planning build Home Server NAS with Chinese parts

[Jecocha]

I'm thinking to build a Home Server NAS similar to Storinator, but with the X79 or X99 from Huanazhi, Atermiter, PLEX HD or anyone of this chinese brands that revives old chipset server stuff.

I need some help, because I dont know what case choose (I like expandibility but a case under 100€ is my target).

This MoBos allow me to use Xeon with high core/thread count on the cheap and 64GB of RAM for 80€. Also they have 2 or 3 x16 PCIe ports and other conectivity.

Also i'm looking at LSI SAS cards from aliexpress too, not the expensive ones, only the models from 10€ to 30€ but I dont know what specs choose or what is better at the same price.

For OS drive, this chinese motherboard have one or two m.2 NVMe, so maybe one A1000 (250GB) or two in RAID 1 could be enough

For the main OS, I'm thinking in FreeNAS for the flexibility (I want to host a few game servers, Minecraft, Space Engineers, Medieval Engineers...)

For Data drives, for start, no more than 5TB of usable space in ZFS of Toshiba, Hitachi or Seagate. How much drives I need for 5TB usable in ZFS? This is another cuestion.

For the Graphics Card, I have a NVIDIA GeForce 210 GT 1GB DDR3 with passive cooling from ASUS. Is this suficient for the server? I'm not planning to use as a media center, only Storage and Games servers Hosting.

Anyone can help my or have an idea for this?

If finally I build this server, it will be for February even March.

 

Now, I have all my data across several external drives and computers and for hosting single one MCserver, I'm using an old Q9450 with 8GB DDR2 800MHz... so there is a lot of room for upgrades.

 

(I'm from Spain so, MicroCenter is imposible, Newegg too. We have pccomponentes.com (It's like MicroCenter but at spanish forms), Amazon, and good transport with Aliexpress and other chinese webs.

Any comment is well received

[Geoff35674567]

bro use Red Flag linux for your Chinesium build, and you must live stream the build playing soviet music.

10 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

For the Graphics Card, I have a NVIDIA GeForce 210 GT 1GB DDR3 with passive cooling from ASUS. Is this suficient for the server?

It helps when installing the software and setting up networking. I see no harm in leaving it in there, but maybe it will waste a little power? - i dont know but i think it will waste a little.

15 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

For OS drive, this chinese motherboard have one or two m.2 NVMe, so maybe one A1000 (250GB) or two in RAID 0 could be enough

dont raid0 an SSD OS drive. No point. I dont use freeNAS, but a basic debian server (that I use for pi hole) is only 1.2GB. And I could reduce that if I could be bothered. I'm sure FreeNAS is also under 5GB.

 

 

 

 

[Jecocha]

35 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

bro use Red Flag linux for your Chinesium build, and you must live stream the build playing soviet music.

This is a joke, true? I'm thinking of chinese MoBo because are cheap platforms and in 2-3 years probably I wil update it with a ZEN based MoBo with high core count.

36 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

It helps when installing the software and setting up networking. I see no harm in leaving it in there, but maybe it will waste a little power? - i dont know but i think it will waste a little.

This GPU has a TDP of 31W, so... the power that it can drain is insignificant. If I remove it, the MoBo doesnt POST and will beep.

41 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

dont raid0 an SSD OS drive. No point. I dont use freeNAS, but a basic debian server (that I use for pi hole) is only 1.2GB. And I could reduce that if I could be bothered. I'm sure FreeNAS is also under 5GB.

The RAID was a mistake, I mean RAID 1 (mirror), I know that RAID0 with NVMe is an error for my porpouse.

For the OS, FreeNAS is already to use and start from a basic debian server is too advanced for me. Maybe if not FreeNAS, OMV (OpenMediaVault), NAS4Free, FlexRAID, unRAID or TrueNAS.

[Geoff35674567]

2 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

This is a joke, true?

you are building a home server NAS with chinese characteristics? Xi the Pooh bear will be pleased.

3 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

This GPU has a TDP of 31W, so... the power that it can drain is insignificant. If I remove it, the MoBo doesnt POST and will beep.

thats new to me. Maybe you need to go into bios and disable it before removing it?

5 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

The RAID was a mistake, I mean RAID 1 (mirror), I know that RAID0 with NVMe is an error for my porpouse.

lol I got the number wrong too when I was typing this reply: I do use RAID1 on my server with three drives in RAID1. The reason I do this is because I already have the drives (I buy a new one when the warranty expires).

 

[Jecocha]

12 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

you are building a home server NAS with chinese characteristics

Only because MoBo from brands as ASUS, Gigabyte, Supermicro, are more expensive for the same platform and all components are 2nd hand, in this chinese MoBo only the chipset apparently.

14 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

Maybe you need to go into bios and disable it before removing it?

I never saw any MoBo that allow me to do it

 

16 minutes ago, Geoff35674567 said:

The reason I do this is because I already have the drives (I buy a new one when the warranty expires)

(I edit the first post) It's fine, the two A1000 NVMe in RAID1 are only theorical, with a SATA SSD by MoBo SATA ports is fine. The big storage array, its need to go by SAS Cards.

[Geoff35674567]

43 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

(I edit the first post) It's fine, the two A1000 NVMe in RAID1 are only theorical, with a SATA SSD by MoBo SATA ports is fine. The big storage array, its need to go by SAS Cards.

some of these NAS operating systems run off USB flash. The OS is nothing really.

50 minutes ago, Jecocha said:

I never saw any MoBo that allow me to do it

switch from dGPU to iGPU

[Jecocha]

On 12/16/2019 at 3:07 PM, Geoff35674567 said:

switch from dGPU to iGPU

Yes, but Xeon hasnt got iGPU, some server board yes (Gamers Nexus & Level1Tech, ASRockRack Motherboard is an example), but they are too much expensive compared to the chinese MoBo as HUANANZHI 

[molszanski]

As a home NAS owner/  builder:

 

- Seagate IronWolf 8TB is probably the most optimal HDD

- Don't buy more storage than you will consume in a year or two. HDD price per GB is dropping fast

- Electricity IS expensive for 24/7  operations. Less HDD drives the better. Never CPUs consume much less power than the old ones. And with non xeon you can skip the GPU.

- for OS drive you can use a USB stick. Not sure what FreeNAS needs, my Debian was super happy with 32GB usb 

- Also, don't know why would you need a GPU in the first place. Not sure about FreeNAS, but it was all terminal for my install / usage