Is running FreeNAS 9.3 viable on a HP N40L?

[Johev]

If you wanted to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California - do *you* need to see xray images of the welds, before you cross the bridge. Or, do you take it on faith that everyone did their work correctly and just drive across the bridge?....

I find your post harsh and displaced and I don't think that it's an appropriate reaction to what I've said. As stated in my previous post I've provided information based on what I've found on the internet and this forum. I am not saying don't use an AMD CPU, just stating that by doing so I have read that you might be risking the integrity of your data.

The problem that I hear is that it is very difficult to test if ECC memory is properly working on AMD CPU's and MB's. If it was as easy as taking an x-ray picture and would be proven to work, more people would be probably recommending AMD CPU's for basic FreeNAS builds.

 

[rogerh]

Maybe we should club together and get an ECC RAM stick made with a couple of programmable error bits: and pass it around like microscopists used to do with expensive etched calibration slides.

 

[cyberjock]

Maybe we should club together and get an ECC RAM stick made with a couple of programmable error bits: and pass it around like microscopists used to do with expensive etched calibration slides.

Honestly, I've probably got the skills and knowledge to actually make a stick of RAM like what the memtest guys have. They got a stick of RAM from a manufacturer that had a little button on it and when you pressed the button it failed a byte of RAM. I don't have a link, but the info is there for anyone with the proper soldering skills and the ability to read a schematic to figure out how to induce a failure. I just don't want to try it on my own RAM because if I fail to do it right i'll probably ruin the RAM stick, and potentially the motherboard, etc its attached to if I do something like short a power pin to a data pin or something.

 

[RichTJ99]

So I am looking to use a N40L as a backup only device. I have my main freenas server but would like to take an old N40L with 8gb of ram & make it a 6x 2TB raid1z for snapshot or rsync replication. The only device that will talk to this box will be the main freenas box for backups only.

Will it work with the current version of freenas?

 

[adrianwi]

I've got a N54l with 16gb and 5x4TB drives doing just that - a nightly replication from my main FreeNAS box.

Only issue I can see is squeezing 6 drives into it :D

 

[gpsguy]

With something like this, you should be able to squeeze 2 hard disks in the ODD bay - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZFIBI76/?tag=ozlp-20

If you haven't done so already, you'll want to install one of the hacked BIOS' on your N40L to enable AHCI on the ODD and eSATA interfaces.

 

[Matthew Webb]

I've got a N40L, as a FreeNAS fileserver for Windows clients (with a Crashplan backup jail). It's been upgraded to 8gb ECC and works fine. (Was a Win 2008R2 Server, previous to that I had a QNAP)

I keep getting tempted to upgrade to a SuperMicro I3 based setup to add Plex, etc - but too happy with my current setup to justify the $$'s. (Except for the talk here about the possibility of ECC not being used by the unit - which worries me)