Apple Mac Pro Quad Core 2.66GHz

[DerekOS]

Hi All,

This is my first post on the forum, but I've been hanging around here for quite a while now reading up as much as I can on all things NAS related. Basically, I have an Apple Mac Pro just sitting in the corner at the moment gathering dust and I'm wondering if it's possible to use this as the basis for a FreeNAS System. From what I can see, it seems to tick most of the boxes:

2 x 2.66GHz Dual Core Intel 5150 Xeon CPUs
Intel 5000x Northbridge Chipset
ICH10 Southbridge Chipset
Nvidia GeForce 7300GT Graphics Card (PCIe)
ECC RAM 667Mhz FB-DIMMs (32GB max)
4 x PCIe Slots (one double wide 16-lane)
6 x SATA 3Gbp/s (4 bays, 2 additional on the board for expansion)
2 x Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Intel 80003ES2LAN)
5 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x Firewire 400 ports
2 x Firewire 800 ports

I haven't even tried to test it out or anything yet, but Im just wondering if anyone has had any experience using one of these as a NAS or If you can see any potential problems with it?

I know I could build a better tailor made system as a NAS device, but like I said, this is just laying around gathering dust at the moment, so it would be good to give it a new lease of life!

Thanks,

Derek

 

[Yatti420]

Go for it let us know how it turns out.. I think it will chew a little extra power with a graphics card etc..

 

[cyberjock]

I'd say this:

Firewire hardware.. waste of electricity forever. :(
video card.. waste of electricity forever. :(
RAM.. if you have at least 8GB, you're doing okay. If not, better upgrade.

Otherwise, okay I guess. Not going to set any performance records, but it should be good enough.

 

[DerekOS]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Yatti: I like the enthusiasm! Yeah the gfx card will be pulled definitely! No need once setup!

cyberjock: I nearly underlined ECC incase you would read it Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to break any records with it, just seems like an expensive paper weight at the moment. It cost me nothing, it was going to be thrown out anyway from a site I worked on. I'm planning to max out the ram with 32gb eventually. I'm gonna start with 16gb and go from there, the FireWire chipset though won't be a power hog unless I use it, which I won't. It only supports a few crappy watts anyway with a device plugged in, which again I won't be using.
Like above, I'm gonna pull the GFX card anyway, no need once setup! And in the end, if it's not up to scratch, I'll sell it as a Mac workstation and build a dedicated NAS from the income. More of an experiment than anything else :-D
I'm a Mac Admin by profession, I'm ok with shell scripting and diving into the BSD workings of OS X, this raw BSD or nanoBSD stuff is new to me but I'm getting on ok so far anyway!
I'll let you know how it goes ;-)

 

[Yatti420]

Aslong as it boots I can see it working decently.. I'm not a mac person.. I'm assuming this is a desktop :).. Maybe if its older check the PSU out / capacitors everywhere.. Ram test before use etc.. The standard..

 

[Number1Onion]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Yatti: I like the enthusiasm! Yeah the gfx card will be pulled definitely! No need once setup!

cyberjock: I nearly underlined ECC incase you would read it :p Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to break any records with it, just seems like an expensive paper weight at the moment. It cost me nothing, it was going to be thrown out anyway from a site I worked on. I'm planning to max out the ram with 32gb eventually. I'm gonna start with 16gb and go from there, the FireWire chipset though won't be a power hog unless I use it, which I won't. It only supports a few crappy watts anyway with a device plugged in, which again I won't be using.
Like above, I'm gonna pull the GFX card anyway, no need once setup! And in the end, if it's not up to scratch, I'll sell it as a Mac workstation and build a dedicated NAS from the income. More of an experiment than anything else :-D
I'm a Mac Admin by profession, I'm ok with shell scripting and diving into the BSD workings of OS X, this raw BSD or nanoBSD stuff is new to me but I'm getting on ok so far anyway!
I'll let you know how it goes ;-)

Did you ever get this working as it only boots 32bit but can run 64bit OS's.