Mini ITX - Fractal Node 304 - Intel Build - Please Evaluate

[harryhobbes]

Folks,

 

My 10-year-old unraid server just died. I'll be using the 6 old hard drives in my new system with no intention to increase drive count. This is right on for budget ($AUD).

 

Please let me know what you think of my new build below. Have I made any mistakes? Are there any improvements to make ie better components?

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/WcrQzY

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($77.00 @ Centre Com) 
Motherboard: ASRock - H270M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($139.00 @ Shopping Express) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($139.00 @ Umart) 
Case: Fractal Design - Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($131.00 @ Skycomp Technology) 
Power Supply: Silverstone - Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Total: $595.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-02-15 19:21 AEDT+1100

[S80_UK]

Nice case!  I bought a white one for my daughter's file server.  Great if you don't need too many drives.

 

Personally I would go with Crucial or Kingston for the memory.  They are rather more specialised companies than Corsair, and they don't push the specs on the chips to try to gain a bit more performance.  The range of timings and voltages on Corsairs LPX range of DDR4 modules would make me very nervous.  

( http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/memory/vengeance-lpx-series )

[Jorgen]

I love my node 304 and would pick similar components to you if I had to upgrade today.

For PSU I’d consider the Corsair SF450 450W SFX instead. https://www.pccasegear.com/products/35146/corsair-sf450-450w-sfx-80-plus-gold-power-supply

0 RPM mode makes it silent under low load, and it comes with flat cables. The silver stone PSU has fat, braided cables. And trust me, cable management is not fun in this case!
I don’t have personal experience with either of these PSUs, so do your own research.

Speaking of cable management, because of the way drives are mounted, the power and sata connectors end up in alternating directions between disks. Ideally you want two sata power cables with at least three connectors each, or you’ll have problems connecting all six disks without twisting and contorting the cables.
Not sure if the Corsair or silver stone comes with that.

[harryhobbes]

Oh man, great advice. I'll review the ram and the PSU. Will look into a couple of high quality 3 connector SATA power cables.

[S80_UK]

I wouldn't worry about three connctors specifically.  Firstly, it depends of course on what the power supply cables provide. Second, a spare connection or two costs next to nothing and is always useful at some point.  Also, I think there's just about enough space in that case to squeeze in another one or two drives in the future if you don't mind just a little metalwork, and adding an SSD or two would be trivial.

[Hoopster]

8 hours ago, harryhobbes said:

Oh man, great advice. I'll review the ram and the PSU. Will look into a couple of high quality 3 connector SATA power cables.

 

My backup server is in the Node 304 case.  I second the suggestion of the Corsair SF450 SFX PSU over the Silverstone ST45SF-G.  Both, however, are very good SFX PSUs.

 

I have one of each as you can see by my two server specs in my sig.  Of the two, I like the Corsair a little better, even though I have the Silverstone in my Node 304.  Be advised that the modular cables on the Corsair SFX PSU are short.  All the SATA connectors will not reach the drives.

 

I used a Silverstone 4-pin-Molex to 4 SATA adapter cable to connect the drives in addition to the SATA cable included with the Silverstone SFX PSU in my Node 304.  As mentioned, you will have 3 SATA connectors on every other drive across the top and three more on every other drive across the bottom.

 

Here is a link to the cable I used:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HWQUJ0G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

It's a bit expensive, but, well made.

[harryhobbes]

Fantastic! I've just ordered 2, one for the top and one for the bottom. They are expensive, but I've had issues with cheap Molex to Sata power cables before and it's the last thing you want to deal with on a NAS build.