Source
r/freenas•
boxsterguy

Suggestions on small, quiet FreeNAS hardware?

Due to some necessary house rearranging, I'm thinking of shrinking my current NAS build into something smaller and quieter. This is what I've put together so far (not reusing anything from the current build; will transfer data over and then decommission the current hardware):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

TypeItemPrice
MemoryCrucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory$108.99 @ Amazon
StorageWestern Digital Red 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive$244.99 @ Amazon
StorageWestern Digital Red 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive$244.99 @ Amazon
StorageWestern Digital Red 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive$244.99 @ Amazon
StorageWestern Digital Red 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive$244.99 @ Amazon
CaseSilverstone DS380B Mini ITX Tower Case$149.99 @ Amazon
Power SupplySilverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply$49.99 @ Amazon
OtherASRock C2550D4I$260.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total$1548.93
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-06 00:54 EST-0500

Drives will be in mirrored pairs in a single pool. I do not intend to run anything CPU intensive like Plex, so I think I'm happy with the quad-core Avoton. The best info I could find about Denverton was that boards wouldn't start shipping until 2nd half of 2016 and I really don't care to wait that long.

On paper, the DS380B case sounds perfect. 8 hot-swap bays, relatively roomy interior for a miniITX build, and decent cooling. However after reading reviews a couple of things concern me:

  • The fans that ship with the case are 3-pin and thus can't be controlled. That's an easy enough fix, but they also max out at 120mm. I'd prefer to put in 140mm or larger fans for better cooling at lower speeds and thus lower noise. I can live with 120mm fans if they're quiet enough, I suppose.
  • The backplane is apparently very fragile, with exposed caps. Also reports of it not working with power supplies that can't supply 14V (I wanted to use the Silverstone 450W 80+ Gold PSU because it's fully modular, but apparently that PSU is incompatible with the backplane).
  • Concerns about uneven cooling of the HDD bays.
  • The front USB connector doesn't work with the C2550d4i. This is a deal breaker, because I'll be using the two rear USB connectors on the mobo for mirrored boot drives and I need a way to attach a USB keyboard if I have to access the console.

Are there other preferred cases that are relatively small, cool, especially quiet, and 6+ external hot swap bays? If I didn't care about hot swap bays, I'd buy a Fractal Design case and be done with it but I'd really like to have easy access to the drive bays. The Lian Li PC-Q25 has 5 hot swap bays (requires opening the case, though), which is one short of my desired 6. The PC-Q26 has 10 hot swappable bays, but only comes with a backplane for the first two. They say that more backplanes can be added, I assume in pairs (5 backplanes total), but I can't figure out where to buy them.

Ideas?

Posted Mar 6, 2016, 6:23 AM UTC

211
beholder95•

I use an older HP Microserver, here is a link to the newer version: https://www.google.com/shopping/product/3952210665547990512?rlz=1MDAPLACen-USUS384US485&ctzn=America/New_York&q=hp+microserver&apps=ma,yt&biw=375&hl=en&channel=iss&pbx=1&client=mobilesearchapp&v=12.0.68608&tch=6&noj=1&ion=0&wf=pp1&rcid=8095&ie=UTF-8&bih=647&prds=paur:ClkAsKraXz5dz-W_Ig0svTm9nagBl7bBB1WE6K96LCSIBfRe_B8pUjqfiAzoR-zW5kuXvoxaZgv18QC1KCohfI_U5A-vGQSLlbyI6HEcZicbV_jlrgNGVmaoxhIZAFPVH70mGyRsu1Suhi9TaHtezguXpKneNw&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg85nBxKzLAhWMj44KHZoCC0sQ8wIIjgEwCA

For 350 you get a machine that only needs drives and Ram. And it's super quiet . I have mine sitting in my home office and it's practically silent.

2
positive_rate•

How are your drive temps? I tried putting WD2003FYYS drives in a Dell T20 and the drives got in the 50° range. Had to return it. I'd like as close to an all-in-one solution as possible, but now I'm getting hesitant to try anything else.

2
beholder95•

I've never actually checked the temps but have yet to get a smart alert. Since now I'm curious I just went in there and took a peek, currently running at a steady 17 C (it's at idle) with the max reported to be 54C. Hope this helps!

1
boxsterguyOP•

I did some digging on the Lian Li stuff, found the backplanes, and found that they're not really hot swap compatible. So there's no reason to go that route.

1
jlchauncey•

Check out freenas mini. Built by the freenas guys. Awesome setup I love mine

1
boxsterguyOP•

I just wish they had an 8-bay model. IIRC, they use the ASRock Rack C2750d4i (the octo-core version of the board I'm considering) and thus have 12 total SATA ports to work from (yes, half are on a Marvell chipset, but that seems to be working fine for others). But they only sell a 4-bay non-rack device.

1
TUBBB•

I was after a similar case a while ago to replace my Fractal Design XL R2 and found that, short of spending a considerable chunk of change, there was nothing consumer oriented that I could find.

I ended up just sticking with my XL R2 and putting up with having to open both side panels to access the drives. I plan on replacing it with a rackmount case at some point down the line.

Just after I made the decision to put up with the XL R2, I was able to snag a couple of Icy Dock DataCage Classic MB453SPF-B's for a very decent price. They're very well built and well worth the price I paid for them but I'm guessing at some point you'll stumble across them or something similar so let this act as a warning. I have yet to be able to confirm that they support hot swap and they don't fit in either of my Fractal cases. They're slightly too wide and the slots in the side for the guide rails in the case don't align correctly.

1
boxsterguyOP•

I have yet to be able to confirm that they support hot swap and they don't fit in either of my Fractal cases.

From here, there's one line buried deep in the description that says:

Fits three 2.5"/3.5” SATA I / II / III (SATA 6Gbps) HDD/SSDs in just two 5.25” device bay & supports SATA Hot-Swap function.

(emphasis added by me)

I'll have to do some investigation on that option.

2
TUBBB•

Thank you... I must admit that it's a little embarrassing to see that. I don't quite know how I've missed it considering the number of times I've looked at that page.

If you have any questions about the MB453SPF-B, just let me know and I'll be happy to help answering them. You should know that the stock fans are on the loud side. You can run the docks without the fan but I've never had need to try it.

1
audio_pile•

USB3 / USB2 adapters for headers are a few bucks.

Not that it is better in your case but I went with the similarly priced SuperMicro A1SAM matx c2550 board + HBA on a similar build. Needed a case for 8 drives and the mobo specs made for better future re-use when I upgrade my NAS down the line.

1
boxsterguyOP•

Which case did you go with? The DS380?

1
twest21•

I have the 4 core avoton and I run plex along with 3 other plugins. No problem at all. I use the silverstone case and it is perfect IMO. Also at first I had that silverstone 450w gold PSU due to lack of research and it did not work. The system would not boot up with all the drives spinning up. No big deal to me, just replaced it with the 300w unit although it is only bronze. I have one boot USB in the case off of a header, another in the rear along with a keyboard so you shouldn't have an issue with that.

1
OlafTheBeard•

I'm running a freenas system in the DS380 Silverstone case and the 450w modular psu. It's working fine and don't give me and hiccups. The only problem i have is that i don't have enough sata ports on my gigabyte motherboard. So I'm running a add in sata card to get all 8 bays used. Two of the included system fans have connections on the sata/sas backplane in the case and from the bay temp the fans is speed controlled in some degree. The rear fan is just plugged to a fan header on the mobo. I wouldn't say that the system is quiet, but low noise enough to sit under my desk. 😀

1