FreeNAS Mini XL Gen 2

[digs]

Hi all, I've been patiently saving my pennies for 2 years and almost ready to pull the trigger and buy the above with read/write SSD cache drives. The dilemma I have is I have a terrible feeling ill buy this unit only to find out a few weeks later that the next gen is out with a significant hardware refresh.

Given it's taken a few years to save, can I please get some subtle advice if I should pause for a short while to get the best value for my hard earned. I'd be gutted to buy now only to discover it gets a hardware refresh. I'm happy to hold up to 6 months if necessary.

I'd prefer to support the project and buy pre built.

Thoughts?

 

[danb35]

with read/write SSD cache drives.

I have no knowledge of iX's internal operations, so I can't answer your main question--but I can probably save you some money. You can almost certainly skip the "cache" SSDs. First, ZFS doesn't use a write cache, it uses a write log. It's only in a fairly narrow set of use cases where this would be beneficial. Second, yes, ZFS does use a read cache, but I don't believe the Mini supports enough RAM to really make an L2ARC beneficial.

Now, with the caveat that this is pure speculation, I don't think we're likely to see a refresh in the near future, as I'm not aware of a replacement for the motherboard that would check all the boxes (mini-ITX, low power consumption, supports ECC, lots of SATA ports), unless it might be the new Xeon D boards--which, as I understand it, are still very expensive.

 

[Stux]

Xeon D would work for Mini, but not Xl without using the sole pci slot for an HBA.

Mind you, with built in 10gbe, that might be okay.

 

[Ericloewe]

Don't expect a new Mini so soon. Intel still hasn't released the vast majority of the C3000 family.