FAQ - What hardware should I Buy-Get-Use, or is recommended?

[ProtoSD]

Here's the latest hardware requirements for 9.x

http://www.freenas.org/hardware-requirements/

-Jeremy

NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS FOR FREENAS 8.0.* AND IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED UP-TO-DATE. HOWEVER, THERE'S STILL LOTS OF GOOD TIDBITS HERE. -jgreco

First, if you plan to use ZFS, the official recommended minimum RAM is 6GB. You can get by with 4GB, but any less and it may not be stable. If you don't plan to use ZFS, 2GB is the absolute minimum, but some people have used less, again it may cause your system to have unpredictable stability.

The 'Official' FreeBSD hardware list is HERE, however to reduce FreeNAS's footprint, not all drivers are included in FreeNAS. The FreeNAS Hardware Requirements are here: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Hardware_Requirements

A forum thread was started to get people that had FreeNAS 8.x running and to list their hardware as a reference for people to see what is working that may not be in the official list here. Also here is a Build Guide that @dgoodlad wrote up that offers a some good info.

If I can get more people to contribute to that thread, I'll try and consolidate a list here and break it up into categories. Scroll down or click link.

• Motherboards
• Disk controllers
• Network controllers

 

[ProtoSD]

Motherboards

• ASRock G41M-LE
• Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
• Asus E35M1-I Deluxe
• Asus F1A75 and Llano A4 3300
• Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
• Asus M4A78LT-M (Supports more RAM)
• Asus M4A78LT-M LE
• Asus M4A88TD-V EVO
• Asus M5A88-M
• Asus P5G41T-M
• Asus P5PL2-E
• Asus PL5-MX
• Biostar TA880GB+
• Biostar H61 MLC
• Dell PowerEdge 2850
• Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H
• Gigabyte GA-D525TUD
• Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4h
• Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H
• HP Data Vault X310
• HP N36L Proliant Microserver
• HP N40L Proliant Microserver
• Intel DH67BL B3
• Intel C2Q 9400
• MSI E350IA-E45
• Supermicro X7SPA-H-O D510
• Supermicro X7SPA-H-D525-O
• Supermicro X8SIL-F
• Supermicro X9SRH-7TF
• Zotac NM10-DTX
• Zotac 880GITX-A-E

 

[ProtoSD]

Network Cards

• Intel Gigabit CT PCIe Adapter
• HP NC380T

Chipsets

• Realtek 8111E Gigabit

 

[ProtoSD]

Disk / RAID Controllers

If you plan to use ZFS, do not enable/use hardware RAID, let ZFS handle that otherwise if your controller dies you may not be able to recover your data. If you choose a PCI controller (not recommended), keep in mind that the PCI bus has a maximum throughput of 133MB/s, shared between all devices and will result in a performance drop the more devices you add.

• Dell SAS6/iR
• DIGITUS DS-30104
• IBM BR10i
• *IBM ServeRAID M1015 (Preferred)
• Intel SASUC8I (does NOT support >2TB drives)
• LSI 9211 8i
• LSI 9200 8e
• LSI SAS3081E-R
• LSI SAS3082E-R
• Promise Tech/MAXTOR IDE/SATA 150 PCI
• Promise 300TX4 PCI SATA Controller
• SYBA SY-PEX40008

Confused-about-that-LSI-card-Join-the-crowd

* Some of the controllers require SAS / SATA adapter cable, and need firmware flashed to IT mode.

 

[ctantra]

What's coincidence, most of the FreeNAS components I chose, are listed in your thread. Nice job man... make me more comfortable. :)

 

[ClassicGOD]

I've just got DIGITUS DS-30104. It's a relatively cheap PCI-Express 4x, low profile, 4channel SATA II/eSATA II controller based on MARVELL 88SX7042 chipset (it's my understanding that this is one of the better supported controller chipsets in FreeBSD). I'm just testing it and I'm pleasantly surprised - it works without a hitch. I get the same writing speeds for my 4 Seagate ST2000DL003 that I get when plugged directly into the MOBO (MSI E350IA-E45). Its worth recommending.

 

[Milhouse]

LSI 9211-8i HBA (flashed with IT firmware) works fine with FreeNAS 8.0+ although the driver doesn't support ATAIDLE spin down (a hopefully temporary hack may work)

 

[jfr2006]

• Asus M4A78LT-M LE

I would consider the Asus M4A78LT-M version instead, since it has 4 DIMM slots with support up to 16GB ;)