Building a new FreeNAS Box

Hardware
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Hi All,

I currently have my main FreeNAS server running on a Dell R710 with two L5670s and 96GB of ram. 5x4TB HGST 7200RPM drives.

I am looking to save on my power bill, while maintaining at least the performance level I have now. For now I will migrate my current drives into my new system. Black Friday I am looking to get some 10TB drives.

What I have purchased: An empty Supermicro CSE-825 Chassis. 8 drive bays, 2 more than I have now. A step in the right direction. 3 Noctua 80mm fans to quiet it down.

What I am looking to purchase:

A CPU/motherboard/RAM.

I am strongly considering a Denverton CPU, but I have also considered using a Ryzen 1700 I already own and then buying an Asrock Rack server x470 motherboard.

ASRock Rack C3558D4U-2OP

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-rack-c3558d4u-2op-intel-atom-c3558-series-processor-4-core-16w/p/N82E16813140019?Description=ASRock%20Rack%20C3558D4U-2OP&cm_re=ASRock_Rack_C3558D4U-2OP--13-140-019--Product

This particular board looks very interesting. I was assuming I would have to add a 10Gig NIC and an LSI HBA to whatever build I do. With that one, I will only have to use the HBA (LSI 9211i I already have an extra one), as it has 10Gb nics already. It also has an m.2 that goes up to 110 so I can add some Optane goodness as an l2arc if I want in the future. I dont do alot of writes to the box, let alone sync writes, so I don’t strictly speaking need a dedicated ZIL device, but I do have room to add one if I wanted to.

I havent seen anyone use this particular board. Any thoughts on my build out?

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…

And there’s also a 10Gb version of the ASRock rack x470 MB

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> was assuming I would have to add a 10Gig NIC and an LSI HBA to whatever build I do. With that one, I will only have to use the HBA (LSI 9211i I already have an extra one), as it has 10Gb nics already

yes, I know, and for the price that is why I am considering it. But the X470 version has dedicated 10G copper nics, and while there is nothing wrong with that, it is an additional power load. On the Denverton its built into the SoC.

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IMO

Being able to upgrade the CPU in a year or so from the ryzen 1700 would be nice to have… But not possible with the embedded CPU MB.

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I do also have a dedicated box for VMs, so this is primarily just for storage. I don’t know if the CPU will matter much.

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If you end up growing the storage… it will.

How responsive is the system while it’s scrubbing?

Imagine you double the drives and/or double the size of the drives… Scrubs will take a while…

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hmm. That is interesting and hadn’t thought about that. In terms of Passmark the 1700 is about half an order of magnitude faster than the C3558. Thank you for giving me that perspective. The 1700 is also faster than my dual Xeons that I currently have, at half the power. hmm…

1 Like
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My Ryzen 3 1200 is scrubbing through SSDs like nothing. I only have 3.5TB of data right now but still.

If you go Ryzen, go with the Taichi X470 Ultimate, it is a damn solid board. It is also widely used, so support is pretty much guaranteed for a while. That server board is niche AF.

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I would probably go with the ASRock rack ,x470 board if I go that direction. Cause. Server.

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Why? is the IPMI a must?

There is a thread about that board on the forum and not everyone seems happy with it.

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