new build 2022

[tokamax]

Hello everyone :)

This is my first post and it is very egoistical, sorry... I just would like confirmation from experienced users that my hardware list is OK!
I made the mistake of ordering CPU+MOBO+RAM+HBA without reading the docs first and it turns out they are not good for this use-case... So I will recycle those parts for an HTPC and make a new order for my NAS but I don't want to to the same mistake twice!

I am a n00b in the NAS space so I want the simplest config possible at start. My target is a single pool of 8 disks in RAIDZ2, all disks are 10Tb (I already have them).
A single NFS share, no plex, no transcodes, nothing fancy. I just want a big tank of data.

Case:
Fractal Design Node 304 (mini-ITX)

Node 304

www.fractal-design.com

PSU:
Seasonic Focus 550W

Seasonic FOCUS PX-850, 850W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular, Fan Control in Fanless, Silent, and Cooling Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Perfect Power Supply for Gaming and Various Application, SSR-850PX. - Newegg.com

Buy Seasonic FOCUS PX-850, 850W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular, Fan Control in Fanless, Silent, and Cooling Mode, 10 Year Warranty, Perfect Power Supply for Gaming and Various Application, SSR-850PX. with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Mobo:
AsRock C246 WSI - LGA1151

ASRock Rack > C246 WSI

www.asrockrack.com

CPU:
Xeon E-2124G

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

CPU Cooler:
Noctua NH-D9L

NH-D9L

The NH-D9L is a premium grade dual tower CPU cooler that has been designed to provide excellent quiet cooling performance at a height of only 110mm. Its comparably low profile (15mm lower than classic 9cm tower coolers such as the NH-U9S) doesn’t only guarantee full 3U compliance but also makes...

noctua.at

low profile so I have space to cram 2 more disks above the motherboard inside my Node 304 case, which has only 6 drive bays

RAM:
1x Samsung 32Gb ECC 2666Mhz UDIMM - M391A4G43MB1
I found that stick on ebay and it is on the motherboard QVL, so i'm going to go with that one...

https://www.memory4less.com/samsung-server-memory-m391a4g43mb1-ctdq

HBA:
IBM ServerRaid M1015 flashed with IT mode (v20.00.07.00)

IBM M1015 9220-8i (=9210-8i) 6Gbps SAS HBA P20 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID | eBay

I have fully tested them using all 8 SAS lanes. I've used ZFS for many years. I'm familiar with ZFS on Linux, FreeNAS, and many of the technologies commonly used by other enthusiasts. They have been flashed to Avago / LSI 9210-8i IT (Initiator Target) firmware version P20 (specifically 20.00.07.00).

www.ebay.com

BOOT Drive:
A cheap Kingston SATA SSD 120Gb

DATA Drives:
8x WD101EMAZ 10Tb (shucked from WD MyBook external drives)


Comments, remarks, advices... all apreciated!
Thanks :D

 

[sretalla]

Your PSU may be a little light, but you might get away with it... see this: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/proper-power-supply-sizing-guidance.39/

The Node 304 is pretty clear in the spec sheet that it holds 6 3.5" HDDs (and I can attest to that based on the one sitting beside me here), so you're in for disappointment on that one if your desire for an 8 disk pool wasn't a typo... maybe you wanted the Node 804?

All the other parts look like they should work as expected.

 

[tokamax]

Thank you for your help! I will recheck my PSU needs...

For the case, I know that it's 6bay only but I happen to have an old 304 in stock already...
I was hoping to shove 2 more disks just above the motherboard, hence the low profile CPU cooler.
I routinely do metal fabrication at work so I think I can build a couple brackets to fit on the existing rails in the back of the case.
If it turns out to be impossible I can live with 6 disks for now.

 

[Etorix]

All fine for a 6-drive NAS. You can probably save some cash by using a i3-9100 rather than a Xeon E-2124G: Same 4 cores and same ECC UDIMM support! The HBA is not necessary if you boot from a cheap M.2 NVMe drive. SATA ports from the chipset are good for TrueNAS.

I doubt that 2 more drives could fit, but you've probably checked that already on your old case. If it does fit, think how that would affect cooling and consider bumping the PSU to 650W… If it doesn't fit, keep the 550W.

 

[tokamax]

Thanks Etorix, i'll check the i3 9100!

About the HBA, I put it on my list because there is this little line in the motherboard specs that puzzles me:
"SATA 1 will be disable when M.2 is SATA signal"
but it does not clearly states that it supports NVMe drives either so i did not want to risk it. It also looks like it's only a half length M.2 slot and I don't know if there are any NVMe drive in that format. I admit that I'm really confused with the M.2 stuff...

Plus the mobo does not come with an Occulink to SATA cable and I could not find those for cheap...

I figure a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a quick prototype of how I want to fit the 2 extra drives.

So the 2 extra drives would sit above the motherboard, at the back of the case. I'm pretty sure there is enough space to fit everything... (tape measure is in metric btw). It's more a question if i'm capable of creating a bracket that is not too janky
I want to try metal first as I have the tools, but maybe a 3D printed part would be easier? Although i'm not too sure about sturdiness and stability of 3D prints...

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks Etorix, i'll check the i3 9100!

About the HBA, I put it on my list because there is this little line in the motherboard specs that puzzles me:
"SATA 1 will be disable when M.2 is SATA signal"
but it does not clearly states that it supports NVMe drives either so i did not want to risk it. It also looks like it's only a half length M.2 slot and I don't know if there are any NVMe drive in that format. I admit that I'm really confused with the M.2 stuff...
View attachment 54296
Plus the mobo does not come with an Occulink to SATA cable and I could not find those for cheap...

Sure it does: “PCI-e 3.0 x4 or SATA”. Keep in mind that NVMe is just a driver specification for PCIe SSDs.

As for the M.2 2242 form factor, that is indeed a weird one. To make things worse, there’s no 2230 attachment point.

And the oculink cables are a bit of a minefield, too, but maybe someone has figured out a safe path through.

Honestly, pretty bizarre compromises by ASRock Rack to inflate the spec sheet.

 

[tokamax]

Honestly, pretty bizarre compromises by ASRock Rack to inflate the spec sheet.

Yep indeed, really wish I could source the C236 WSI with its 8 native sata ports but not luck on that front...

Thanks for the M.2 clarifications!

 

[Arwen]

Western Digital did make NVMe drives in the M.2 2242 form factor. I've also seen other vendors with NVMe drives in that 2242 form factor. Running this search on Amazon, I got several useful hits, "NVMe M.2 2242 SSD". Including Samsung, Sabrent, SK Hynix & Dogfish.

You can order the OCulink cable directly from ASRock Rack, (though they mis-spelled "buy");

• 4 SATA3 (1 SATA DOM included), 1 OCuLink connector with 4 SATA ports*
• Supports 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x M.2
• Supports Intel® I210& Intel® i219LM
  *Please contact sales to by the cable

 

[sretalla]

Not a bad case mod you're proposing... maybe something that would be very popular if Fractal would do the work.

I would be very careful how you manage heat/airflow with the HBA (which will generate a lot of heat) and the disks right above the CPU though, as you may find that space was left empty for a reason.

 

[tokamax]

Thanks for the tips Arwen

Although, I just realized I can order this board as well for the same price:

X11SCL-iF | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

It only has 4 SATA, so definitely will need an HBA, but it has 2280 M.2 and a standard 24 pins ATX connector (the Asrock needs an adapter).
I can't decide if it's better, I have never owned any supermicro products...
The Gigabyte C246N-WU2 looks absolutely awesome as well but there is literally zero sellers right now in my area

About the case mod, airflow is indeed a concern as the disks will obstruct much of the exhaust fan. I'll try to make the brackets as small as possible to allow for max air flow. I'll give it a shot during the weekend. I'm not so worried about noise though, so if I have to pump up the fans it's not a huge problem. Heat coming from the HBA is more worrying to me, as there will not be much airflow in that corner of the case... Maybe I'll try to make a hole to fit a fan there if I see high temps in testing.

 

[sretalla]

Heat coming from the HBA is more worrying to me, as there will not be much airflow in that corner of the case... Maybe I'll try to make a hole to fit a fan there if I see high temps in testing.

There's already a grille on that side and I have been able to sit an 80 mm fan next to it to draw air in the direction (right in front of) the PCIe slot.

 

[tokamax]

For those interested, I worked on the brackets for the 2 extra disks during the weekend, and I'm pretty happy with the solution I ended up with:

It's made with in aluminium using a "U" profile and a flat bar. The 2 brackets are attached together only through the disks themselves.
It's not attached to the case either, it simply rests on the top rails of the case using 4 extra screws that protrude towards the inside of the case.
Only 7cm deep, with 1cm of air between the 2 disks, that leaves a little more than 12cm of vertical space to work with for the system below.
I'll have to make some adjustments for vibration dampening and I cross my fingers that temperatures will be ok... I will probably create a dedicated thread when I have done some tests and have some numbers to share

 

[tokamax]

Quick RAM question:

This module is on the X11SCL-iF QVL:

M391A4G43MB1-CTD - Samsung 1x 32GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM PC4-21300V-E Dual Rank x8 Module

Get ➡️ Lifetime warranty ✅ Great savings ✅ Buy factory original M391A4G43MB1-CTD - Samsung 1x 32GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM PC4-21300V-E Dual Rank x8 Modules @Memory.NET!

memory.net

I cannot find it anywhere, but I can find this one:

M391A4G43AB1-CWE - Samsung 1x 32GB DDR4-3200 ECC UDIMM PC4-25600E Dual Rank x8 Module

Get ➡️ Lifetime warranty ✅ Great savings ✅ Buy factory original M391A4G43AB1-CWE - Samsung 1x 32GB DDR4-3200 ECC UDIMM PC4-25600E Dual Rank x8 Modules @Memory.NET!

memory.net

As far as I can tell it's the same module except the CWE is rated for 3200MHz.
Any reason it could be a problem?

It's really difficult to find stock at the moment and i'm getting desparate...
If this RAM module works, then I can order the following all at the same store:
X11SCL-iF motherboard
M391A4G43AB1-CWE
Xeon E-2134 (I swear it's the only CPU they have for 1151!)

 

[Etorix]

As far as I can tell it's the same module except the CWE is rated for 3200MHz.
Any reason it could be a problem?

QVL are always too short, and never updated, but I tend to assume that ECC memory from major manufacturers (Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix) always work.

X11SCL-iF motherboard
M391A4G43AB1-CWE
Xeon E-2134 (I swear it's the only CPU they have for 1151!)

Not even some i3-9100(F)? North of the border, I can find these on Tweakers.net for half the price of a Xeon E-2xx4.

 

[tokamax]

Update on my build...

I finally received and assembled all my hardware:
- Gigabyte C246N-WU2
- i3-9100
- 32Gb Kingston DDR4 ECC
- Corsair MP510 480Gb SSD
- MiniSAS to 4x SATA cable
- Seasonic Prime Ultra 550W
- Noctua NH-L12S
- Noctua NA-FC1 fan controller
- Noctua NF-A14
- 2X Noctua NF-A9

It's a mix and match of fresh orders, new-ish stuff I had lying around and parts exchanged on the local second-hand market.
In particular the PSU, If i had to order a new one I would have followed previous advice in this thread and get a 650W but I got a very good deal on this one so I went with it, because I can make profit on it even if i end up having to sell it.
(The packaging was still sealed so pretty sure it's brand new)

It's all packed in my Node 304, haven't tried to close the case yet as cable management will be a pain...
My +2 HDD casemod works fine so far, only spacing issue I had was between the CPU radiator and 140mm fan at the back, so I just mounted the fan on the outside of the case for now
I have put 8 old 1-2Tb disks of various makes for a test drive before I use the big boys, because I wanted to make sure everything is stable first.

The system runs great so far. I installed Truenas Core without issues, all drives detected.
I created 1 pool of 3x2TB and 1 pool of 5x1TB both in RAIDZ, put one dataset on each, configured a windows share... seems all good!
I am now putting some load on the system by copying files from my dekstop to see how it goes.

Now, about the PSU, these are the specs from Seasonic:

And this is what i estimate:
Mobo: could not find any number... max=60W?
CPU: TDP=65W... max=80W?
RAM: 10W
SSD: 10W (Corsair says 6.7W average)
Fans: the 4 fans combined are about 6W according to Noctua
Total: ~170W

Now for the drives, I plan to use 8x WD101EMAZ 10TB.
They are 5400RPM non helium RED derived drives according to this
On the label it is written: 5VDC 0.7A / 12VDC 0.9A. for the 8 drives, that would be 5.6A on 5V and 7.2A on 12V.
That does not seem too bad, but what i don't know is if those numbers are max or average?

Given these numbers, i'm under the impression that this 550W PSU is enough but what is your opinion? Should I keept it or not?

Next step is to get a UPS, but i haven't open that can of worms yet so I'll need some time to learn!

 

[tokamax]

Another question:
the WD101EMAZ drives require the 3.3v pin mod to start and I could not be bothered to do the mod 8 times so I decided to use molex adapters but i'm under the impression this is not recommended although I don't understand why?
At the moment, I use 2 molex cables from the PSU to power the 8 drives, 4 drives on each cable. The cables from the PSU have 3 molex output so I use 2 single molex to sata and 1 double molex to sata (1x molex to 2x sata) adapters on each cable from the PSU. Is that a bad idea?

 

[Ericloewe]

Can't you get disks that don't have that feature of dubious value? I know that many HGST versions of WD disks come in both options, but they can be a bit more expensive. Have you checked the options available to you?

 

[tokamax]

I already have the drives. I bought 10x WD Elements 10TB at a great price last black friday. They are now shucked and ready

 

[BCB57]

Hi -- I have a similar build (https://pcpartpicker.com/b/mf3tt6) in a Node 304, except I used a consumer-grade Z490i motherboard and non-ECC RAM (horror of horrors, right?). At any rate, despite the fact that the NAS is running fine with no data issues to date, I'm now considering a server-grade mobo and RAM replacement for the NAS so I can repurpose the Z490i for a future ITX gaming build.

Am looking at the C246N-WU2 as well -- how is it working out for you? FWIW I'm currently using the NH-L9i CPU Cooler and it fits fine; I'm using the same case fans as you are, albeit the slightly cheaper "redux" versions. Also, just out of curiosity since I see three PWM connections on the board, why are you using the fan controller? Thanks in advance for any comments/advice. I'm pricing out the server-grade stuff now and will then decide whether to proceed... I enjoy the building process so I probably will. :)

 

[Etorix]

Hi -- I have a similar build (https://pcpartpicker.com/b/mf3tt6) in a Node 304, except I used a consumer-grade Z490i motherboard and non-ECC RAM (horror of horrors, right?).

…well, you probably understand that you'll get some gentle scolding here for this.
But ZFS without ECC is probably still safer than about any other file system with ECC.

At any rate, despite the fact that the NAS is running fine with no data issues to date, I'm now considering a server-grade mobo and RAM replacement for the NAS so I can repurpose the Z490i for a future ITX gaming build.

Much better use of hardware on both sides.
The issue is finding a mini-ITX server board. Stocks of C246 boards are probably running out. Supermicro X10SDV and A2SDi boards are quite expensive new, but make nice little NAS if you can find one second-hand. Good luck!