Trying to pick processor and mobo for a NAS

[7h3kk1d]

I'm planning on building a freeNAS box with a huge 4u case with a 24-hotswappable drive bays. I'm planning on buying around 5-10 1TB drives to start with. I'm using this for around the house backups, video/music distribution, torrenting, usenet downloads. I'm looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117234
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182165
but IDK if those are a little overkill or not. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[BakCompat]

Personally, I think a Xeon is way overkill. You can certainly use it though. I'd rather go with a middle range cpu and spend the extra money on more hard drives. My primary NAS is an Intel Atom cpu, but my needs are generally only for FTP use, and it hits about 15% cpu consumption over it's RealTek nic. If you need more powerful options, or plan on using the higher up ZFS options, then more cpu is great. I should think most people would be fine with an average Intel or AMD chip in the midrange.

If you are going to get such a large case and plan on adding many more hard drives in the future, then the primary need will be to make sure that the controllers will be able to connect to that many drives. So, look at controllers that will host 8 drives each or so, and then see how many ports on the motherboard will be needed for those controllers.