Silent NAS for home

[ultim]

Hello,

So, after both 1) my data needs are starting to grow out of hands and 2) I have experienced a large data loss in the past, I finally decided to build myself a somewhat reliable NAS system. I've built many systems, but none for NAS/server use. So I did my best to read up on things, and here is the hardware I've come up with.

But first my requirements:
- Be able to accomodate 10 disks in the future, though right now I will start with less, with 5-6.
- Silent operation. The only place to put it is in a room where somebody will sleep.
- Low power consumption is a big plus within the other constraints. Will run 24/7.
- For home use. ATM it will be only for storage, but it is highly likely it would also function as a HTPC in the foreseeable future. Meaning it should be able to decode and play HD media, and output it to a large screen.
- Should be somewhat future-proof. Buying a SATA/SAS controller to support additional disks is OK, but otherwise it should hold for many years. This is a comparatively large investment after all.
- And foremost, should provide adaquate protection for data. I don't want to loose a TB again.

Here's my idea about hardware:

CPU – Celeron G1820T
Yes it is not the fastest around, but it also need not be. It still has ECC, is low power even under load, is strong enough for both ZFS and to decode 1080p, and cheap. What else would I need?

Motherboard – SuperMicro MBD-X10SLM+-F
This board is one recommended by cyberjock in a different thread, and for the most part it suits me well. ECC, 6 SATA ports, GbE, fast PCI-E for future disk controller, and USB 3.0. IPMI/KVM is also nice that I might as well use if it is already there, but actually pretty unimportant to me.

RAM – Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CK0
Not much to say here. It is from the list of officially supported RAM modules for the motherboard, with ECC. It is a single 8GB module, so plenty of opportunities to upgrade should I need more, but for the start, this should be enough.

Case – Fractal Design Define R4
I can cram 10 mechanical HDDs into this, 11 with an adapter. As this is a midi-tower, it has plenty of space compared to HTPC/NAS houses, which helps things stay cool. Not to mention it is one of the most silent cases (based on my reasearch), which is really important to me. Apparently it also has a good build quality. Bit pricey though for a case, but hey, somebody will sleep next to it.

PSU – Be Quiet Straight Power 450W E9
Again, low noise levels important here. But in addition, I want it to be reliable, with high life expectancy, and protections (OCP, OPP, OTP, OVP, SIP …). If a dying PSU kills all my HDDs with a final output surge in its last moment, then there is no use in having any kind of raid+parity in the system. 450W seems to be well over-sized in idle, but when things spin up, I calculated the total system could demand up to 350-400W of power, which is about 80-90% of this PSU's rating. There is also a UPS by the way.

CPU cooler – Noctua NH-U9B SE2
This is a tactic I used often with success in multiple builds. Basically I attach a cooler that is way over-sized for the particular CPU, and then I just leave off the fan from the CPU cooler. You still need airflow in the case ofc, but that will be provided by the fans that come with the case, and in the end I spare the noise of the CPU fan. This is better than the other way around (fan on CPU and one less cooler in case), because this solution provides more airflow for other components, and the chosen CPU won't miss the fan either way. To make this work though, you need to match the CPU+cooler+case, so try this only if you understand the consequences for your build.

Storage – 6x 3TB WD Reds (and more pcs to come as data needs grow)
Damn ZFS coz you can't add storage to an existing vdev, only to the pool. Expanding vdevs would make things so much easier. For this reason alone, I might go with some variation of Raid6 instead of FreeNAS+ZFS, but that is yet to be decided. + 8TB USB or CF (yet to be selected) for the system.

Backups – Backblaze?
I recognize the importance of backups, but I'm not in the financial mood for a second storage system of equal or larger capacity, hence the cloud.


Ahhh, that was extensive. Sorry for the ramblings. What do you think of the PSU wattage?

I am also contemplating on going with the SuperMicro X10SAE mobo + i3-4130T instead of the above. This motherboard does not have IPMI, but as I mentioned it is not really important to me. But it has integrated DVI/HDMI, so I won't need a separate graphics card when I start using the system as an HTPC too. It also has more SATA ports out of the box, meaning less likely to need to buy a SATA card. Prices are about the same.

When I get to building this thing, I will let you know of my experiences for anybody who is interested. Until then, thanks for the feedback! I am glad to take any advice.

 

[Lynton Bell]

Hello ultim, it's a shame no one has replied to your post yet as I'm also really interested in building with G1820t at the heart of it. I can't seem to find any benchmarks or reviews of the G1820t at the moment and although I think it will be fine at decoding as the spec sheet says the gpu can boost to 1.05 ghz, I don't know if this component is utilised for decoding or if it only uses the 2cores\2threads, and if they will be enough. Given that many NAS devices on retail sites have weaker processors below 2ghz, I'm guessing this will not be an issue but it would be good for someone to confirm this.

Otherwise I have the same general aims as you: fanless, as much low voltage ram as possible (not sure if I'll fork out for ECC), I will probably go for corsair modular 430W, will probably go for h87 chipset due to the 6 sata3 ports but haven't had time to look into the recommended board by cyberjock and the associated benefits\technologies to freenas for the extra cost it comes with. I'm also going to look up whether freenas spins discs down when they're not being accessed as I also want to leave it on 24/7 but don't want the drives to be spinning if they're unused.

 

[cyberjock]

Well, to be honest, I looked through the list of parts and I saw the G1820T. When the G3220 has 3.0Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz and is $10 more, why would you not go with a CPU that has about 30% more processing power? $10 is not alot.

The PSU scares me. I'm not familiar with that brand, so I wouldn't endorse it myself. PSUs can be very interesting because some people will swear by brands and avoid others. But, I've never heard of "Be Quiet".

@Lynton Bell:

The GPU will provide no benefit for decoding on a FreeNAS box as the OS doesn't support it.

Also, comparing FreeNAS to "many NAS devices on retail sites" is a bad comparison. None of them use ZFS and they are all MUCH slower performers too. The comparison in CPU speed is apples to oranges. So don't be fooled.

Fanless is almost certainly going to mean 'I like to BBQ hard drives'. Generally, if you don't have a fan blowing directly onto a hard drive there's a really good chance it'll end up over that 40C "caution" line.

You can reconfigure FreeNAS to spin disks down, but it's not recommended. Spinning disks down and up causes extra wear and tear. I never put mine to sleep and unless I'm leaving the house for more than a weekend I leave the server on 24x7.

The H87 chipset doesn't support ECC RAM. So if you go that route you have foregone using ECC RAM. ECC RAM is only supported on the server chipsets.

 

[Lynton Bell]

Ok thanks CJ. Good info on the integrated GPU not being relevant. I was aware of the higher specs of the G3220 but this new line of Celeron's have a max tdp of 35W with typical draw about 28W I've read. For a build that will be economical 24/7/365 I thought the difference of 20W (55W-35W) might be significant but if we're talking a few dollars\pounds annually then you're right I should go for something stronger than the Celeron. It's not that I can't afford it but rather that I'd like to see what I can get away with from a low power enthusiast perspective and I hate wastage!
Good to know that FreeNas performance over retail NAS is so much stronger; I think I'd gathered that from a review I'd read. Thanks for the tip on fanless, I meant the CPU really but I think I'd just have one large fan cooling the chassis, slow speed. Interesting about wear and tear. The thing is over time I would want to upgrade HDD's in line with tech advancements anyway as more platters are added or tech improves (SSD only in future!?) so I'd rather the saving on power since the drives would probably last a few years with this method anyway.
I'll get stuck into your guides to learn more about file systems and ECC Ram advantages. I imagine the latter is more about bit checking and parity but my NAS will be a backup only so I may not need to worry too much about this.

 

[cyberjock]

TDP is NOT an indicator of idle load. Never has been, never will be. TDP is theoretical maximum heat load. You can have a 1000w CPU that idles at 5w just like you can have a 55w CPU that idles at 50w. Granted, neither are likely to actually exist for various reasons, but TDP has not and never will be an indicator if idle load. My full fledged Xeon E3-1230v2 system idles at 33w with no disks. Not that much more than your Celeron, but one of us has a distinct and very noticeable performance advantage that will add up in coming years. That celeron.. you stand a chance of being unhappy with it from the get-go, and end up replacing it in a year or less. Meanwhile, my CPU will probably last 3 more years. The G3220 has enough extra power to last for a longer period of time than the Celeron. There's no telling when/if you'll need to replace it before you replace the server. But, the G3220 has enough headroom to cover most load. The Celeron does not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power This is a common misconception, so don't feel bad. I make this correction almost weekly.

All that the more expensive CPUs do for you other than a paltry increaese in idle wattage is give to the opportunity to blow through any workload with a more powerful CPU. When idle, virtually all CPUs of a given generation idle at about the same power. cores clock down, other cores are turned completely off, etc.

So don't let that TDP number fool you. It's not an indicator you should be concerning yourself with at all for a system that will be idle 90% of the time.

 

[Lynton Bell]

Yeah I can't believe I never thought of idle load being the most important factor, daft really. Actually in the UK the G3220 is cheaper than the G1820t at the moment but picked up another useful tip on another forum that the G3420 (only £4 more) supports 1600mhz ram whereas the G3220 in only 1333mhz. Since many operations are to\from ram (hence ZFS guides recommend maximising ram), I would imagine this is advantageous

 

[SmallGuy]

TDP has concern with heat dissipation on heavy load.
Concerning RAM frequencies, for sure it would be advantageous, but I'm not convince you would notice the difference.

 

[ultim]

cyberjock:
The 1820 and 3220 both can easily handle the workload I am planning to throw at them, so the added performance of the 3220 is totally useless to me ATM. Should I ever in the future wish this server had more horsepower, I can still upgrade the CPU anytime and I won't loose much: the 1820 is just $40 after all. But chances are if I ever want to upgrade the CPU, I will most probably need a lot more extra performance than what the 3220 provides over the 1820 anyway, so even with a price difference of only $10 (the difference is actually quite a bit larger in my area), I am not sure I can justify buying the 3220. As for power consumption, they are roughly the same, it seems the 3220 consumes about 2-3W more both in idle and under load (reference).

The PSU-brand Be Quiet is not unknown in my area, and I even have personal (good) experience with it. But I'm listening, what brand and model would you recommend?

My design won't be completely fanless. I do strive for a minimum amount of fans, but the two low-noise case fans of the Define R4 will be running, one of them blowing right at the HDDs. If more HDDs are installed, probably a 3rd fan will bee needed too (or I simply might try relocating the 2nd fan to the other HDDs).

Lynton Bell:
I've done my research about the 1820p and it should easily decode and play 1080p (I don't know about 3D though, but probably that too). Also, like others I would also recommend not to concern yourself with the RAM frequency. I doubt you'll notice the difference in any file-server/HTPC application.

More info about the build:
I've bought the case and it is truly awesome. The rest of the components are still pending selection. I've also looked at C2x50/58 Atom boards (yes, even they should be able to decode 1080p according to my research!). Supermicro advertises 7 years of product life for some of these which is great, but I do feel they are somehow overproportionally expensive compared to their capabilities. So right now the most attractive mobo seems to be the X10SAE. 8xSATA, HDMI, ECC, plenty of extensebility, and it has an acceptable power consumption. This review here uses the same mobo and measures an idle consumption of 23.6W with a Xeon, which is OK for me.

I've also looked at virtualization possibilities, in a try to consolidate my desktop with this newly-to-be-built file server. Of course in this case I'd choose a beefier CPU, one with also VT-d amongst others. But it looks to me getting VGA-passthrough to work is really troublesome and only works in a few selected cases. I probably couldn't get it to work with a GTX750, which would be the card I'd buy if I upgrdaed my PC now. Any inputs about virtualization? I could besically reuse the same component list as above, except for the CPU.

 

[SmallGuy]

Are you aware that Freenas doesn't provide any graphical output (only a console)? Freenas share or stream video through the network.
So ok a Celeron is able to decode 1080p video but isn't able to TRANSCODE it on the fly.
If your clients are 1080p capable and accept the original video format, you can simply share it as a file and your client do the job, but transcoding will not run smoothly with this processor.
I think you miss something...

 

[ultim]

Do you mean I cannot output video on e.g. HDMI under FreeNAS? (No I didn't know that.) But that isn't a problem at all if I choose virtualization, then I can run FreeNAS in one VM and the HTPC stuff in another VM.
I am not concerned about on-the-fly transcoding, that's not part of my use-case.

 

[cyberjock]

ROLFMFAO... ultim, you got a lot to learn... your reasons for that CPU are just unjustified.. you'll see.

And as for FreeNAS in a VM...http://forums.freenas.org/index.php...nas-in-production-as-a-virtual-machine.12484/

So either you have no clue what you are talking about or you are an askhole.

 

[ultim]

And as for FreeNAS in a VM...http://forums.freenas.org/index.php...nas-in-production-as-a-virtual-machine.12484/
So either you have no clue what you are talking about or you are an askhole.

Actually, the first two posts in that thread you linked to state that FreeNAS in a VM will work just great if you use VT-d and you use server-grade hardware. And yes I did state earlier I have no experience in building server hardware, but I think you can see I tried to read up on many things. Probably I still missed a couple of things, but should I feel ashamed that my 1-2 weeks of online research in freetime cannot live up to your years of experience? So with these in mind, IMHO claiming that I have no clue at all or that I'm an asXhole, is very rude.

 

[cyberjock]

First, I said "askhole" and it wasn't a typo. There is a definition for "askhole". Google it.

Second, if you read those posts there are things said like:

The thread title... "Please do not run FreeNAS in production as a Virtual Machine!"

"FreeNAS can and will run as a VM. That does not make it a good idea."

"But the conclusion is this: it's perfectly fine to experiment with FreeNAS in a VM."

pbutcher has been admonished on this forum *many* times. Just because one person says it's safe doesn't make it safe. He also does things that are incredibly stupid. If you want to believe pbutcher and his whopping 100 posts, or jgreco with 3500 posts, then do so. But expect us to laugh at you.. in your face.. if you do it. We've given the warnings in the manual, in my noobie guide, AND in that thread. If you still somehow think its a good idea, please do it. I do enjoy a good laugh when people want to be ignorant.

 

[ultim]

jgreco himself wrote "However, PCI passthrough on most consumer and prosumer grade motherboards is unlikely to work reliably. VT-d for your storage controller is dangerous and risky to your pool. A few server manufacturers seem to have a handle on making this work correctly, ...". So the way I initially understood jgreco's post is that FreeNAS+VTd is reliable only if you happen to use one of the few server hardware where it actually works reliably. Based on your strong objection to the topic however, it seems the situation is even more complicated than that, so I'll take your advice and avoid FreeNAS in a VM altogether.

 

[RoboKaren]

Best to avoid it. Also best to have separate devices for separate functions.

NAS => Freenas + Plex
Firewall/VPN => Router
HTPC => Chromebox, NUC, or Roku