Is FreeNAS for me? 2 SM motherboard choices-which if any do I choose?

[Jakeles]

Noobe to FreeNAS here!
Not noob to computer/laptop builds.

My goal: to serve up sync and remote access home family photos/video.
Stream in house via dlna.
Sync photos from android to storage automatically.
And do this as easily and inexpensively as possible.

Is FreeNAS for me? Or do you suggest another option?

Other question is:
If I move forward I would like to use one of two SM boards as I'm getting the friend price,which one is a more viable solution for FreeNAS?

For $25 he will give me a self refurb
X9SCL
Or
for $50 an SM X10SAE manufacturer refurb.

I have a couple i3 4130's lying around, some sandy chips too, as well as the correct Ecc memory

Would one of these boards work decent without too much hassle for FreeNAS?

 

[tvsjr]

Start with the hardware recommendations guide: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/

Is FreeNAS for you? There are simpler and cheaper solutions out there, but they typically don't perform as well, don't protect your data as well, and aren't nearly as flexible. It's up to you... the increased flexibility and protection of FreeNAS comes at a cost of hardware and your time.

 

[melloa]

First of all, welcome.

To answer your question, based on your statement "Not noob to computer/laptop builds", I'd say: Yes, FreeNAS is for you if you want to do all you mention above, and based on your goal of spent as less as possible by utilizing what you have, those are my thoughts:

The i3 is a good starting point as you are planning for some video streaming, but as your utilization grows I'd think to choose the motherboard that would allow for better expansion on CPU, keeping everything else the same as both board are maxed @ 32 GB RAM.

Looking at the specs, the X10SAE has a LGA1150 socket and allow Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v3/v4, 4th/5th gen. Core i7/i5/i3 processors, while the X9SCL has a LGA 1151 socket with support for Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 & E3-1200 v2 series, 2nd and 3rd Gen Core i3, so I'd go with the X10SAE, but that's based on my limited knowledge and research.

As mentioned above by @tvsjr, @Ericloewe has a good post on the resources tab above.

Always keep in mind that you will be using old hardware and not what the folks here recommend, so there are some risks in doing that.

Hope that helps!

 

[Jakeles]

OK, great reply! Thank you. Yes I did have a read of the Read First Hardware recs page. I did see both the SM x9s and x10s boards but those had ipmi and were bare, meaning no extra stuff like audio etc.
My main concern was the fact that these boards both seem to have extra stuff like audio and did not have ipmi.

The last thing I want to do is get non recommended MB to which folks here would not want to discuss or say "I told you so" to an end of not being apart of the forum.

I just cannot afford better equipment right now.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[tvsjr]

The SM motherboards are recommended because they've been proven to work very well. They are far from the only choice.

Audio doesn't matter, as FreeNAS won't use it. IPMI is helpful for a system that lives in a data center or wiring closet, but in a home, it's not required if you don't mind plugging a monitor and keyboard in from time to time.

The biggest thing is ensuring you meet the minimum system requirements. It would be quite preferable to have a motherboard that supports ECC.

Of those two motherboards, I'd go with the X10SAE. You get dual Intel gigabit NICs and 8 usable SATA ports. You'll need to either install a graphics card (cheap and low power) or buy a processor that has graphics built in. Also make sure the processor supports ECC. I'm not an expert on the non-Xeon CPUs, but it appears your i3-4130 does support ECC, so that should work nicely.

 

[Ericloewe]

Of those two motherboards, I'd go with the X10SAE. You get dual Intel gigabit NICs and 8 usable SATA ports

Six. The extra two come from a dodgy controller.

 

[wblock]

If it works and has some sort of warranty, $50 for that X10SAE is a steal. I have the IPMI variant as a desktop, and kind of wish it didn't have IPMI and the built-in VGA as it makes initial setup with a PCIe video card more difficult. Should be fine for a NAS.

 

[Jakeles]

If it works and has some sort of warranty, $50 for that X10SAE is a steal. I have the IPMI variant as a desktop, and kind of wish it didn't have IPMI and the built-in VGA as it makes initial setup with a PCIe video card more difficult. Should be fine for a NAS.

Interesting. Pcie card making it difficult? I hope to use onboard gpu for now then. I hope my board has it.
Was it the specific video card you were using or is setup complicated for all dedicated gpu's??

I decided to spend more cash and went with the X10SLL-F-0 brand new using an i3-4130. I would like to use a different 1150 chip that has ECC, but from my research the only non Xeon ECC 1150 chips are the I3's
On a side note, i found myself with some (a little) buyers remorse, my brother an IT manager and server enthusiast called me today and asked why i didnt just use Amazon Drive, and informed me that Amazon gives Unlimited storage for $65 bucks a year? One of my main reasons for looking into this is to get rid of my Dropbox bill..

I'll probably move ahead with the Build anyways,you never know:Amazon could jack the price up next week. Thanks for the reply's folks, Very insightful~

 

[wblock]

Was it the specific video card you were using or is setup complicated for all dedicated gpu's??

The IPMI was very insistent that only the onboard VGA could be used. I think I had to disable it in the setup. In a NAS, having built-in video that works even when the CPU doesn't have video is a feature.

As far as cloud storage, have you seen https://www.stickermule.com/marketplace/3442-there-is-no-cloud? Try backing up or restoring something big before deciding. And some of those companies have gone away or gotten out of storage. The nice ones gave people a month or so to download their stuff.

 

[tvsjr]

Also consider what sort of files you're trying to move around. Dropbox and the like are great for moving a document around... not so great for storing your movie/music/etc. library.