supercheap embedded intel motherboard solution with pcie sata adapters.

[Demonocolips]

i have an old computer that i wanted to turn into a freenas for my home. problem is it has an amd fx processor which is very power hungry and heat intesive.
so turning it into a station would require to replace the motherboard and processor and at least reading around i need at least 16gb of memory for a decent amount of storage so replacing the motherboard with a cheaper intel quad core embedded motherboard with some decent ram would be good. however many embedded motherboards have a rather limited amount of sata ports. now one of the notes ive seen is that freenas does not like raid cards. now does this mean it does not like raid based on cards or it doesnt like pcie sata adapters because some of the cards ive seen are described as both. speed isnt that important to me but even then many boards ive seen dont have an overabundance of sata ports, so 3gbs or 6gbs doesnt matter too much. so after getting more of idea of how this works ill know how to increase hard drive number in the future. im not married to any one idea at this point but i know i want a nas eventually and every time i think about it i always found that there is always a fairly hard cap on data capacity. i think at 8gb it'll handle 8tb supposedly but at 16gb the max increases more than linearly. if this doesnt pan out im thinking about an inexpensive amd board with a 35w processor.

motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157731

pcie sata adapter idea: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...e sata&cm_re=pcie_sata-_-15-124-159-_-Product

 

[2nd-in-charge]

motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157731

pcie sata adapter idea: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...e sata&cm_re=pcie_sata-_-15-124-159-_-Product

Don't waste your money.
You can get good stuff for your hard earned dollars
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/specific-build-components-list-up-to-32gb-ram.109/

 

[Demonocolips]

Don't waste your money.
You can get good stuff for your hard earned dollars
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/resources/specific-build-components-list-up-to-32gb-ram.109/

ok used parts gets me the standard 6 sata ports. which was my idea with the cheaper amd board and cpu which would cost me about 110 before ram. so the question remains is that its still "only" 6 sata ports. under most circumstances unless i want to pay around 200 per hard drive for a 10tb ill be having around 48tb before i need another tower to have more sata ports. so again will a pcie sata adapter work so long as i do not use it to set up a raid and only use it so the bios recognizes the connected hard drives?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I've seen mixed reports with those cheapo SATA cards based on Marvell or other chipsets; by far the best supported solution would be an LSI based SAS HBA and a forward breakout cable.

I'd also trust a used Supermicro X9+Xeon combo to be far more effective, performant, and reliable than the budget ASrock board you've highlighted there.

 

[Redcoat]

Hi there @Demonocolips

I'll be honest with you - understanding your long, unpunctuated, posts is VERY difficult (for me at least). But you seem to be worried about 2 points - the amount of RAM per TB of storage and the # of SATA ports on a motherboard.

In general I think that you should not be concerned on the RAM per TB of storage issue - only in special cases will you be likely to experience a limit and, if you do, easily fixed if your mobo will accept additional RAM.

In the second concern, I see that @HoneyBadger has just provided you with the safe, tested, answer for the add-on required.

To get further help here, please answer this thread with a brief, punctuated, description of what you want a FreeNAS system to do for you and what you already have in place that you want to use with it.

 

[Demonocolips]

@ redcoat ok thanks. yeah total storage and later expandibility is important.
mostly the embedded motherboard was just for low heat, power and sound. being the only user it shouldn't experience too much stress so thats why i thought of getting the embedded motherboard which is passively cooled.

so replacing the mobo in the old computer with something low power and low heat then using that computer as the base for the nas is the objective.

but it looks like my questions have been answered. so long as i can fulfill the minimum of 8gb base then going to 16 gb for a single user should be more than sufficient. then the other question about pcie sata adapters just make sure i dont get any that are too cheap.

 

[2nd-in-charge]

so long as i can fulfill the minimum of 8gb base then going to 16 gb for a single user should be more than sufficient.

If you decide to start with 8Gb you're probably better off starting with a single stick, so that in the future you can increase up to 32Gb without throwing anything away. Note that Chris's list recommends 2x8Gb at a fairly affordable price.

will a pcie sata adapter work so long as i do not use it to set up a raid and only use it so the bios recognizes the connected hard drives?

It would work, but not that well. Apart from what HoneyBadger pointed out about Marvell controllers, that particular PCI-e 2.0 x1 card you wanted to buy is a pretty poor solution for modern hard drives. It'll limit you to 500MBps transfer speed on the bus, or only 125MBps per drive. Not the end of the world, but most new HDDs exceed that.

the other question about pcie sata adapters just make sure i don't get any that are too cheap.

You can pay a lot of money for something that doesn't work as well. Read the HoneyBadges's post and Chris's recommendation list carefully. The 8-port LSI SAS controller with two SAS to 4x SATA breakout cables will give you 8 additional SATA ports and is probably better than the best SATA-only controller money can buy. The used Dell H310 Chris recommends in his list comes flashed with the right firmware, tested and ready to be used in FreeNAS system. Great value for only $56.55.
It's not "low power" though, and needs a bit of airflow to keep cool.

understanding your long, unpunctuated, posts is VERY difficult (for me at least).

I agree. Really Demonocolips, does your Shift key work?

 

[ancil5]

It would work, but not that well. Apart from what HoneyBadger pointed out about Marvell controllers, that particular PCI-e 2.0 x1 card you wanted to buy is a pretty poor solution for modern hard drives.

I get that that you probably wanna have the most reliant equipment when it comes to your data. Nonetheless, not everybody is willing and / or capable of spending the amount of money that is required for the best stuff.
I've extended my mainboard (Asus P9D-I) with a DeLOCK PCI Express Card with 2 SATA-Ports (running a Marvell 88SE9128 chip; about 40 $) six months ago and haven't had an issue yet. I'm running FreeNAS 11 on a NAS that's only used by two people in a private setting so I don't have to worry about max speed or performance. Guessing from what I've read on this forum that seems to be a rather common scenario. So I accept that I might have a slightly higher risk of experiencing some trouble than with the recommended LSI based SAS HBA but that risk seems completey justified for me considering that there's no good data other than mixed reports by people on how much higher that risk really is.
My point is that while I understand the recommendations made by the moderators, there's no reason to condemn users going for cheaper hardware.

 

[HoneyBadger]

The Marvell card cost $40, but for $50 you very likely could have picked up an OEM LSI 9211-8i (Dell PERC H200) and a set of forward breakout cables.

It's not so much that "cheaper is always bad" but saving $10 on something as critical as the HBA in a storage solution like this that's designed to mitigate risk as much as possible seems like a case of "penny wise, pound foolish."

 

[jgreco]

The Marvell card cost $40, but for $50 you very likely could have picked up an OEM LSI 9211-8i (Dell PERC H200) and a set of forward breakout cables.

It's not so much that "cheaper is always bad" but saving $10 on something as critical as the HBA in a storage solution like this that's designed to mitigate risk as much as possible seems like a case of "penny wise, pound foolish."

I've been picking up H200/H310 for sub-$30 if I shop carefully.

 

[ancil5]

If it's only about 10 or 20 $ I totally agree. When I was looking for a HBA I didn't find the recommended ones for less than 80 $ if I remember correctly. Maybe I should have spent more time searching ...
Anyway I'm still curious as to how many people really had to replace a cheap HBA because of a failure. I've read reports from people having issues on this forum, but I guess the ones that don't have any problem just don't post that :)

 

[jgreco]

If it's only about 10 or 20 $ I totally agree. When I was looking for a HBA I didn't find the recommended ones for less than 80 $ if I remember correctly. Maybe I should have spent more time searching ...
Anyway I'm still curious as to how many people really had to replace a cheap HBA because of a failure. I've read reports from people having issues on this forum, but I guess the ones that don't have any problem just don't post that :)

There's really no such thing as a cheap HBA. HBA's, when new, are relatively pricey bits of silicon.

However, there are knockoffs - stuff that probably originates in some Shenzhen back alley. Do not order eBay HBA adapters from China. Do not order eBay HBA adapters from random people in the Bay Area. Do not order eBay HBA adapters who are selling them alongside random cutesie non-server crap. Buy your HBA's from some company that is clearly recycling datacenter gear. If you buy a legitimate LSI HBA it's very likely to be fine.

Keep your HBA cool. If you put it in a server chassis, it'll be fine. If you put it in a tower PC, it was designed to have air flowing over it. Make sure there is.

 

[ancil5]

There's really no such thing as a cheap HBA.

Sorry, I meant the PCIe to SATA cards ...

 

[jgreco]

Sorry, I meant the PCIe to SATA cards ...

Well, yeah, most of those are craptacular, because they're meant for consumer PC's, and these are usually trending towards the bottom of the barrel because of the competitive issues. That's why a used HBA is generally a much better choice, even at several times the cost.