Time for an upgrade (old box dying)

[zedfrx]

I've got to say I love my current FreeNAS rig but this thing has been running (near continuously) for the past 5+ years, the motherboard + CPU is older than that (from a repurposed PC) and the onboard SATA module is starting to frequently throw write cache errors, I keep burning out USB boot drives, a couple of the older WD RED 2Tb drives have given up (and been subsequently replaced)






New Parts

• ASRock Rack E3C242D4M-4L Server Board ATX, LGA1151
• Intel Xeon E3-1220 V6 3.0GHz 4 Core LGA1151
• 2 * V-Color 16GB (1 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400MHz (PC4-19200) ECC Registered DIMM
• SilverStone ECS04 SAS Controller (SAS to 4xSATA breakout cable & SATA power splitter cable)
• 7 * WD 3.5" Red NAS 4TB WD40EFRX 64M SATA3 HDD
• Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/250G) 250GB NVME M.2 SSD
• Kingston (SUV500/240G) 240GB SSDNOW UV500 SATA3 2.5" SSD

Existing parts

• Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case
• 2 * Coolermaster 4 HDD bay expansion into 3*5.25 front
• Corsair RM-650 80 plus Gold PSU
• WD 3.5" Red NAS 3TB SATA3 HDD

 

[zedfrx]

(Premature post but i'll continue) The end storage result will be a pool of 7 * 4Tb in ZFS2 and a mirror of 2 * 3Tb. Ideally 250Gb M.2 for ZIL and 240Gb SSD boot. FYI I'm in Australia and a lot of specific parts either aren't available or just outrageously expensive.

A couple of questions:

1. Will it FreeNAS?
2. Does it make sense?
3. Is it worth ditching the Coolermaster HAF case for a newer one? i.e. The Fractal R6
4. It's a premium for Xeon + ECC components i.e. if I went similar spec for Corei5 and non-ECC the build cost would be $300 less

 

[Chris Moore]

• ASRock Rack E3C242D4M-4L Server Board ATX, LGA1151
• Intel Xeon E3-1220 V6 3.0GHz 4 Core LGA1151

You could spend a lot less. One of the nice things about FreeNAS is that it will run perfectly well on a system that is a little older.
Would you be willing to consider used hardware instead of new?

 

[IQless]

Ideally 250Gb M.2 for ZIL and 240Gb SSD boot.

If this is strictly a file share box the SLOG will most likely not help you much. Do you plan to store VM's or something similar that would benefit from the SLOG?
Next, a 240GB SSD for a boot device is a bit overkill, but if it's cheap why not :)

 

[PhiloEpisteme]

• Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/250G) 250GB NVME M.2 SSD

I post about this frequently when I see it just as general advice. I do not recommend you boot from M.2 if you can avoid it. The reason is that M.2 is VERY fast and boot devices don't benefit from the speed. If you need SLOG devices they do benefit from the speed of the M.2. It isn't the end of the world if you boot from M.2 but you're possibly limiting yourself in the future. Just something to consider. Also, if you're looking to boot from M.2 to save SATA ports you can easily pick up an HBA to solve that problem.

SilverStone ECS04 SAS Controller

What are you paying for that? Would this one be acceptable to you?

I also second @Chris Moore about going used if you can. It'll save you tons of money which you can put into better parts which you can use to get more performance for your dollar.

 

[zedfrx]

You could spend a lot less. One of the nice things about FreeNAS is that it will run perfectly well on a system that is a little older.
Would you be willing to consider used hardware instead of new?

I also second @Chris Moore about going used if you can. It'll save you tons of money which you can put into better parts which you can use to get more performance for your dollar.

Living in Australia the second hand market is a lot smaller and the availability of good quality second hand parts at a reasonable price in some cases the AUD price is around US equivalent + international shipping ($30-$50). As this is my second build I really want something that will last from now for a long time.

I post about this frequently when I see it just as general advice. I do not recommend you boot from M.2 if you can avoid it. The reason is that M.2 is VERY fast and boot devices don't benefit from the speed. If you need SLOG devices they do benefit from the speed of the M.2. It isn't the end of the world if you boot from M.2 but you're possibly limiting yourself in the future. Just something to consider. Also, if you're looking to boot from M.2 to save SATA ports you can easily pick up an HBA to solve that problem.

I've been tossing up between SLOG and boot being the M.2, I'll probably switch based on your recommendation.

What are you paying for that? Would this one be acceptable to you?

I had a look, there are some LSI SAS HBA 9201-8i's on eBay from Hong Kong that are $100 cheaper than the Silverstone, thanks for the tip!

If this is strictly a file share box the SLOG will most likely not help you much. Do you plan to store VM's or something similar that would benefit from the SLOG?
Next, a 240GB SSD for a boot device is a bit overkill, but if it's cheap why not :)

It's currently a file-share + Plex streamer and runs a couple of other jails, but I will add more with the expanded size, and yeah these are pretty cheap drives, I think the 240GB was one of the smallest I could find (new).

 

[subhuman]

Is it worth ditching the Coolermaster HAF case for a newer one? i.e. The Fractal R6

just my two cents...
If you didn't already have a perfectly viable case, I'd say the R6 would be a good choice. The trend with a lot of newer cases is to disregard drive bays, either by not having more than 1-2 of them or by ignoring airflow over them- and the R6 at least has bays, and they have airflow.
But, I love HAF 912s. Your 932 wouldn't be my first choice, but it is the bigger brother in the HAF family so it's still pretty good in my book.

 

[zedfrx]

For anyone playing along at home here was my final build list:

New Parts

• LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9201-8i = 9211-8i IT Mode
• 2*SAS to 4xSATA breakout cable
• Gigabyte C246M-WU4 LGA Intel 1151 Server Motherboard
• Intel Core i5-9400F 9MB Cache up to 4.10Ghz LGA1151 Coffee Lake CPU
• 2*GeIL Pristine 16GB Single DDR4 2400 Desktop RAM
• Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/250G) 250GB NVME M.2 SSD
• 8*WD 3.5" Red NAS 4TB WD40EFRX 64M SATA3 HDD
• 2* 120mm Corsair case fans
• Silverstone Fan Controller
• CoolerMaster Hyper 212x CPU cooler

Existing parts

• Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case
• Coolermaster 4 HDD bay expansion into 3*5.25 front
• Corsair RM-650 80 plus Gold PSU

 

[G8One2]

ECC memory is what you need. Aside from that, nice build.

 

[gnrlpatton]

For anyone playing along at home here was my final build list:

New Parts

• LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9201-8i = 9211-8i IT Mode
• 2*SAS to 4xSATA breakout cable
• Gigabyte C246M-WU4 LGA Intel 1151 Server Motherboard
• Intel Core i5-9400F 9MB Cache up to 4.10Ghz LGA1151 Coffee Lake CPU
• 2*GeIL Pristine 16GB Single DDR4 2400 Desktop RAM
• Kingston A2000 (SA2000M8/250G) 250GB NVME M.2 SSD
• 8*WD 3.5" Red NAS 4TB WD40EFRX 64M SATA3 HDD
• 2* 120mm Corsair case fans
• Silverstone Fan Controller
• CoolerMaster Hyper 212x CPU cooler

Existing parts

• Coolermaster HAF 932 Full Tower Case
• Coolermaster 4 HDD bay expansion into 3*5.25 front
• Corsair RM-650 80 plus Gold PSU

I've got the same motherboard, and had purchased a Xeon proc for it, only to find out that the board requires a CPU with built in graphics processing, which that one did not. I got everything hooked up and powered it on, only to find that it appeared not to POST (I found out later it actually was probably booting into the Bios, I just couldn't see it). I'm now looking at the Core i5-9600K, which does have graphics, do I see a graphics card in yours? It looks like the Core i5-9400F has 2 versions, with and without graphics processing, so I would assume you went without and just added in a card.

Are you happy with the build so far? Anything you would change with it?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[zedfrx]

Are you happy with the build so far? Anything you would change with it?

Thanks,
Kevin

Yes, I would have got the Core i5-9400 with built in graphics, I originally had it selected on one site but they didn't have some of the other parts, I ended up ordering from another site but forgot to check the exact model (ugh). That video card is a spare that cost maybe $25 that's going to have to live in the case because the rig won't POST without it.

 

[zedfrx]

ECC memory is what you need. Aside from that, nice build.

I would have but I'd need a different CPU and I'm not running much more than Plex, sonarr, SMB, etc.