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General pre-build questions


th0th

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So I've basically ordered most of the parts for my nas build...

I'm getting the asrock c236 wsi mobo, xeon e3 1275, 32gb, and intel x550t1 nic.

 

1. I'm worried about heat. I want to go with 8 drives - are the 8TB WD reds really cooler at 5900rpm than the red pros at 7200? If so I'll take the performance hit, but would rather not. Any other drive suggestions? How are people dealing with heat? Any issues?

 

2. what is the most stable/optimal configuration... it seems like most people are running xpenology in a VM over sth. Is running on bare metal less stable (assuming your hardware matches the drivers)? If VM is the way to go, what are most people running it on top of? I've seen posts about people running it on top of freeNAS, unraid, regular linux, etc. What is most common? most stable? best performance? preferred VM? I'm mostly familiar with KVM so will go with that unless advised otherwise.

 

3. Any other advice, words of caution, etc.? I've been running a synology ds414 for years... I love the interface but I've always been irritated by the low spec hardware. Hopefully this is something I'll be able to use for years to come.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

th0th

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I've used real syno boxes for several years, plus xpe/dsm for 18 months or so, always bare metal.

 

1) - Heat could depend on several things, your case, fans, airflow etc. I've built a 12 bay system shoehorned into an atx case, 12*7200 rpm toshiba drives and they run around 29-32 degrees, Ive a couple of low speed fans providing airflow. Syno system health (via SNMP) runs around 30 degrees too.

 

2) I go with bare metal as it eliminates the overhead of a hypervisor, plus (Imho) the setup is easier, not having to worry about virtual disk configuration etc, plus upgrades are easier and you generally get smart hdd info too. However, lots of people use a hypervisor as it does make hardware compatability easier with some high kit.

Best thing I think is to have a play around with both and see how complex you want your setup.

 

3) Bear in mind that XPE is a hobby project and so could come to an end at some point, plus its unsupported except for the great community here, so not really a 'business production' system. However, my main NAS is an XPE/DSM bare metal box, but I backup data to another jukebox unit with old drives, as well as crashplan.

 

On the topic of HDDs, I've used lots of brands, Seagate, WD, Toshiba. Seagate seem to have dropped in quality over the years, I think WD Reds are 'overpriced' and I'm not sure the latest ones are really 'NAS spec' just the best of a production run with a label. My current favourites are the oem desktop toshiba 7200's, they have a two year warranty, but the biggest is 6tb.

 

hope that helps

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Interesting report

I've always been of the view that 'temperature cycling' (ie turning electronic kit on and off) is far worse than running at a temp, my experience in data centres with shutdowns and startups always seems to show up the kit that fails as the its 'cooled down' etc after a long period running

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really interested in how you progress here as I am doing something similar, but have bought a Gen 8 Microserver with x 4 2TB WD blue HDD's. (I am trying) to get Xpenology to work on the bare metal build.

Struggling I have to say, but that's probably me. I am considering either running FreeNas, or VMWare ( even Win 7) underneath, however that will use space and if I can crack the login issues I know it will be better bare metal.

Agreed WD are probably one of the best HDD brands currently.

You may find the below interesting regarding WD drives, basically Red and Black are overpriced for no or 2% performance increase respectfully.

Blue seems to be the best value for money.

https://metanophilia.wordpress.com/2015 ... ital-hdds/

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So I've basically ordered most of the parts for my nas build...

I'm getting the asrock c236 wsi mobo, xeon e3 1275, 32gb, and intel x550t1 nic.

 

1. I'm worried about heat. I want to go with 8 drives - are the 8TB WD reds really cooler at 5900rpm than the red pros at 7200? If so I'll take the performance hit, but would rather not. Any other drive suggestions? How are people dealing with heat? Any issues?

 

2. what is the most stable/optimal configuration... it seems like most people are running xpenology in a VM over sth. Is running on bare metal less stable (assuming your hardware matches the drivers)? If VM is the way to go, what are most people running it on top of? I've seen posts about people running it on top of freeNAS, unraid, regular linux, etc. What is most common? most stable? best performance? preferred VM? I'm mostly familiar with KVM so will go with that unless advised otherwise.

 

3. Any other advice, words of caution, etc.? I've been running a synology ds414 for years... I love the interface but I've always been irritated by the low spec hardware. Hopefully this is something I'll be able to use for years to come.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

th0th

 

hi, have you build with the C236 WSI yet? is it work with Xpenology?

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