Alright guys! So... I'm brand new here first off, been watching logan's videos since he was originally with the company we're probably not supposed to mention. *remembers young logan with the graphics card videos...*
Anyway, I'm in need of some help from the internet. I've been fasinated by the Fractal Node 304 case for awhile, and the idea of making it a server. I've got a few little cubicals in my computer room's wall that it fits perfectly into.
I'm really interested in playing around with FreeNas on this rig, but I have a lot of fear regarding compatibility, and required specs. This will be used to store lots of video files (4-5GB) each. I do a lot of video editing and rendering on my main rig, and this is where I'd like to store most of my extra footage while doing rendering directly on my SSDs. As well hosting my SC2, LoL, and other game files on. So I would like it to beable to move the data back and forth pretty quickly. My residence is setup with gigabit ethernet throughout, which will be hardwired to this unit as well as my main unit.
I've put together a few PCPartPicker layouts, but again I'm worried about compatibility regarding ethernet ports, and SATA ports. I plan on using 4-6 drives, either 2TB or 3TB each and using RAIDZ.
Rendition 1: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Dwvz
- Pretty basic build, using 16GB of RAM since ZFS is supposed to be a memory hog. But I'm unsure if the E350 will be enough power to handle all the tasks. Is the CPU powerful enough to handle using this as a main program stash, and what would be the bottle neck for transfer speeds from my SSDs to this rig? I might want to render directly onto this if possible... Would the CPU be able to hand ZFS RAID alright?
- One thing I left out of this build was a SATA card. This board only has 4 SATA ports, and I really am considering going to 6 so I wont have to redo my NAS just to expand it, do I have to go all out with a high end LSI card to have compatibility? Or would any of your recommend one with maybe 2-4 SATA ports that would work just the same. Since its RAIDZ I wouldn't have to worry about them being on the same controller right...?
- And obviously I left out a big one... Hard drives! I don't have a favorite brand, I've been using Samsung 830s in RAID0 in my main rig right now, I have a few Vertex 4's in use as well. A handful of 3TB Seagates and some WD's laying around. But I'm not sure what hard drives would be the best for this task. I've read Seagates are good, and that WD Red's work fantastic for servers... but again, at a bit of a loss. (Mainly doing so much research everything just starts blending together and its an overload of information for everyone elses usages.)
Rendition 2: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DwDV
- Very similar build, but with an i3 and a H77 motherboard. Would there be a big performance jump from the E350 to the i3 or would it just be a waste of money to put that in. This board does have 6 SATA ports, would this be better then trying to get a RAID card that would be compatible with FreeNas? And is there any concern with the NIC used in either of these boards and their compatibility with FreeNas?
- Same issue with the hard drives. Your suggestions will be very valuable to me!
So, sorry for the long first post, but really any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I've been scratching my head on this build for awhile and finally decided to ask for help. I do plan on doing a build video and testing a few different ideas. FreeNas RAIDZ and trying out Thin Provisioning as well. Love to learn, and what better way then to play with them!
Thanks again!
~ Andy