freenas build

[millerb415]

was thinking about a nas build for a home media sever what do you think

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JFNRf7

[Mark77]

Hmmm.  Let's see.  If you want it to run headless, look at the "Q" chipset boards with Intel AMT, ie: the Q170 chipset.  Toshiba/HGST HDDs are usually a bit cheaper than WD's. 

[suchamoneypit]

Don't think that motherboard has enough SATA connectors for 3 HDDs. I only see 2.

 

EDIT: checked specs, it only has 2 SATA connectors. You need three.

 

I missed two other connectors next to the RAM slots, it will work.

[2FA]

3 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

Hmmm.  Let's see.  If you want it to run headless, look at the "Q" chipset boards with Intel AMT, ie: the Q170 chipset.  Toshiba/HGST HDDs are usually a bit cheaper than WD's. 

Well the only time you need a monitor is when setting it up. Once that is done, FreeNAS is managed through your browser on any machine on your network.

[Mark77]

2 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

Don't think that motherboard has enough SATA connectors for 3 HDDs. I only see 2.

The spec sheet I looked up says its a DDR3 board too. 

[2FA]

2 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

Don't think that motherboard has enough SATA connectors for 3 HDDs. I only see 2.

 

EDIT: checked specs, it only has 2 SATA connectors. You need three.

It has two SATA 3 ports and two SATA 2 ports.

[suchamoneypit]

1 minute ago, Mark77 said:

The spec sheet I looked up says its a DDR3 board too. 

and he picked DDR3 for it, which is fine. Pretty sure some 1151 boards still support DDR3.

[Mark77]

Just now, DeadEyePsycho said:

Well the only time you need a monitor is when setting it up. Once that is done, FreeNAS is managed through your browser on any machine on your network.

Sure, but you'll want to see the console at some point.  So either you need to have a LCD kicking around to do that with, or you have some sort of remote solution.  Also, the machine itself might hang or something for whatever reason (ie: kernel panic) in which case being able to reset it remotely or see what's going on can be useful.

 

[millerb415]

3 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

Don't think that motherboard has enough SATA connectors for 3 HDDs. I only see 2.

 

EDIT: checked specs, it only has 2 SATA connectors. You need three.

i thought that you could uses the sata express connectors to make it work because it has 2 sata connections in the sata express

[suchamoneypit]

1 minute ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

It has two SATA 3 ports and two SATA 2 ports.

 

Where are the 4 connectors? I only see the 3 on the right.

[suchamoneypit]

2 minutes ago, millerb415 said:

i thought that you could uses the sata express connectors to make it work because it has 2 sata connections in the sata express

Im not sure. Im no expert in HDDs or the various connectors, But I do know that the connector on my HDD will not connect into that third port, nor does it look to be physically compatible. Maybe with an adapter?

[2FA]

-snip-

 

 

[millerb415]

ok what cheaper board would be better i am not set on anything except the drives about 700 is top of the buget

[2FA]

3 minutes ago, suchamoneypit said:

Where are the 4 connectors? I only see the 3 on the right.

[suchamoneypit]

Just now, DeadEyePsycho said:

that was the problem, I glossed over those two near the RAM slots due to the same plastic color. Will edit my post. thanks.

[Mark77]

2 SATA to the bottom left of the 2 RAM slots.  2 SATA (plus SATA Express extension) to the right. 

 

But seriously, this is what I'd do:

 

Asus Q170M-C  $130

16gb DDR4 -- take your pick of brands ~$70

i3-6100 $110

mini-ATX case to support the same

2 x 4TB HGST 7200rpm $150 each / $300

PSU and other accessories accordingly.

 

You get more SATA ports (an extra 2).  Slots so if you have PCI-E stuff (ie: a future 10gig-E NIC, for example!!!) to throw in there, you at least can.  Its accessible remotely console-wise with AMT.  DDR4 saves some electricity which will probably pay for itself over a 10 year system life.

 

edit:  sorry, saw that you wanted 6Tb of effective space...  6Tb drives perhaps?  RAID-5 for 3-drive arrays really isn't that good anyways.

 

edit:  RAM can easily be chopped to a single 8gb DIMM for a NAS machine if you need to save money up-front. 

 

[millerb415]

7 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

2 SATA to the bottom left of the 2 RAM slots.  2 SATA (plus SATA Express extension) to the right. 

 

But seriously, this is what I'd do:

 

Asus Q170M-C http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Micro-Motherboard-Q170M-C-CSM  $130

16gb DDR4 -- take your pick of brands ~$70

i3-6100 $110

mini-ATX case to support the same

2 x 4TB HGST 7200rpm $150 each / $300

PSU and other accessories accordingly.

 

You get more SATA ports (an extra 2).  Slots so if you have PCI-E stuff to throw in there, you at least can.  Its accessible remotely console-wise with AMT.  DDR4 saves some electricity which will probably pay for itself over a 10 year system life.

 

edit:  sorry, saw that you wanted 6Tb of effective space...  6Tb drives perhaps?  RAID-5 for 3-drive arrays really isn't that good anyways.

 

i want to keep at an itx size so it hid away. i was going to use the parity feature of freenas that is way i got the 3 drives it supposedly works better than a raid 5 and yes i do what the 6TB for storage. do you know any itx mobos that work well?

[Mark77]

2 minutes ago, millerb415 said:

i want to keep at an itx size so it hid away. i was going to use the parity feature of freenas that is way i got the 3 drives it supposedly works better than a raid 5 and yes i do what the 6TB for storage. do you know any itx mobos that work well?

Yeah that's a tough one because you're boxing yourself into a pretty tight corner with any future expansion, whether of the drives, or plugging stuff into the PCI-E.  Most ITX boards/cases are a giant PITA to work with as well. 

[millerb415]

1 minute ago, Mark77 said:

Yeah that's a tough one because you're boxing yourself into a pretty tight corner with any future expansion, whether of the drives, or plugging stuff into the PCI-E.  Most ITX boards/cases are a giant PITA to work with as well. 

ya and the micro center near me only carries a few of them. i tried to pick stuff out for the most part that that would be there it is cheaper there than most of the online sites

[Mark77]

4 minutes ago, millerb415 said:

ya and the micro center near me only carries a few of them. i tried to pick stuff out for the most part that that would be there it is cheaper there than most of the online sites

Well when I built a machine for a similar purpose, I didn't think I'd need a lot of expandability.  I bought a H67 motherboard as a result, and I've been regretting it ever since.  Because I ended up adding a video capture card (for MythTV), a wireless card (for the server to act as a wireless access point), and a second network card (for additional NAS bandwidth).  Basically I have no slots left, and no upgrade path short of buying an expensive new motherboard. 

 

I'd like to add a second video capture card.  And eventually a 10gig-E card.  And maybe a PBX card for telephone stuff.  Can't do it without buying a new mobo, even though my RAM (16gb) and CPU (i7-2600) are perfectly fine :(.

[Mark77]

Another reason to prefer a Q board over that Asus H170 -- the Q boards use Intel NICs for their onboard networking (as is required by the vPro certified platform).  While the Asus H170 uses a Realtek NIC. 

 

Intel networking >> Realtek. 

[millerb415]

7 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

Another reason to prefer a Q board over that Asus H170 -- the Q boards use Intel NICs for their onboard networking (as is required by the vPro certified platform).  While the Asus H170 uses a Realtek NIC. 

 

Intel networking >> Realtek. 

semi related question i have been debating on my gaming rig to moving to x99 from z97 and i just thought if i do that i could use my i7 4790k  and ddr3 ram in my nas build so i was wondering how could i uses this nas as a router for my house what would i need to get? i would be giving up size but getting a lot more power

[millerb415]

my mobo is an msi gaming 5

[Mark77]

6 minutes ago, millerb415 said:

semi related question i have been debating on my gaming rig to moving to x99 from z97 and i just thought if i do that i could use my i7 4790k  and ddr3 ram in my nas build so i was wondering how could i uses this nas as a router for my house what would i need to get?

I'm not really familiar with "FreeNAS", as I run my entire system on Linux and have a pretty in-depth Unix system administration/programming background which helps me tweak things manually.  FreeNAS (and similar packages) are basically fancy administration scripts/front-ends so you don't have to do much to get a fileserver with RAID going.

 

But you certainly could repurpose a Z97 machine to be both a fileserver and a router (and even a wireless access point, media server, telephony server, video recording server, virtualization server, security server, weather server, airplane radar server, VPN server, etc., etc. like I've done) if you have appropriate Unix/Linux/FreeBSD administration skills. 

 

So a lot depends upon your skill level, whether you'll be stuck using a pre-packaged "solution" like FreeNAS, or if you can go into something far more difficult to use, but far more customizable.