Friikazoid
Cadet
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2023
- Messages
- 5
Hello everyone!
I've been working on getting better educated on TrueNAS SCALE and suitable hardware and have finally arrived at a plan. Before I pull the trigger, I wanted to get some community feedback, critique and advice on that plan. If you read this post and see something glaring out that you that I may have missed, I'll really appreciate if you let me know!
Thank you!!
Purpose of build:
Proposed build:
Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X12SPA-TF-O Extended ATX Server Motherboard LGA 4189 Intel C621A
Option 1: Used Ice Lake Xeon Platinum 8352Y 32C/64T
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-US14 DX-4189
I am leaning towards the peace of mind of option 2 (also 350 bucks cheaper)
RAM: 128GB (2x64GB) DDR4-3200 ECC LRDIMM
M.2:
Boot SSD: Will find a decent 256GB SSD
SLOG: 2x Intel Optane 905P U.2 (with converter to M.2) mirrored for backup
+1 spare for later on (L2ARC)
Graphics Card: RTX3050 8GB
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL
Like I said - I'll appreciate any thoughts and again THANK YOU!!!
I've been working on getting better educated on TrueNAS SCALE and suitable hardware and have finally arrived at a plan. Before I pull the trigger, I wanted to get some community feedback, critique and advice on that plan. If you read this post and see something glaring out that you that I may have missed, I'll really appreciate if you let me know!
Thank you!!
Purpose of build:
- Starting out, the machine will serve as a Plex server and as a family file-server
- As I become more familiar with the software available / virtualization / etc. I will likely grow the use cases
- The goal of my build is to use hardware, which allows me to expand use cases as I learn, with simple hardware addons (add-in card, SAS controller, extra RAM, etc.)
Proposed build:
Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X12SPA-TF-O Extended ATX Server Motherboard LGA 4189 Intel C621A
- Ice Lake server socket (to let me use either Xeon Silver brand new, or some platinum CPUs used from eBay)
- 16 DDR4 RAM slots --> plenty of space to increase RAM over time as needs grow for ARC. DDR4 RAM as DDR5 is still super expensive and hard to get
- 4 M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 slots --> SSD for boot + 2 slots for Optane SLOG (mirrored) + 1 spare for future needs (L2ARC)
- 64L of PCIe - plenty for a dual slot GPU + networking card + SAS controllers (when they become necessary)
- 8 SATA3 slots for starting out with storage without immediate need for SAS controller
Option 1: Used Ice Lake Xeon Platinum 8352Y 32C/64T
- PRO:
- Super high core count for any future VM needs
- Latest available generation (Sapphire will be stupid expensive for a while)
- CON:
- Risk of used CPU (though I know Xeons are built to last)
- Lower frequency (2.2GHz base, 3.4GHz turbo, does have speed step with 24 and 16 cores active)
- PRO:
- Higher base frequency, lower power at max frequency
- New
- CON:
- Half-core count - lower potential for VMs, but 16C is still plenty
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-US14 DX-4189
I am leaning towards the peace of mind of option 2 (also 350 bucks cheaper)
RAM: 128GB (2x64GB) DDR4-3200 ECC LRDIMM
- Highest frequency RAM Ice Lake can handle. With16 slots, could go up to 1TB of RAM
- Was thinking about a single 128GB stick, but would rather have 2 sticks starting out in case one fails.
- If I start needing to grow faster, I'll swap to 128GB sticks
M.2:
Boot SSD: Will find a decent 256GB SSD
SLOG: 2x Intel Optane 905P U.2 (with converter to M.2) mirrored for backup
+1 spare for later on (L2ARC)
Graphics Card: RTX3050 8GB
- Initially used mainly for Plex hardware transcode. I know it's limited to 3 simultaneous transcodes (should be sufficient starting out)
- Will replace with a workstation graphics cards with unlimited transcodes when necessary (thinking an RTX A2000 12GB)
- All 6 drives in single vdev RaidZ2
- If I need to expand the zpool in the future, I'll always add a new vdev of 6 drives (18TB) in RaidZ2
- Flashed by theartofserver (seller) to IT mode
- Will provide all the connections needed that could fit into my case
Case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL
- Space for up to 18 3.5" HDDs (so should be good up to 3 vdevs of 6HDDs RaidZ2 each in pool)
- Supports E-ATX
- I was looking at used JBOD chassis (like the this used Supermicro) but it seems like i) it's too overkill at this point ii) only allows for half-size expansion cards (so makes GPUs / etc. more challenging to find) and iii) don't really have any space to put it at this time
- Eventually I could migrate to a JBOD chassis when my need grows for it
Like I said - I'll appreciate any thoughts and again THANK YOU!!!