FreeNAS hardware help

[Hoppa]

Hey guys!

I need your help on choosing some hardware for my NAS.

This will be my first NAS 

 

The Idea

I'm aiming to have a NAS as a central storage device so that I can watch movies from my phone, computer, and possibly an Intel NUC (TV).

My main goal is to have an Intel NUC (running XBMC) connected to my TV so that I can easily scroll though my movies and other media files without using windows or without a keyboard and mouse (phone as remote).

 

The Purpose

The NAS will be basically a storage unit for all my media files. It will hold games, photos, movies, documentaries, tv shows, and maybe music.

I will most likely be accessing the movies/ TV shows the most.

 

The Storage

16TB using 4x 4TB WD Red Drives.

 

I will most likely be using RAID 10 for this for these reasons:

1. I've read that after a drive failure, the rebuilding time for RAID 10 is a lot faster than a complex RAID array such as RAID 6 (about 1hr to rebuild vs 20hrs to rebuild)

2. The combined speed of 2 Red Drives and the redundancy that it has to offer tickles my fancy.

 

The Hardware

                             Option #1                                                                          Option #2

CPU          Pentium G3220 3.2Ghz                                                   Pentium G3220 3.2Ghz

MOBO      Gigabyte S1150 MicroATX GA-H87M-D3H                      Supermicro X10SLM-F-O

RAM         8GB (2x 4GB or 1x 8GB) G.Skill                                      Kingston 8GB (2x 4GB or 1x8GB) ECC Registered memory

PSU         SeaSonic 350W OEM V3 80Plus Gold                             SeaSonic 350W OEM V3 80Plus Gold

 

TOTAL                $332 AUD                                                                            $583 AUD

 

 

 

Case       BitFenix Phenom M White MicroATX (most likely)

 

Paranoia

Now, my main concern is spending extra money on unnecessary things, but with my paranoia I'm afraid of what might happen if I get a desktop grade Motherboard and RAM over a server grade Motherboard and RAM.

I've read that having a memory error within RAM can cause my whole RAID array to become corrupt, and thus losing all my stuff.

Although with standard memory, it is still rare for it to happen.

 

I do like the Supermicro board as it has an external USB port on it which I will use for the FreeNAS OS.

 

So what should I go with?

Will there be a point in getting the ECC memory capabilities?

I'm happy to completely change around the configurations if there is something more suitable.

 

Cheers in advance!

[Qpm5]

ECC memory would be good to be safe and make sure your data does not die. I think number 2 is better but both would work good. My free nas runs of a pentium 4 with 2gb of ddr2 ecc ram (was 8 but they all died). It has been runing for a month or 2 now without being turned of and has had no problems. It has all my music so i can stream that to my desktop and laptop. It also can stream 1080p video decently for what it is.

[alpenwasser]

I agree with @Qpm5, an ECC-capable system would not be a bad idea. When ZFS does integrity

checks on your data and a bit in your memory gets corrupted, it is indeed possible that

ZFS will take that data to be correct and "fix" the data on your HDD, thereby corrupting

it.

Whether or not you loose all your data is something people can't seem to agree on, most

seem to think that you'd only loose the file which gets corrupted, but since nobody has

actually tried this one can't be sure. It is for this exact reason that I'm currently

putting together a new server with a Supermicro board, Xeons and ECC memory.

However, I am not sure if the Pentium will support that ECC capability, have you checked

that? As far as I'm aware, only Xeon CPUs actually support ECC, if you use ECC memory with

a normal CPU, it will run, but you won't be able to utilize its ECC features. If the Pentium

does support ECC then great, but last I checked it was a Xeon-only feature. So just make

sure to verify that before buying things, or change the CPU to a Xeon.

Alternatively, you might be able to pick up some goodies on eBay. I recently bought my

server components (M/B, CPUs, RAM) there. LGA1366 Xeons can be had for pretty cheap these

days (I bought my L5630s for 60 USD per piece), so if you find a suitable motherboard (there

are quite a few Supermicro, Tyan and Intel motherboards available at the moment, maybe

something that suits you is in there) you could get a pretty decent system for a very

reasonable cost. I mention LGA1366 Xeons because those are so far the cheapest at the

moment (well, last I checked, anyway ).

[Hoppa]

I am not sure if the Pentium will support that ECC capability, have you checkedthat?

Yeah I just checked that the other day and it does support it which is sweet.

I've never had a problem with standard CPUs at stock clocks so ill probably stay with the Pentium. If I was doing something much more intensive, then I'd go for the xeon.

Anyways, cheers to you guys for the input.

[alpenwasser]

Yeah I just checked that the other day and it does support it which is sweet.

I've never had a problem with standard CPUs at stock clocks so ill probably stay with the Pentium. If I was doing something much more intensive, then I'd go for the xeon.

Anyways, cheers to you guys for the input.

Ah, that is indeed pretty sweet.

In that case yeah, I vote for setup #2.

[KylSp]

<3 IPMI