Avoton pfftt... schmavoton

[anodos]

Why isn't there a version of the FreeNAS mini that has a real CPU? Wouldn't most home users benefit from something more in line with entry-level servers from OEMs (pentium, i3 offerings)?

 

[Jailer]

I'm telling you one of the cheaper Supermicro offerings with a Kaby Lake Pentium G4560 would make for a killer Mini. If I were putting something together that's what I would be looking at.

 

[anodos]

I'm telling you one of the cheaper Supermicro offerings with a Kaby Lake Pentium G4560 would make for a killer Mini. If I were putting something together that's what I would be looking at.

That's rather what I'm getting at. Most people who build their own NAS don't use avoton. Most OEMs that make entry-level servers don't use avoton. A smallish server with a G4560 and 8 drive bays sounds much nicer than the FreeNAS minixl.

 

[Ericloewe]

Mostly due to the lack of good miniITX options. ASRock's C2x50D4I boards also "benefit" from the Marvell SATA controllers, which allow iX to sell an 8-bay Mini that can take two more SSDs and a SATA DOM.

That said, C2750 is surprisingly competent even today. When the mythical C3000 chips finally arrive, I expect a refreshed FreeNAS Mini, since the BoM on the motherboard can be substantially cut (more SATA without the Marvells and associated PCIe switch - the latter of which is easily 10 bucks in its own right).

 

[Jailer]

I would think the cost of Avaton alone would have them looking at other options.

 

[anodos]

That said, C2750 is surprisingly competent even today.

That said, I routinely peg the non-atom CPU on my samba servers. :) I think single-threaded performance is important for most home / small business owners.

 

[Ericloewe]

But Avoton does some 4-5Gb/s over SMB already, supposedly. Definitely not 10GbE territory, but plenty for most. Having a dedicated core for SMB tends to offset some clock/IPC disadvantages by avoiding the need to switch between threads as often, which is an expensive operation (save register state, clear register state, clear TLBs, load other guy's register state, other guy has the penalty of an empty TLB, ...).

I would think the cost of Avaton alone would have them looking at other options.

They probably get a better price than would be expected purely from the retail cost evolution. Avoton used to be much cheaper.