Any issues with build buying decisions?

[SimonAG]

I am trying to build a NAS with as little cost as possible while achieving 8 hot swap drive bays. I have not included a cache yet as still deciding on what to do with cache. Might replace my 512GB m.2 in my desktop or might buy new m.2 with pci-e adaptor or buy a new sata ssd drives.

 

I should add the purpose for the NAS is for storing media files and add some redundancy to my current setup and free up my desktop PC while streaming to other devices. I don't plan on running any vms or plex from the device. Only playing media files over the network to other streaming devices that will bitstream to the TV. 

 

Current setup: 

 

I don't have a NAS, I have a desktop PC and my old desktop PC, I use as PFsense.

In my desktop PC I have:

4x 4tb ST4000DM00

1x 3tb SST3000DM01

Full with data and no raid. 

 

My current Pfsense:

Gigabyte ga-ex38-ds4

Intel Core 2 duo 8200
2x2gb Corsair dominator ddr2 non-ecc (will try replace with 2x2gb ECC ram)

 

The plan is to create a NAS and a new pfsense in a short depth rack: 

 

Rack is £200 Tripp Lite SmartRack 9U Low-Profile Switch-Depth 

 

Pfsense

In-Win IW-RF100 £125 including 315w psu

"Borrowed" some 4gb ddr3l from work. 

ASRock J3455B-ITX with integrated CPU and pci-e expansion cable £110
HP NC364T Intel chipset 4 port gigabit pci-e £15 ebay
Noctua fans for psu and case £25

 

Total pfsense £275

 

NAS
Logic Case SC-43400-8HS from Servercase £170

Old Pfsense hardware listed above £0 

8 Port SilverStone ECS04 £130 + £20 sas cables

4x 6TB Seagate ST6000VN0033 £609
450W Corsair CX450M, Single Rail, 37.4A £50
Noctua Fans for Case £30

 

Total NAS cost £1009 with £609 of that on HDs

 

End result 18TB + 16TB = 34TB

Edited April 18, 2018 by Simontv

[MrLeek]

I'd keep an eye oh the CPU in the 'new' NAS - if the NAS is not going to do anything other that serve up the files (with all the work being done on the remote device) then it should work ok. But if the CPU has to do any serious work then it'll struggle. I take your point about not using Plex or VMs but it's something to keep in mind.

 

You could look to see what other CPU upgrade would fit into that Gigabyte to future-proof yourself. Example: about 18 months ago I switched out the achingly slow Sempron 140, replacing it with a Phemon II 1055T. The result was a marked performance improvement, I could scrap the HTPC that was falling apart and put everything into a docker for Plex or Emby to do the work. Big gain for about £60. I'm only doing a complete upgrade now because the nearly 9-year old PSU in my build looks like it's about to pack in.

 

Hope it goes well for you.

[Vr2Io]

Seperate the media storage to standalone was make sense. But I dont't think your plan was well.

 

I notice 2 target, (1) as little cost as possible , (2) Rack form

 

NAS

Logic Case SC-43400-8HS from Servercase £170

- 2 x 80mm for whole system may got high temp /noise issue.

 

Old Pfsense hardware listed above £0 

- Those hardware was quite old and outdate, I think it's condition won't good and may got unstable soon.

 

8 Port SilverStone ECS04 £130 + £20 sas cables

- Pls ensure those card can run in IT mode, it is LSI SAS2308 chip.

 

4x 6TB Seagate ST6000VN0033 £609

- Not suue reliable or not, but I would suggest go to Toahiba X300 (MD04 or MG04 series) or HGST NAS drive. All my 6TB was those disk and it work very well. ( In my country MG04 / HGST NAS / ST6000VN0033 almost same price )

450W Corsair CX450M, Single Rail, 37.4A £50

- CX450M not a good PSU not durable

Noctua Fans for Case £30

- No comment

 

 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Benson

[SimonAG]

Thanks for the replies

I will consider buying a new CPU, I see on eBay I could get Xeon 5460 with same socket for £25 from China. Don't really want to spend too much on this old ddr2 as will eventually upgrade it.

What PSU would you suggest, do you think 37A will be enough?

I could get the seasonic 550w focus gold 45A instead?

Might be a safer option.

I can't find any other short depth case with 8 hot swap drive bays. The heat is a concern, especially with 8 drives. I will keep a close eye on the temps.




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[Vr2Io]

I like seasonic, my one was a 5 yrs old Antec TPC 550w, it should made by seasonic.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Benson

[BetaQuasi]

You'll find a lot of Seasonic fans here, including myself.  Just do some searching on PSU's on this board.  The general feel is the PSU is one of the most important parts of a PC, especially one that is going to be on 24x7, so don't skimp on it.

 

My 24-bay server is running on a Seasonic X660 Gold, and it hasn't missed a beat in 6 years now.

[SimonAG]

Small update

Old motherboard does not seem to support the HBA, which was very disappointing. I contacted the HBA manufactures and they confirmed it works in ddr2. I contacted gigabyte and they said basically the bios is old and tough luck. I am thinking the bios can't handle it.

My options now are to spend £400 on a new motherboard CPU and ram. The question is whether I should buy a supermicro motherboard and ecc ram or whether I should update my existing desktop PC and use that motherboard with non ecc ram.

Maybe I will look for a second hand board but not sure.

I could use 4 sata ports on the old motherboard instead of the HBA but won't have room for another 4 disks as planned.



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[SimonAG]

This was not a build thread more a question, I might as well give a conclusion in the case that it might help someone at the same predicament. 

 

I ended up using my desktop motherboard (4670k ddr3) as my unraid with a 8x hotswap 4u rack case and buying a new ddr4 microatx motherboard for my desktop PC. This worked out well. I used the existing 4x4gb drives that I had in my desktop PC and moved those to the NAS after the new 4x6gb had been setup with 1 parity. Allowing me to transfer across existing data to the NAS. Adding each disk was no problem, I added the last two disks at the same time and precleared those without issue. 

 

I retired the DDR2 motherboard and the new HBA controller worked great when flash uefi mode in the ddr3 motherboard. 220mbyte per second on preclear task on multiple disks. 

 

I ended up buying a new motherboard for my pfsense because the cheap motherboard that I purchased was not sufficient and ended up buying the Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F. This works perfectly in the 1u rack case that I bought and I have had no problems with it. 

 

I managed to get the temperatures in the NAS for the drives down to 39-42 degrees, which I think is OK for 8 drives and only two 80mm extractor fans. In summer it does heat up quite a bit but I will have to deal with that when it occurs. 

 

Desktop PC

MSI B360M MORTAR Motherboard

16GB Cors VENG LPX DDR4-2666

Intel Core i5 8400

Arctic Freezer 11

AMD 290x

Fractal Design Define Mini C TG

Dell u2412m

 

Pfsense 

n-Win IW-RF100

Supermicro A2SDi-4C-HLN4F

4gb 2133mhz  Unbuffered 

 

Unraid

Logic Case SC-43400-8HS

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H

Intel 4670k 3.8ghz

8GB corsair unbuffered

8 Port SilverStone ECS04 

4x 6TB Seagate ST6000VN0033 

4x 4TB ST4000DM00

550W Seasonic Focus Gold PSU
2x 80mm Noctua Fans for Case

Edited November 16, 2018 by Simontv