But in any case, Im going Kodi for media player, so I dont expect this to be a problem. And, its easy fix if I need to. Right now I tried to get good bones at $1000

 

[SweetAndLow]

If you are trying to stay under $1000 I suggest not using that motherboard and not using that case. That motherboard is great if you are planning on using ~14 drives that all use sata cables. And that case is great for using 24 drives. If you are not looking at that size of system I wouldn't use those two items. And depending on the backplan you got in the 846 you could uses sas cables and you don't need all those sata ports on that motherboard.

 

[katit]

I already have all those components. I will have 6 drives right away but I wanted space for expansion. I was thinking Supermicro 2U cases but price-wise there wasn't much difference and those are noisy.

I wil use 2-3 SATA connections on motherboard. One thing that I would do differently is probably find motherboard with SAS connector so I have 1 cable instead of reverse breakout cable. From what I know - I can use all 24 drive bays with this setup.

What I got will do everything I need and if I need more drives it will be very easy to add. Same as CPU.

 

[katit]

Right now it's $1300 build already after ordering some bits and pieces.. Still waiting for more stuff but box already running on my desk and here is what I have so far, please add/comment on progress or if I need to do anything else:

1. Latest BIOS (was already there) - Check
2. Latest IPMI (was there) - Check
3. Memtest86 for 24 hours run from virtual storage/ISO via IPMI (I love IPMI!) - check
4. Reflashed on board SAS to latest LSI IP firmware - check
5. Installed system drive (32Gb SSD on SATA3)
6. Installed FreeNAS 9.3 on this SSD. Check
7. Got ALERT about SAS IT driver not compatible with SAS chip firmware (in step4)
8. Lesson learned. Downloaded and installed v16 of LSI firmware - check
9. Installed 3x storage drives on SAS2 backplane connected via reverse breakout to MB SAS0-3 ports. All drives recognised by FreeNAS
10. Running burn-in tests as per instructions in FAQ

Next steps planned:

1. Tidy up cabling in case.
2. Mount server into rack.
3. Configure and test UPS operation
4. Configure FreeNAS further, create pools, shares, schedule jobs, etc...

Any suggestions or comments on a progress?

 

[JDCynical]

Any suggestions or comments on a progress?

Steps 4 (winced) through 8 (chuckled) amused me?
:)

 

[katit]

Yes, hopefully someone reads and saves 5 minutes. But it's not a big deal either way.

 

[Darren Myers]

i would be careful how many SAS connection you connect to the backplane, a user recently connected the 3 SAS backplane ports to 2 different cards and had some really funny issues.

 

[katit]

Yes, with 2 cards I would expect issues :) In my case I didn't even bother with 2nd cable (to fill in all 8 ports on MB) as for my use I will never saturate even those 4x6Gb. For me it's more important to be able to stick drive into any slot than worrying about performance. As long as I can saturate gigabit network - I'm in good shape.