build help - storage system

[the_b_man]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
ZFS running 6-8 hard drives. (16-24 TB range) Plex media server transcoding [one - two max] 1080p streams.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Flexible

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Canada

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Motherboard, RAM, CPU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Case, Antec CP-850 PSU

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
N/A

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Late March

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
ECC, 8+ SATA

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Open source OS

Please help me - I've done the reading and I've decided on getting ECC for this build. Not looking for trouble on that point. I assume that puts me into AMD territory. So, which motherboard, CPU and RAM should I get?
Thx

 

[Dangman]

What case will you be using?

Motherboard wise, look at the Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H (mATX) or the GA-F2A88X-D3H (ATX). Both have 8 SATA ports which should good enough for you to start with.

CPU wise, take a look at the AMD A8-6600K CPU.

RAM wise, stick to Kingston ECC DDR3 unbuffered (do not get registered) RAM.

 

[Cottonwood00]

Does the board Support ECC though. I was having trouble finding FM2/FM2+ boards that handle ECC memory

 

[the_b_man]

It might be in an Antec P183.
Otherwise, it'll be in literally any case with enough space for the drives. I'll probably use 4-in-3 cages where applicable, and internal 3.5 bays where not.

I'm actually building two nearly identical systems. One for myself, one for my brother. His will have 8x 4TB. Mine will have 6x 3TB. Both RAIDZ2.

Less concerned about cases, more concerned about getting enough SATA ports, getting ECC supported across the RAM, motherboard and CPU, and having enough horsepower for Plex to transcode video. Pretty standard NAS build, I think - I'm just lost when it comes to what hardware is out there.

 

[Cottonwood00]

I'm in the process of creating one myself and ECC is important to me as well. Now i've done some research (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1698299) seems like the boards might work but it doesn't mean ECC is actually working. Gigabyte hasn't officially stated that support ECC and from thread it seems that dont.

I've looked at this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091RA8U0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)
ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 AM3+ 990X and according to the site specs it explicitly says they support ECC the only thing is it has 6 internal Sata 3 6Gb connections and 2 external esata's or something. It is a bit cheaper though... I havent looked into other mobo since i'm only planning on a RAIDZ(3x2tb) but you may need to go server grade if you need more ports and want to be sure ECC support.

I'd go with the SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0, seems to have 8 sata 3 6Bb but on two different controller. But if you're doing software raid you might be cool.

CPU will depend on if you want to virtualize enviroments.... but my Phenom 2 x4 965 can handle 1 stream 1080p np and im sure can handle another one or two more(never tried). But i'd say min of 4 cores to be safe so Athlon 2 x4 640 and up and you'll be fine.

 

[the_b_man]

Found the Sabertooth on Newegg.ca for $185.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131877
Found the ASUS specs sheet
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_990FX_R20/#specifications

Looks like 6 SATA on AMD SB950, and 2 on ASMedia controller. Hopefully those controllers both work out of box on FreeNAS.

No virtualization, just FreeNAS on metal.

I've never done an AMD build so I'm a bit befuddled. I would send 1 million internets to whoever comes along with a build all ready to go and the damn thing works

 

[the_b_man]

I would also be willing to get an expansion card to exceed 6 ports, if necessary. Preliminary Googling shows it unlikely to get >6 ports visible to FreeNAS on consumer motherboards due to incompatibility with many of the controllers.

Want to avoid server boards and Xeons unless it can be done cheaply and still have the balls to transcode HD movies.

 

[Dangman]

Does the board Support ECC though. I was having trouble finding FM2/FM2+ boards that handle ECC memory

I thought all FM2 mobos supported ECC RAM?

Found the Sabertooth on Newegg.ca for $185.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131877

Way too much money for just two extra SATA ports and relatively outdated platform compared to AMD's newer APU setups. You're better off with the ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 + seperate controller. Yes it's going to cost more but it's significantly more cost-effective. Hit up the storage subforum for recommendations on 8 port storage controllers. Anything less than that tends to have really poor value.

But do note that you will need to buy a seperate video card since 990X does not have onboard video. Any cheap card like the HD 5450 will be fine.

 

[the_b_man]

Anyone else have thoughts on the M5A99X EVO R2.0?
What about extra SATA controller (FreeNAS compatible), RAM (ECC), CPU (ECC)?
Seems crazy to me but there's not a lot out there about builds like this. Would love help. Thanks [H]!

 

[Dangman]

What about extra SATA controller (FreeNAS compatible), RAM (ECC), CPU (ECC)?

RAM wise, like I said earlier, get Kingston ECC unbuffered RAM.

CPU wise, go for the AMD FX-8320

Controller wise, the IBM

Seems crazy to me but there's not a lot out there about builds like this. Would love help. Thanks [H]!

There is a lot of info out there about builds like that but unfortunately it's kinda buried deep in the forums. Search the Networking Subforum and the Data Storage subforums with the right keywords and you'll find tons of information. To start, search for the following:
- Kingston ECC
- AMD ECC

Also, look and search through the 10TB+ server gallery:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1393939

 

[the_b_man]

I've had a look through the gallery, a lot of the builds are way beyond the scope of a small NAS (ie. huge), and a lot are on other OSes such as Windows or Linux.

The IBM? A particular one?
The SATA controller card is the trickiest piece. FreeNAS does have an officially supported list here, but while perusing Newegg, I haven't noticed any that are on the list yet.
If there's an obvious choice that everyone grabs for a FreeNAS build, I'll go that way.

 

[Cottonwood00]

Just as an update, i ended up picking up a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 on amazon for $279 and added another 4gb of ECC Ram. I know you want more SATA but im sure you can pick up an additional card for it. Otherwise its a pretty reasonable solution for the price.

Are you opposed to running just plain FreeBSD? I was originally going to run this so if you are ill give you feed back when i do.

Found this as well so it seems it works. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1498394/anyone-switch-from-synology-to-freenas

 

[Dangman]

I've had a look through the gallery, a lot of the builds are way beyond the scope of a small NAS (ie. huge), and a lot are on other OSes such as Windows or Linux..

Search through the Data Storage subforum then for "FreeNAS"

The IBM? A particular one?.

Oops, thought I included that: the IBM M1015 is generally the go-to card over in the Data Storage subforum. Seriously, search for it there. Pops up in a lot of threads. It can be had from eBay for around $100 to $120. However you will need to flash the card first before you can use it for FreeNAS or FreeBSD:
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-m1015-part-1-started-lsi-92208i/
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-2-performance-lsi-92208i/
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-3-smart-passthrough-lsi-92208i/
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

If you're uncomfortable with Ebay and don't mind spending the extra cash, you'll want to get the LSA 9211-8i card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118112
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RL8I7M/?tag=extension-kb-20

The SATA controller card is the trickiest piece. FreeNAS does have an officially supported list here, but while perusing Newegg, I haven't noticed any that are on the list yet.

Well that list is somewhat outdated. In addition, a lot of those cards, even when that list was current, could only be obtained from eBay since they were pulled from Dell or HP servers.

If there's an obvious choice that everyone grabs for a FreeNAS build, I'll go that way

There really isn't an obvious choice since

 

[the_b_man]

Thanks for the links guys.

An Intel build, for posterity,
Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O http://www.amazon.com/SUPERMICRO-MB...e=UTF8&qid=1381058727&sr=8-1&keywords=x9scm-f
Xeon E3 http://www.amazon.com/Intel-E3-1230...UTF8&qid=1381058753&sr=8-1&keywords=e3-1230v2
Kingston 16GB http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-PC3-..._sim_pc_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=14N1DP6Y8YWG5E8ZG3RM

Pentium G2020/G2030 also works, but might not be sufficient for media transcoding purposes.

AMD build likely to be cheaper though.

Good catch on the Thinkserver, that's definitely one way to go.

Not sure if I'm up for ebay or flashing unless necessary. I'm a bit surprised there isn't an easy way to get more ports. I'm not willing to go stock BSD, due to end user ease of administration, a command line is not going to work for my brother. Not sure why people go stock actually - the web interface is slick and exposes most ZFS functions, and the shell is still accessible.

 

[Cottonwood00]

Well i mentioned the TS140 with freeBSD because FreeNAS9 doesn't have virtualbox plugins and lacks some other functinality I wanted but for just a straight NAS i think this will work fine with transcoding and ZFS.

I've also seen some places selling for $234 with some discounts.

 

[Cottonwood00]

So I've installed FreeNAS 9.2.1.2 x64 last night and it all works fine, i put it on an extra HDD. But i'll try the USB approach tonight

 

[the_b_man]

Gotcha. Yeah, I've no interest in virtualizing my NAS. If I want to run other servers, I have plenty of other boxes I can use. I want an appliance - And I'll be booting from USB