Going to build a nas with freenas + zfs

[HyperGrid]

So, I've got 3 2 TB sata drives that I'd like to put to good use, and I've decided that I will put together a freenas media server using zfs in raidz (raid 5).

The 3 drives I have are:
Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS
These are oldish drives; they run at 5900 rpm's and the sata interface is 3 Gbps.
As I only have 3 drives right now, I'll be buying a fourth drive. I can't find any affordable matching drives (there all around $130, even though there old), so I will be getting newer 2 TB drives that run faster, and probably support 6 Gbps. Will freenas work with different drives in the same array?

And I could really use some budget hardware recommendations.
-jake

 

[warri]

Yes you can mix old and new drives, FreeNAS/ZFS doesn't care which disks are part of your pool or how they are connected to the mainboard ;)

For hardware recommendations have a look at the Hardware section, and especially this post: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/so-you-want-some-hardware-suggestions.12276/

 

[krantz]

I´m a noobish myself (a few months only with FreeNAS) -- my advice?

1) Plan ahead. Decide wether you are gonna use the NAS just for fun, or serious storage. If serious storage, go for the most reliable hardware you can find (computer AND disks)
2) Computer NEEDS RAM. RAM. RAM.
3) I prefer Mirrors over Stripes -- a mirror equals data always there in case a drive fails -- trust me, it´s cheaper to get two disks than lose important data on just one and then pay 10 times more to salvage some of the data.
4) RTFM at least 3 times. Someone usually answers on the forums, but the ZFS filesystem is extremely complex, compared to others.
5) Don´t create any vdev of more than 6 disks - according to the wise guys, ZFS starts to crawl after 6 disks.
6) Don´t assume anything -- when in doubt, RTFM again or ask around
7) Consider for the future adding a couple of SSD disks as log - they will speed up the system.