Homemade FreeNas Box Compatability

[JJ1989]

I recently almost purchased a mybook live 3TB for ~$180 but I noticed it doesn't support RAID 1 and I wanted to see what my options were.

I found FreeNas on the web and considered trying it out.

I then, as a test, setup a system on my wife's old laptop which is from like 1998 has less than a gig of ram(updated) and a very slow processor. I connected via usb two WD essential external hard drives. With that setup I get ~2MB/s write if my laptop is wireless and ~4MB/s if I connect my laptop to the router(a NetGear Rangefinder 802.11g). I could stream 1080P video without any lag, but didn't test the read speed. Noted also is that it's a Japanese laptop and though I couldn't read the the Kanji in the Bios, but it wouldn't let me boot from USB as an option so I just installed FreeNas 8.02 on the drive.

I was looking for a used system to turn into a server but the most ram any of them supported was 4GB, and though it met the minimum requirements I'd be paying for something now that I'd have to completely replace later.

So I thought I'd undertake the process of building my own and it looks like I can do it for ~$350 but I'm not sure if I've selected everything that I'll need, so I was wondering if someone could tell me if this is all I need and if it's compatible before I shell out the cash - I included links, thank you so much for your assistance.

Case - 10-Bay ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - No PSU (Black/Red) - T650
http://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=220429390&sellerid=13770897

Motherboard - Asus M4N68T-M V2 Desktop Motherboard - NVIDIA - Socket AM3 PGA-941 - Micro ATX - 1 x Processor Support - 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM Maximum RAM - Serial ATA/300, Ultra ATA/133 (ATA-7), Ultra ATA/100 (ATA-6) RAI
http://www.nextdaypc.com/main/products/details.aspx?PID=A515577&rsmainid=ND0130014

Processor - AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ogle-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-AMD-_-19103873

Power Supply - hec HP585D 585W ATX12V Power Supply - No Power Cord - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339009

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB Memory - DIMM 240-pin - 1600 MHz ( PC3-12800 )http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=sIijTr6mC8Tl0QGGxoWhBw&ved=0CIQBEPMCMAA

Hard Drive (2x) - WD Caviar Green 2 TB Internal hard drive - 300 MBps
http://www.google.com/products/cata...fUypGnBQ&ved=0CMIBEOUNMAQ#scoring=tp|start=10

So I'd use the system as it is now, and later I'd upgrade the ram and HDDs as I saw fit. If you could please let me know if this work, I greatly appreciate it, thanks!!!!

 

[Bohs Hansen]

watch out with memory, i suggest you buy it all now instead of more later. Even if you buy same brand, model and speed again, they might not work together (speaking of experience).

 

[Digidoc]

It'd work, but I recommend that you don't even bother with the DDR3-1600 RAM. In a build like this it's rather pointless since the CPU will work fine with DDR3-1333. Overclocking the CPU and using faster memory won't really give you any tangible performance increases unfortunately. :(

Save a few dollars and get something like this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145315

The motherboard you selected is fine, but I'd suggest something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130560

For about the same price you get six SATA ports on the board which will come in handy later when you choose to increase your capacity.

BTW, I had that same PSU in my previous FreeNAS build and it's a pretty solid PSU. Mine came free with a shell-shocker deal I got with a case, but for $25 it's an absolute steal. It's now inside of another case and still working flawlessly.

Beyond that, I highly recommend picking up an Intel NIC (either an Intel desktop or server NIC will do). One thing I discovered is that on-board NIC's tend not to run as good as Intel PCI-E NICS. The desktop NIC's are inexpensive too.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Don't forget to pick up a USB memory stick too. :)