BUILD question about my build

[Xatian]

I'm compiling a shopping-list for a FreeNAS build that will be used as general storage, PlexMediaServer (2-3 streams at max), transmission, encoding blu-rays and storing some sensitiv encrypted data.
The total capacity spread across different volumes will be around 40TB (for now)


I am pretty sure I will use mostly these disks:
HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 HUS724040ALS640 (www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-7k4000)
(4TB 6GB/s NL-SAS)

and this CPU:
Intel Xeon E5-1620 v3 (ark.intel.com/de/products/82763/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-v3-10M-Cache-3_50-GHz)

which should simplify the selection of the remaining parts.


Now my question is regarding the chassis, mainboard and the hba (if needed):
I think I will buy a SuperMicro-mainboard as they are strongly recommended in this forum and after reading a while they seam pretty nice.
Specifically the one with the 8x - SAS3 looks interesting.
Supermicro X10SRH-CF (www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c600/x10srh-cf.cfm)

Furthermore it seems that SuperMicro-chassis are a recommended investment so I though I will select one of those but I don’t really know which one to take.
I definitely would like to have a 4U 24-bay rack-mount version —> so one of these:
www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/?chs=846

Now the question is how to connect the 24 discs to the mainboard and what chassis to use?
For example I could think of this one:
www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/846/SC846BE2C-R1K28B.cfm
which would fit the mainboard perfectly (I think). If I am correct I wouldn’t need any extra expanders or hbas but on the other hand I also think that it would be an absolute overkill since my disks don’t need this kind of performance.
With another chassis I would need an extra expander (which is not cheap) or an extra hba (like LSI SAS 9201-16i) which is also not cheap.
On the other hand I could use a X10SRi-F or X10SRL-F and install more hbas (like 3x-8x)

Maybe there is another better/cheaper option?!
What would you recommend?


Regarding the RAM —>
The X10SRH-CF’s supported DIMMs-list doesn’t leave much choice as it is not very long.
I though to start out with 2x 16GB and upgrade if needed which leaves me with these three models:
http://www.supermicro.com/support/r...2&prid=84053&type=DDR4 1.2V&ecc=1&reg=1&fbd=0
Is there any difference between these dimms? Can you recommend any of those or some completely different?


Thank you!

 

[Darren Myers]

So while the SAS3 sounds amazing, and i am sure it is...i think FreeNAS still has some driver/firmware issues as of 9.3, not sure of 9.3.1. As per the chassis, it too has SAS3 backplane and expander board, i am not sure how a SAS3 backplane and a SAS2 HBA would play together, if you went with that motherboard, i think you'd need an additional PCI E HBA just to have the SAS2 connectivity until the SAS3 drivers are polished.

Hopefully i am wrong and the SAS3 drivers are coming along nicely and you'd be able to use this lovely build and its SAS3

 

[Xatian]

So you are saying that SAS3 is not supported (or does not work properly) with FreeNAS? Can you tell me what is not working? Is there some place where I can look that up?
Can you (or someone else) "guess" when or if these issues will be resolved?
I mean ... I know that noone can know the answer but being around in this community (or using the product) you could make an more educated guess then I ever can...
If it maybe takes a few weeks I am happy to wait as I have to buy and build the system anyways.

If it turns out that I can't use the SAS3 then buying the mainboard with the onboard 8x SAS3 isn't a good idea is it?
And if I buy a PCI-e HBA I cannot use the SAS3 expander integrated into the chassis right or are these backward-compatible?
What chassis and mainboard (+hba) would you recommand?

 

[Darren Myers]

Most recent post https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/strange-hdd-behaviour.36466/#post-222804 , https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/big-project-tips-and-references.35622/ , https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/aoc-sas3-9300-16e-on-freenas.35645/#post-217457 .

I am not sure how backwards compatiable the SAS3 -> SAS2 stuff , in theory getting the board with SAS3 and just leaving it disconnected would be fine, if you had a SAS2 HBA , and if the SAS2 to SAS3 backplane worked then you could in theory keep the SAS3 board, use the SAS3 backplane, and but use a SAS2 HBA to the SAS3 backplane and when the SAS3 drivers/firmware are more polished then you could make the jump. Sadly a quick google didnt give me an answer on using SAS3 backplane with a SAS2 HBA...might require more research or someone with a higher/better understanding of SAS stuff then myself.

 

[Xatian]

Well ... I will give it a try ... thank you.

Can you please comment on the RAM-question as well? Which one should I take -->
Hynix, Micron or Samsung? Any preferences?
Thank you!

 

[Darren Myers]

i like Micron and Hynix, havent used Samsung RAM before...but if its on the tested page i would trust it

 

[Ericloewe]

Samsung is a tier 1 DRAM supplier, as are Micron and Hynix.