How many RAM needed

[Asterix]

I'm intended to build a small nas based on an Atom 230 system. I have still 2 GB DDR2 Ram from a dead pc I can recover. I want to use an usb-stick for the start drive and 3 disks of 2 TB in RAID 5.
My question is: Is the Atom fully supported by version 8?
Last year I intended to build a nas with the now old version 7 (also Atom mobo and 512 MB Ram, quite enough for that version), but I had some other projects to attend to. Now I want to go directly for the new version, but I see that a huge amount of RAM is needed now. Is 2 GB enough for the standard use? I'm not intended to install extra modules and the standard UFS is fine for me. I don't need extra ZFS stuff. But I'm interested in new version 8 features like snapshots and backup-restore features.
Or am I forced to use version 7 due to my hardware limitations? I don't want to invest in new hardware and having good older stuff unused.

 

[joeschmuck]

Give 8.x a shot. I know I have seen postings of people using the Atom processor for FreeNAS so I suspect it's fully supported. It will not be a speed demon but it should work and since you don't want to use ZFS, that lightens up the workload on the Atom. 2GB is enough for the RAM.

 

[esamett]

+1 to Joe. ZFS with 3-4 disks seemed ok when I tested it with 8.0-release. It bogged down with 8 drives and 2GB ram.

 

[warri]

I'm using an Atom-based system with 2Gb of RAM. While transfering data over FTP you get ~50 MB/s and 100% CPU, and almost full RAM. Samba around the same I think..
But that speed is ok for my home use. Maybe i'll upgrade to 4Gb of RAM later, but it's working fine and stable with my current configuration.