Recommendation for my build

[Solen]

Hi! I’ve decided to move from a QNAP to a truenas for all my storage needs which include family photos and video. There will also be a ton of important documents stored and lastly some movies might be stored. Also I also edit 4k video off of the NAS so hardware wise I want something that is speedy enough.

First off I just bought a Norco RPC-4224 4U SAS/SFF which came with a lot of extra stuff for 100€. The reason I bought this one was that it had a backplane for SAS as well as 24 hotswappable trays since I already have 14 Seagate Exos 8TB SAS disks which I want to utilize as I already own them.
The other hardware which was included is as follows:
Fujitsu d2616 sas controller 512mb + battery
HP 468406-B21 - HP 24 Bay SAS Expander Card (sas/sata3)
DELL Perc H200 it mode (HBA)
AIMB-784G2-00A1E
4x2Gb DDR3
I3 4xxxx ngt 3Ghz

So when I saw it I figured I had to just scoop it up as quickly as possible but now I’m not so sure that was the best decision as there are some super micro servers available which I might have been better off with.

So is the norco a good start or do I just go with something else? If it’s a good start, what do I replace it with? If it’s not a good start what do I look for instead?

Thanks for any and all help

 

[Arwen]

...
Fujitsu d2616 sas controller 512mb + battery
...

This appears to be a hardware RAID card, (HBAs don't need / use batteries), not recommended for ZFS;

What's all the noise about HBAs, and why can't I use a RAID controller?

1) An HBA is a Host Bus Adapter. This is a controller that allows SAS and SATA devices to be attached to, and communicate directly with, a server. RAID controllers typically aggregate several disks into a Virtual Disk abstraction of some sort...

www.truenas.com

But, you do list a SAS HBA card in IT mode, which should work fine with your SAS Expander.

...
4x2Gb DDR3
...

While 8GB of memory might work, on TrueNAS SCALE, ZFS is limited to 50% of available memory.

Next, DDR3 is 2 generations back. (DDR5 has been available for a year or so, while DDR4 has been out for a long time.) This indicates a slower server. It might work okay, but copying 4K video files might take longer because of the reduced memory and slower speed of the memory.

 

[Davvo]

With 8GB of DDR3 I fear you will need SSDs if you want to edit 4k videos on the nas itself.

 

[Solen]

Sorry, I should have been more clear!

Since i'm going to be at least installing 12 * 8TB disks I was thinking of going 128GB RAM. So I'm already set on replacing the motherboard, CPU and RAM to something more appropriate. I just don't know what to get? From what I've read Supermicro X11SCH-F should be a good motherboard but when I look up the specs it seems like there are only 2 PCIe lanes and one of them will have to accomodate a 10GB NIC as it's not built in to the motherboard. That limits future expadability quite a lot (but then again maybe I dont even need anything else).

So my main concern is, can I utilize the Norco and the HBA and the backplane for my build or should I just sell the Norco and go for a supermicro server which has already been built out as the Norco is obsolete or the other hardware wont be compatible anyways?

 

[Solen]

So I just contacted a used server hardware supplier and was offered to buy the following. Is this a good choice for running Truenas Scale?

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EP2C612%20WS#Specifications

 

[Davvo]

So my main concern is, can I utilize the Norco and the HBA and the backplane for my build or should I just sell the Norco and go for a supermicro server which has already been built out as the Norco is obsolete or the other hardware wont be compatible anyways?

The DELL Perc H200 in IT mode is a great HBA, you can continue using it.
The Fujitsu d2616 sas controller 512mb + battery is a big NO for ZFS, you can sell it.
The HP 468406-B21 being a SAS expander I guess you can continue using it.
I'd ditch the AIMB-784G2-00A1E for quite a few reasons (no ECC, propietary CPU cooler, obsolescence).

So I just contacted a used server hardware supplier and was offered to buy the following. Is this a good choice for running Truenas Scale?

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EP2C612%20WS#Specifications

It's a two socket motherboard... I guess it depends on the price?

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

10 Gig Networking Primer

This is a discussion of high speed networking for newcomers, with specific emphasis on practical small- to medium-scale deployments for home labs or small office users. It originated with a forum thread located here that has many pages of...

www.truenas.com

 

[Solen]

The DELL Perc H200 in IT mode is a great HBA, you can continue using it.
The Fujitsu d2616 sas controller 512mb + battery is a big NO for ZFS, you can sell it.
The HP 468406-B21 being a SAS expander I guess you can continue using it.
I'd ditch the AIMB-784G2-00A1E for quite a few reasons (no ECC, propietary CPU cooler, obsolescence).


It's a two socket motherboard... I guess it depends on the price?

Hardware Recommendations Guide

This is the latest edition of the FreeNAS Community hardware recommendations guide. The current major version is R2, dated January 2021, with the last minor update on 2021-01-24. The format has moved away from the forum post form factor, to...

www.truenas.com

10 Gig Networking Primer

This is a discussion of high speed networking for newcomers, with specific emphasis on practical small- to medium-scale deployments for home labs or small office users. It originated with a forum thread located here that has many pages of...

www.truenas.com

Thanks!

Yeah it’s cheaper then me buying super micro x11sch-f but is it worse or better? I can’t really tell whether it’s an improvement or not :/

 

[Davvo]

Yeah it’s cheaper then me buying super micro x11sch-f but is it worse or better? I can’t really tell whether it’s an improvement or not :/

From the AIMB-784G2-00A1E both are surely an improvement.
With both sockets in use, the asrock board has better expandibility than the supermicro ones... if you don't plan to use all of that, or you just don't want to use two CPUs, I would go with the supermicro one. But again, you have to take price in the equation... if the difference is not big, I would go supermicro anyway.

 

[Solen]

In the end I settled for a
Dell R730XD with 12 3,5" bays
2 e5-2650L V4
128 LRDIMM RAM 32 gb each
10 Gbe NIC

I just hope it works well with truenas, we'll see :)

 

[Davvo]

It's fine, it should work flawlessly with your H200.

 

[Solen]

Hey, so i've gotten my server now and installed truenas. tried using the h730 with hba mode and as expected it works quite bad with very low speeds.

How do I go about connecting my H200 card to the correct ports? I am unsure where the cables from the H200 should connect.

 

[Davvo]

You put the card in a PCIe slot and connect the cables to the drives.