# YADNT (Yet Another DIY NAS Thread)



## Jago (Jan 26, 2010)

I am looking to build myself a new DIY NAS to be used with ZFS under FreeBSD, I already do have an Atom-based NAS (the Tranquil BBS2) which I have been using for just over 6 months, but recently I ran headfirst into a major issue that is basically forcing me to rebuild the entire thing. I originally started using it with just 1 disk, attached to the motherboard SATA port, recently I finally went beyond using just 1 disk and realized that the the PCI bus is slow and that the PCI Sil3124 card providing 4 out of 5 sata ports in the BBS2 is worse. The motherboard doesn't have any PCI-E expansion slots, so basically I am stuck (since the motherboard only has 2 native SATA ports total).

I am seeing several potential paths I could be taking:

1) Supermicro X7SPA-H board (Intel Atom D510)
Supermicro boards are traditionally well-supported by FreeBSD in general and this particular board is actually the first Atom motherboard I can think of that has 6 native SATA ports, removing the need for any additional disk controller cards. Talking to people directly responcible for the ATA implementation in FreeBSD, I am seeing them consider Intel AHCI-capable disk controllers to basically be the best out there and this board comes with ICH9, which should be pretty good. A free PCI-E 4x (in a 16x physical slot) for possible expansion. Purely passive cooling is good, I like low noise. The downside is that this board is pretty expensive.

2) Intel D510MO board (Intel Atom D510)
The killer feature of this board is price. This board is roughly 3 times cheaper than the Supermicro X7SPA-H, but it carries a lot of question marks. How good is the Intel N10 chipset and how well is it supported in FreeBSD (or other non-Windows operating systems for that matter)?. It has 2 native SATA ports and 1 x PCI and 1 x PCI-E Mini slots for expansion. I have already burned badly on PCI disk controller cards, so what about this PCI-E Mini thing? Are there any good and fast SATA disk controller cards for it? I don't really care about on-card RAID, since I am using ZFS. I want raw speed and reliability at a sane price.

3) Intel E7xxx CPU + LGA775 board
A lot of people are pointing out that IO is often CPU-bound and that I would be silly to not at least consider the E7xxx C2D CPUs which have a low TDP, outperform the Atoms by completely ridiculous margins and can be kept very very quiet with a decent aftermarket cooler. I probably don't NEED a C2D CPU for my needs performance-wise, but overall I have to concur that I would be silly to ignore the option of going this route. What are considered the decent L775 motherboards these days? I've seen someone post some really outrageous performance results (for the money) using ZFS RAIDZ on top of an MSI P45 NEO-F motherboard using ICH10, but I looked around and this board seems to be out of stock in Finland basically everywhere. What are my other options?

4) AMD Athlon X2 + ??? board

I'll admit to being really out of the loop with regard to AMD's offerings, but I keep hearing that some of their X2 CPUs have a "performance per watt per dollar" ratio that is VERY hard to beat. Additionally, the AMD 7xx/8xx chipsets are supposedly very well supported in FreeBSD. But again, I really have no idea whatsoever what are the good motherboard choices when going this route? Pointers are welcome.


And now I get to make myself look (probably) very stupid with the following question: What happens when you try to mount a Mini-ITX board like the Supermicro X7SPA-H or the Intel D510MO inside a standard-sized case? I am guessing that the motherboards are basically simply shorter, so they can be screwed in place to any case they physically fit in, but what about the I/O shield? Judging from the images, the I/O shield of the Mini-ITX motherboards are physically a fair bit smaller than the shields on regular-sized motherboards, does this that it's physically impossible to use them in standard sized cases because their I/O shield opening is "too big"? And if this is the case, then I am really confused, because the Supermicro X7SPA-H comes with 6 SATA ports, but I am not aware of any single Mini-ITX case that could physically fit 6 disks, so WTF?


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## mix_room (Jan 26, 2010)

Jago said:
			
		

> And now I get to make myself look (probably) very stupid with the following question: What happens when you try to mount a Mini-ITX board like the Supermicro X7SPA-H or the Intel D510MO inside a standard-sized case?



I use a Mini-ITX board, an old VIA thing, inside a standard ATX case. No problems. There was a suitable IO-shield (standard ATX size) included with the Mini-ITX board. Screws fitted aswell. 
Should not be a problem.


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## Jago (Jan 28, 2010)

So I finally ordered the parts:

Case: Fractal Design Define R2
I already have experience with this case as it's what I ended up getting for my desktop upgrade about a month ago. This case costs a mere 89 euro and it's an absolute steal. It's beautiful, VERY quiet, cheap, has great cable management and 8 disk slots.

PSU: Corsair CX400W 
I do realize that 400W is an overkill and that I would've been just fine with a 200W PSU, but hear me out: the 350W-650W PSU range seems to be reasonable priced, but as soon as you go below 300W or above 650W, the prices take an enormous jump. Most 200W PSU's I was able to find cost over 110euro and *NONE* of them were ready to support 6 SATA devices. This PSU costs a mere 50euro, has exactly 6 SATA plugs, is made by Seasonic and is rated 80+ for 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% load.

Motherboard/CPU: Supermicro X7SPA-H with the new Atom D510 CPU.

Memory: Corsair 2x2GB, DDR2 800MHz SO-DIMM, CL5


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## rjickity (Jan 29, 2010)

where did you purchase all your gear from ?

I'm chasing a good place for that supermicro board that ships internationally (im in aus)


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## vermaden (Jan 29, 2010)

Jago said:
			
		

> 3) Intel E7xxx CPU + LGA775 board
> A lot of people are pointing out that IO is often CPU-bound and that I would be silly to not at least consider the E7xxx C2D CPUs which have a low TDP, outperform the Atoms by completely ridiculous margins and can be kept very very quiet with a decent aftermarket cooler. I probably don't NEED a C2D CPU for my needs performance-wise, but overall I have to concur that I would be silly to ignore the option of going this route. What are considered the decent L775 motherboards these days? I've seen someone post some really outrageous performance results (for the money) using ZFS RAIDZ on top of an MSI P45 NEO-F motherboard using ICH10, but I looked around and this board seems to be out of stock in Finland basically everywhere. What are my other options?



To get lowest power consumption CPU for 775 socket, get E2210 (same die as E5200 and only 1MB Cache, which means even less power) or E5200, they take even less power then E7200.

Also Celeron dual core E3200/E3300/E3400 should be very power efficient (also 45nm).

For the motherboard, Q35/Q33 takes least power of all 3-series chipsets, you can also greb Q43/Q45 from the 4-series chipsets.

Intel 3-series power consumption list:








			
				Jago said:
			
		

> 4) AMD Athlon X2 + ??? board
> 
> I'll admit to being really out of the loop with regard to AMD's offerings, but I keep hearing that some of their X2 CPUs have a "performance per watt per dollar" ratio that is VERY hard to beat. Additionally, the AMD 7xx/8xx chipsets are supposedly very well supported in FreeBSD. But again, I really have no idea whatsoever what are the good motherboard choices when going this route? Pointers are welcome.



For AMD get energy efficient CPU variant, like these:
2650e (15W TDP) [single core]
3250e (22W TDP)
3800+ EE (35W TDP) [ADD3800IAA5CU/ADD3800IAT5CU]
BE-2300/BE-2350/BE-2400 (45W)
4050e/4450e/4850e/5050e (45W TDP)
4450B/4850B (45W TDP)​
About motherboards for AMD, 780G/785G/690G/770G consume low power.


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## Jago (Jan 29, 2010)

rjickity said:
			
		

> where did you purchase all your gear from ?
> 
> I'm chasing a good place for that supermicro board that ships internationally (im in aus)


Case, PSU, RAM and some sata cables from Jimm's PC Store (http://www.jimmspc-store.fi/), which is one of my favourite finnish resellers. The Supermicro board I ordered from Eco-Finder (http://www.eco-finder.com/shop/prod...=2605&osCsid=3f18566e322a1cf528b9cb21f7af7585) that is a Swedish reseller that ships to most Nordic countries.

Afraid that's not going to help you much.


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## Rudy (Oct 23, 2010)

We get our SuperMicro gear at MaLabs ... probably ProVantage has those boards.  Being in the US, I have no idea about international shipping.


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