BUILD Would appreciate some thoughts on this $1800 build

[mjws00]

The SAS ports will run SATA drives (as Eric mentioned). The upside of that board is the small premium for an excellent controller (2308). There really aren't any 1150 boards that can touch it in terms of value and potential. But that assumes a longer term view and that you may want to put it to work one day. Storage moves fast, so I like the headroom. But it's all just personal choice. Once you picked Supermicro and ECC you were good to go. ;)

 

[Fraoch]

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.​

The C2000s are benchmarked on PassMark now.

Core i3-4330: 5093 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-4330+@+3.50GHz&id=2025

C2550: 2329 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel Atom C2550 @ 2.40GHz&id=2331

C2750: 3929 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel Atom C2750 @ 2.40GHz&id=2185

Not overly surprising - Haswell cores are quite powerful, no matter what variant. What is surprising is how close Atom comes now, and how little power it uses to do so. But yes, Haswell beats it from sheer brute power/clock speed.

Just out of interest, the cheapest Haswell, the Celeron G1820, scores 2848. The score closest to the C2750 is the rather-famous Pentium G3258 at 3998. Of course this may not be applicable to FreeNAS, but it is some indication. While the Celeron is not recommended for FreeNAS, many users have success with the similar Pentium G3220 at 3188.

 

[cyberjock]

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

A lot of people recommend the hyperthreaded E3-1230 over the non-hyperthreaded E3-1220.

I'm with that group. If you're already looking at the 1220, go with the 1230. The performance difference from personal experience is pretty shocking.

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

I disagree, kind of. For SD the workload isn't too bad. But as soon as you are doing 1080p and if you set Plex to "prefer quality" it will put some hurt on your CPU. 30-40% CPU usage just for transcoding is what I'd call "taxing it more than a little bit". ;)

If you are okay with the 1220 price, just splurge and go to the 1230. You can thank me later when your server can handle everything you want it to. ;)

I own (and recommend) the E3-1230. ;)

 

[JayNil]

Oh, the choices...

I think you won me over to the Supermicro X10 side. I'm leaning towards the SAS-controller version and Intel Core i3 4330. It's going to be a few more bucks initially, but I think I like the possibilities with a more "open" system in terms of upgradability. Looks like I'm busting the $2000 budget a bit, though.

Thanks for all the helping advice! :)

 

[JayNil]

My wife just gave me a "Do what you feel is best." regarding budget.
I love her to death. :D

Complete build

6x WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB
2x Samsung Server DDR3L PC12800/1600MHz ECC CL11 LV 8GB
1x Supermicro X10SL7-F
1x Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 3,3GHz Socket 1150 Box
1x Seasonic G-550 550W
1x Fractal Design Define R4
1x Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm
1x Kingston USB DataTraveler Micro 8GB

Now I need to figure out where to buy what and get this build going. Sweet! :)

Edit: Added Complete build

 

[mjws00]

That is pretty much the perfect 1150 build. I'm sure you'll love it.

 

[JayNil]

I hope so. :)

Have some serious reading up to do to prepare for installation/configuration.

 

[Jailer]

My wife just gave me a "Do what you feel is best." regarding budget.
I love her to death. :D

When the warden is happy, everyone is happy.

 

[Fraoch]

My wife just gave me a "Do what you feel is best." regarding budget.
I love her to death. :D

Complete build

6x WD Red WD30EFRX 64MB 3TB
2x Samsung Server DDR3L PC12800/1600MHz ECC CL11 LV 8GB
1x Supermicro X10SL7-F
1x Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 3,3GHz Socket 1150 Box
1x Seasonic G-550 550W
1x Fractal Design Define R4
1x Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm
1x Kingston USB DataTraveler Micro 8GB

Now I need to figure out where to buy what and get this build going. Sweet! :)

Edit: Added Complete build

Looks good! My wife is NOT happy with my gargantuan Phanteks case. :( I have the R4 with a desktop build, it's just about the perfect case. Put the third 140 mm fan you plan on getting in the bottom front intake position. It will help cool your hard drives and it will create positive pressure in the case. I hardly get any dust inside and I have a cheap USB-powered vacuum which I use to clean the front intake filter every few months.

Because I need 3 X 5.25" slots for my hotswap bay I can't go with the R4. I was thinking of switching to the Bitfenix Comrade. It's cheap and I'm a little concerned about the front airflow being stifled but it does have air intake filters, no open front and no open top - both these allow a lot of noise to escape.

 

[JayNil]

I hear you on keeping everyone happy with the tech. This one is going into a custom built (well ventilated) enclosure in the utility room together with the pfsense router and will be very well hidden from the real world.

I'm kind of mesmerized by all the plugins and functionality you can get out of FreeNAS. It's a completely new world opening up here.

I'm aware of how the plugins you choose and how you configure them is mostly down to personal preference and needs, but is there a rundown of plugins somewhere with the "bare minimum" of plugins you should consider installing? Like a top-10 list of stuff you really shouldn't overlook?

Thanks again for all the valuable information on this forum. I just love it.

 

[JayNil]

Quick question!

The Xeon E3-1230v3 is not available to me right now.
Would the Xeon E3-1240v3 be an equally good choice? It's $30 bucks more, but at this point I don't really care about the price.

I just want to make sure I don't buy something that will produce a problem at some stage.

Would appreciate a quick response as I have my finger on the order button! :)

Thanks,
JayNil

 

[Fraoch]

Yes it would be even better. Overkill, but better, and definitely future-ready.

 

[sremick]

The Xeon E3-1230v3 is not available to me right now.
Would the Xeon E3-1240v3 be an equally good choice? It's $30 bucks more, but at this point I don't really care about the price.

I just want to make sure I don't buy something that will produce a problem at some stage.

These are basically identical except for the extra speed. For that matter though you might want to look into the cost of the E3-1241V3.

 

[cyberjock]

1240 is fine. Go with that one. ;)

 

[JayNil]

Thanks, guys! I'll go with the 1240, then. :)