BUILD Would appreciate some thoughts on this $1800 build

[JayNil]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking the forums for quite some time now, soaking up the wisdom and trying to get a good grasp on how to build the new family (of four) server. Main tasks for this build is file serving, backing up computers, smart phones and other handheld devices and to some extent stream media content to said devices (photos, movies, music and so on).

I've read all the recommended threads and I think I have a pretty good understanding of what i takes in terms of hardware. Even so, I'd like to just run the build by you guys to see if my thinking is flawed in some way and if my budget of $2000 could (should) be spent differently.

The new server is a 5 year project, meaning I'd like to be able to stick with pretty much the same hardware for that period of time, without having to do major upgrades or spend hundreds of additional dollars. I fully understand that I can't expect the same performance year five as year one, but I'd like the server to do it's job well enough.

Prices might seem steep, but bear in mind that I'm in Sweden and prices are somewhat inflated due to weak currencies and I've also sourced out some local dealers to be able to eye out the product in person. Enough rambling.

This is what I've decided on:

CHASSIS - Fractal Design R4 ($120)
A suggested chassi for a medium build with decent room and airflow. I have had some experience with this box in the past and liked it.

MOTHERBOARD/CPU - ASRock C2550D4I ($340)
I opted for this baby, mainly because of all the success stories I've read on this forum. I think this is more than enough power for this server's intended use.

MEMORY - Crucial 16GB (2x8) ECC Unbuffered ($250)
These are not explicitly listed on the ASRock website as QVL, however they ARE listed on Crucial's website as compatible modules for the C2550D4I. Sourcing out memory here in Sweden is somewhat a mess, to be honest. I'm buying directly from Crucial to make sure I get the exact product.

POWER SUPPLY - Seasonic G-450 ($120)
80-Gold rated modular power supply with 6 SATA-connections. Got recommended this by a friend, so not much experience with brand or model.

BOOT DEVICE - Kingston DataTraveler Micro 8GB USB 2.0 ($10)
Read some reviews on speed tests and this seems like a good fit. I like the small form factor. Let's just hope I'm not "that guy" buying cheap and getting problems. ;)

ADDITIONAL USB DEVICES - 2x Kingston DataTraveler Micro 32GB USB 2.0 ($40)
I'm out on the deep end of the pool here and this buy is something that could probably be argued. I read some threads regarding disks never going to sleep due to some extensive system logging. I'm planning to use this 32GB USB device for jails and plugins to take some action away from the storage disks. Is this a reasonable solution? The second device is purely a failsafe for backing up the first one on a nightly basis.

HARD DRIVES - 6x WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB ($880)
So, here's where the majority of the cash is spent. Not a whole lot to say about these, I guess. Seems like the de facto choice for most home builds. I'm planning for a 4+2 Raidz2 setup, as I believe it fits my need for storage space and level of redundancy. Unless something radically changes in the way we store data 12TB is likely twice the amount of space this family needs. On the other hand, you can't have too much storage, right?

TOTAL BUILD COST: $1760

What do you guys think? Is this well spent money given my needs? Am I missing some vital parts in the build? I expect to use the remaining $240 towards maintenance and unforeseen costs.

All feedback greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
JayNil

 

[Jailer]

Looks good except that I would ditch the idea of running the jails from a usb device. That's what your hard drives are for.

With 4 users I would consider adding more memory at some point too depending on how heavily it gets used.

Once you get it up and running it should easily last you 5 years or more as long as you keep your drives cool. I've got a couple drives in a test rig that are over 7 years old with just over 5 years of up time and they are still running.

 

[Ericloewe]

You can run your jails from a separate device, but USB drives will wear out rather quickly. I'd recommend a pair of small SSDs, at least, or live with the pool being used for jails. Nothing wrong with the latter, since disk spin down isn't particularly helpful.

 

[JayNil]

Thanks for your input guys!

I hear you on the USB device jail/plugin issue. I'll ditch the $40 solution and place the jail within standard pool.

For $60 more ($400) I could get this motherboard instead:
Supermicro A1SAM-2550F (Intel Atom Avoton)

Would you say it's worth the extra cash to get Supermicro over ASRock? It's totally within budget, so if you guys think it's worth to spend I will.

Additional question: I figured 16GB of RAM would suffice for what the server would be asked to do. Is another 16GB going to make the experience that much greater?

Thanks in advance,
JayNil

 

[Jailer]

It depends. Get it up and running with 16GB and assess your usage. If 16GB work fine for you then run it, if not add more memory.

 

[sremick]

This is similar to my build, which I haven't finished/tested yet and is my first FreeNAS build so I have little to contribute to this discussion. :P Three users, same 6 HDDs though, and 16GB RAM... because I want to run Plex, I opted for an ASRock E3C226D2I motherboard instead so I could use an LGA1150 Xeon CPU. I strongly considered the Avoton integrated boards like this one, especially since they would let me go to 32GB RAM if-needed unlike my board, but I read too many things that questioned the CPU horsepower of the Avoton boards for my purposes. I'm still not entirely 100% sure I made the right compromise (more CPU at the expense of no RAM expansion option) but I guess we'll see.

 

[Fraoch]

There are comments on these boards about the good performance of the 8-core C2750. In particular, this is the one used in the FreeNAS Mini.

I have not seen too many comments about the 4-core C2550 in FreeNAS. Not having one, it might be just fine, but the C2750 accomplishes what it does by throwing all its 8 cores behind a task. The C2550 only has half that.

Don't get me wrong, it's a huge improvement over previous Atoms, and its power consumption profile is unbelievable. But I'm not sure we can conclude that since the C2750 performs well in FreeNAS, the C2550 will too. I actually haven't seen anyone comment on C2550 performance in FreeNAS, so it would be interesting to find out.

Incidentally I've now chosen a conventional CPU over a C2000 Atom a second time - I'm about to pull the trigger on a security appliance/UTM. Single-thread clock speed wins out here, so a Core i3-4370 would perform better. It's too bad, I would like to play with a C2000, I just haven't found the perfect application for it. Maybe I'm thinking too old-school, single thread performance and high clockspeeds seem to win me over. Cost is a bit of a factor too, both the build in my signature and the UTM build will cost less than a C2750 board. They aren't passively cooled and consume more power than the C2000 builds though.

 

[JayNil]

I appreciate all the feedback, guys!

Fraoch: I like the build in your signature and would definately be something worth exploring.

Thanks,
JayNil

 

[Fraoch]

The Xeon is probably overkill for my needs but it was a lucky find at a good price. Core i3s are expensive around here so the Xeon didn't cost much more than a high end i3, I figured why not.

A Core i3 would have been fine for my needs. Then again, I only have two users here. Will you be transcoding multiple streams? You indicate multiple streams to different devices, some of the devices might require transcoding.

 

[JayNil]

The kids are 5 and 9 and will quite possibly be watching stuff on different devices simultaneously.

I'm thinking maybe Supermicro X10SSL-F and Intel Xeon E3-1220v3 is a good fit?

/JayNil

 

[Fraoch]

The board sounds good, I only went with the X10SLM because it was in stock and available while the X10SLL wasn't.

A lot of people recommend the hyperthreaded E3-1230 over the non-hyperthreaded E3-1220. Since the 1220 was already more than I was planning and was available at a great price, the upgrade to a 1230 was too much for me.

It's been performing fine through testing but I haven't done any transcoding. From comments on this forum, it should be able to do 2-3 streams.

 

[Jailer]

The kids are 5 and 9 and will quite possibly be watching stuff on different devices simultaneously.

I'm thinking maybe Supermicro X10SSL-F and Intel Xeon E3-1220v3 is a good fit?

/JayNil

Streaming won't use much processor power at all. Transcoding is what taxes it and really not all that much.

My current test rig is a Gigabyte GA-P35 -DS3L, core 2duo E7200 (2.53Ghz) and 8GB of ram. I ran a test yesterday streaming to 2 TV's while transcoding a 480p movie to my phone. The CPU log showed 20% utilization the entire time. Just for kicks while that was going I transferred a 8.4GB iso image file from my desktop to my cifs share to see how it would perform. CPU went up to a peak of 70% and the streaming/transcoding never missed a beat.

I dare say that the 4 core C2550 would be fine for a small home server and limited users. The C2750 should be able to handle several users no problem at all. The biggest turn off, for me anyway, is price.

 

[JayNil]

That's interesting, Jailer.

How would you compare the C2550 to X10SSL-F + Intel Core i3 4330? Pricewise they are very similar where I live.

 

[Jailer]

Well this is just a guess but based on the fact that the 4330 is a dual core with hyper threading (4 threads) and the C2550 is 4 cores and no hyper threading (4 threads) the 4330 would spank it hands down just based on clock speed alone. I don't know enough about them architecturally to say which has more processing power/clock speed but if I had to guess I'd say the 4330 does.

Someone please chime in if I'm wrong on this.​

 

[JayNil]

Been revisiting some aspects and tried to listen to all the valid points being presented in the thread.

Here's the new take, with the same total cost:

1x Supermicro X10SLL-F
1x Intel Core i3 4330 3,5GHz Socket 1150 Box
2x Samsung Server DDR3L PC12800/1600MHz ECC CL11 LV 8GB (M391B1G73QH0-YK0)
1x Seasonic G-450 450W
6x WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB
1x Fractal Design Define R4 (Black)
1x Kingston USB DataTraveler Micro 8GB

Total cost: $1760

Is this a better build than my original post, in your opinion?

Edit: Corrected typo.

 

[mjws00]

The 1150 board gives you more options. The i3 probably matches or beats the 2550. BUT you can always throw an e3 at it if you choose, should you find out you want more power. Plus the board supports vt-d etc, and add flexibility to the mix. The Asrock board does have 6 extra SATA ports on it.

The 2550 works for low power builds both in processing and in watts. Easy cooling in a small form factor at the cost of future utility. For me the flexibility and potential point to the 1150 based build all day. If the 2550 were half price... it might be a different story, but it is RAM and drives that cost the real $$ and that remains constant.

I am a fan of the extra onboard sata ports on the 2550 and 2750 boards. For a small build that might save the cost of an HBA. Especially if m-itx is a requirement. For a dedicated server to replicate too, I could see the 2550 working. But most enthusiasts benefit by the ability to repurpose their gear as things change over time. I might even look at the SM X10sl7-f if I were you. One day you might decide you want that extra controller, and it is an incremental cost to get it now.

Good luck. You've done the homework and should be fine.

 

[JayNil]

Thank you, mjws00! I value your input. I think the 1150-board route is the solid one. Like you say, I could always pop in a Xeon E3 1230v3 down the stretch if I like.

I was under the impression that the X10SL7-F was SAS-ports? Or could they be used as SATA-ports as well?

 

[Ericloewe]

Been revisiting some aspects and tried to listen to all the valid points being presented in the thread.

Here's the new take, with the same total cost:

1x Supermicro X10SSL-F

Please note that no such board exists. If you mean the X10SLL-F, then it's a fine choice. If you plan on expanding in the near future, the X10SL7-F is a better option. The SAS controller works perfectly with SATA drives.

 

[JayNil]

Thanks for pointing that out, Eric. X10SLL-F is what I mean.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Bit late to the party but.......I tried putting the jail onto a USB. The USB seemed to be way too slow. I am using a very old random hard drive I had laying around as a jail drive. Has served me very well.