New Home FreeNAS Server with Supermicro X8STI-F

[QuantumMonk]

I have a Super Micro X8STI-F board with 16GB of RAM and a 6-Core Xeon (can't remember the model as I haven't booted it in about a year). This used to be a server I used for various low powered tasks, but I have since migrated most of my server tasks to a single node with multiple VMs. Trouble is, now I don't have easy separation of data and backups...

So I really could use a server for just running backups, and for basic network storage services. I am wondering if anyone knows how well this model of Super Micro board plays with newest stable release of FreeNAS?

I looked through the documentation and HW recommendations, but couldn't find this specific model mentioned. I know I had to do some workarounds to set it up as a temporary pfSense box sometime back, but I figured FreeNAS might be a bit more robust with handling this board.

I'm planning on buying 4x4TB WD Reds (or possibly HGST DeskStar 4TB drives? Feel free to recommend for or against these as well, as I am struggling to decide between the two, power and heat aren't terribly concerning to me).

Thanks in advance for anyone who drops by to give their 2 cents.

 

[Chris Moore]

I had my FreeNAS on similar hardware a few years ago and it was fine. It should still work.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[pschatz100]

I'm planning on buying 4x4TB WD Reds (or possibly HGST DeskStar 4TB drives? Feel free to recommend for or against these as well, as I am struggling to decide between the two, power and heat aren't terribly concerning to me).

Thanks in advance for anyone who drops by to give their 2 cents.

I have both the HGST and WD RED drives. The HGST drives run a little hotter than the REDs. I had to add an extra fan to keep things reasonable. Right now, the HGST is running about 6C hotter than the REDs. Other than that, no issues.

In theory, the HGST should be a little faster as it spins at 7200RPM. For my purpose, I don't see the difference.

 

[Chris Moore]

I'm planning on buying 4x4TB WD Reds (or possibly HGST DeskStar 4TB drives? Feel free to recommend for or against these as well, as I am struggling to decide between the two, power and heat aren't terribly concerning to me).

You might want to consider the Seagate drives. I switched from a mix of WD and HGST drives to the Seagates because I found that they run cooler in my system. I know you said that heat and power wasn't a big concern, but I have also found them to be reliable and the nicest thing is the SMART data they give has better, more useful, information in it.

 

[Chris Moore]

Then there is this:

Disk Price/Performance Analysis Buying Information 07-Mar-2018
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...e-performance-analysis-buying-information.62/

 

[QuantumMonk]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

@Chris Moore, I appreciate the initial response about board compatibility, made me feel comfortable focusing my spending on the drives. As for the link to performance-analysis-buying-information, I've had that spreadsheet open for the past few days studying it closely, it is extremely helpful! There are great resources on this site if you poke around.

I definitely have been looking at the newer Seagate drives, and I want to believe their failure rate is remedied, but it is really hard for me to forget how many servers I have replaced bad Seagate disks in when I used to do on-call server administration and repair in a small town. I haven't used one of their disks in probably 6 years now, but old biases die hard I guess.

Anyway, I decided to go for the HGST drives since they were on sale for less than regular WD Reds, and I have a 10Gbe card in my router currently. I doubt the performance difference is relevant at all really... but I do like the idea of slightly quicker resilvering times, plus the case I'll be using has great airflow, and I have multiple good quality spare case fans in need of a home.

 

[Chris Moore]

I definitely have been looking at the newer Seagate drives, and I want to believe their failure rate is remedied, but it is really hard for me to forget how many servers I have replaced bad Seagate disks in when I used to do on-call server administration and repair in a small town. I haven't used one of their disks in probably 6 years now, but old biases die hard I guess.

I remember the drives you are talking about. It was so bad at one point that they changed the name of the product line.
I have 12 of the newer Seagate Desktop drives in my server now and they are the replacements for the previous set that just aged out after 5 years of service. The drives they are making now really are much better than the ones you remember. I wouldn't suggest it if they were not.
I am working through the procurement process to buy a new server for work and I am going with Seagate drives for it, 60 at 12TB each.
I will be sure to add some spare drives to the order for safety sake, but I have high hopes going in.

 

[QuantumMonk]

That is very good to hear, I will try not be afraid of them when the time comes for my first expansion. Thanks for all the advice!