New to FreeNAS. Here is my suggestion for my first box.

[Nilo]

After much consideration I have desided to build my first NAS instead of buying a complete one. Both because it's a bit of a challange and I believe I will get better performance for less money.

Wish list:
Want a quick, relatively low power consumption. And above all, safe NAS.
Do not care so much about size as I will hide in the closet. Down time is not a super big issue if one disk fails.

Planned components:
1 pc - Asus P8H67-I B3
1 pc - Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 2x4GB DDR3-memory
1 pc - Fractal Design Define R3 Miditower-chassi
4-5 pc Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 32MB 2TB 3,5" S-ATA-
1 pc Intel Core i3 2100 3,1GHz Socket 1155 Box
1 pc Seasonic S12-II 380W Power supply
1 pc Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter (EXPI9301CT)
1 pc Corsair USB Flash Voyager GT 16GB USB-Memory for system

What is your thoughts about this build?

 

[survive]

Hi Nilo,

Everything looks fine except for your idea of hiding it in the closet. Please don't put together a nice box like this then tuck it away to slowly bake itself to death!

Other than that I would add in a UPS that FreeNAS can control and get it ordered.

-WIll

 

[ProtoSD]

I would stay away from the Hitachi disks, I have 2 of those and one just came back from RMA after only 3 months. The other one is acting 'funny' and I don't trust it. I didn't have much experience with Samsung, but the 2TB F4's listed in my Signature have been solid, I have 4 of them. Of course I'm aware that almost all the drive manufacturers seem to have their bad records with failures, and I spent a lot of time reading reviews of disks and just decided Samsung deserved a chance.

I agree with Will about a UPS, but I think a 380w power supply is too much unless you plan to add a lot more later. I use a 160w Pico power supply and my system idles at about 46w and peaks about 60w during heavy activity. If your motherboard supports AHCI, you can stagger the disks spinning up and not spike the power supply, but that shouldn't happen after you get things ironed out anyway.

 

[joeschmuck]

You will definitely get more bang for your buck if you build a NAS and use FreeNAS over a mainstream NAS box.

I have comments to your system build since you asked what we though about your selection. I will make an assumption that you will be using this NAS for home use and not a small office environment.

I think you put together almost a gaming system, not a NAS system. Don't get me wrong, it's nice but you could save a little money unless you have plans for this computer if the NAS doesn't work out for you.

The MB is expensive ($160 US). You don't need USB 3.0 nor any 6Gbit SATA ports.
The RAM is good ($80 US).
The CPU matches the MB ($125 US)
The Power Supply is a great match, good job, don't change this item. ($65 US)
The Case is very nice and I'd like it myself. It should last you a very long time. ($110 US)
The Hard Drives are fine as well for a home NAS. ($70 US/each) I'm a Samsung Fan.
The USB Flash drive is fine as well. You could go for a 4GB drive but this is fine. ($25 US)
The extra LAN card is fine, not sure why a home system would need it. ($40 US)

Total rough cost: $885 US

This is not a great deal for a NAS but as a nice home computer, you bet.

Costs you can't control are the Hard Drives ($280), the Power Supply ($65).
The case is a good investment if you plan to rebuild the PC at a later date. If you plan to just shove it into a closet and never see it again then you could buy cheaper. I for one hang on to my cases because they are good quality steel, not thin crap.

My advice is, unless you need two LAN ports, drop the LAN card and save $40 bucks. The Motherboard and CPU is the other place you can save. The E-350 line has been getting great results here and the CPU/Motherboard combo goes for $125 and comes with six 6Gb SATA ports and you use the same DDR3 RAM. That shaves $160 off the cost and as a side benefit, it draws less power and produces less heat.

Last item, buy a 1000VA UPS to go with the NAS. This should give you at least 60 minutes run time before it can perform an orderly shutdown. The $125 is well worth it.

I hope this helps.

EDIT: Comment on the power supply. 380 Watts is reasonable for this setup and lends to some future expansion. This gives a few more AMPs to the 12VDC rail for when those drive don't spin up in sequence when power is initially applied (depends on the MB/BIOS).

 

[Nilo]

Thank for your replies. I will maybe do some changes to my NAS Box.

 

[matthewowen01]

seems pretty overkill, glad you're reconsidering. AMD has some nice dual core 65 watt processors for about $50. you can get a nice motherboard to match for another $50.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103933

Everything looks fine except for your idea of hiding it in the closet. Please don't put together a nice box like this then tuck it away to slowly bake itself to death!
-WIll

Made me laugh. I had my setup in a closet at me old place. It had an opening to the attic too. i mounted a 26 inch box fan with a temperature sensor on it leading to the attic, when the closet hit 80F the fan would kick on and vent the room.

my new place it's going to go under the stairs, i have 2 30cm fans I'm going to use to vent it to the crawl space under the stairs. haven't set that up yet...

 

[joeschmuck]

Well since we are all telling where our boxes are... Once I'm done testing my box (almost there) I will be placing it into the attic space and leave the sides off for additional cooling. It's doesn't get much above 160F during the summer time in Virginia plus the ridge vent will keep air circulating through the attic spaces. I already have an electrical outlet up there and CAT 5 that I'll have to splice into and add a 5 port switch. I just ordered a 1000VA APC UPS that should work fine with the FreeNAS software and it will be located up there as well. I have been considering cutting a hole into the A/C trunk line and adding a 6" tube to help cool the PC during the really hot days of summer and maybe rigging it with a thermostat to open and shut the A/C.

As for putting it into a closet, I agree with the rest of the folks, it will get too hot in there and you will need to provide some ventilation to keep things cool. The cheapest route I have figured and it will exchange a large volume of air and it's cheap is to visit the local cheap store and buy one of those 20" area fans (about $10 US) and 4 drywall screws. Cut an 18" hole in the front of your closet door about 6 inches above the floor and using the dry wall screws, mount the fan to the outside of the door. This will leave room inside for the computer and your clothes. Make sure the air is being pulled out of the closet. Now the last step requires you to cut a corresponding 18" hole into the attic so yo can pull air down and across the computer and out the closet door. Plug in the fan and place it on medium speed. During the really hot days you can place it on High speed. Of course until I can convenience my wife this is the smart thing to do I will be placing my equipment into the cool and dry basement right next to my old NAS drives. ;)

 

[Fornax]

As for putting it into a closet 8<-- Cut an 18" hole in the front of your closet door 8<-- ...cut a corresponding 18" hole into the attic so you can pull air down...

Erm, no. Most people do not cut holes like that in their houses. If it must be done I suggest routing your airflow the other way around anyway. Have a smaller hole and a computerfan (Fed by the PSU of your FreeNAS) (4-5 inch) blow air into the closet at the bottom, and do go fancy and make a dustfilter. Cut a coresponding hole high in the closet (wall or (attick)ceiling), use physics to cool the server and save many kW/yr and make your contraption more silent.

 

[survive]

Hi Nilo,

For what it's worth I agree with matthewowen01's suggestion to look at AMD systems. I particularly like the 790GX & 890GX systems that have the on-board graphics & "sideport" memory so you don't need a video card and you don't end up using half a gig of system memory just to drive the text mode display.

joeschmuck, I don't know if you are serious about the attic datacenter or not...I hope you wife pevails and makes you keep it in the basement.....could it be you are particularly cunning and that's the plan all along?

-Will

 

[joeschmuck]

It was humor. Could you imagine someone cutting a hole like that and pulling hot air into their house. I think I'll just leave it in the basement.

You know, one time I wrote a nice email to some co-workers about a problem that I suspected as being caused by a change in the moons position and it read as very believable (in my line of work, 5 feet difference can be measured by gravity and the rotation of the earth, no GPS here) and then at the end I told them the real problem. They thought it was funny and I did too since I got several of them to seriously consider it being viable. Anyway, the attic thing is not true and I hope no one even considers it.

 

[matthewowen01]

It was humor. Could you imagine someone cutting a hole like that and pulling hot air into their house. I think I'll just leave it in the basement.

You know, one time I wrote a nice email to some co-workers about a problem that I suspected as being caused by a change in the moons position and it read as very believable (in my line of work, 5 feet difference can be measured by gravity and the rotation of the earth, no GPS here) and then at the end I told them the real problem. They thought it was funny and I did too since I got several of them to seriously consider it being viable. Anyway, the attic thing is not true and I hope no one even considers it.

who's joking? I've become very good at patching holes over the years int he many places I've rented.