Setting up a FreeNAS for the first time

[djsticky]

Hi Everyone,

I have decided to set myself up with a FreeNAS 8.2 box for home use. Basically Movie rips, Photos, Music, Time Machine backups, etc...
I am aiming for a 6x3TB RaidZ2 plus an SSD cache drive. So 7 SATA drives in total.
I have been trying to consult the FreeBSD compatibility list for choosing some of my hardware but I am completely lost. This is what I have so far:

Case - Antec 300
Power Supply - Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W 80 Plus Certified

At this point, I am trying to decide on which motherboard and Intel Processor to get. Do I get one with 7 SATAIII ports on it? Would it be cheaper to get something with less SATA ports and get a controller instead? Which controller? Which motherboard? Which processor?
Also, any other recommendations for the rest of the hardware (Drives, Memory, etc...) would be REALLY appreciated.

Thanks

 

[toddos]

How wed are you to Intel? I just built this AMD-based system for about a grand (ignore the 500GB drive and price doesn't include the $30 for the Intel NIC) and it's been running great. The only "problem" is that the SATA layout on the motherboard is a tight fit in cases with drive bays laid out how they are in the Antec you linked or the Rosewill I bought. I had to do some crazy SATA cable gymnastics to get everything hooked up right.

I'd also suggest not bothering with the SSD cache drive for now. It's probably not needed with your expected workload (which is the same as my workload), and ZIL drives aren't really a good idea until 8.3 (ZIL drives currently can't be removed from the pool, and if the ZIL dies you lose everything -- that will change with 8.3 and ZFS v28).

 

[tmacka88]

I haven't had a lot of experience with using different MB's so can't really help there. I don't think that SATA would really be benifital to you unless you are going to setup link aggregation as cat5e max's out at around 120MB/s also cause they are setup with raidz2 they will be quite quick anyway. As for RAM go for at least 8GB, could get away with less but if your going all out why not invest. CPU personally I would find something that is power efficient and will work with the MB you are after.

 

[djsticky]

I haven't had a lot of experience with using different MB's so can't really help there. I don't think that SATA would really be benifital to you unless you are going to setup link aggregation as cat5e max's out at around 120MB/s also cause they are setup with raidz2 they will be quite quick anyway. As for RAM go for at least 8GB, could get away with less but if your going all out why not invest. CPU personally I would find something that is power efficient and will work with the MB you are after.

Thanks for the reply tmacka88. Not sure though what you meant by "I don't think that SATA would really be benifital to you". Did you mean SATAIII vs SATAII? Also, I have ran Cat6 around the house and using a gigabit switch.
Here are a couple of motherboards I found. Could anyone tell me which one would be compatible?

Intel BOXDZ77BH55K
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper 3

 

[djsticky]

Any suggestions for a motherboard with an Intel processor? Like a high frequency i3.

 

[StephenFry]

djsticky, why the cache drive? For the use you describe I suspect this feature will needlessly complicate things.

 

[djsticky]

Honestly, I had heard of it boosting transfer rates significantly. But if you guys say i won't need one for this application, then I believe you. I think the most intensive task I would do is maybe stream two 1080p MKVs simultaneously.
Let's skip the cache drive and go for 6 x 3TB drives only. Much wider choice in motherboards with 6 Sata ports. Right?

 

[StephenFry]

Two MKVs with extremely high bitrate will be at the very maximum 25 megabyte/s and that's HIGHLY unlikely, most of the time it will be not even 1 MB/s.
And that is all easy, sequential reads.

Loads of boards have 6 SATA ports, my preference for a FreeNAS/BSD build is an older generation board, just to avoid compatibility issues.

Boot from a USB drive or from something hanging off the PATA connector, should your board have that option. After some testing, I decided to prefer a CF card over a USB drive, I got better stability.

You really don't need a mega fast processor. As you can see in my signature, I too have a pool with 6 drives and my old AMD processor is more than adequate.

4GB RAM might be enough, but 6GB will do you just fine. Throw in 8 if you're feeling generous.

My power supply is from the same Corsair series, just the 550W version - which is mega overkill. Your choice is excellent.

Make sure you get a decent Gigabit NIC. First of course, try the on-board controller. But if performance isn't up to par -which is likely- put in a separate controller card. It won't break the bank and will perform much better.
Obviously, as we've established, you don't NEED that speed, but when filling the NAS up, you'll enjoy seeing 90MB+/s transfer rates, I'm sure ;)

 

[djsticky]

Ok, I think I'm better off with 8GBs of ram since its not much more expensive.
My next question is if there are any issues if some of the SATA ports on the motherboard are 3GB/S and others are 6GB/S? Will it matter if the drives are all part of the same pool?
I was reading this thread and the guy's setup sounds solid. What do you think?
The motherboard is not expensive either.