BUILD 4 CPU Server for FreeNas, Plex, Sonarr & more

[Jokoast]

Hi everyone,

I'm kinda new to server hardware and freenas.
I used FreeNas booted on a flash support in an old computer with 4 disks and 2 GB RAM (one of the 2 RAM burned so i stopeed) but now i want to have a dedicated computer with enough power to transcode, download, sort and store my files and maybe more.

I saw a refurbished first-hand server with this config :

Model Proliant DL580 G5
Format Rack 4U
Processor Xeon Six Core E7450 2.40 Ghz 12 Mb cache
Memory installed 64 Gigas
Disks installed 2 x 146 Gigas
Disks form factor 2.5
Disks Interface SAS
Maximum disks drive 8
Raid Controller yes

Is it powerfull enough to allow me to run 2 VMs :

1. FreeNas with Transmission, Sonarr and Plex (2 clients max at the same time)
2. A linux based distribution to run some scripts (Python developer), maybe host a website (Python-Api + Angular) and this is my main question : Can he encode h264 like a stream box ? He got 24 cores, ffmpeg can only use something like 17 threads max so maybe i could use it as MediaCenter (1 client max if i stream) and StreamBox ?

It's not hardware related but does it seem possible to install FreeNas and get Transmission/Plex/Sonarr docker working with and able to store on FreeNas Stripped/Mirrored pool ?

Thx in advance,

Apologies about my non fluent english,

Regards,

Jérémy.

I've looked for the year consumption and it is near 1,000$ a year so i won't go for that ... If you have some tips, i'm open minded !

 

[danb35]

In its day, ten years ago, that machine was some pretty heavy iron--the CPUs alone were nearly $10k. Today, though, there are a lot of strikes against it as a FreeNAS box:

• The CPUs use a front-side bus for communication with the RAM, which ZFS does a lot. This will really limit your performance.
• Older tech is much less energy-efficient than newer tech, all other things being equal. Those four CPUs together have a passmark of ~9400, and burn up to 360 watts. A current Xeon E3-1245v5 scores higher (10340) and burns less power (80W) than one of those chips.
• That machine uses 2.5" disks, which are generally slower and more expensive than 3.5" disks--though if you were wanting to run an all-SSD build this wouldn't be a factor.
• It's unknown whether the RAID controller is compatible with FreeNAS; typically you don't want a hardware RAID controller in the mix at all.