CPU MoBo and RAM for a NAS

[BelgiumCastGijs]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm planning a fun project to use my old case in, because I have been producing a lot of data over the past couple of months, I thought it was better to build myself a NAS.

My case supports 5 3.5 and 2.5 inch hard drives and I was about to order a silverstone FS305B (the 5.25 inch 5 bay expansion thing) so that's a total of 10 Sata 3.0 hard drives that need to be connected.

 

My question is: What do I have to look out for when buying the Mobo CPU and ram? would I need a RAID controller and if yes, what kind of RAID controller?

 

Please don't say that I should get a prebuilt NAS, because I frankly don't want to. ;-)

 

Thanks in advance and Happy holidays!

-Gijs

[Oshino Shinobu]

If you're using FreeNAS, you don't need to worry about a RAID controller, as it's done through software. If you're going to be using ZFS with FreeNAS, then you're going to need 8GB+ of RAM. 

 

For mobo, you want to look for a board with as many SATA 3 ports as possible. For RAM, pretty much any 8GB+ kit will do. For CPU, it will depend on what you're doing on the NAS. If you're running a transcoding Plex server, you're going to want a decent CPU to meet your requirements. An i3 with Hyperthreading is generally a good choice while not costing a whole load.

 

If you're just using it as a general storage server, you're better off investing money on good drives, rather than a powerful CPU. You can get away with an Intel Atom, Pentium, or an AMD Athlon if you want to go down that route (actually offer pretty good price/performance for multi-threaded applications). Bear in mind pre-built NAS enclosures use super weak dual cores that you could find in a tablet, so it doesn't take a huge amount of processing power for just data storage. 

 

EDIT: Also, it's worth reading up a fair bit on FreeNAS if you are using it. For example, the OS will take up an entire drive, regardless of the drive's size. I'm actually planning my own FreeNAS server and intend to use a Gigabyte Z77 UD3H I have lying around, 12GB 1600MHz RAM, a used i3 3220 (dual core with HT), pretty much any case (probably a Fractal Design entry level case), 32GB SSD for OS + 2x 3TB WD Reds (operating separately, for 6TB of storage. Might move to a RAID 5 setup at some point) and a Corsair CX430M (yes, they're fine for this type of build, and they're cheap.)

[BelgiumCastGijs]

If you're using FreeNAS, you don't need to worry about a RAID controller, as it's done through software. If you're going to be using ZFS with FreeNAS, then you're going to need 8GB+ of RAM. 

 

For mobo, you want to look for a board with as many SATA 3 ports as possible. For RAM, pretty much any 8GB+ kit will do. For CPU, it will depend on what you're doing on the NAS. If you're running a transcoding Plex server, you're going to want a decent CPU to meet your requirements. An i3 with Hyperthreading is generally a good choice while not costing a whole load.

 

If you're just using it as a general storage server, you're better off investing money on good drives, rather than a powerful CPU. You can get away with an Intel Atom, Pentium, or an AMD Athlon if you want to go down that route (actually offer pretty good price/performance for multi-threaded applications). Bear in mind pre-built NAS enclosures use super weak dual cores that you could find in a tablet, so it doesn't take a huge amount of processing power for just data storage. 

Thanks you for the info, I was actually planning on using unraid... does that do the raid in software too or does it need a Hardware RAID?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Thanks you for the info, I was actually planning on using unraid... does that do the raid in software too or does it need a Hardware RAID?

I think unraid uses software RAID as well, as it should manage the drives through the OS, rather than in the BIOS. I'm not entirely sure on that though, I haven't really looked into unraid because FreeNAS does what I want. 

 

I edited my first post with a bit more info and the components I intend to use for a storage and Plex server. 

[BelgiumCastGijs]

I think unraid uses software RAID as well, as it should manage the drives through the OS, rather than in the BIOS. I'm not entirely sure on that though, I haven't really looked into unraid because FreeNAS does what I want. 

 

I edited my first post with a bit more info and the components I intend to use for a storage and Plex server. 

Thanks you! Also, a guy on another post recommended a SAS controller or 2, Considering I need really fast access to those drives (Video editing from another station) I think hte onboard SATA would bottleneck the overall throughput of the drives... what's your speculation about this?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Thanks you! Also, a guy on another post recommended a SAS controller or 2, Considering I need really fast access to those drives (Video editing from another station) I think hte onboard SATA would bottleneck the overall throughput of the drives... what's your speculation about this?

Unless you're using 10Gb netwoking equipment, you're going to be limited by the speeds of your network anyway. Bear in mind SATA 3 runs at 6Gbps, even with RAID 0 of multiple drives, you're not going to be limited by SATA controller speeds. 

[BelgiumCastGijs]

Unless you're using 10Gb netwoking equipment, you're going to be limited by the speeds of your network anyway. Bear in mind SATA 3 runs at 6Gbps, even with RAID 0 of multiple drives, you're not going to be limited by SATA controller speeds. 

I'm actually running 10Gb network... Ans I can't find a single mobo that has enough sata ports to run all of the hard drives... The only one is a 700 dollar dual socket beast...

[BelgiumCastGijs]

Unless you're using 10Gb netwoking equipment, you're going to be limited by the speeds of your network anyway. Bear in mind SATA 3 runs at 6Gbps, even with RAID 0 of multiple drives, you're not going to be limited by SATA controller speeds. 

But if I'd use 2 of these for the storage drives, http://www.amazon.de/StarTech-com-Port-Controller-Express-Schnittstellenkarte/dp/B00BUC3N74/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1451775808&sr=8-3&keywords=4+port+sata+controller and then use the onboard sata for the OS drives, (2 60gb kingston ssd's in raid 1) would that still egt me some proper data speed?

[Oshino Shinobu]

I'm actually running 10Gb network... Ans I can't find a single mobo that has enough sata ports to run all of the hard drives... The only one is a 700 dollar dual socket beast...

If you're running a 10Gb network, then you'd be looking at a more serious setup. It may be a good idea to pick up a couple of SAS or SATA 3 controller cards to allow you to connect all the drives. Chances are, you'll still be bottlenecked by your drives or the speed of the controllers, as you're going to be running at 6Gbps with SATA 3. 

 

 

But if I'd use 2 of these for the storage drives, http://www.amazon.de/StarTech-com-Port-Controller-Express-Schnittstellenkarte/dp/B00BUC3N74/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1451775808&sr=8-3&keywords=4+port+sata+controller and then use the onboard sata for the OS drives, (2 60gb kingston ssd's in raid 1) would that still egt me some proper data speed?

You should be getting 6Gbps with those cards, but the actual speeds will change depending on the drive configuration. Unless you're using SSDs, or loads of drives in a striped RAID, the drives should still be the limitation, so it would be no slower than running the drives in your PC. 

[BelgiumCastGijs]

If you're running a 10Gb network, then you'd be looking at a more serious setup. It may be a good idea to pick up a couple of SAS or SATA 3 controller cards to allow you to connect all the drives. Chances are, you'll still be bottlenecked by your drives or the speed of the controllers, as you're going to be running at 6Gbps with SATA 3. 

 

 

You should be getting 6Gbps with those cards, but the actual speeds will change depending on the drive configuration. 

Ok, thank you! I was looking at some SAS controllers but they are really expensive... but i heard I only need 1 sas connection for 4 sata drives... Is that correct (sorry if i'm taking up too much of your time...)

[Oshino Shinobu]

Ok, thank you! I was looking at some SAS controllers but they are really expensive... but i heard I only need 1 sas connection for 4 sata drives... Is that correct (sorry if i'm taking up too much of your time...)

I'm not too familiar with SAS controllers. A PCIe SATA 3 (or a couple of them) should be enough, especially if you're just using SATA drives.