This list should be a short checklist compared to cyberjock's detailed wall-of-text hardware recommendations. I'm open for suggestions, corrections, backup on statements etc. I'm not too involved with the forums, so feel free to link to threads with issues regarding specific hardware.
Last Hardware Spec change: 2014-11-20
Don't use AMD - recent repots state lack of support in newer FreeBSD/FreeNAS versions
Chipset Do's:
Intel Atom (Rangeley/Avoton) C2xxx SoC
Intel C2xx and C6xx Chipsets
Don'ts:
Intel Bxx, Hxx, Zxx, Pxx Chilsets, doesn't support ECC
CPU Do's:
Intel Atom (Rangeley/Avoton) C2xxx Series SoC
Intel Socket 1150/1155 Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Xeon E3
Don'ts:
Intel Atom (other than mentioned), doesn't support ECC.
Intel Core i5 or i7, doesn't support ECC.
RAM Do's:
cross-check with QVL. If you can't find any of those DIMMs:
ECC Hynix, Samsung or Micron/Crucial DIMMs are the best bets.
Don'ts:
Kingston, issues on X10 series Supermicros.
Storage Controllers Do's:
Intel/AMD Onboard Controllers
LSI SAS2xxx in IT Mode
Grey Area:
LSI SAS3xxx (testing pending)
Don'ts:
Highpoint cards [because]
Marvel SATA Controllers
NIC Do's:
Intel 1GBit/s
Chelsio 10GBit/s
Grey area:
Broadcom 1/10GBit/s (haven't read reports on those)
Intel 10GBit/s (performance issues prior to 9.2.1.8, awaiting user feedback on bugfix)
Don'ts:
Realtek
SLOG SSD Do's:
Intel S3700 (high TBW, high write consistency)
Don'ts
L2ARC (~20GB L2ARC per 1GB of RAM) SSD Do's:
Don'ts:
QVL: Qualified Vendor List, lists all tested hardware for that motherboard/system
ECC: Error Code Correction, corrects/detects 1bit/2bit errors - essentially for ZFS
IT mode: HBA (Host Bus Adapter) mode which doesn't fiddle with the disks but just passes them trough to the operating system. RAID cards sometimes require nasty stuff like single-disk RAID without passing trough SMART warnings to FreeNAS.
SoC: System on Chip, integrates CPU and Chipset on one DIE
Last Hardware Spec change: 2014-11-20
Don't use AMD - recent repots state lack of support in newer FreeBSD/FreeNAS versions
Chipset Do's:
Intel Atom (Rangeley/Avoton) C2xxx SoC
Intel C2xx and C6xx Chipsets
Don'ts:
Intel Bxx, Hxx, Zxx, Pxx Chilsets, doesn't support ECC
CPU Do's:
Intel Atom (Rangeley/Avoton) C2xxx Series SoC
Intel Socket 1150/1155 Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Xeon E3
Don'ts:
Intel Atom (other than mentioned), doesn't support ECC.
Intel Core i5 or i7, doesn't support ECC.
RAM Do's:
cross-check with QVL. If you can't find any of those DIMMs:
ECC Hynix, Samsung or Micron/Crucial DIMMs are the best bets.
Don'ts:
Kingston, issues on X10 series Supermicros.
Storage Controllers Do's:
Intel/AMD Onboard Controllers
LSI SAS2xxx in IT Mode
Grey Area:
LSI SAS3xxx (testing pending)
Don'ts:
Highpoint cards [because]
Marvel SATA Controllers
NIC Do's:
Intel 1GBit/s
Chelsio 10GBit/s
Grey area:
Broadcom 1/10GBit/s (haven't read reports on those)
Intel 10GBit/s (performance issues prior to 9.2.1.8, awaiting user feedback on bugfix)
Don'ts:
Realtek
SLOG SSD Do's:
Intel S3700 (high TBW, high write consistency)
Don'ts
L2ARC (~20GB L2ARC per 1GB of RAM) SSD Do's:
Don'ts:
QVL: Qualified Vendor List, lists all tested hardware for that motherboard/system
ECC: Error Code Correction, corrects/detects 1bit/2bit errors - essentially for ZFS
IT mode: HBA (Host Bus Adapter) mode which doesn't fiddle with the disks but just passes them trough to the operating system. RAID cards sometimes require nasty stuff like single-disk RAID without passing trough SMART warnings to FreeNAS.
SoC: System on Chip, integrates CPU and Chipset on one DIE
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