BUILD Please review and critique my first build

[Rohita Huja]

Hi Folks,

I am new to this forum, as well as to NAS building. I am so glad that I found this site as this has made me very knowledgeable compared to what I was before finding this site. I have been reading, and reading over the last couple of weeks, and am much smarter now – I think (-)…So thanks to all.

I am starting to build a NAS for my home, and spec’ed out the system. I will truly appreciate if I can get some feedback / pros / cons / critique on this build. I would like to do this right – so will be very helpful. Please pardon some stupid questions, as my knowledge is still limited. So here goes…

Goal is to build a 9 drive (4TB each) = 36 TB total system, configured as RAIDZ1 (so usable 32 TB). I have selected the following hardware:

1. Motherboard ($350): SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F (Socket 1150)
2. Processor ($290): Xeon E3-1245V3 (3.4GHz) Processor (I chose this model as this supports GPU – just in case).
3. Memory ($360): Kingston 32GB Kit (4x8GB) - DDR3 1600MHz, ECC, CL11, 1.5V, Unbuffered, DIMM (Part Number: KVR16E11K4/32).
4. HDDs ($1,800): Seagate NAS HDD 4TB SATA 6GB NCQ 64 MB Cache Bare Drive ST4000VN000. Quantity 9 (@$200 each).
5. Graphic card: None
6. LAN Adapter: Not needed (Dual gigabit Intel LAN port onboard)
7. Power Supply ($140): Corsair 850W ATX12V / EPS12V
8. Operating System: FreeNAS ZFS, RAIDZ1
9. Rack case ($94): NORCO 4U Rack Mount 3 x 5.25-Inch Drive Bay, 10 x 3.5-Inch Drive Bays Server Chassis RPC-450
TOTAL: $3,134

Can you please let me know if there are any suggestions?

Also, some questions:
a) Does anyone know the difference between X10SL7-F and X10SL7-F-O? The latter is not even listed on Supermicro website (atleast I couldn’t find it), and is listed on Amazon for $240.

b) On the “tested memory” list on Supermicro site, the Kingston memory is not listed. The memory that is listed is not to be found anywhere. But on the Kingston site, this memory module shows the motherboard listed as compatible. So does this mean I am ok?

c) I understand the 1 GB per 1 TB memory rule that has been discussed several times. I also understand the point that for home use, it usually doesn’t always have to be that ratio. But I still want to confirm this. My main use is going to be serving movies, music, picture etc (including 3D movies). Maximum number of users at any given time will be three. Is 32 GB memory ok with the 36 TB HDD, and 8 GB needed for FreeNAS ZFS?

d) The supermicro motherboard that I listed has been discussed in the forum at a few places. I know there is an issue with the USB3 (c2 vs c1 stepping). I know we can tell from the serial number which stepping the board is, and it is better to order September (or later) manufactured. Does anyone know if the c2 versions are shipping? I didn’t want to have to RMA the c1 version to Supermicro.

e) With this motherboard, do I need the IBM 1508 board to connect additional drives? The mobo specs state that it has an “8x SAS2 (6Gbps) via LSI 2308” on board, so wondering. I found some conflicting information in the forum messages about this.


Again, all feedback and help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[vegaman]

A) I believe the -O just refers to the packaging (bulk, boxed, etc.). I'm not 100% on that though.

B) Kingston does compatibility testing with SuperMicro motherboards, so you should be fairly safe to trust them.

C) Yes you'll be fine for that type of usage with 32GB of RAM.

D) I have no idea on that, but I'll check the serial number of the board I got recently. Might give me an idea.

E) You can also connect drives to the PCH's SATA ports. So the board will support 14 disks without an additional controller.

And most importantly, don't use RAIDZ1 with 4TB drives! Especially with that many. Go for RAIDZ2 or 3.

A few more notes:
That power supply seems to have a good reputation, but it's bigger than you need. You'd probably be better going for a smaller PSU since you'll generally be running it at quite a low load (where efficiency drops off a lot).
The C222 chipset doesn't enable the on-die GPU, so you'd save money going for the 1240 (or 1230 depending what you decide is the better price).
That case is rather large for the number of drive bays it offers. It should make cooling easier though I guess.

 

[cyberjock]

I have the E3-1230v2(ivy bridge version of the 1230 haswell) and it is smoking fast. I can't even get CPU usage to 50%, so to be honest I wouldn't spend the money for the 1240. My guess is you'll want to ugprade the system to a CPU with more than 32GB of RAM support in 3 years or so before you'll be asking for more CPU power.

And RAIDZ1 with 4TB drives, and RAIDZ1 with more than 3 drives is complete suicide. RAIDZ1 was declared "dead" in 2009. So go RAIDZ1 if you want your pool to die when you lose your first disk. Read the link in my sig if you want to know more. Just know that RAIDZ1 is a VERY bad idea in many ways. More than 90% of users that lose their pools have RAIDZ1.

 

[FREAKJAM]

Keep in mind that the E3-1230v3/E3-1240v3 both not have an on-chip GPU.

 

[Rohita Huja]

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

"D) I have no idea on that, but I'll check the serial number of the board I got recently. Might give me an idea."

I look forward to your findings.

"And most importantly, don't use RAIDZ1 with 4TB drives!"

Agreed...I also read Cyberjock's article. I will plan to go with 10 drives, and RAIDZ2.

"That power supply seems to have a good reputation, but it's bigger than you need."

I had this power supply (brand new) that was slotted for another project that never happened. Is there a donwside of using this "over capacity" PSU? If not, I would like to use it - otherwise get a smaller capacity one.

"The C222 chipset doesn't enable the on-die GPU"

Based on your comment, and what Cyberjock said, I am changing this to the E3-1230 V3.

Thanks Again !

 

[vegaman]

You're welcome

According to the serial number of my board it was made in July. I got it from Amazon about 2-3 weeks ago.

The 'downside' of using a larger PSU is just slightly lower efficiency. Not enough to justify buying another PSU though.

 

[Rohita Huja]

Thanks again...so it seems your board has the "c1 stepping", which I guess is OK.

I do have another question. I saw that the Supermicro X9SRH-7F (socket 2011) is available for $385. It takes CPU series E5-2600/1600. I see that E5-1620 (Xeon Quad-Core Processor E5-1620 3.6GHz 5.0GT/s 10MB LGA 2011 CPU, OEM) is available for $285. So this combo is only $35 more than the X10 mobo combo that I specc'ed out above. So why would one not go for this X9 combo? It gives significant expansion capabilities (for ECC memory up to 512 GB).

So - for the minor additional investment, why not go for the X9 and E5-1620? Am I missing something?

For one thing, this mobo doesn't have USB3 (which I wonder why) - but that should be ok - right?

Any opinions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[vegaman]

Yeah the stepping isn't a huge deal for me - it's a server, I don't see myself ever putting it in S3 sleep.

Socket 2011 is definitely a nice option. I think your costs are a little off there though, you should be able to get the X10SL7-F for at least $100 less than you mention in the OP. The 2011 CPU's also have a significantly higher TDP.
If you want to upgrade past 32GB you'll have to go for it though.

If I was making the jump to socket 2011 I'd personally go for something like the X9SRH-7TF - to really take advantage of that power and RAM capacity you'd want to upgrade to 10 gigabit (or infiniband if you decide to go that way) and it's a lot cheaper to go for a board with the NICs integrated.

Yeah, USB3 isn't a big deal. It might make boot a tiny bit faster and could be handy if you want to directly attach external drives to transfer to/from the server.

 

[Rohita Huja]

Yes you are right - I mis-read the price of X10SL7-F. It's $240 at NewEgg. That brings the price difference between X10 and X9 board (while keeping everything else same) to $140. I might just go for this X9SRH-7F socket 2011 option after all.

The X9SRH-7TF however is another $100, so wondering.

Also, what are your thoughts about the E5-1620 processor? Will this be fine in this X9 setup?

Thanks again. This has been very helpful.

 

[vegaman]

Well I'd recommend looking at the v2 (Ivy Bridge-E) model CPU instead. That will be the best CPU to go for in a UP board, unless you want more cores for something and you could look at the 1660. That wouldn't make any difference for any of the single threaded stuff.

Unless you're going to be running NFS or iSCSI the X9 build will be kinda overkill though. And if you're doing that you'll definitely want something faster than gigabit or you'll have a major bottleneck.

 

[Rohita Huja]

Yeah...I was getting a bit carried away there. I am placing the order for the socket 1150, X10SL7-F, and other parts. That's good enough for my purposes. Thanks so much for the help...and getting me in the right direction.