Dell PowerEdge R730XD to Power my "Tech Stack" // Virtualised FreeNAS etc... Thoughts?

Hardware
1

Hi all-

My local Dell supplier is working with me to setup my home “Rack” - getting them to advise and assist re. fire-suppression, cabling best practices etc.

They’ve recommended this for my FreeNAS needs- (not that they actually support it)
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/poweredge-r730xd

However, it does support Redhat Enterprise or XenServer. I would virtualise FreeNAS as long as I could get IOMMU working (unsure!). Will ask for a test unit to evaluate first…

Appreciate thoughts - thanks!

CC: @wendell

2

2.5" sas drives will not be cheap.

3

It takes SATA too though. Not going SAS drives.
I’ll go WD Red or Gold depending on total cost (and will source these from Amazon/B&H).

4

Pretty sure they dont make gold drives in 2.5" form factor…

and the 2.5" Reds dont do so well with a ton of vibrations from high speed fans.

5

8x SATA drives 3.5" mate - not doing 2.5". That said, I need more room to expand so I need to check with them.

This could work as a short term solution though.

Up to 16 x 3.5” + 2 x 2.5” HDD: SAS, SATA, Near-line SAS SSD: SAS, SATA

6

Sorry, this is the correct unit @nx2l

http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/poweredge-r730xd