First FreeNAS build, looking for advice.

[Valttu]

Hello!

I'm planning my first FreeNAS build, just a little home NAS for storing movies and Linux ISOs ;)

I've read through the recommended spec documentation, but it didn't discuss processors too much. A lot of people are building systems with expensive 8-core Intels, but I'm on a budget and don't need an amazing system. What kind of a CPU should I be looking for? Are we talking i3-range, or should I try to get the most powerful processor I can afford?

As for other specs I'm looking for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 8gt DDR3 ECC (used), a case I haven't decided on yet (used) and a couple hard drives around 4tb (new).

 

[joeschmuck]

First of all Welcome to FreeNAS Forums.

Before you go out and order parts you need to have an understanding of exactly what you want to use FreeNAS for. This is the most important part of building your system. Most people are on some sort of budget, some tighter than others, however to ensure you are not wasting money you need to figure this out now.

You did state above that you only wanted to store some files and movies but are you looking to host video/audio content, meaning that you want to use something like Plex and transcode video or maybe a simple DLNA server without transcoding is fine? Some things are CPU intensive and if you buy cheap today, you may find out in 6 months you are buying a replacement system.

Also you storage capacity should be estimated and I recommend looking at 3 years out because while you can add more hard drives to increase your storage capacity, unfortunately it isn't adding a single drive at a time (if you do then your data is at risk). So 3 years and then at least add 50% to double what you estimate because we all are hoarders of data. Use a RAID Capacity Calculator.

8GB RAM is the absolute minimum and will work for many systems but until you know for certain about your use case you might find out 16GB is better for you. When you buy your system, ensure that it can be upgraded to at least 32GB RAM without you having to replace RAM sticks (just adding new ones). And ensure you are using ECC RAM and all the components are ECC compliant.

As for the CPU, if your needs are modest then you don't need a fast 8 core CPU, but figure out what your needs are first.

 

[Valttu]

Not planning on using Plex / similar services, just storing transcoded video files on the server and accesing them on the few computers I've got.

As for storage and ram I don't agree with you, at least not in my case. You see prices for used quality harddrives are crazy high, so replacing the entire collection a few years down the line should be no problem. Used multiple year old Samsung SSDs for example go for just $10-20 under retail price, same for memory.

 

[nightshade00013]

Not planning on using Plex / similar services, just storing transcoded video files on the server and accesing them on the few computers I've got.

As for storage and ram I don't agree with you, at least not in my case. You see prices for used quality harddrives are crazy high, so replacing the entire collection a few years down the line should be no problem. Used multiple year old Samsung SSDs for example go for just $10-20 under retail price, same for memory.

Getting used drives to store your data is not the smartest thing in the world to do and no matter what adding them one at a time being new or used is just asking for trouble especially if you keep expanding a pool by adding more vDev's. To add to that SSD's are not infallible and a used one for ten to twenty bucks unless they are SLC probably has had 60 to 70% of it's life used which is asking for data loss in a FreeNAS. You may as well burn your data to dvd's and then take them out to a shooting range and hang them up with a sign that says "Don't shoot the disks."

If you are not planning to use Plex that is fine but once you start doing things you may change your mind. You really need to read some more on everything and do some more planning especially in the storage department.

 

[Valttu]

That's not what I said, I don't plan on using SSDs nor used hard drives, and a used SSD for $10-20 would be unheard of in this day and age.

 

[joeschmuck]

I'm not sure how we got to the topic of used hard drives at all, I certainly didn't say anything about the drives in that respect nor was there any mention of SSDs. I am only stating that you should figure out what you need for capacity for over the next several years and install the proper volume of drives up front. If you do not heed this advice then you will feel the pain later on. If you believe that you can build a proper FreeNAS server today and in 6 months add a single hard drive to add more capacity, well you will be disappointed and have a lot of reading to do.

On a positive note... If you do only do plan to have this as a simple NAS as you say then you do not need much of a CPU at all, it just needs to support ECC RAM.

Not sure what you mean by not agreeing with me about the RAM, but that is okay.

 

[nightshade00013]

I'm not sure how we got to the topic of used hard drives at all, I certainly didn't say anything about the drives in that respect nor was there any mention of SSDs.

As for storage and ram I don't agree with you, at least not in my case. You see prices for used quality harddrives are crazy high, so replacing the entire collection a few years down the line should be no problem. Used multiple year old Samsung SSDs for example go for just $10-20 under retail price, same for memory.

Why we got on the used drive topic.

 

[joeschmuck]

My comment wasn't directed at you @nightshade00013 , it was directed @Valttu . It was like something that came out of the blue and I'm not sure why it was mentioned in the first place.

 

[nightshade00013]

Ahh ok, LOL. It happens. @joeschmuck

 

[John Doe]

@Valttu

Are you planning to use disc encryption?

 

[Amu W Ramappa]

Pentium G processors support ECC and are very affordable. How many drives are you planning on having? What's your state requirements? How are you sharing the data CIFS or NFS?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Amu W Ramappa]

Pentium G processors support ECC and are very affordable. How many drives are you planning on having? What's your state requirements? How are you sharing the data CIFS or NFS?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Not state.. storage requirements

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk