FreeNAS Media Server

[SimonM95]

Update #1 - Built & Setup

 

Update #2 - Pictures!

 

Hey everyone. Here's my Build Log of my FreeNAS Media Server. I'm completely new to FreeNAS but I've been doing research and been trying it out on an old PC. I know this might not be the most exciting Build Log but I thought id just do it anyway for anyone who may be interested. Enjoy

 

System Spec:

 

Case: Silverstone SST-DS380B

CPU: Intel Avoton C2750 Octa-Core

Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Unbuffered ECC

Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I

PSU: Silverstone SST-ST30SG Strider 300W

FreeNAS Drive: 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive

Storage: WD Red 4TB x8

 

All the parts are ordered and should be here Tuesday. Ill update when I've made some progress

[RollinLower]

this should be pretty interesting to see. i've been thinking of doing this myself sometime, so seeing how it works out for you would be great!

subbed.

[ohJey]

Wonder how well the octa core will work

[conspiravision]

16G seems quite excessive for a NAS, and not to be the negative Nancy but generally anything over 2tb disk wise can be unreliable.  Are you going to do a RAID setup?  I don't know much about the octa core.  I look forward to seeing the progress.

[tommy-b-10]

I have heard that for freeNAS, you should have 1GB ram per TB of storage otherwise it can slow down a fair bit. Have you looked into getting 32GB ram instead?

[SteveGrabowski0]

Hey everyone. Here's my Build Log of my FreeNAS Media Server. I'm completely new to FreeNAS but I've been doing research and been trying it out on an old PC. I know this might not be the most exciting Build Log but I thought id just do it anyway for anyone who may be interested. Enjoy

 

System Spec:

 

Case: Silverstone SST-DS380B

CPU: Intel Avoton C2750 Octa-Core

Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Unbuffered ECC

Motherboard: ASRock C2750D4I

PSU: Silverstone SST-ST30SG Strider 300W

FreeNAS Drive: 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive

Storage: WD Red 4TB x8

 

All the parts are ordered and should be here Tuesday. Ill update when I've made some progress

 

Are you going to run the PLEX plugin? You definitely have the CPU to support a couple of parallel 1080p transcoding jobs. Are you planning a RAID-Z2 array?

[SimonM95]

16G seems quite excessive for a NAS, and not to be the negative Nancy but generally anything over 2tb disk wise can be unreliable.  Are you going to do a RAID setup?  I don't know much about the octa core.  I look forward to seeing the progress.

 

Im going to be Running Plex etc and 8GB is minimum for FreeNAS and since I've got 8x 4TB drives ill need extra. I'm going to be using a RAIDZ2 Array

 

I have heard that for freeNAS, you should have 1GB ram per TB of storage otherwise it can slow down a fair bit. Have you looked into getting 32GB ram instead?

 

The motherboard has 4 RAM slots and the 16GB will only be using two slots so there is always the option of adding another two sticks to bump it up to 32GB  if needed.

 

Are you going to run the PLEX plugin? You definitely have the CPU to support a couple of parallel 1080p transcoding jobs. Are you planning a RAID-Z2 array?

 

Yep going to be running Plex and yes a RAIDZ2 array

[SimonM95]

Update #1 - Built & Set-up

 

So a few things ended up being delayed for a few days and I was busy over the weekend. Managed to get some time to quickly build it and get it running. 

 

No pictures yet but I've ordered 3 Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition fans as the stock fans that came with the case are a bit loud. They should be delivered tomorrow. Ill be taking it apart to do some better cable management and install them. Ill take some picture then. 

 

On the software side I had a few issues getting set-up properly. Was all due to me being a complete noob with FreeNAS. Got it running almost perfectly now. I'm using a RaidZ2 Array giving me about 20TB of usable storage space. Got Plex, SABnzbd, Sonarr and CouchPotato all running in their own Jails. Performance is great. Get about 100MB/s over the network. Plex can transcode two 1080p streams at once without any issues. Not tried to run any more than that but looking at the CPU usage it could easily run a couple more.

 

Hopefully have some pictures for you tomorrow if the fans get delivered

[RollinLower]

Update #1 - Built & Set-up

 

So a few things ended up being delayed for a few days and I was busy over the weekend. Managed to get some time to quickly build it and get it running. 

 

No pictures yet but I've ordered 3 Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition fans as the stock fans that came with the case are a bit loud. They should be delivered tomorrow. Ill be taking it apart to do some better cable management and install them. Ill take some picture then. 

 

On the software side I had a few issues getting set-up properly. Was all due to me being a complete noob with FreeNAS. Got it running almost perfectly now. I'm using a RaidZ2 Array giving me about 20TB of usable storage space. Got Plex, SABnzbd, Sonarr and CouchPotato all running in their own Jails. Performance is great. Get about 100MB/s over the network. Plex can transcode two 1080p streams at once without any issues. Not tried to run any more than that but looking at the CPU usage it could easily run a couple more.

 

Hopefully have some pictures for you tomorrow if the fans get delivered

awesome! so how did you get it running so smoothly? just a whole lot of trail and error?

[SimonM95]

awesome! so how did you get it running so smoothly? just a whole lot of trail and error?

Ye it was mostly to do with getting the Jails set-up and working properly. Kept having issues using the plugins so ended up just created jails and installing manually. Just a lot of research and trial & error

[SimonM95]

Update #2 - Pictures!
 
Got the new Corsair fans. Much better than the stock fans. As promised here's some pictures