Looking for the cheapest upgrade path without breaking the bank.

[Estropelic]

I upgraded my existing system to Truenas Scale. The new apps management system is working GREAT.

Storage has gotten cheaper and I'd like to upgrade my existing system "6X2tb raid 2".

My current motherboard has about 8 years on it and seems to be running fine.
ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Atom C2750

I'm running 16gig ECC RAM

Q1) I hate running the OS drives on a split USB outside of the case but my existing power supply does not have any additional sata ports available. Already running one HDD with a sata to molex connector. Any suggestions on t new power supply? <aybe I'll leave it as is. Seems to be working just fine.

Current power supply:
Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply SSR-360GP. Looks like the Seasonic PRIME FANLESS PX-500 would work but I'm not looking to spend this much on an older system.

Q2) What's the max raid 2 pool I can run with 16gig ram? I'm running a few apps and mostly as data storage for home use.
Edit: How about if I went with 32G RAM? Could I pull off a 6X8GB Raid 2?


Thank you so much for the hand guys. I really appreciate any input.

 

[Estropelic]

I read somewhere the new rule is 1gig RAM per hard drive. Can someone confirm?

I found it on this thread:

How large a pool would you run with 32GB of RAM?

So this is the situation I'm facing. I'm getting to the point where I need to plan on an increase in storage space again. Being the digital hoarder that I am I'm currently up to 61% used space on my current pool of 6x8TB drives in a RAIDZ2 configuration. Best Buy currently has a few Easy Store...

www.truenas.com

 

[probain]

I believe that you're looking at RAM as to hard of a limit. In general, ZFS uses pretty much all the RAM you give it (Scale being little restrictive for a little while longer). But it doesn't use it as a hard limit per se. Other than minimum specs for running the OS that is.
You can expand your pool, without expanding your RAM. Just don't expect better performance if you don't give RAM some love too.
ARC= Active Read Cache. Emphasis on Cache.

Also, more RAM is pretty much always gonna result in a more performant system. But take things in the order that best suits your needs. If you need more storage space first, then go with that. Expand RAM later when budget alows.

 

[chuck32]

You didn't specify your use case. How many users? File Storage primarily?

16 GB is enough for a single user and no VMs. 32 GB is better but if money is tight I'd rather invest in a more powerful PSU before upgrading the RAM. For the memory, did you look up used RAM? Shouldn't really break the bank.

What website would you shop for a new PSU? I don't have a feeling for the prices in your region. What would the seasonic run you?
Have you looked at a Focus PX 650 or 750? You don't really need the prime variant. Depending on the price difference you may go for GX series also, the saved energy needs to justify the investment.

 

[Estropelic]

You didn't specify your use case. How many users? File Storage primarily?

16 GB is enough for a single user and no VMs. 32 GB is better but if money is tight I'd rather invest in a more powerful PSU before upgrading the RAM. For the memory, did you look up used RAM? Shouldn't really break the bank.

What website would you shop for a new PSU? I don't have a feeling for the prices in your region. What would the seasonic run you?
Have you looked at a Focus PX 650 or 750? You don't really need the prime variant. Depending on the price difference you may go for GX series also, the saved energy needs to justify the investment.

Mainly file storage and media storage for home use. Amazon would be my go to for all my parts. My server specs are in my sig. Thx for input.

Edit: I plan on 3d printing a chassis mod for the node 304 to accommodate my os drives at some point.

 

[Etorix]

More RAM is always better, but you can upgrade your drives without touching anything.
The PSU and motherboard will probably break at some point, but are you in a hurry to replace them?

If the PCIe slot is free, you could boot from a small NVMe drive in an adapter.

 

[Estropelic]

More RAM is always better, but you can upgrade your drives without touching anything.
The PSU and motherboard will probably break at some point, but are you in a hurry to replace them?

If the PCIe slot is free, you could boot from a small NVMe drive in an adapter.

The PCIe to NVMe drive adapter is cool. Never thought of that! I actually have a NVMe drive laying around too.