Storage server, most are set, but need input

[crispy345]

Hey!

 

Yes. You read that right (or not, considering my English is not that good...)

 

Okay, so I had a plan of making myself a storage server for a long time. 

I finally started the plan about a month or so ago, so, here's my plan.

 

Fractal Design Define Mini/Arc Mini

Supermicro X9SCL-F motherboard

Kingston 16GB 1333Mhz (2x8GB) ECC kit

Intel Core i3 2120 (already have it before hand)

6 WD Red 2TB drives (already bought)

A Chieftec 550W PSU (probably more than enough, I have it already)

 

So, first at all you might wonder why I plan to buy a Supermicro MB and a ECC kit.

Well, i'm planning to run ZFS in FreeNAS to remove the need for a expensive RAID controller, and by browsing the FreeNAS forum, the admins recommend using ECC RAM (..and with that I need a ECC compatible motherboard)

I'll run it in RAIDZ2 to have the data on 6 drives, and if two fail, my data is still there (basically just like RAID 6)

I do already have some of the parts, and would really not have to buy something I already has, except if any of my parts does not work well/is not recommended and so on. 

 

I will try to put up some pictures when I get the parts here, and I'll try to get a nice look over the server.

 

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your input,

K

[SAV1OUR]

im not sure if the i3's up to running a server xeons or however you spell them are better for servers even though they cost more you will get better performance 

[Retro Gaming]

Maybe change case?

[Unhelpful]

im not sure if the i3's up to running a server xeons or however you spell them are better for servers even though they cost more you will get better performance 

Uh... Yeah the i3's fine. You are thinking of like... What the forum is on.. For a storage server the i3 is just fine.

[SAV1OUR]

Uh... Yeah the i3's fine. You are thinking of like... What the forum is on.. For a storage server the i3 is just fine.

miss read i skimmed over it  

[Unhelpful]

miss read i skimmed over it

Fair enough 

 

Also I know less than nothing about that motherboard. I dont know if it is good or bad. I just know that I dont recognize it.

[crispy345]

Maybe change case?

Do you have another case in mind?

Uh... Yeah the i3's fine. You are thinking of like... What the forum is on.. For a storage server the i3 is just fine.

Yep, just a plain storage server, web-hosting will (if even) be done on my C2Q rig. I have a UPS keeping the whole business toghether, the ECC RAM will also possibly help keeping the storage server up and running.

Fair enough 

Also I know less than nothing about that motherboard. I dont know if it is good or bad. I just know that I dont recognize it.

Only real reason I chose it was that it supports ECC RAM, and more importantly, enables the i3 to support ECC RAM. Supermicro boards are also made to be run in a server enviroment, and has a guarantee to make sure they do so.

[fuse]

I think its good, nothing really seems out of the ordinary for it. I like that you are going for a Supermicro board instead of others. They have a repuatatio for workstations and server boards that run 24/7 and are very reliable. Though what kind of server; general storage, media storage, workstation storage? I ask beacuse fo the 16GB of RAM might not be needed.

[crispy345]

I think its good, nothing really seems out of the ordinary for it. I like that you are going for a Supermicro board instead of others. They have a repuatatio for workstations and server boards that run 24/7 and are very reliable. Though what kind of server; general storage, media storage, workstation storage? I ask beacuse fo the 16GB of RAM might not be needed.

The 16GB was more of a future-proofing, ZFS requires at least 4GB of RAM, and 8 is reccomended. 16GB is just to fill up the board for the future, but most of the RAM is for ZFS itself, yes.

[simson0606]

so with that motherboard the i3 can use ecc ram?

[crispy345]

so with that motherboard the i3 can use ecc ram?

 

The C202, C204 and C206 chipset all will make the i3 support ECC RAM. On Supermicro's site it says 

• "Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 & v2 series, Intel® 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen Core i3, Intel® Pentium® and Celeron processors *** *"

 

And then considering the motherboard only supports ECC RAM, I think it's true. 

[fuse]

The 16GB was more of a future-proofing, ZFS requires at least 4GB of RAM, and 8 is reccomended. 16GB is just to fill up the board for the future, but most of the RAM is for ZFS itself, yes.

That makes sense, can't wait.

[Bilby]

Make sure that the PSU can handle 6 drives, if it's a decent brand 550w should be enough, but if it's some no name, you might be in trouble down the line

[crispy345]

Make sure that the PSU can handle 6 drives, if it's a decent brand 550w should be enough, but if it's some no name, you might be in trouble down the line

Of course, the 550W was bought in a computer in 2013, and is pretty high quality, 85Plus if used on a 230V line (which I have) If not I'll save up for a RM-series PSU from Corsair, might be worth it considering this is going to be my storage location for quite some time.

[paulsterio]

You probably should have gone with 3TB drives rather than 2TB ones cause the cost per TB of storage is slightly less with 3TB ones, but you've already bought them. 

[crispy345]

You probably should have gone with 3TB drives rather than 2TB ones cause the cost per TB of storage is slightly less with 3TB ones, but you've already bought them.

I know, it probably sounds stupid, but I first bought four of them and was going to swap out the 2 2TB Reds in my main system with greens, meening I would have 6 drives. But the guy never showed up, and I ended up buying two new drives. Either way (and this sounds silly) I don't trust 3TB drives at this moment, because it's really too much data for one drive. But that's my opinion on the case.

[crispy345]

Okay, got a new direction which I didn't keep you guys up to date with. 

 

Rather than to buy the expensive server hardware "required" to run ZFS, I simply bought a used HighPoint RocketRAID 3520. It supports RAID 6 (which is key!) and has 8 total SATA ports, which is perfect for me.

Though, I might not run RAID 6 after all, and my last setup could be ZFS, but for now i'm just testing if the RAID 6 on the card keeps up with what I do. 

 

So, the new specs (since some of the stuff is left out)

Cooler Master Stacker 810(might still consider the Define Mini, but the only problem with this one is the size)

A-bit Fatality F-I90HD (pretty decent for what it is, 4x DIMMs in a mATX 775 board)

Corsair XMS2 4GB kit x2 (has been stable for some months, and I expect them to be) 

Intel Q6700 (works very well, and is still able to keep up with my tasks, though the i3 would be better)

6 WD Red 2TB drives (already bought) + 2x 500GB Samsung drives in RAID1 for other stuff

A Chieftec 550W PSU (probably more than enough, I have it already)

 

That's basically the new specs. Got the machine build a day or so ago, and took some pictures for you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's where I'm at for now.