BUILD Core 2 Duo ability?

[Jonesy3000]

Hi everyone,
I'm just in the process of putting together my first FreeNAS build and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions regarding my hardware choice. The main part which I am unsure about is the cpu choice.
The system is only going to be used for document sharing (no media streaming, plugins, etc.) and will only have a small storage capacity. It will also have a maximum of around 5 users with only two using it simultaneously at the most.
The hardware I currently have is the following:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
RAM: 4gb (max allowed for motherboard)
Storage: 2x Seagate 250GB in RAID 1 (only need a small amount of space as it will mainly consist of word documents, spreadsheets, etc.)

Please keep in mind this is for only light home use.
Thanks! :)

 

[DifferentStrokes]

8 GB of RAM is the minimum requirements for FreeNAS, and thats not even touching on the whole ECC vs Non-ECC RAM debate. Hardware RAID is also not recommended.

 

[Jonesy3000]

I've read that there have been quite a lot of people running 4gb no worries? Also FreeNAS actually only states 2gb minimum, with 8gb recommended, which is more aimed at much larger systems I assume? Either way it's more the CPU which I am concerned about.

 

[marbus90]

1. Core2 Duo is old and runs on FSB -> ZFS will be very slow
2. it doesn't support ECC
3. it uses a lot of energy
4. FreeNAS 9.3 minimum requirements are 8GB, the more the merrier.

Conclusion: get a Lenovo TS140 or Dell T20 and drop in another 8GB ECC DIMM for 12GB total. The TS140 solution would cost around $300 and provides bays and ports for 5 HDDs.

 

[Jonesy3000]

Oh ok, thanks for your help.
Would it be plausible to run FreeNAS 8.3 so that the 4GB is supported?
The main reason I want to stick with this is because I want the build to cost as little as possible.
Thanks again!

 

[anodos]

Oh ok, thanks for your help.
Would it be plausible to run FreeNAS 8.3 so that the 4GB is supported?
The main reason I want to stick with this is because I want the build to cost as little as possible.
Thanks again!

Don't run EOL software. If you need to use this hardware, find another NAS OS. Otherwise budget a few hundred dollars to do things the right way.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Read this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

also for best user experience you shouldn't use that hardware. You will not have fun and probably lose your data.

 

[marbus90]

FreeNAS was completely rewritten by ixsystems at version 8. Any version older than that shares its codebase with the nas4free project, which forked FreeNAS <8. Any questions regarding the old versions are best redirected to the #nas4free channel. Apart from the lack of jails/plugins and availability of enterprise support by ixsystems it will probably run better on older and/or non-ECC systems since it doesn't rely on ZFS only.

If you want to stay with FreeNAS: http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/20...design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices.html

 

[jgreco]

Oh ok, thanks for your help.
Would it be plausible to run FreeNAS 8.3 so that the 4GB is supported?
The main reason I want to stick with this is because I want the build to cost as little as possible.
Thanks again!

I raised the minimum required to from 6GB to 8GB well before FreeNAS 8.3.