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Best cost effective FreeNAS server?

I am looking to buy or build a FreeNAS server. I want Hotswap hard drive bays. I am going for RaidZ2 and have purchased 8x 4TB WD Red drives. I prefer a Tower chassis as I do not have a free-standing RACK. 

I want to spend less than $1k on the server. I will be running Plex and using it as a file server and possibly a VPN server. I have a quote from ServerMonkey for a Dell Poweredge T320 with 1x Xeon 2403, 16GB ECC, 1x 1TB HDD, all the trays and the PSU. They quoted me around $860. Any suggestions on alternatives? Is this a good price for a refurb T320? Any build suggestions?

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1 minute ago, Firewrath9 said:

2200G, with 8gb ram, and a raid card on a mitx board. 

Im told NEVER to run ZRaid with hardware RAID. Also, 2200G does not support ECC RAM. 

 

If you meant to say add an HBA card, then I can do that. But a Hardware RAID card... no. 

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hard to beat retired servers as far as value. Once you start pricing out consumer hardware you'll quickly eat that budget. It goes even faster once you try to spec a computer compatible to that T320.

 

That said possibly a build around a Haswell i3 could interest you if you're wanting to use ECC memory.

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1 minute ago, Firewrath9 said:

2200G, with 8gb ram, and a raid card on a mitx board. 

 

Just now, KRDucky said:

Im told NEVER to run ZRaid with hardware RAID. Also, 2200G does not support ECC RAM. 

Yeah don't. ZFS likes direct access to the drives which helps with resiliency. It cannot do this if the drives are hidden behind a RAID controller. Replace it with an HBA like the LSI 9207-8i.

 

However it can also create the RAID and function fine between multiple controllers so if you're on a budget you could connect them though the PCH, a marvel controllers & a HBA or non-configured RAID card (JBOD) then that is a budget option. ZFS won't mind.

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1 minute ago, Razor Blade said:

hard to beat retired servers as far as value. Once you start pricing out consumer hardware you'll quickly eat that budget. It goes even faster once you try to spec a computer compatible to that T320.

 

That said possibly a build around a Haswell i3 could interest you if you're wanting to use ECC memory.

would you mind speccing one?

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oh lol sorry

7 minutes ago, KRDucky said:

Im already aware of the AMD support. The 2200G DOES NOT support it. None of the APUs do. 

 

 

try finding something like a X5680, and hopefully an atx board. should be 50-100$ for cpu, 50-100$ for mobo, and rest for ram, and case

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4 hours ago, KRDucky said:

would you mind speccing one?

I'm probably not the best person to ask... but if I were going to spec out a new FreeNAS server for myself this very moment, I would go after an i3-8100 (coffee lake), Gigabyte C246-WU4, and 32GB of Crucial DDR4-2400 unbuffered ECC memory.

 

Here are Amazon links:

CPU

Motherboard

Memory

 

All should set you back about $550 (maybe less if you can find good deals). It would be a decent "heart" of the system with decent expandability (up to 64GB RAM with that motherboard). With the rest of the budget, you would have to find a case, HBA. and a PSU that suits your needs...those choices will depend more on what you're planning to add.

 

EDIT: I linked the wrong memory... it should be fixed now. The ECC memory is quite a bit more expensive so that sucks... if you want to stay in the $550 you could run one 16GB DIMM instead of the two DIMMs.

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Problems and solutions:

 

FreeNAS

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Dell Server 11th gen

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ESXI

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If used equipment is ok then a T710 with a pair of x5670s is more than enough, has 8 3.5" hotswap bays. Those x5670s can transcode 1080p without any sweat if you want to run plex on it. 

 

Future expansion you just buy a JBOD enclosure and an HBA card to connect it.

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the T710 is not hotswap like the T420. You have to take the entire faceplate of the chassis off to access the drives. 

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53 minutes ago, KRDucky said:

the T710 is not hotswap like the T420. You have to take the entire faceplate of the chassis off to access the drives. 

Just an FYI those bezels are mostly to keep morons from messing with your server (they can lock)...if you decide to get one with a front bezel on the T710 it is super easy to pop off. Just a latch at the top of the case and it comes right off for drive access. Quite a few eBay sellers tend not to even include a bezel with surplus servers which makes an 11th gen tower look very...incomplete. The T320 on the other hand looks fine with or without the front bezel.

There's no place like ~

Spoiler

Problems and solutions:

 

FreeNAS

Spoiler

Dell Server 11th gen

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

ESXI

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 3/1/2019 at 6:14 PM, KRDucky said:

the T710 is not hotswap like the T420. You have to take the entire faceplate of the chassis off to access the drives. 

Just an FYI the T420 also includes a face plate, it is an anti-tamper to prevent unauthorized people from removing disks willy-nilly (as Razor pointed out).

 

Hotswap denotes the ability to remove a disk while the server is running, this is supplemented by the case making the drive accessable externally. 

 

Image result for dell T420< T420 with the face plate on

Image result for dell T420< T420 with the face plate off....

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