UK First NAS build - primarily for Plex

[alexAlexAlex]

Hi All, thanks in advance for any help.

I recently purchased a terramaster NAS bay and a WD red 4gb to make my movie collection available for me and my friends wherever, as well as my small home photos and movie collection. I realized quickly that the terramaster cannot support 3+ transcodes/streams from it via Plex, so I am sending it back and looking to build myself something somewhat more substantial. It will mainly be used for Plex with 3/4 streams simultaneously max. I will probably also look to connect a printer to it if that matters for anything... I will not be editing any videos/photos on the server itself.

Hardware I already have lying around:

• Desktop tower case - supports ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX, think it has enough bays for my needs - is it good enough in terms of cooling?
• OCZ 256gb SSD - 7 years old ish
• AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core
• 4TB WD Red (purchased for the terramaster and currently contains all of my data)

I've read through the recommended hardware guide and the minimum spec requirements for FreeNAS and am now looking to put something together to meet my needs+a bit extra.

My budget is potentially up to £1k if it's going to be reliable long life system, I don't need to buy all the HDDs now so potentially my upfront budget is a lot less, closer to £500 as my current storage needs are low (I can see myself having max 10Tb data in a years time, currently I only need ~4). I can see myself having max 6x8Tb ever installed.

Currently in my shopping basket I have:

• Supermicro MBD-X10SLM-F-O Single SKT Intel C224 Chipset SATA Motherboard
• 4x8gb DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz 240-pin UDIMM ECC mrmemory

But I am not committed to anything yet, so really any suggestion will be appreciated.

I have no idea on the processor front, nor the PSU. I want it to be as silent as possible so some good fan/silent cooling recommendations wouldn't go amiss!

I appreciate I am essentially asking for someone to hold my hand and tell me what to get, but I have limited experience with server grade hardware, I've built myself two gaming PCs but thats the extent of my computer building experience - so I'd really appreciate it.

Cheers,
alex(AlexAlex)

 

[Chris Moore]

4TB WD Red (purchased for the terramaster and currently contains all of my data)

Are you able to connect that to a computer so you can access the data?
It would need to be reformatted for use with FreeNAS and a single drive solution is not really a good idea.

 

[alexAlexAlex]

Are you able to connect that to a computer so you can access the data?
It would need to be reformatted for use with FreeNAS and a single drive solution is not really a good idea.

I have a second empty 4Tb in a friends desktop I can borrow to migrate the data, and it'll only be a single drive for a short period while I work on sourcing some more HDDS.

Maplin - UK electronics store- are going into administration and I'm going to see if I can grab a couple from them cheaply, if not I'll get a couple 8TB Wd Reds from Amazon.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Chris Moore]

I have a second empty 4Tb in a friends desktop I can borrow to migrate the data, and it'll only be a single drive for a short period while I work on sourcing some more HDDS.

Maplin - UK electronics store- are going into administration and I'm going to see if I can grab a couple from them cheaply, if not I'll get a couple 8TB Wd Reds from Amazon.

A thing to remember with ZFS (the native file system for FreeNAS) is that you can't expand a RAIDz vdev (array) once it is instantiated. If your plan is to have 6 drives, you should begin with 6 drives, even if they are 1TB drives. The expansion process would then be to replace each drive in turn with a larger drive and when all the drives have been replaced with 2TB drives, the pool would automatically expand. This is merely an example. You could start with a pool of 6 drives 2TB each in RAIDz2 and have approximately 5.5TB of usable storage. Then replace those with 4TB drives (one drive at a time) and when the pool grows it would double in capacity to around 11TB.
FreeNAS is not as flexible as some other solutions.

There is a good slideshow that explains some of the features here:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-vdev-zpool-zil-and-l2arc-for-noobs.7775/

Another thing, if you have not bought any hardware yet, you can save serious money by purchasing slightly older hardware. Would you like some suggestions?

 

[alexAlexAlex]

A thing to remember with ZFS (the native file system for FreeNAS) is that you can't expand a RAIDz vdev (array) once it is instantiated. If your plan is to have 6 drives, you should begin with 6 drives, even if they are 1TB drives.
Another thing, if you have not bought any hardware yet, you can save serious money by purchasing slightly older hardware. Would you like some suggestions?

Aha, I see, that is something that I was unaware of, thank you very much for letting me know. In which case I will probably have to find a way justify to myself spending a fortune on buying the storage space I can see myself needing over the next few years upfront, looks like im getting me 5 more 4Tbs...

I have yet to purchase anything, suggestions would really be appreciated!

Cheers,
Alex

 

[alexAlexAlex]

Bump :)

 

[Chris Moore]

This has a lot of similarity to what I am using, because it is economical, not because it is the only answer.
You may have trouble finding similar deals in the UK, but it might give you some ideas.
I put this in code blocks to try and keep the formatting...

Code:

Case

$100.   I like these because they hold 8 drives easily and they are quiet.  It might push the budget a little.
   Fractal Design Define R5
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fractal-Design-Define-R5-Titanium-Silent-ATX-Midtower-Case-FD-CA-DEF-R5-TI/253325917017

Motherboard

$75.   This is the same model system board I use.  It is a bit older, but it gets the job done and the price is right.
   Super Micro X9SCM-F Motherboard w/ Heatsink/Fan & I/O Shield
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/TESTED-Super-Micro-X9SCM-F-Motherboard-w-Heatsink-Fan-I-O-Shield/273068418482

CPU - 2 options

$127.   Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 - 3.5 GHz Quad-Core (newer, less heat)
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E3-1270V2-SR0P6-3-5-GHz-Quad-Core-8MB-CPU-LGA1155-Processor/112838751388
or
$45.   Intel Xeon E3-1220 (v1) 3.1 GHz Quad-Core (older, more heat, but not bad)
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E3-1220-3-10GHZ-8MB-5GT-s-LGA-1155-Quad-Core-CPU-SR00F/282847846988

Drive Controller

$57   Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID-High-Air-Flow/162834671120
   
Drive Data Cables

$13   Lot of 2 Mini SAS to 4-SATA SFF-8087 Multi-Lane Forward Breakout Internal Cable
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Mini-SAS-to-4-SATA-SFF-8087-Multi-Lane-Forward-Breakout-Internal-Cable/371681252206

I saved the most expensive item for last...

RAM

$62 ea.   8GB DDR3-1600 ECC UDIMM PC3-12800
   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Axiom-A2Z50AA-AX-8GB-DDR3-1600-ECC-UDIMM-PC3-12800-HPE-Server-Workstation/112838421726

You would need a minimum of one stick of memory, but if you can afford to, I would suggest getting 4.
$246 would give you 32GB of memory, which isn't bad right now.  Memory is unusually high.
I know it is a lot, but ZFS uses RAM for cache and the more you have, the more you can do.

That would bring the total, with the case, 3.1 GHz processor and 32GB of RAM to $536.
Or if you went with the 3.5 GHz processor and kept it at 32GB of RAM it would be $618.

You can cut some corners on that, for example a less expensive case, or you could drop the RAM back to 16GB, but it is an idea.

 

[Chris Moore]

You know, I just realized, I totally forgot to put a power supply in that list. Sorry. About any good quality 550 watt power supply should handle up to 10 drives.