freenas FreeNAS build

[aped]

I've recently become more and more intrigued about the idea of a home media server. It'll be used primarily as a Plex Media Server running 1 stream (very rarely more) at a time. I might also get around to backing up a couple of Macbooks sometime later on.

 

Right, here comes the fun part. My proposed build:

• CPU: Intel i3-4170 - LGA1150
• Motherboard: MSI B85I - LGA1150 - mITX
• RAM: 2 x Kingston ValueRAM - DDR3  - 4GB - ECC - KVR16E11S8/4
• Case: Fractal Design Node 304

As for the powersupply, I have a Corsair VX550w from a previous build stashed somewhere, which I plan on using.

 

My main concern is if the motherboard supports the ECC memory. I originally had another mobo planned for the build, which I later found out didn't support the ECC memory.

 

Other than that, I'd like to hear some opinions on my proposed build. My main goal is to keep the price as low as possible, still keeping a somewhat decent performance. The parts which I have picked out, comes to a total of around $400 (exchanged from Danish Kroner), which is the price range I'm looking for - harddrives excluded.

[79wjd]

The motherboard does not support ECC. No consumer chipset does, you need a C222, C224, or C226 chipset to utilize ECC.

 

Also, for one (even two) Plex stream(s) a Pentium is more than enough. I would also go with a single 8GB stick leaving yourself plenty of room to add more memory in the future. 

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13 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

The motherboard does not support ECC. No consumer chipset does, you need a C222, C224, or C226 chipset to utilize ECC.

 

Also, for one (even two) Plex stream(s) a Pentium is more than enough. I would also go with a single 8GB stick leaving yourself plenty of room to add more memory in the future. 

Thank you for your reply. I guess some overhead on the CPU is always nice to have. I might find something cool to use the NAS for later on.

 

Second question: exactly how important is the ECC memory? I mean, I'm not exactly going to be backing up anything super crucial. The most important task for the NAS is going to be the Plex Media Server stuff.

[79wjd]

11 minutes ago, aped said:

Thank you for your reply. I guess some overhead on the CPU is always nice to have. I might find something cool to use the NAS for later on.

 

Second question: exactly how important is the ECC memory? I mean, I'm not exactly going to be backing up anything super crucial. The most important task for the NAS is going to be the Plex Media Server stuff.

ECC memory is important to prevent bit rot (bits from randomly changing) and ensuring that the data that's being stored/worked on is accurate. Since your data isn't super critical it's not a big deal (and since it's video files bitrot isn't even noticeable anyway), however, not using ECC memory can cause FreeNAS itself to become corrupted, which could cause you to lose all your pools (and that can be hard if not impossible to recover). So how important ECC is depends entirely on you -- if you have the data backed up somewhere else then even if you lose the pool you can always create a new install/pool and copy the data over. 

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1 hour ago, djdwosk97 said:

ECC memory is important to prevent bit rot (bits from randomly changing) and ensuring that the data that's being stored/worked on is accurate. Since your data isn't super critical it's not a big deal (and since it's video files bitrot isn't even noticeable anyway), however, not using ECC memory can cause FreeNAS itself to become corrupted, which could cause you to lose all your pools (and that can be hard if not impossible to recover). So how important ECC is depends entirely on you -- if you have the data backed up somewhere else then even if you lose the pool you can always create a new install/pool and copy the data over. 

Alright. So as my dreams of a "cheap" FreeNAS build lies shattered, because the supplier which I intend to purchase the parts from has a really small selection of C22x boards in mITX formfactor, I've started wondering..

 

Is ECC memory as crucial for a server running Microsoft Server 2012, as it is for FreeNAS? Because I can get a license key for Microsoft Server 2012 through my schools affiliation with Microsoft Dreamspark.

[79wjd]

18 minutes ago, aped said:

Alright. So as my dreams of a "cheap" FreeNAS build lies shattered, because the supplier which I intend to purchase the parts from has a really small selection of C22x boards in mITX formfactor, I've started wondering..

 

Is ECC memory as crucial for a server running Microsoft Server 2012, as it is for FreeNAS? Because I can get a license key for Microsoft Server 2012 through my schools affiliation with Microsoft Dreamspark.

Much less so. 

[aped]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

Much less so. 

I've changed a couple of things from the initial build proposal:

• CPU: Intel i3-4170 - LGA1150
• Motherboard: MSI B85I - LGA1150 - mITX
• RAM: 2 x Crucial DDR3 2GB - CT25664BA160BJ
• SSD: KINGSTON SSDNow 120GB
• Case: Fractal Design Node 304

Any final thoughts before I hit the buy button?

[79wjd]

6 minutes ago, aped said:

I've changed a couple of things from the initial build proposal:

• CPU: Intel i3-4170 - LGA1150
• Motherboard: MSI B85I - LGA1150 - mITX
• RAM: 2 x Crucial DDR3 2GB - CT25664BA160BJ
• SSD: KINGSTON SSDNow 120GB
• Case: Fractal Design Node 304

Any final thoughts before I hit the buy button?

I don't have much experience with Windows Server, but I would still suggest just going with a single 8gb stick (it's not that much more money than 2x2gb) that way you have plenty of memory headroom and the option to expand in the future should it become necessary. 

 

The V300 is also kind of shitty (slow). It's not really a big deal for this use case, but if there are other drives that aren't significantly more expensive I would go with one of them instead. The V300 still has the latency benefits of an SSD, but the write speeds are pretty bad (so it's not the biggest deal in the world if the alternatives are more expensive).

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2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

I don't have much experience with Windows Server, but I would still suggest just going with a single 8gb stick (it's not that much more money than 2x2gb) that way you have plenty of memory headroom and the option to expand in the future should it become necessary. 

 

The V300 is also kind of shitty (slow). It's not really a big deal for this use case, but if there are other drives that aren't significantly more expensive I would go with one of them instead. 

I'm aware the SSD isn't the best coice out there, but I pretty much just went for the cheapest one that wasn't some unknown brand. 

 

Thank you very much for your help.