[nooryani84]

Originally posted the thread on the FreeNAS forums, although I thought I'd ask you guys for your input since this will mainly be used for XBMC.

Original thread: http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php...eed-advice

I'm still looking into what to use for the build, though this is the current spec.

My first FreeNAS

Chassis: Fractal Design Node 304
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1225v2 3,2GHz If anyone has any input here, it would be much appreciated. Overpowered/underpowered?
PSU: HX Series HX650 Power Supply — 650 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Modular PSU
Motherboard: Intel S1200KPR
Memory: 8 or 16 GB of ECC ram, probably Kingston
HDD: 4 x WD30EFRX (3TB red disks) - might go with the 2TB. Initially I think it will be 2 drives, then i'll add another 2-4 later.
OS HD: SANDISK CRUZER BLADE USB 2.0 8GB I've always favored Sandisk for USB or SD memory

IBM ServeRAID M1015 crossflashed seems to be the right way to go.

So any suggestions on what I should change in this build?

[thethirdnut]

I just built a FreeBSD 9.1 ZFS box this winter.

See details on it in my signature.

[nooryani84]

Nice! Your box dwarfs the mini FreeNAS I plan to build!

[thethirdnut]

Thanks - parts sound quite similar though. Hope it helps.

The IBM M1015's seem to be a little harder to come by nowadays. I'd scoop them up if you could soon.

Got mine via ebay - $150 per is a good price.

Also:

e1220 likely all you'll need. ZFS loves RAM so go for 16 GB.

[PANiCnz]

Can't really fault that build for FreeNAS.

Only thing worth considering is future upgrade ability? aka how will you add additional drives in future?

[nooryani84]

Can't really fault that build for FreeNAS.

Only thing worth considering is future upgrade ability? aka how will you add additional drives in future?

I may end up just starting with 3x 3TB disks. The max for this case is 6x 3.5". So I could do 3 disks for the first vdev and add 3 more later.

After talking to the folks at FreeNAS they recommended against going with SSD for the OS disk since FreeNAS only uses about 4 GB, so all I need is a USB stick to boot from.

[CaptainPsycho]

In my Opinion the xeon is overkill for NAS only.

My build with dual core pentium 2,1GHz and 9 drives in raid6 never uses one core to 100% when the ethernet port is already maxed out.

Take the money for RAM instead. More is better.

[nooryani84]

In my Opinion the xeon is overkill for NAS only.

My build with dual core pentium 2,1GHz and 9 drives in raid6 never uses one core to 100% when the ethernet port is already maxed out.

Take the money for RAM instead. More is better.

Yea, problem is getting ram that's ECC-compatible with other CPUs. SABNZBD is CPU-intensive

[nickr]

@nooryani84 - did you get the fractal design case in the end? I am thinking of getting the same one. Is it quiet? And cool?

[sapper6fd]

The Xeon is overkill. I've got a NAS box with dual Xeon E5440's and it barely breaks a sweat. I could pull one of them out and the box would still use less than 30% of the processor. A Core2Duo is more than enough if your just using it for media and a storage box on the local network. Save yourself the cash and ditch the Xeon (or at least go with an older one, no need to dish out that much cash for a new processor that will be way under utilized). The other down side to using the Xeon is you will need ECC memory (which you have noted) and its not cheap.

My recommendation, drop down to a cheaper i3. They use less power than the older processors and will meet your needs with room for growth in the future.

[thethirdnut]

@sapper6fd - I'd disagree on going the non-ECC route.

Long-story, short: BAD RAM Dec 2011 = failed RAID rebuild June 2012. This is for a mdadm-based RAID-5 before my current ZFS build.

ZFS helps, but it's still be susceptible to bad RAM too during a scrub, etc. Might as well take the extra step and go for ECC RAM as well to greatly reduce your corruption probability...