New FreeNAS User with an Intel SS4000-E

[Admiral688]

I'm new to FreeNAS and have been playing around with it on an old laptop and have become somewhat quasi-familiar with it over the past few weeks.

I just recently acquired a Intel SS4000-e and will get a few drives to populate it with soon. I'm playing around with it using an old laptop drive and its working fine on the latest version of the intel firmware which has been discontinued.

Does anyone know if I can load FreeNAS on this box? I have tried to find some info about this however my searches are coming up on the light side. Any advice?

 

[cyberjock]

Nope. No chance. It's not x86 based.

 

[Admiral688]

So what do you really mean ;-)
Know any way to retrofit the board in the box?

 

[Ericloewe]

Fitting a whole new system in there? Unlikely.

 

[Admiral688]

I didn't know what was possible with this thing. I saw a Debian install video on the platform so I didn't know if it would be flexible like a dd-wrt type router.

 

[marbus90]

Nope. It's comparable to plasticky cheap synology/qnap boxes. doesn't nearly have enough RAM (1GB max supported) and a single 400MHz CPU isn't going to cut it.

 

[Admiral688]

Ok.....so do I have an option of managing it with, say, a laptop running Freenas and using it as open storage like a big USB drive?
(Don't mind my noob questions.......I'm trying to do a NAS on the cheap and looking for some way to keep from spending a ton.)

 

[marbus90]

no point in that.

NAS on the cheap? $300 and you're in. Lenovo TS140 or Dell T20, add a 4 or 8GB ECC DIMM, enjoy 4-5 3.5" HDD bays.

 

[Admiral688]

I have a few cases around here I can repurpose so with the right hardware I can build up a box. Any suggestions for motherboards and raid cages which will mount in a pc mid tower?

 

[marbus90]

There's no cheaper solution than said TS140. the computer itself with ECC capable mobo, PSU, CPU, 4GB ECC RAM, mATX tower for 5 HDDs goes for $200 give or take. a proper mobo costs 150$ at least. Note that you need at least 8GB RAM for FreeNAS to run.

 

[Admiral688]

It's running on my 4 gig laptop just fine now. It's a stop gap while I'm between jobs so I can pick up some new skills. Once I get my income flowing again I'll have funds to build out a server.

 

[marbus90]

well, we aren't keeping you from playing 10 rounds of russian roulette.

 

[Admiral688]

Been playing around with a ton of stuff and I've had zero issues,hard drive space aside.