Noob thread looks like a good place for build advice

[Cruiser]

Hopefully the noob thread is a good place to get a critique of my NAS design intentions. I have a choice for NAS to just use a commercial unit or delve into a DIY, commercial seems a bit more limited and I have a leftover box, from a couple of computer builds ago.

The box is an Athlon 64 3500+/Asus A8N-SLI SE/4 GB with a 600 w PS. I bought a Zelman Z9 case, so that will form the base unit. The MB has 4 SATA slots (2 controllers with 2 slots each) and the intent is to use those with 4 WD Red 3 Tb drives. Intended use is for my home network doing backups, video and audio storage/streaming.

I realize the SATA will slow things down some, but I was planning on starting with the SATA, if things are too slow , then upgrading to a controller. I figure it would work either way, so I gain the setup experience and if I need to upgrade the controller that is doable later. The network itself is gigabit after the modem/router.

I am a bit worried about the RAM and I can't increase that with this MB, so I have 2 potential bottlenecks the SATA and the 4 Gb of RAM, I just have no idea if they are going to be showstoppers.

Any feedback would be great, I would rather adjust the plan before I do the build, than rework the whole thing later.


Cruiser

 

[cyberjock]

So here's the big questions:

Do you plan to use ZFS? If no, then you have no problems at all.

If yes, then:

Are you in a corporate/business environment? If yes then you NEED more RAM. PERIOD. I wouldn't do less than 16GB and preferrably not less thn 32GB if you plan to have more than 25 or so users.
If you are in a home environment where getting more than 20-30MB/sec from your server and/or plan to stream more than 2 blu-ray streams of data simultaneously. If yes then you NEED more RAM. PERIOD. If these limitations are acceptable to you then you can try going with less than the manual recommends (manual recommends 6GB just to start with ZFS). But don't be surprised if the system is unstable or slow. Some people have no problems with 4GB of RAM and are happy with the slow performance. Other people (like me) would be horribly disappointed. Some people have no problems with reliability and then one day they are having errors with too little RAM.

Want to be safe.. don't go with anything less than 8GB of RAM.

 

[Stephens]

I realize the SATA will slow things down some, but I was planning on starting with the SATA, if things are too slow , then upgrading to a controller.

What does that mean? It seems like you're trying to say the on-board SATA will slow things down but I can't figure out why as it's SATA II.

The ZFS file system generally doesn't work well with 4GB of RAM. Read the hardware requirements in the freenas documentation if you haven't already. If you don't know where they are, google "FreeNAS documentation".

 

[Cruiser]

I misread the board the board specs, it is a little long in the tooth, but now that you point it out, I see it's S II .... so thanks for the correction Stephens, one thing learned.

Noobsauce80 .... this is a home system, likely pretty light load with just 2 users at any time, plan to use mainly as storage for system backup, music and movies ..... I was trying to avoid changing RAM simply because that means new MB/CPU/RAM which is of course a whole new ballgame (basically a new system). I was planning on ZFS, so that would seem my plans are a non starter, from a RAM perspective, and I have to decide if I want to build a whole new system.

I have read quite a bit and that's why I was concerned with the RAM, but I also realized there is a lot to learn here and as with anything else, I take documentation with a grain of salt, because it often isn't exactly as stated. There always seem to be exceptions, omissions and such .... so asking people that know usually saves a lot of frustrations.

 

[cyberjock]

Noobsauce80 .... this is a home system, likely pretty light load with just 2 users at any time, plan to use mainly as storage for system backup, music and movies ..... I was trying to avoid changing RAM simply because that means new MB/CPU/RAM which is of course a whole new ballgame (basically a new system). I was planning on ZFS, so that would seem my plans are a non starter, from a RAM perspective, and I have to decide if I want to build a whole new system.

If you already own the hardware and just need hard drives buy them. Put them in and use them. If its too slow or unreliable then go look at upgrading. If you have to upgrade you just unplug the hard drives and put them in the new system. Even buying a used desktop system with a first gen i3 can do 16GB of RAM and will saturate Gb LAN no problem. I'd still install the x64 version of FreeNAS that way if you upgrade you just plug the USB stick in the new server and go.