Where to take my "fileserver" from here?

[LiNxGT]

Current specs to start off:

Intel Core2Quad Q9550
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR (will confirm its not the EP45T later)
4GB Corsair DDR2-800
Radeon 4850 (I believe)
Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU (again, I'll confirm when I get home)

Disks:
random WD Blue for Win7(maybe 740GB?)
random 500GB drive
2 x 1TB Samsung HD103SJ in RAID 1
2 x 2TB Samsung HD204 in RAID 1
(not installed) 2 x 1TB WD Green

This machine runs 24/7 and serves as my fileserver across my network. My 1TB array houses my music and SLR photos, while the 2TB array stores HD content (movies, tv shows, anime, etc). I'm finding myself deleting content to make room even if its "unviewed" content that I try to justify by "I'd likely not get to it" which I'd prefer not to do just yet. Software that I have running would be uTorrent, Peer Block, and PS3 Media Server.

I'm currently in-process of finishing my basement, at which point I intend to make this a headless unit in my newly created "cabinet" under the stairs. I'll have another PC setup in the same general area but hooked up to the tv for gaming and HTPC duty. With that in mind, I won't be needing to run PS3 Media Server any more and wont be working from the box either, so I can go with something that is actually more dedicated to NAS duty.

I see that since the last time I researched this, FreeNAS now supports ZFS. I seem to recall last time I checked that ZFS can better handle using disks of different sizes for a storage pool.

Current thought process: Wipe out Win7HP 64bit and run FreeNAS. Purchase 4 WD Red 3TB drives to create a new, higher capacity array (RAIDz, RAID10, whatever), organize and transfer over content from current 1TB and 2TB arrays, then place them indo their own vdevs and add to the pool (I hope I'm getting my terminology correct). Does this sound like a good plan or am I heading toward disaster?

What about the rest of the hardware; is the Q9550 too power-hungry for a 24/7 NAS application? I seem to recall ZFS requires a good amount of RAM, would replacing the 4GB with 16GB (2 x (4GBx2) @ $159.99) be adequate, or is the pricepoint of that DDR2 too high to be worthwhile? I seem to remember most builds I reviewed a year or two ago were running Core i3's that appeared to consume a lot less power and run cooler than what my setup likely does. I'm also assuming I'd need some form of SATA controller card for all the hard drives as my current motherboard is maxed out (I believe) on SATA connections. Would I be able to just get a standard expansion controller card, or would it require a RAID Controller?

I'm really trying to keep up-front costs down beyond the WD Reds as I'm not sure how I'll sell any of this to my wife (We need it to store pics of our son! maybe?).

Ideas? Suggestions? Tell this n00b to GTFO?

 

[Liggywuh]

My knowledge of this stuff is limited, and I am roughly in the same boat...

The power consumption/ heat output of the server doesn't matter at all. As long as you have the money to pay the bills it is no problem.

However, when purchasing a NEW system, going low power consumption makes a lot of sense!

I would probably sink the money you would spend on DDR2 into a new system. They recommend at least 1GB RAM per 1TB disk space for Freenas system, afaik.

And as things go, the Reds seem to be good, just stagger the purchases, so you don't end up with sequencial or same batch drives, and they all die within minutes of each other somewhere down the line!

 

[sawk]

Red's are a good choice.

I have a co-worker who used FreeNAS for a while and regrets it.

I myself have a LSI/3Ware 2960-4i and keep my 3x3TB array in my main box since I have a Obsidian 800D case to house it all.

I'll likely be upgrading to a newer -8i card in the future since I don't necessarily want to have to add a SAS Expander to get to 8 physical drives. I am thinking about the 9270/9271 series as an upgrade.

The one I have works great, Performance is excellent. Adding/manipulating Arrays couldn't be easier.

Like you mentioned you will need more SATA Ports to make this happen, you could get an HBA if your keen on sticking with a Software Raid. This would keep costs down.

These LSI/3Ware cards can be expensive that's for certain but in my opinion a good investment and a better solution than using Software Raid. This opinion is based off of personal experience and listening to others who have had nightmare issues.

Your base system seems fine and should allow you to run Windows Server 2012 and if you also run Windows 8.0 you can take advantage of SMB 3.0 which yields amazing transfer speeds.

Going the Hardware Raid route, you don't need to worry about adding more ram to your system to just get the Array off the ground.

Before anything else, I sure hope you have a backup! No Raid Array is a backup! Either Off-Site like using Crash-plan or on separate disks.

 

[sawk]

Oh, you'll want to keep an eye on your Power Supply, adding more devices, you should consider upgrading that.

 

[Cheetoz]

Well if you have the money, go all out. But I would take out the video card, disable two cores, drop the voltage on the CPU, and call it a day.

 

[The Lurker]

If you can live without SATA 3 you can get plenty of used raid cards on ebay for really good money.