Creating a NAS, would like some input :]

[scline]

Hello, for some time now I have wanted to upgrade my poor excuse of a NAS with something that can handle more drives and speed. Currently my build is:

CPU: ATOM D510
RAM: 4GB
Drives: 1x2TB and 2x500GB (RaidZ-1)
OS: FreeNAS

The max speed I get from that setup is about 600Mbps(limited by CPU), the purpose of the NAS is mainly databackups for the 500GB Raid and on the 2TB I copy Virtual Machines once a week from my ESX host and Movies. I dont really stream or anything at this time.

So to now, I just purchased http://www.ebay.com/itm/171197772341?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 from Ebay and the price of $350 is awesome (considering a 2U case I was looking at was the same price). I have several drives laying around I will put in this beast but had a few questions on feasibility of future upgrades. I will be using FreeNAS and ZFS raid setup.

RAM:
I already know for ZFS the more RAM the better, I plan on adding another 8GB asap to the setup

Raid Card:
This comes with 3xSAT2-MV8 cards, the iffy part is they are PCI-X cards (Not PCIe). There are 2 8x PCIe slots available in this motherboard s I can utilize faster hardware but is it necessary? I plan to be capped at 4x1Gbps NIC cards and would be shocked if I ever get above 2Gbps total bandwidth. What are the speeds I would expect using PCI-X cards and has anyone had any experiences with them.

CPU:
AMD Opteron Dual Core 2212 HE pack enough punch for 2Gbps NAS loads? Should I get something better or add another one?

SSD:
With the max bandwidth I believe I will hit for my environment being 2Gbps would an SSD drive have much use? I have a 120GB SSD laying around I can use but would it make a difference and how should it be utalized (i.e. 40GB log 40GB OS 40GB ZIL)?

Thanks dudes for reading, hope the questions I ask are not super noob :]

 

[af22]

This kinda feels like a down grade in my opinion. Your going from a low power atom d510 (vintage 2010) to an Opteron (vintage 2009). The Opteron is not very fast, maybe 2x more powerful then the atom, but maybe at 2-5x the power consumption for something that will be on 24/7. (not to mention how loud is this machine going to be?)

A simple haswell i3 will be able to smoke it, provide the ability for 32gb of memory support, as well as have built in intel nics from plenty of 8 series motherboards. Not to mention much better power consumption and nice and quite build.

 

[GameHard6]

Here is what I have for my FreeNAS build and I've researched it over and over. You will need about 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage space so keep that in mind. ZFS setups LOOOVE RAM so plan on more than you need. It's also recommended that you use ECC RAM if you value your data but if it's stuff that you don't mind losing should that happen then you can go with non-ECC RAM. I chose to go with ECC RAM. Below are all of the parts that I've got and would highly recommend.

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220
Motherboard: AsRock E3C226D2I
Memory: Kingston ECC Server 16GB
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
Power Supply: Seasonic SSR-360GP
Storage Drive(s): Western Digital Red 3TB Drives
Storage (for FreeNAS OS): Kingston 16GB Micro USB 2.0

This is the cheapest, smallest, and most reliable setup I've been able to put together and must say that it is awesome!

 

[brutalizer]

You will need about 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage space so keep that in mind.

This misconception is very very hard to kill. Each time I see it, I correct it, but still it continues to live.

Let me correct you: You need 1GB RAM for every TB disk only if you use deduplication. ZFS deduplication is very RAM intensive, but if you are not using dedup, then 1GB RAM is ok. Myself ran a ZFS server for a year with 1GB RAM with no problems.

The reason ZFS loves RAM, is because ZFS has a very clever disk cache. And if you have lot of RAM, then the disk cache will give very high speeds. If you are not using the disk cache (you are short on RAM), then ZFS will degrade to disk speed - which is fine too.

Ergo: lot of RAM -> RAM cache will give high speeds. Short of RAM -> you will get disk speeds, which might be fine too.

 

[Jalseng]

Here is what I have for my FreeNAS build and I've researched it over and over. You will need about 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage space so keep that in mind. ZFS setups LOOOVE RAM so plan on more than you need. It's also recommended that you use ECC RAM if you value your data but if it's stuff that you don't mind losing should that happen then you can go with non-ECC RAM. I chose to go with ECC RAM. Below are all of the parts that I've got and would highly recommend.

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220
Motherboard: AsRock E3C226D2I
Memory: Kingston ECC Server 16GB
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
Power Supply: Seasonic SSR-360GP
Storage Drive(s): Western Digital Red 3TB Drives
Storage (for FreeNAS OS): Kingston 16GB Micro USB 2.0

This is the cheapest, smallest, and most reliable setup I've been able to put together and must say that it is awesome!

You have it boot off the USB drive? how is that compared to a CF card?

 

[Moogoos]

Personally I'd get this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157475

Might be a little steep but it's pretty awesome and it supports 64GB ECC RAM and 12 Sata drives under a new ATOM architecture that is impressively fast. It includes an Octacore CPU so the price point may not be that far off.

I have 2 of these waiting to build and add to my lab - AsRock E3C226D2I, for VMs, not a NAS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157466

229 on Newegg right now.

 

[techbob]

Here is what I have for my FreeNAS build and I've researched it over and over. You will need about 1GB RAM for every 1TB of storage space so keep that in mind. ZFS setups LOOOVE RAM so plan on more than you need. It's also recommended that you use ECC RAM if you value your data but if it's stuff that you don't mind losing should that happen then you can go with non-ECC RAM. I chose to go with ECC RAM. Below are all of the parts that I've got and would highly recommend.

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220
Motherboard: AsRock E3C226D2I
Memory: Kingston ECC Server 16GB
Case: Fractal Design Node 304
Power Supply: Seasonic SSR-360GP
Storage Drive(s): Western Digital Red 3TB Drives
Storage (for FreeNAS OS): Kingston 16GB Micro USB 2.0

This is the cheapest, smallest, and most reliable setup I've been able to put together and must say that it is awesome!

Does that motherboard exploit ecc memory?
http://forums.freenas.org/threads/questions-xeon-haswell-mini-itx-and-ecc.16448/

The CPU appears to support ecc memory: http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?ECCMemory=true&MarketSegment=DT