Hey everybody,
I've dabbled with FreeNAS and trolled these forums for a few years, and I figured I'd finally post something. My original FreeNAS build would probably make most of you cringe (Biostar J1900MH2 Celeron MicroATX motherboard/CPU combo, and some WD Green drives I had laying around). I remember looking at some of the suggested materials, and I just couldn't justify the cost to myself for some of the parts since I mainly use this for fun/tinkering, streaming media on my home network, and to act as a central storage for my home network.
I almost gave up on trying to make a better box that was a little more compliant with suggested hardware standards, until I came across a couple posts suggesting the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140. I managed to get it for a screaming deal on Newegg for $230. I eventually threw in a little more RAM, some Red HDD's, and pretty much that's what I have now.
Here's a breakdown of the parts of my current build:
Processor: Intel Core i3-4130 processor 3.4 GHz, 2C, 4M Cache, 1.00 GT/s, 65W
HDD: 2 x WD Red 3TB NAS HDD - 5400 RPM Sata 6 64MB Cache
HDD: 2 x Hitachi Ultrastar A7K2000 2TB 32MB Cache 7200 RPM SATA 3
RAM: (16GB) 4 x DDR3L 240-pin 1.35v 1R8 ECC UDIMM 1600MHz
Case: Fractal Design - Define R4 (White) ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ White
So far it's been smooth sailing with this build. If you're in search of a case for a small FreeNAS box, then I'd highly recommend this series. Below are some pic's. Let me know what you guys think and if there are any recommendations for future parts I should eventually replace.
Note: I used amazon and newegg for links where possible, but I had to use pcpartpicker for the case link since no other good sources could be found on newegg or amazon.
I've dabbled with FreeNAS and trolled these forums for a few years, and I figured I'd finally post something. My original FreeNAS build would probably make most of you cringe (Biostar J1900MH2 Celeron MicroATX motherboard/CPU combo, and some WD Green drives I had laying around). I remember looking at some of the suggested materials, and I just couldn't justify the cost to myself for some of the parts since I mainly use this for fun/tinkering, streaming media on my home network, and to act as a central storage for my home network.
I almost gave up on trying to make a better box that was a little more compliant with suggested hardware standards, until I came across a couple posts suggesting the Lenovo ThinkServer TS140. I managed to get it for a screaming deal on Newegg for $230. I eventually threw in a little more RAM, some Red HDD's, and pretty much that's what I have now.
Here's a breakdown of the parts of my current build:
Processor: Intel Core i3-4130 processor 3.4 GHz, 2C, 4M Cache, 1.00 GT/s, 65W
HDD: 2 x WD Red 3TB NAS HDD - 5400 RPM Sata 6 64MB Cache
HDD: 2 x Hitachi Ultrastar A7K2000 2TB 32MB Cache 7200 RPM SATA 3
RAM: (16GB) 4 x DDR3L 240-pin 1.35v 1R8 ECC UDIMM 1600MHz
Case: Fractal Design - Define R4 (White) ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ White
So far it's been smooth sailing with this build. If you're in search of a case for a small FreeNAS box, then I'd highly recommend this series. Below are some pic's. Let me know what you guys think and if there are any recommendations for future parts I should eventually replace.
Note: I used amazon and newegg for links where possible, but I had to use pcpartpicker for the case link since no other good sources could be found on newegg or amazon.
