Build Your Own FreeNAS Mini or FreeNAS Mini XL V2: Comprehensive Parts List (Outdated as of July 2019)

iXsystems sells 2 pre-built FreeNAS systems called FreeNAS Mini and FreeNAS Mini XL.

I ran across a FreeNAS Mini XL recently, and took note of all of the parts in it. I couldn’t find another place online that listed them all, so this is now that place.

I see this as potentially useful for several reasons.

  1. You want to learn to build a system to run FreeNAS but you don’t want to risk buying incompatible or badly supported hardware. Building a FreeNAS Mini clone would be a risk-free way to learn.

  2. You want to use iXsystems’ build as a starting point for your own custom FreeNAS system.

  3. You already own a FreeNAS Mini and you want to know what’s in it without taking yours apart.

  4. Price comparison.

  5. Curiosity.

Also, it just took me a while to piece it all together, so generally, if I can save someone else that time, then that’s a good thing.


Chassis

Mini: Ablecom CS-M50

Mini XL: Ablecom CS-T80

Power Supply

FSP Technology FSP250-50LC

Motherboard + Processor

ASRock C2750D4I

SATA DOM*

Apacer APSDM016GA3AN-AT

Memory*

Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CK0

Hard Drives

Western Digital Red Drives

L2ARC/ZIL SSDs**

Micron M600 MTFDDAK128MBF

10GbE SFP+ Adapter

Chelsio T520-SO-CR

Misc.

  • Supermicro sells the Ablecom CS-M50 bundled with the FSP power supply (721TQ-250B).

  • The Chelsio SM10G-SR is the officially supported transceiver module for the SFP+ adapter.

  • According to iXsystems, there are temperature issues with drives over 6TB, and that is why they do not offer configurations with 8TB+ drives.

  • According to iXsystems, the FreeNAS Mini and Mini XL can be upgraded to 64GB of RAM, but due to the limited supply of 16GB UDIMMs, they do not offer that configuration. Here is some memory that should work fine. I’m having issues with a 64GB kit in FreeNAS 11. There was no issue with it in 9.10.


* It’s very likely that these model numbers change according to availability.
** Yes, iXsystems sells SSDs branded as L2ARC and ZIL, but really, they are both the same SSD.

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A Better-Late-Then-Never Update

TLDR

Don’t get an ASRock C2750D4l or anything with an Intel Atom C2000 series chip in it. Something like a Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F is a great alternative.

Hope this is helpful, especially for anyone in these two categories:


The Problem

Even though this is already widely known, I thought I should post here to warn anyone not familiar with the issues around the ASRock C2750D4l and the Intel Atom C2000 series processors. I was vaguely aware that there were some issues, but now I am in the process of RMAing the board which is why I am posting this.

Here’s what is wrong with the ASRock C2750D4l.

  1. In earlier firmware versions, the BMC wears itself out. The solution is simply to update it. If you have this board, be sure the BMC firmware version is at least 00.30.00. You can download the firmware here.

  2. Both this board, and the Atom C2000 processors are flawed and will eventually have clock issues (the details of which are beyond my understanding), which will cause system instability followed by complete failure.


Redemption

There are 2 redeeming factors here. First, all C2750D4l boards made after early 2017 Feb should be fine. The flaws are either fixed or worked around. Second, iXsystems extended the warranty for the board in affected FreeNAS Mini XL’s from 1 year to 3, so if you experiencing any mysterious hardware warnings or instability in your FreeNAS Mini, contact iXsystems and start an RMA.


Further reading:

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Does anyone know what hardware components are in the four recently released FreeNAS Mini systems?

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I haven’t seen a teardown yet, but the increases in hard drive capacity, memory and native 10GbE are all welcome improvements.

If you do find a teardown, feel free to drop it here.