New NAS hardware advice request

[kamakazi]

I currently have 1.2 TB of data (mostly media) sitting on a 2.1TB RAID6 on Debian. Built on dumpster dive hardware, I have trouble pulling HD video off it with SAMBA without hiccups. I am looking to replace it with freeNAS/ZFS because I like the success stories and a GUI would be nice for a change. As I get older the attraction of doing everything from the command line is fading.

I currently have 6x750G Seagate Barracuda drives, with some spares available. They are a little long in the
tooth, but with the available spares I think I will be OK with a RAIDZ2 until I can afford some newer drives.

I have a 4U rack case, generic, but with decent airflow and big quiet fans. I have a 680 Watt overclocker style (you know, all black and cool looking) PSU if I need that much power, or a 480W Corsair, which is a better supply if 480W is sufficient.

Price is my primary consideration.(at a given performance level, I am not interested in recommendations to use non-ECC or otherwise try to make non-appropriate hardware work)

Looking at the Asrock C2750D4I with 16G RAM (Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B ECC), and trying to compare it with one of the i3/SuperMicro combinations. I got lost in the SuperMicro specifications, but the general feeling I got was that matching the performance of the 8 cores of the Avoton with an i3, especially when it will be running CIFS, and I would like to try out PLEX, might be difficult.

Also, I am looking at starting with a 6 Disk RAIDZ2, then building a second 6Disk RAIDZ2 with newer/bigger disk. I didn't see any of the i3 capable Supermicro boards with 12 SATA onboard, so that solution would require additional controller cards, again adding price.

So I have 2 questions:

1)Is there a Mobo/Processor combo that can perform as well as the ASrock for less money?

2)I plan to build with 16G RAM (based on 8G + 1G/TB), leaving room for 16G more for expansion. I really don't see this box ever storing more than 10 TB, but based on the 8+1/TB formula an array of 6 2TB drives (8TB usable) and an array 0f 6 3TB drives (12 TB usable) still fits in the 32G max of the board. I realize that PLEX or any other jailed apps will require memory above that formula. Is this 32G RAM limit likely to bite me?

Thanks for any advice you may have.

kamakazi

 

[Ericloewe]

12 drives is a piece of cake for the supermicro X10SL7-F.

For small systems, 32GB of RAM should be more than enough with any reasonable plugins/jails.
The rule is rather flexible and should not be seen as a strict requirement. It's more of a guideline.

For transcoding, depending on the workload, you might end up needing a Xeon, which pushes the price up a bit. I doubt it ends up being much more expensive than an avoton solution (boy, are they expensive...), but it's important to note that the Marvell SATA ports aren't very reliable, unlike the X10SL7-F's SAS controller.

 

[kamakazi]

OK, looking at the X10SL7-F-O with the Xeon E3-1220V3. -oops- 1220 doesn't do hyperthreading, does that matter? - Uses the same RAM, does have the LSI controller onboard, which, based on the comments by pretty much everyone on this board is a preferred controller. It is about $90 more than the Asrock. ($140 if I get E3-1230V3 to get hyperthreading) It does have an additional PCIE x4 slot, which doesn't really apply to my use. It is a micro ATX instead of a mini ITX, which is more convenient to work with when I have a full size case. Uses more power, but I really don't know how much more.

Oh crap! somebody mentioned Minecraft in a jail... No, do not let the scope creep. no no no no. Besides, Minecraft needs buttloads of memory for any version => 1.6.4

Phew, that was close.

Back to bargain hunting. This thread https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/c2750d4i-freenas-9-2-supported-or-not-supported.17691 seems to indicate the Marvell controllers work fine, except for some hot swap problems, which don't apply to me since my case isn't hot swappable anyway. Argh! I do know either one would be a huge improvement over my Core2 Duo desktop board in the current Debian file server.

Doing some more digging, it looks like the Avoton can give the i3s a good run for their money, but not any of the E3 Xeons. I guess what I really need to be deciding is E3-1220 or E3-1230.

This ZFS stuff definitely requires a change in habit, my personal stuff has always been built with cast off machines, and usually Desktop gear, because old server gear is so noisy and power hungry. Any old server stuff I could get my hands on won't have enough RAM, and could heat my house.

 

[DKarnov]

For a 6x3TB RAIDZ2 and some playing with Plex, and saying price is a key consideration, you seem like you're shooting kind of high. Never hurts to futureproof, but still. How many simultaneous clients / transcoding streams are you expecting?

Keep in mind, just because a board doesn't support 12 drives off the bat doesn't mean you can't grab a 1015 and run your second array off it.

 

[cyberjock]

This ZFS stuff definitely requires a change in habit, my personal stuff has always been built with cast off machines, and usually Desktop gear, because old server gear is so noisy and power hungry. Any old server stuff I could get my hands on won't have enough RAM, and could heat my house.

I know. My desktop hand-me-downs used to become my server. Not anymore. :P

 

[kamakazi]

Yeah, I am having trouble with this because I don't want to come up just short of satisfactory, so it went from Asrock, to only $90 more to get better onboard controller and Xeon, then only $50 more to get hyperthreading, and here I am $140 more than I started and still unsure. When Cyberjock did his review of the FreeNAS mini with the Asrock and said it did 3 simultaneous transcodes, that was cool, but that was also running from striped high performance SSDs, on a 1oGb network. I will be using much slower drives, in a RAIDZ2, so not sure whether the CPU or the disk will be the bottleneck in simultaneous transcodes. I won't have 10Gb, but will aggregate the network interfaces (doesn't make sense not to plug them both in, and the switch it will be on will do it) so I don't expect the network to the NAS to ever be a problem, more likely to have trouble with clients on wireless.

So yeah, the Asrock is probably enough, and I guess if it doesn't do simultaneous transcodes, well I am not transcoding now, in fact I am just filesharing CIFS to the media PC, this will still do that fine. I am just afraid of dropping >$500 on MOBO and RAM, then wishing I had spent just a little more. I suppose if it doesn't cut it, I can wait another year, and retask the Asrock for something else, and try again. After all, once I have the RAIDZ2 built I can always move it to a new server without having to copy it all off again.

DKarnov, thanks for re-grounding me. If I am not careful I will nickel and dime my way to the price of a TrueNAS box, and have to pawn my car to buy it.

kamakazi

 

[kamakazi]

I did it, just placed the order for the Asrock and the RAM. I don't expect any serious technical hurdles, but it has been a while since I built a BSD box, and that was NetBSD on a DEC MIPS box, so I may hit you guys up with a question or two. Should I mirror the boot? I have a couple matched 16G microSD cards in USB adapters, but from the sounds of it, as long as my config is safe it isn't that big a deal to just reinstall if my boot device croaks.

Thanks for all the advice.

kamakazi