FloridaDan
Dabbler
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2014
- Messages
- 21
Yes, I'm overall, happy with the setup. The biggest fly has been that I've gotten some slightly higher fan noise in the last couple of days. It sort of sounds like a resonance in the area in front of the fans, but I'm just guessing, I've been too busy to get in there and look. It's not deal killing, but the machine is louder (but not in an alarming way) than it had been previously, though the temps are still the same. This may have to do with it's having been moved to it's final home, which is more confined and may also be setting up conditions where sound is either resonating or being amplified.
I tend to agree with you on the fan thing, though I was hedging the bet do I didn't have to wait if I decided I needed it later. As it turns out, I'd have probably concluded that I did need it. While I was getting CPU temps that were within the "normal" range, I was not really comfortable with them, so I applied the fan, et voila, nice, to my mind, CPU temps.
Like I said a few posts back, the whole ASRock vs. Supermicro thing came down to UDIMM vs. SODIMM and what my options were if the Avoton board turned out not to work. As a personal thing, I really hate returning stuff, so I tend to avoid solutions where that's the only answer if something doesn't work out. I guess I should add that seeing that the new Mini is built on the ASRock board did help tip that balance. Don't get me wrong, I like Supermicro, and use their stuff frequently, their solution didn't seem to fit as well here. It also meant that future expansion would require a controller card. Etc., etc. In the end either is most likely going to be a good choice.
The whole WD vs Seagate thing is kind of like Ford and Chevy to me. Members of one camp think anyone in the other camp is absolutely nuts, and vice versa. Again, either is most likely a fine choice, as long as you accept both the strengths and weaknesses of whatever choice you make. I will confess I'm a "WD guy", but that's sort of beside the point. I think of you look around here you'll find various people "explaining" why they chose one over the other. I can't speak to those reasons, but just looking at the specs of the Seagate NAS drives, they look "like NAS drives". Have you check the hardware recommendations thread for what is said about drives? I think some of the differences between Seagates and WDs are talked about there.
Yes, I would also very much like a fan-less build, but well, I'm still dreaming too. Particularly given that my home office gets a tad toasty on summer afternoons.
The Silverstone (DS380B) case was honestly my second choice. This choice was, at least partially, an aesthetic one for me. I just like the look of the Fractal case better, and there was a good chance the machine was going to wind up in the place it actually is now, which is pretty visible. As this is a home unit, hot-swap was less of a need than a "nice to have"; that all gets flipped in a business application, 99 times out of 100 aesthetics don't matter and things like hot-swap rule the day (for very good reasons.) The Silverstone does rather limit you to a specific size of power supply though; be careful to choose a compatible PSU if you decide to go that route. The Bitfenix and the new Fractal 804 look more like things I'd have had in my dormroom years ago, but not so much like things I'd like to have in my office today.
The whole value of the DOM is that it moves the boot device inside the case. That's really it. The same thing could be accomplished by putting a USB MB header "adapter". The DOM looked like a better choice though as the area by the SATA ports is much less congested. For now my USB stick is just in one of the ports on the back, which is fine for me, I don't have little kids. Though to address your statement about the running image, I believe that it is mostly correct, the running image stays in memory, but I believe that there are things (like config settings), etc that are written back to the boot device while the OS is running. I know I've read warnings about not removing the USB stick form a running FreeNAS box, though for the life of me can't remember where.
I tend to agree with you on the fan thing, though I was hedging the bet do I didn't have to wait if I decided I needed it later. As it turns out, I'd have probably concluded that I did need it. While I was getting CPU temps that were within the "normal" range, I was not really comfortable with them, so I applied the fan, et voila, nice, to my mind, CPU temps.
Like I said a few posts back, the whole ASRock vs. Supermicro thing came down to UDIMM vs. SODIMM and what my options were if the Avoton board turned out not to work. As a personal thing, I really hate returning stuff, so I tend to avoid solutions where that's the only answer if something doesn't work out. I guess I should add that seeing that the new Mini is built on the ASRock board did help tip that balance. Don't get me wrong, I like Supermicro, and use their stuff frequently, their solution didn't seem to fit as well here. It also meant that future expansion would require a controller card. Etc., etc. In the end either is most likely going to be a good choice.
The whole WD vs Seagate thing is kind of like Ford and Chevy to me. Members of one camp think anyone in the other camp is absolutely nuts, and vice versa. Again, either is most likely a fine choice, as long as you accept both the strengths and weaknesses of whatever choice you make. I will confess I'm a "WD guy", but that's sort of beside the point. I think of you look around here you'll find various people "explaining" why they chose one over the other. I can't speak to those reasons, but just looking at the specs of the Seagate NAS drives, they look "like NAS drives". Have you check the hardware recommendations thread for what is said about drives? I think some of the differences between Seagates and WDs are talked about there.
Yes, I would also very much like a fan-less build, but well, I'm still dreaming too. Particularly given that my home office gets a tad toasty on summer afternoons.
The Silverstone (DS380B) case was honestly my second choice. This choice was, at least partially, an aesthetic one for me. I just like the look of the Fractal case better, and there was a good chance the machine was going to wind up in the place it actually is now, which is pretty visible. As this is a home unit, hot-swap was less of a need than a "nice to have"; that all gets flipped in a business application, 99 times out of 100 aesthetics don't matter and things like hot-swap rule the day (for very good reasons.) The Silverstone does rather limit you to a specific size of power supply though; be careful to choose a compatible PSU if you decide to go that route. The Bitfenix and the new Fractal 804 look more like things I'd have had in my dormroom years ago, but not so much like things I'd like to have in my office today.
The whole value of the DOM is that it moves the boot device inside the case. That's really it. The same thing could be accomplished by putting a USB MB header "adapter". The DOM looked like a better choice though as the area by the SATA ports is much less congested. For now my USB stick is just in one of the ports on the back, which is fine for me, I don't have little kids. Though to address your statement about the running image, I believe that it is mostly correct, the running image stays in memory, but I believe that there are things (like config settings), etc that are written back to the boot device while the OS is running. I know I've read warnings about not removing the USB stick form a running FreeNAS box, though for the life of me can't remember where.
