New Home media Server with NAS

[Roman1302]

Hi,

I'm new on this community I would like to build my own FreeNas server, but I have several questions regarding compatibility and power consumption.

at first I should note that I have limited budget, and I want to improve my NAS later on:)

here Is my configuration what I 'm thinking about:

with Architecture I would like to go for SKYLAKE is it fully supported?

MOTHERBOARD I have at final selection:
Micro-ATX
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H170M-PLUS/
Mini-ITX
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5518#ov

for me it is important the price both are under 100€ and have 6 x SATA 6Gb/s
HDMI connector I want to install KODI there, I dont have smart TV now:)
I dont know if raid support is necessary?
what is better smaller format mini-ITX or more RAM slots for later expansion.

CPU
http://ark.intel.com/products/88179/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G4400-3M-Cache-3_30-GHz
or
http://ark.intel.com/products/90737/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G3920-2M-Cache-2_90-GHz
or
http://ark.intel.com/products/90741/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G3900-2M-Cache-2_80-GHz
In CPU about 50€ I don't know what will be the best choice but I expecting low power(if it is inactive), and if needed good performance, but less consumption is number one:)
I don't know if there is any Hibernation/WOL feature on FreeNAS?
What could be typical power consumption of these MB and CPU combination:
1. at hibernation,
2. Active disk on sleep mode
3. full active coping files and watching movies.
actually it will be only home NAS and web server but later on may be there will another role.

RAM
one 8GB or 16GB DDR4 what do you suggest will be 8 enough for start or start with 16

boot Drive,
I don't know exactly what will be best I would like to go for only USB stick are there any minimum parameters? is there any reason to use SSD?

cache
I don't want now to have any SSD cache but what do you suggest it is necessary to have it at first build or I can simply add it later,
What is better to have it as sata but I will have only 6 connector available or should I have use M.2 Socket?

HDD,
I have selected 1x 4TB WD red and 1x 4 TB Seagete NAS I have to start with RAID 1 because of limited budget.

thank you for your time

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

HDMI connector I want to install KODI there, I dont have smart TV now

Are you expecting to use your FreeNAS box as a playback device? If so, you need to think again.

RAM

8GB is the minimum, so if you plan to run anything beyond the base system, go with 16GB.

boot Drive

The recommended minimum capacity is 8GB. The main reason to consider SSD is that USB devices have a tendency to early failure. It's arguably a moot point if you keep an up to date backup of your configuration, since reinstallation and configuration restore is so easy.

cache

Test without, add if you detect a bottleneck that a cache can alleviate.

HDD

There is no RAID 1 with ZFS. With two drives, you'll build a mirror. If you plan to grow one mirror vdev at a time, that's fine. If you hope to end up with a different vdev layout, think again, because changing the vdev layout means destroying and rebuilding the pool.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Freenas doesn't really have any graphics support so that HDMI port is useless. You need to find a more server style motherboard and not a gaming boards.

 

[CraigD]

If redundancy is not important to you look at another solution an old cheap computer with some shares and your done

If you value your data freeNAS maybe for you

I think your NAS use case is home media storage and maybe PLEX steaming (yes a KODI plug in exsists)

This is what I would do:
I would pick the cheapest supermicro motherboard with ECC support that meets your needs and the cheapest CPU that will work in it

Go with the most ECC RAM you can afford or that will work with your motherboard

If you only have 2 data drives mirror them, RAIDz1 for 3 drives, and RAIDz2 or RAIDz3 for 4-10 drives

USB is fine for the OS because freenas loads into memory and runs from memory logs, system configuration changes etc write to disk

For your media player get a raspberry pi and load Kodibuntu onto it (FreeOS) it won't cost much and plug it into your TV via HDMI

Also read the forums a lot and take note of what people are saying and read peoples signatures to see what hardware they are running (everyone in this thread is running 1150 motherboards with CT2KIT102472BD160B RAM works great but is older technology limited to 32GB RAM)

Have Fun

 

[joeschmuck]

For your media player get a raspberry pi and load Kodibuntu onto it (FreeOS) it won't cost much and plug it into your TV via HDMI

This is not an item you purchase and it works right out of the box. You need to build it up. I'd recommend a Roku (buy any version you want) and purchase the Plex Player ($5 more), then you have something that was build to stream media and works without issue.

at first I should note that I have limited budget, and I want to improve my NAS later on:)

here Is my configuration what I 'm thinking about:

with Architecture I would like to go for SKYLAKE is it fully supported?

I'll be perfectly honest here with you... The price of a good motherboard and CPU will outlast all the hard drives you have to replace in the machine. So if you buy a hard drive such as the WD Red, expect it to live for 4 years (3 year warranty but they actually do better than that), then you will be buying more drives and they are not cheap. The CPU and Motherboard will keep trucking along. Look at y signature, I have a nice X11 motherboard and Skylake CPU and they will last a very long time. You wouldn't need such a fast CPU but if the price is right then do it. Remember, this is a one time purchase and will last you a long time. Since you seem to be concerned about power consumption, well that CPU is going to be almost idle all the time so power consumption from the CPU is not a real issue.

Hard drives fail, they are the one component you purchase where they are expected to fail. Most of your money will be spent on the hard drives for your storage. You will likely fill up that 4TB (3TB usable) quickly so you should already be thinking about adding at least 3 more 4TB hard drives and reconfigure to a RAIDZ2 configuration. As for hard drives sleeping, well that is possible of course but you need to setup your system properly, but I don't recommend it for 99% of the people out there because it will just cause the drive to fail early. Constant spinup/spindown will cause damage to the spindle motor electronics, and these drives with more platters are heavier loads. I would recommend you just run the drives constantly this way you minimize the wear and your data will be available immediately vice having to wait for some drives to spinup.

cache
I don't want now to have any SSD cache but what do you suggest it is necessary to have it at first build or I can simply add it later,
What is better to have it as sata but I will have only 6 connector available or should I have use M.2 Socket?

NO! You will just slow the system down and waste your money. Even if you had 64GB RAM, for your use case it would not be a benefit. You need to read more about how FreeNAS works and ZFS.

RAM
one 8GB or 16GB DDR4 what do you suggest will be 8 enough for start or start with 16

16GB would be the right place to start and likely would be all you would ever need, but ensure you leave at least two RAM slots open for future expansion because you may find out you want to do more with FreeNAS like host a Windows VM or two.

boot Drive,
I don't know exactly what will be best I would like to go for only USB stick are there any minimum parameters? is there any reason to use SSD?

Any small SSD will give you better peace of mind about the boot drive reliability. As previously indicated, USB Flash drives are prone to failure, it's just the way they are made. So this gets us to the number of SATA ports because you need one for each hard drive and one for a SSD boot drive. Keep this in mind. Maybe six SATA ports is fine for you. I would personally want 8 SATA ports if I could swing it. It's for future expansion, not because you need it during your first design.