New Freenas Build Opinions Needed

[kingnubian]

I just sold my old server hardware, dual 2TB WD EADS Drives running Centos 5.5, and have been reading a lot about Freenas and want to give it a try. I would like some feedback on my proposed hardware. This will be a build "on the cheap".

Motherboard:
MSI H67MS-E23 (B3)
or
ASUS E35M1-M Pro mATX

CPU: (For Proposed Intel Based Build)
Intel G540 Dual Core Celeron
or
Pentium G620

Memory:
8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 Corsair

Hard Drives:
2x Western Digital caviar Green EADS (512k Format)
AND
1x 2TB Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB (512k Format I think )

Case:
NZXT Source 210 mAtx Tower

Power Supply:
Corsair Builder series CMPSU-430CXV2 430W ATX Power Supply

My goal is a very quiet, reliable and good performing NAS with future expansion & functionality (Via Plugins in the upcoming Freenas 8.1) in mind.

 

[jazz_]

But for what are you going to use freenas? at home? or at a company? what kind of data are you going to store? pictures, movies,music? or multi user databases?

 

[kingnubian]

It will be used at home. It will be used to store many different types of data from pictures, video, music, drive images, misc data files , ect.
At most two maybe 3 users will ever be accessing the box at any given time mostly for HTPC media. There will be no multi user database traffic or anything like that happening.

 

[jazz_]

hardware is good enough....i should go for ufs raid1 that can do well with less ram
as your server will be mostly used for sharing media, also take a look at vortexbox (google it) if you really want zfs version 28 there is nexentastor(google it).
I must say freenas works fine, easy to setup,looking forward to version 8.1

 

[joeschmuck]

Your system (either setup) sounds fine for FreeNAS .7 or 8.x. The one issue right now is 8.x does not support UPnP which is typically key for sharing media. This feature is coming but it's not a priority so it could be anywhere from a few months to a year before it's implemented. FreeNAS .7 is full featured and is not old, it was just updated a few days ago so don't let the revision information let you think it's inferior, it is not. I don't know anything about the two pieces of software that jazz_ mentioned.

Also, for FreeNAS 8.x you will need a 2GB flash drive (minimum size).

 

[kingnubian]

Your system (either setup) sounds fine for FreeNAS .7 or 8.x. The one issue right now is 8.x does not support UPnP which is typically key for sharing media. This feature is coming but it's not a priority so it could be anywhere from a few months to a year before it's implemented. FreeNAS .7 is full featured and is not old, it was just updated a few days ago so don't let the revision information let you think it's inferior, it is not. I don't know anything about the two pieces of software that jazz_ mentioned.

Also, for FreeNAS 8.x you will need a 2GB flash drive (minimum size).

Firstly, a big thanks for the responses.
While media storage is a large part of what the box will be doing , it isn't the only chore. It will also be used daily as a storage place for misc data such as hosting my weekly automated drive images of my other pc's, various downloads and general storage.

P.S. I did well without a DLNA or UPnP just fine with my CentOS install. I use XBMC & Boxee as my choice for HTPC software which really only need direct access to the files.

 

[joeschmuck]

Well if you will be using 8GB of RAM then might I suggest you grab a copy of 8.0.2-Release and install it with "0" (zero) swap space (needs to be set prior to formatting your hard drives).

If you run into a snag, read the forums, do a search, and if you can't find the answer, ask.