I have added ๐จ๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ - ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ to the ๐ฆ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐น๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ธ๐๐ผ๐ฝ/๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ article to cover setup with ECC RAM support.
I own two of the motherboards mentioned (the second ASRock Rack one - actually, the variant with a C2750 CPU) and have suffered 100% failure rate. More, actually depending how you want to factor in the one that was DOA. FWIW, Intel had a defect in their C2000 series CPUs and my boards were manufactured during this time, but I donโt actually know what the failure cause was.
ASRock has also failed to keep the Java-based IPKVM client up to date and signed in a way where Java is able to run it. I forget the specifics but for some time it was completely unusable due to applet signing issues.
What wifi USB dongle is that? Also, what chipset does it use?
I currently use an Intel NUC for my desktop and almost nothing except Ubuntu carries drivers for the wifi in the installation media. Iโd also like to GNU Guix which doesnโt include Intel wireless drivers at all.
Iโve considered building a small ITX NAS. My roommate paid like $700+ for a fancy one plus disks. Iโve found a couple of ITX cases with 4 trays/bays, but the difficulty is finding reasonably priced motherboards with 5 SATA ports (one for the boot disk and 4 for the caged drives) โฆ although I could just buy a SATA3 PCI-E card and go with a cheaper board.
Iโd seriously consider this HP Microserver Gen10. Iโm running one (bought for more $ at CDW a month back). Iโm not sure why this is so cheap, so read the fine print. Mine was diskless and I added another 8GB HP RAM and ended up around $625, shipped.
4 full-sized cold-swap disk slots plus space for either an optical drive or a laptop drive, 5 SATA ports, ECC RAM, two GigE ports, many USB ports, โฆ
It has two problems, both of which are pretty easy to work around.
It doesnโt get along with those little SanDisk USB Flash Drives (I tried several models, sighโฆ). Itโs quite happy with the analogous drive from Samsung and works with various full sized SanDisk sticks I have (but the full sized one stick out and are an accident waiting to happen).
Thereโs a problem that keeps it from booting from the current FreeBSD and FreeNas media. The fix described here, I used option 1 is to stop grub as itโs booting from the installer image, add a tunable in the boot menu, then continue. Once you have FreeNAS installed you make the change permanent through the Web UI. If youโre running FreeBSD youโd just make it in the loader.conf.
Iโm not sure how it does on the performance front. I have a 16GB Gen8 server right next to it on a GS105ev2 switch, both configured with 4 not-cutting-edge SATA drives in a RAIDZ config. When I replicated a large filesystems I was seeing sustained network traffic of 300Mbps between them.
Itโs not silent, but I have to listen carefully hear it.
I have also considered HP/HPE MicroServer in the past, I even got very similar own made setup with the same Intel G1610T CPU inside, but that was also with active cooling, both for the CPU and PSU as this CPU has TDP of 35W.
I like that GEN8 has IPMI but it does not have any โmodernโ graphics output such as HDMI or DisplayPort, so its for NAS mostly, one can put AMD Radeon 5450 PCIe x1 there which is well supported under FreeBSD to get the needed display.
As I checked the dual-core version of GEN10 it has same performance as G1610T GEN8 (which is ok) and uses only 12-15W but the GEN10 lacks IPMI with dedicated LAN port (which is very pity in that hardware class) but also offers now TWO DisplayPort ports and this is very nice addition, also has two PCIe ports which also broads optional features.
I did not find the information about the PSU format in the HP/HPE MicroServer boxes, is it SFX type? Can You confirm or check what is the PSU type in the GEN8/GEN10 machines? Thanks in advance if that is not a problem.
I donโt miss the IPMI, for my โhome useโ needs it was a waste of resources on the Gen8. Thereโs something incongruous about the desktop cube form factor and remote management, but your mileage may vary.
The powersupply is not SFX type, but the motherboard connector appears to be standard. The PSU is a โDelta Model DPS-200200PB-209 Aโ. I canโt find any exact matches searching for it, but that did lead me to this site
, https://post.smzdm.com/p/595585/, (which I canโt readโฆ) that has a good series of pictures showing the internals, including the power connector.
One other point, the Gen10 does not use disk carriers, you simply screw some posts into the drive and it slots right into the chassis. I spent an embarrassingly long time looking for the posts and was convinced that they were missing from my shipment until an online postโs stray comment made me realize that theyโre shipped screwed into a series of holes in the chassis, right above the slots. Theyโre clearly visible in the images I link to in my comment below. Itโs a great place for them to live, once youโre aware of it. Theyโre proprietary and there arenโt any spares though, which might become a problem some day.
I would install the system on a USB stick as talked in the article, or even on two USB sticks as ZFS mirror.
But if You insist on using a SATA drive for the system, then I would get ASRock J4105 ITX motherboard which comes with 4 SATA ports and is priced new at about $100 and would get SYBA SY-PEX40039 SATA III Controller PCI-e 2.0 x1 Card with 2 additional SATA ports for about $22 for the total 6 SATA ports.
That means that You would be either to have two disks for the system (mirror) or a SPARE drive for the 4 drives pool.
There are also cheaper ($60-80) Mini-ITX boards that have 3 SATA ports, with that 2 SATA ports controller that would also fit your goal.
I have added ๐จ๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ - ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ to the ๐ฆ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐น๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ธ๐๐ผ๐ฝ/๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ article to cover setup with ECC RAM support.
I own two of the motherboards mentioned (the second ASRock Rack one - actually, the variant with a C2750 CPU) and have suffered 100% failure rate. More, actually depending how you want to factor in the one that was DOA. FWIW, Intel had a defect in their C2000 series CPUs and my boards were manufactured during this time, but I donโt actually know what the failure cause was.
ASRock has also failed to keep the Java-based IPKVM client up to date and signed in a way where Java is able to run it. I forget the specifics but for some time it was completely unusable due to applet signing issues.
What wifi USB dongle is that? Also, what chipset does it use?
I currently use an Intel NUC for my desktop and almost nothing except Ubuntu carries drivers for the wifi in the installation media. Iโd also like to GNU Guix which doesnโt include Intel wireless drivers at all.
He mentions the chipset lower in the article. Itโs a RTL8188CUS.
Yep, as jturner said, sorry if it wasnโt obvious.
Iโve considered building a small ITX NAS. My roommate paid like $700+ for a fancy one plus disks. Iโve found a couple of ITX cases with 4 trays/bays, but the difficulty is finding reasonably priced motherboards with 5 SATA ports (one for the boot disk and 4 for the caged drives) โฆ although I could just buy a SATA3 PCI-E card and go with a cheaper board.
Iโd seriously consider this HP Microserver Gen10. Iโm running one (bought for more $ at CDW a month back). Iโm not sure why this is so cheap, so read the fine print. Mine was diskless and I added another 8GB HP RAM and ended up around $625, shipped.
4 full-sized cold-swap disk slots plus space for either an optical drive or a laptop drive, 5 SATA ports, ECC RAM, two GigE ports, many USB ports, โฆ
It has two problems, both of which are pretty easy to work around.
It doesnโt get along with those little SanDisk USB Flash Drives (I tried several models, sighโฆ). Itโs quite happy with the analogous drive from Samsung and works with various full sized SanDisk sticks I have (but the full sized one stick out and are an accident waiting to happen).
Thereโs a problem that keeps it from booting from the current FreeBSD and FreeNas media. The fix described here, I used option 1 is to stop grub as itโs booting from the installer image, add a tunable in the boot menu, then continue. Once you have FreeNAS installed you make the change permanent through the Web UI. If youโre running FreeBSD youโd just make it in the
loader.conf.Iโm not sure how it does on the performance front. I have a 16GB Gen8 server right next to it on a GS105ev2 switch, both configured with 4 not-cutting-edge SATA drives in a RAIDZ config. When I replicated a large filesystems I was seeing sustained network traffic of 300Mbps between them.
Itโs not silent, but I have to listen carefully hear it.
Thanks for informative comment.
I have also considered HP/HPE MicroServer in the past, I even got very similar own made setup with the same Intel G1610T CPU inside, but that was also with active cooling, both for the CPU and PSU as this CPU has TDP of 35W.
I like that GEN8 has IPMI but it does not have any โmodernโ graphics output such as HDMI or DisplayPort, so its for NAS mostly, one can put AMD Radeon 5450 PCIe x1 there which is well supported under FreeBSD to get the needed display.
As I checked the dual-core version of GEN10 it has same performance as G1610T GEN8 (which is ok) and uses only 12-15W but the GEN10 lacks IPMI with dedicated LAN port (which is very pity in that hardware class) but also offers now TWO DisplayPort ports and this is very nice addition, also has two PCIe ports which also broads optional features.
I did not find the information about the PSU format in the HP/HPE MicroServer boxes, is it SFX type? Can You confirm or check what is the PSU type in the GEN8/GEN10 machines? Thanks in advance if that is not a problem.
I also see that people sometimes change their PSU in MicroServer to Pico PSU like here for example: http://www.thespicers.net/microserver
I donโt miss the IPMI, for my โhome useโ needs it was a waste of resources on the Gen8. Thereโs something incongruous about the desktop cube form factor and remote management, but your mileage may vary.
The powersupply is not SFX type, but the motherboard connector appears to be standard. The PSU is a โDelta Model DPS-200200PB-209 Aโ. I canโt find any exact matches searching for it, but that did lead me to this site , https://post.smzdm.com/p/595585/, (which I canโt readโฆ) that has a good series of pictures showing the internals, including the power connector.
Thank you for the provided information and the link.
One other point, the Gen10 does not use disk carriers, you simply screw some posts into the drive and it slots right into the chassis. I spent an embarrassingly long time looking for the posts and was convinced that they were missing from my shipment until an online postโs stray comment made me realize that theyโre shipped screwed into a series of holes in the chassis, right above the slots. Theyโre clearly visible in the images I link to in my comment below. Itโs a great place for them to live, once youโre aware of it. Theyโre proprietary and there arenโt any spares though, which might become a problem some day.
I would install the system on a USB stick as talked in the article, or even on two USB sticks as ZFS mirror.
But if You insist on using a SATA drive for the system, then I would get ASRock J4105 ITX motherboard which comes with 4 SATA ports and is priced new at about $100 and would get SYBA SY-PEX40039 SATA III Controller PCI-e 2.0 x1 Card with 2 additional SATA ports for about $22 for the total 6 SATA ports.
That means that You would be either to have two disks for the system (mirror) or a SPARE drive for the 4 drives pool.
There are also cheaper ($60-80) Mini-ITX boards that have 3 SATA ports, with that 2 SATA ports controller that would also fit your goal.
Here is up-to-date list with tested controllers for FreeBSD: http://blog.zorinaq.com/from-32-to-2-ports-ideal-satasas-controllers-for-zfs-linux-md-ra/