New FreeNAS build for home backup/media server

[akalin]

As I mentioned in my intro thread, I'm looking into building a FreeNAS machine to use as a home backup server and a media server, and possibly play around with VMs / jails. It'll only just be me streaming, so it doesn't have to handle that many concurrent streams, but I'd like it to be beefy enough to, say, handle background backup jobs, torrents, streaming, and possibly a VM or two, without bogging down.

I started with this post, updated the components, and changed it a bit to suit my needs, namely bigger hard drives, no custom fans, no UPS. Here's what I ended up with (links to cheapest prices I can find):

Case: Fractal Design Node 804 (MicroATX Mid Tower)
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSL-CF (MicroATX LGA1151)
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 (3.4 GHz quad-core)
Memory: Crucial 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 ECC UDIMM
Storage drives: 6x Western Digital Red 8TB (3.5" 5400RPM)
Boot drives: 2x Supermicro SSD-DM032-SMCMVN1 32GB SATA DOM
Power supply: SeaSonic - S12G (550W 80+ Gold)

Now I have a few questions:

1) I found the 8TB to be the largest drives with the best $/GB ratio -- NewEgg has it at $0.033/GB, which is identical to the 4GB version. Are there other NAS 5400 RPM drives that beat this, or any others I should consider? Looks like the IronWolf 8GB is also at $0.033/GB, but it's 7200 RPM, and I'm not sure whether those are actually better...

2) Looks like the X11SSL-CF is out of stock in a bunch of places, and where it's in stock it's marked up. Is this a known thing, and is it expected it'll be in stock soon?

3) Any experiences with using Crucial memory with the X11 boards? I found this thread which has a similar build, but wanted to double-check.

4) Looks like the X11SSL-CF has two yellow SATA ports, so the two SATA DOM drives should work without any adapters, right?

Of course, any other comments and suggestions welcome! I hope to get this build running and migrate off of Synology when I get back from vacation in a couple of weeks. :)

 

[Dice]

Any experiences with using Crucial memory with the X11 boards?

Check the resource section for a memory primer on X11.

 

[danb35]

Supermicro SSD-DM032-SMCMVN1 32GB SATA DOM

I'm sure these will work fine, but they're very expensive, and mirroring probably isn't necessary with SSDs/DOMs. You wouldn't really lose anything by just going for an inexpensive single 30 GB SSD.

 

[Ericloewe]

Check the resource section for a memory primer on X11.

There isn't one. Just follow the QVL.

 

[Dice]

There isn't one. Just follow the QVL.

Sorry about that, I recently visited the X10 guide and falsely remembered it to be have been updated.

 

[akalin]

I'm sure these will work fine, but they're very expensive, and mirroring probably isn't necessary with SSDs/DOMs. You wouldn't really lose anything by just going for an inexpensive single 30 GB SSD.

Thanks, looking at other threads, it does look like mirroring is overkill and probably won't work as expected, anyway.

Looks like a 32 GB SSD is $22 on NewEgg, vs. $61 for the DOM. The DOM does have the advantage of not taking up a drive slot, so I think that's worth the extra $40 for me.

 

[akalin]

There isn't one. Just follow the QVL.

Thanks. Looks like the Micron MTA18ADF2G72AZ-2G3B1 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC VLP UDIMM from the QVL is available, and slightly cheaper than the Crucial, to boot (if buying from MEMORYnMORE).

 

[Ericloewe]

It's going to be literally the exact same part as the Crucial one, probably.

 

[akalin]

It's going to be literally the exact same part as the Crucial one, probably.

Ah, I misunderstood and thought you were recommending the ones listed in the QVL over the one I picked.

 

[Stux]

Crucial is Micron's retail brand.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah, I misunderstood and thought you were recommending the ones listed in the QVL over the one I picked.

I am, just adding some information.

 

[akalin]

I finally did this build, and am currently doing a memtest run. One thing I got tripped up on is that I forgot to buy SAS to SATA cables, which I need since I have 6 SATA drives and 1 SATA DOM, and the motherboard only has 6 SATA ports. Fortunately, I had a spare USB drive lying around, so I'm using that for now with the data drives on SATA, while I wait for the cables to arrive. I'll be doing memory and HD smoke-testing for a few days anyway.

This was probably obvious to everyone else, but this may help out other newbies like me!

 

[religiouslyconfused]

I use the 2400 MHz ram and I have no issues! :)

 

[akalin]

I use the 2400 MHz ram and I have no issues! :)

Yeah, I ended up getting the Micron as it was slightly cheaper, and it passes a 2-day memtest run!

Now I just finished running SMART short and extended tests, and will move on to badblocks test. Looks like the Reds I got don't support conveyance tests, but from other posts that seems normal.