FreeNAS on newer hardware

[riccochet]

Hey everyone,
So I keep coming back and looking up what are the generally recommended hardware configurations for freeNAS by reading updates to the hardware guide. I am a bit curious since i haven't really been able to find much in searching, but why is the recommended hardware pretty static? I see its still recommending motherboards that are at EOL, like the supermicro X10SLF-F, but i never see any mention of any of the newer platforms like the C622 chipset. Those boards look absolutely packed with features that would be a huge benefit to freeNAS (gobs of memory, and tons of SATA ports like the X11SPM-TPF). What am i missing that keeps older hardware in the recommended setup? Have the newer chipsets just not really been tested? or is there something about them that is very undesirable?

 

[sretalla]

The two parts I would cite as driving this would be cost and actual needs.

Newer boards are expensive.

The performance needed for most common NAS functions are well served by older hardware (that's cheap).

RAM (ECC) is the most important thing to ensure good performance of whatever storage you decide to add via whatever HBA or onboard ports you see fit (SATA is fixed maximum speed per disk in any case and 6Gbps has been around for many generations, so you don't miss out on that).

 

[riccochet]

Kind of what i figured. Thanks for the response. Old media server/fileserver finally bit it and i am looking at replacements. Since i'm working on older hardware now, i am a bit shy about using EOL hardware to build a new server. I don't like replacing hardware and this will have to do me for at least 5 years. As long as i can possibly get out of it... hence the desire to use newer hardware even if costs more.

 

[sretalla]

Nothing wrong with it if money is not an issue. @Chris Moore will certainly have something to say about it, but it's your money in the end.