Update:
So here's where I am currently:
$50 for X8SIL-F, Xeon X3440, 16Gb ECC DDR3 RAM
$65 for PSU (EVGA 500BQ Semi-Modular)
$27 for Silicon Power 256Gb SSD
$25 for Arctic Freezer 33 CPU cooler (unnecessary, but I like to go overkill on it)
$8 for some right-angle SATA cables
$55 for Corsair Carbide Series 100R case
Currently planning to migrate/add data drives once I feel confident with the OS and dealing with configs, snapshots, mirrors, replacing a disc, resilvering, IPMI, etc.
Will initially add 2x 8TB WD Ultrastar Enterprise drives in Mirror & 2x 4TB WD Red drives in Mirror (I already have some, just pairing them up).
I cleaned up a bit and got some new cables (right angle SATA heads for easier organization), the CPU cooler showed up and the SSD boot disc showed up. I ended up with an Arctic Freezer 33 cooler ($25) and a Silicon Power SSD 256Gb ($27).
Here's the board naked with just the CPU (XEON X3440) after clean up:
The XEON itself:
The cooler is pretty big, but it fits. I had to install it sideways to clear the RAM since the memory slots are not in a typical location compared to a standard desktop/gaming motherboard, at least that I'm familiar with. This RAM is on the top of the board. I setup the fan to blow through the heat sink and then over the RAM and the top of the cast has open grills there, so it goes out from there.
Here's board placement in the case:
Just playing around and learning more about FreeNAS, sharing, users, permission, SMB, etc. Also playing around with resources to see how things operate under load, etc.
When idling my CPU temp is around 25C now with the new cooler. Under load it gets to about 33C and stays there. The air is pretty cool feeling coming out of the case, rather than a hot breeze, which is nice (Florida tolerances, sigh). The cooler is better than stock, but I will admit, it's not needed. This is overkill for this purpose as this CPU will rarely see 100% load for any sustained period of time. But I like knowing it will be cooler at all states.
Just copying over the network a while to test the network itself, see how the software works, etc, I noticed ZFS cache pretty much filled up the entire RAM capacity immediately. I'm currently just writing to some random old HDD's while learning the software to avoid any wear & tear on the final drives that will go in. The CPU sits at 10% load when copying data it seems. Sustained speeds are just over 100MB/s for large files. For a lot of smaller files (I tested 200GB of FLAC files) it was closer to 90MB/s. Not too bad. Not great though. Will do the job for my needs for now. Currently not setting these drives as mirrors yet, just playing with drives, shares, etc, to see how the end result is on the client side machine, interface, and how the resources are handled on the FreeNAS box side.
My next project(s) are to find out how to access the shares on a cellphone/tablet (android & iphone) and perform backups of pictures/videos from our devices. I may have to set it up to work by syncing with a computer and then backup the files from the computer to the FreeNAS server. But if I can find a way to do it directly to FreeNAS server that would be great. Also, I want to learn more about permissions and group structures to have access that shows some folders for everyone and all folders only for the super user.
Very best,