NAS Killer 4.1 4C/8T Chenbro N400 Build

Builds [LGA1155] NAS Killer 4.0
1

Hello all! I am considering this build but going well over budget due to the memory and the Chanebro kit going up in price recently but with a little patience, I think this will work out if parts are bought separately.

$300.00 Chenbro NR12000 1U 1x 8m QUAD CORE E3-1240 3.3GHz 32GB RAM NO HDD

  • 1U Chassis
  • E3-1240 3.3GHz
  • 32GB ECC Memory
Type Part (link) Price
Case Cooler Master N400 $59.99
Combo Motherboard/CPU/RAM $182 OBO
Motherboard Tyan S5512 (Combo 1) Included
CPU Intel Xeon E3-1240 (Combo 1) Included
RAM 32GB DDR3 ECC UDIMM (Combo 1) Included
SAS Controller LSI SAS2008 onboard (Combo 1) Included
CPU Cooler Gravity i2 $11.99
Power Supply Thermaltake TR2 500W $45.99
Sata Cable 6 Pack SATA Cable $7.99
Total ----- $307.16 OBO

OR

Type Part (link) Price
Case Cooler Master N400 $45.99
Motherboard S5512WGM2NR-B-CGN $45 OBO
CPU E3-1270v2 $69.99
RAM 32GB PC3L-12800E $94
SAS Controller LSI SAS2008 onboard (Option 2) Included
CPU Cooler Gravity i2 $11.99
Power Supply Thermaltake TR2 500W $45.99
Sata Cable 6 Pack SATA Cable $7.99
Total ----- $320.95

5% cashback on RAM & MB.

I bought the Cooler Master N400 in like new condition for $42.00 on Amazon.

Figuring eBay would take a while and it appears the Xeon CPU will arrive just before Christmas, I opted for the slow Amazon shipping with the $1 digital credit to sweeten the deal.

Not much of a price difference but building it myself I know I will have the fastest DDR-1600 ECC memory and I went with the ES-1270v2 mint chip. LOL :D

I am giving this VGA to HDMI Adapter a try because I rather have a little dongle vs a whole VGA monitor for setup or troubleshooting down the line.

Hard Drive Selection

I am still figuring out which hard Drives I want to use because I have a mix of drives but I would also like the enterprise features of FreeNAS.

WD - easystore 14TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black

easystore 8TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black

WD - My Book 8TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive - Black

Shuck some drives from Best Buy?

-OR- re-use the drives I already own, 3xTB drives plus buy some for extra redundancy in FreeNAS:

3TB Seagate 7200RPM SAS HDD
(renewed)		 $39.99 ($13.33/GB)
3TB HGST Ultrastar 7200RPM SATA
(renewed)		 $44.99 ($14.99/GB)
*HGST is enterprise grade
  • 5 Year Warranty but both options are renewed drives.

UPS

CyberPower 1350VA/810Watts Simulated Sine Wave UPS Battery Backup with Surge Protection

I am wondering if this would handle the system OK?

The plan is to store my Aerial & Landscape Photography on the spinning disks and possibly add a second array down the road for superfast SSD or NVME storage. :D

2

I’ve noticed the pricing on the 4.1 servers on eBay fluctuate. I bought one for $175 (made offer) earlier this year. I would either wait on that, or source all the components individually.

3

I am waiting on eBay BO on the motherboard which would help squeeze a little more value out of this build.

4

I think that is a good move. Plus, you won’t have to deal with the 1u server case that you probably don’t want.

FYI, some people have reported buying the barebones version of the 4.1 server on ebay, but discover it has CPU and RAM included when they open the box.

5

Oh wow! That would be so slick! :slight_smile:

6

It is, but I can make no guarantees that would happen for you as well :slight_smile:. I wish I would have known that when I bought mine, I might have taken the risk. Some people just receive a true barebones.

8

I’m shooting for an E3-1270v2 but if it came with the 1220 I’d probably be good for UnRaid. :slight_smile:

Im hoping I picked an OK power supply. I haven’t updated the parts list above today.

9

I can chime in on HD’s with my preferences … :slight_smile:

I prefer a 7200 rpm drive for parity, and currently have a WD Red Pro and a SG exos 10. Both appear solid and I wont have been the first to say so haha.

for data drives i have a mix of things but since i can no longer purchase Hitachi Deskstars :(, i have 8 of them, i am moving to WD Red Plus and 5400 rpm across the board. This is to lower power usage. On the SG side I am not sure about the ironwolf NAS. I’ll bet these are solid but i haven’t had one yet, and it’s been years since I’ve bought a seagate other than two of the exos’.

As my Deskstars fade I’ll be replacing them with some combo of RED Plus’s and Ironwolf NAS’s, or whatever is available in 2-4 years.

Just in case you arent aware, you will want to avoid having SMR drives in your array; CMR is the way to go.

Question - does everyone buying these Chenbro 1U’s rip them out into a new case? That case looks well designed, plumbed nicely for at least 12 HDD’s - why not use it other than the obvious noise problem? My rig will be in a place that i dont care about noise…

good luck, nice deal. I am considering it against my build posted in my first post :slight_smile: