Jump to content

low power nas build

Go to solution Solved by mariushm,

The motherboard depends entirely up to you.

 

You mention you want something with 8 sata ports - that kind of limits your choices. 6 or 4 sata ports are more common and cheaper.

For RAID5 you only need 3 hard drives and for RAID10 you need at least 4 drives.

 

If you go with ZFS, that can create a big drive out of multiple drives connected directly to the motherboard, without software raid and stuff like that. ZFS recommends using ECC memory because it stores a lot of information about how the data is spread around on various hard drives in the memory, so detecting errors in memory is kind of important. BUT, it will work without ECC memory. If you don't use  ZFS, but some software or hardware RAID you won't need ECC memory.

 

For a ZFS based NAS, it may be cheaper to buy a board with just 4 or 6 ports but with support for ECC memory, as you could simply add a second HBA card with 4 or more sata ports if you need to.

 

To save money, i would go with a motherboard that can use a cpu with built in graphics... so right now pretty much Intel systems or FM2/FM2+ based solutions from AMD would be.

The AMD solutions are cheaper... would be slightly more power hungry as the processors on FM2/2+ are based on 28-32nm manufacturing process while Intel has some processors on 14-20nm but the power consumption differences are small enough.

 

FM2/FM2+ based processors are also much cheaper than Intel processors, you can buy for example A4-4000 (2x3.2 Ghz) is around 27$ in my country, a4-6300 (2x3.7ghz) is around 38$ ... and the cheapest fm2+ processor with integrated graphics A6-7400K (2x3.5ghz) is 52$ 

 

J4205 on that itx motherboard has a "cpu score" of 2400 ... a4-4000 (2x3.8ghz) has 1800 , a4-6300 has 2220, a6-7400k has 2800 ..

 

As for motherboards, the cheapest motherboards have 4 sata ports and no software raid support (or just raid 0 /1).

For 6 sata ports, a good board would be : MSI A88XM-E35 V2 : https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-A88XM-E35-FM2-AMD-Motherboard/dp/B00Y332BD4/

It has a pci-e x16 (which would accept x4,x8 or x16) and a pci-e x1 (which may be blocked by the card you put in the first slot if it has big heatsinks)

If you want 8 sata ports, you could have a look at  GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XM-HD3P  or Asrock FM2A88M Extreme4+ R2.0 , the second a few dollars/euro more expensive but with a better layout (the pci-e x16 slots spaced apart better)

Both give you 8 sata slots, one pci-e x16, one pci-e x4 (in a x16 physical format) and a x1 slot. So you could use the x16 slot for 10gbps network card (or a 4x1gbps card) and the x4 would still be available if you'd want to add a HBA card at a later time (to add more drives)

Really  the only downside is the lack of ECC memory support for these systems, but you had no ECC support with that J4205 based board anyway.

 

 

What case and what drives?

 

I would recommend looking at some SoC's or C-chipsets for ECC support.

Cor Caeruleus Reborn v6

Spoiler

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K

CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste 
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 2x8GB 3200/14
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive 
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA - 970 SSC ACX (1080 is in RMA)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 750W with CableMod blue/black Pro Series
Optical Drive: LG - WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit and Linux Mint Serena
Keyboard: Logitech - G910 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Wired Optical Mouse
Headphones: Logitech - G430 7.1 Channel  Headset
Speakers: Logitech - Z506 155W 5.1ch Speakers

 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9699188
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

What will the NAS be used for?

PSU Tier List | CoC

Gaming Build | FreeNAS Server

Spoiler

i5-4690k || Seidon 240m || GTX780 ACX || MSI Z97s SLI Plus || 8GB 2400mhz || 250GB 840 Evo || 1TB WD Blue || H440 (Black/Blue) || Windows 10 Pro || Dell P2414H & BenQ XL2411Z || Ducky Shine Mini || Logitech G502 Proteus Core

Spoiler

FreeNAS 9.3 - Stable || Xeon E3 1230v2 || Supermicro X9SCM-F || 32GB Crucial ECC DDR3 || 3x4TB WD Red (JBOD) || SYBA SI-PEX40064 sata controller || Corsair CX500m || NZXT Source 210.

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9699212
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Ethocreeper said:

yea i know that but what raid card

Just use software RAID. 

Cor Caeruleus Reborn v6

Spoiler

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K

CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste 
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 2x8GB 3200/14
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive 
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA - 970 SSC ACX (1080 is in RMA)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 750W with CableMod blue/black Pro Series
Optical Drive: LG - WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit and Linux Mint Serena
Keyboard: Logitech - G910 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Wired Optical Mouse
Headphones: Logitech - G430 7.1 Channel  Headset
Speakers: Logitech - Z506 155W 5.1ch Speakers

 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9699262
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just now, Ethocreeper said:

will it perform as good as hardware?

will sata 2 bottleneck segate enterprise drives?

Yes.

No.

Cor Caeruleus Reborn v6

Spoiler

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K

CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste 
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 2x8GB 3200/14
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive 
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA - 970 SSC ACX (1080 is in RMA)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA P2 750W with CableMod blue/black Pro Series
Optical Drive: LG - WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit and Linux Mint Serena
Keyboard: Logitech - G910 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Wired Optical Mouse
Headphones: Logitech - G430 7.1 Channel  Headset
Speakers: Logitech - Z506 155W 5.1ch Speakers

 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9699277
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If you're using an OS like FreeNas, software is definitely the best bet.  If you need more sata ports, you can get a Host Bus Adapter (HBA) and that should allow software raid.  You can use a raid car but you will need to do some configuring to allow the drives to pass through and skip the hard ware raid.

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9699291
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ethocreeper said:

way more expensive

well you said you have 800euro budget + drives so synology is a valid option for what you want to use it for.

the bigger question is if you have a 10gbit network in place or not because you dont want to edit big files via a 1gbit connection.

 

 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9703645
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Pixel5 said:

well you said you have 800euro budget + drives so synology is a valid option for what you want to use it for.

the bigger question is if you have a 10gbit network in place or not because you dont want to edit big files via a 1gbit connection.

 

 

i ended up with this

asrock J4205-ITX soc

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/4-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Card-PCI-Express-x1-to-RJ45-Ethernet-Network-Controller-Adapter-10-100/607905_32700144737.html or https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KYY8VZC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1R9FWIBHTUNK8&psc=1 witch is the best? - so i have 5 gigabits internet = 625mbps total banwith (4gbps from pcie card +1 from mobo) *i know that its pcie x1 gen 2 but pcie x1 gen 2 has a speed of 500mb/s which equals 4gigabit so its fine

 

and 4 of these drives http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/enterprise-storage/hard-disk-drives/enterprise-capacity-3-5-hdd-10tb/

btw this lowers the budget by alot so i can now get these drives. they will be in soft raid. windows parity which is basically raid 5.

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9703751
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

30 minutes ago, Ethocreeper said:

i ended up with this

asrock J4205-ITX soc

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/4-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Card-PCI-Express-x1-to-RJ45-Ethernet-Network-Controller-Adapter-10-100/607905_32700144737.html or https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KYY8VZC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1R9FWIBHTUNK8&psc=1 witch is the best? - so i have 5 gigabits internet = 625mbps total banwith (4gbps from pcie card +1 from mobo) *i know that its pcie x1 gen 2 but pcie x1 gen 2 has a speed of 500mb/s which equals 4gigabit so its fine

 

and 4 of these drives http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/enterprise-storage/hard-disk-drives/enterprise-capacity-3-5-hdd-10tb/

btw this lowers the budget by alot so i can now get these drives. they will be in soft raid. windows parity which is basically raid 5.

Your Write performance in Windows Storage Spaces is going to be terrible.... You will be lucky to get 20+ mb/s writes.  If your not going to be writing to these drives that hard then its fine but storage spaces is horrible. 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9703830
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Also I am confused, your buying a 4 port nic, your not getting 500 mb/s even with SMB 3.0 in windows..... Not even close, especially with using windows storage spaces.  Your transfer speeds from your server to any other computer is contingent on the speed of the drives first.  In storage spaces your writes will be crap, short of doing raid 0 which is not recommended at all, or having a raid card, and with that you will have to buy a decent raid card hitting the numbers you want is not realistic.  

 

If your doing software raid ZFS is really the only option to have good read/write speeds.  Other wise you will have to do hardware raid.

 

Also your motherboard only has one pcie slot, and only 4 sata ports so... you cant populate the pcie slot with a network card if you want to connect all the drives to it.. 

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9703877
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 19.4.2017 at 2:12 PM, Ethocreeper said:

i ended up with this

asrock J4205-ITX soc

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/4-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Card-PCI-Express-x1-to-RJ45-Ethernet-Network-Controller-Adapter-10-100/607905_32700144737.html or https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KYY8VZC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1R9FWIBHTUNK8&psc=1 witch is the best? - so i have 5 gigabits internet = 625mbps total banwith (4gbps from pcie card +1 from mobo) *i know that its pcie x1 gen 2 but pcie x1 gen 2 has a speed of 500mb/s which equals 4gigabit so its fine

 

and 4 of these drives http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/enterprise-storage/hard-disk-drives/enterprise-capacity-3-5-hdd-10tb/

btw this lowers the budget by alot so i can now get these drives. they will be in soft raid. windows parity which is basically raid 5.

 

speed of individual lan ports doesnt add up, you may use link aggregation to combine 2 ports if the switch supports it but if you want fast transfer speeds you need a deticated 10 gigabit lan port

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9714822
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 4/18/2017 at 2:20 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Get a synology or another pretty made nas. It's worth the extra for a box that just works and is even lowerpower . 

This... seriously, great products, few issues. Terrible support, but what do you expect for the price? We use Synology Rackstations with both the intel Atoms & for larger sites we use the xeon models (I'm blanking on models right now, I can get them if you want, but these models are out of your price range), and we use diskstations as backups for them. They work in production envirnments day in and day out, these are architectural offices, so heavy Revit use (very similar, sometimes even higher IOPS than 3ds Max if the models are large). That being said we do use them on gigabit networks without issue, write speed are perfectly acceptable and nobody has ever complained about them.

 

TL;DR Synology is great, go buy one and be done with it!

A

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9718831
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, GW2 said:

This... seriously, great products, few issues. Terrible support, but what do you expect for the price? We use Synology Rackstations with both the intel Atoms & for larger sites we use the xeon models (I'm blanking on models right now, I can get them if you want, but these models are out of your price range), and we use diskstations as backups for them. They work in production envirnments day in and day out, these are architectural offices, so heavy Revit use (very similar, sometimes even higher IOPS than 3ds Max if the models are large). That being said we do use them on gigabit networks without issue, write speed are perfectly acceptable and nobody has ever complained about them.

 

TL;DR Synology is great, go buy one and be done with it!

they are way out of budget. btw they do not sell them in my country

so i found them on amazon uk which is ''near'' Cyprus but the sellers that do sent it are over priced and the shipping costs are very hight

btw are they any better low power socs or something with more sata ports

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9720457
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

If you didn't buy the network card already, you can find 4 x 1 gbps INTEL based network cards on eBay, possibly at cheaper prices, and sellers will ship to Cyprus.

 

Examples:

 

German seller : http://www.ebay.com/itm/STANDARD-PROFILE-Intel-PRO-1000-PT-Quad-Port-4x-1-Gbps-PCIe-x4-/

Canadian seller : http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Intel-EXPI9404PTL-Pro-1000-PT-Quad-Port-Server-Adapter-PCI-E-D76641-46Y3512-/182427748776?

 

Dual port gigabit cards are more common :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-82575EB-PCI-Ex1-Dual-Port-1Gbps-Gigabit-E1G42ET-EF-E1G44ET-Server-Adapter-/172172916234

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-82575EB-Dual-RJ45-Port-1Gbps-PCI-E-X1-Gigabit-Server-Adapter-ESXI-ROS-/182098664299

 

You won't get 2x or 4x the transfer speed automatically, you'll still get up to 1gbps (125MB/s) per connection.

 

Anyway, that motherboard isn't such a great choice.. did you already buy that as well?

Had you chosen one with a pci-e x4 slot, i would have suggested buying a 10gbps card with an optical port, then go buy a small cable and a used 8-16 gigabit switch with one or two of those optical 10gbps ports. You'd have up to 10gbps to the switch and then each device could have at least 1 gbps connection (or install a 2-4 port card in a computer and do port trucking aka group multiple ports into a set on the switch using its management)

Link to comment
https://linustechtips.com/topic/768273-low-power-nas-build/#findComment-9721070
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×