What processor should you use?

[Anonymouse]

I wanted to have a FreeNAS system built for the basic purpose of storing data and having copies of that data so I can swap out the drive that died and continue with life. I don't need streaming or torrenting functionality. Uber basic FreeNAS

I was going to put together non NAS sanctioned hardware (Regular Pentium, non ECC RAM, non NAS HDD) but after lurking it seems like I should just get the correct parts.

I was looking at the Xeon D series because I would like to move up eventually from a couple HDDs and 32GB of RAM. Xeon D gives me that ability with the large memory cap. 126GB+ instead of the Xeon E series (which has 32GB) and the lighter Xeon D chips are not too pricey. Like 200-400 USD

Xeon D 1540 / 581 USD

Xeon D 2123IT / 213 USD

Xeon D 2142IT / 438 USD

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/xeon_d

The lame thing is that I also live in the Philippines and the electricity prices here are not awesome. The other thing is the DDR4 issue which many people here and elsewhere have stated is sometimes way more expensive than DDR3.

So the question is what processor do you non noobs suggest I use that either allows for both DDR3 / 4 and has more RAM expansion than 32GB since the hardware requirements stated that after the base 16GB of RAM it should be 1GB of RAM per TB of HDD. Eventually I'd like 10TB drives.

I don't see why the Pentium G4400 has ECC memory support because most if not all of the motherboards I've seen don't support it at all and you have to turn the ECC off which is just useless. You might as well not even have ECC RAM.

Right now I'm ready to put a 4TB HD in an enclosure and connect it with usb to a router for the time being.

 

[danb35]

either allows for both DDR3 / 4

Nothing allows for both DDR3 and DDR4; you'd need to pick one or the other. If you're certain that you want the capability to expand to greater than 32 GB, your least-expensive options are (1) an older Xeon E5 system (with the right DIMMs, you can get over 1 TB of RAM in those), or (2) a suitable Pentium (maybe a G4620) with a modern server-grade board (like the Supermicro X11SSL-F). The former is far more CPU power than you'd need, and not very energy-efficient. However, they're available cheap on the used market, and DDR3 RDIMMs (which such a system would take) are relatively cheap as well. The latter is less overkill in CPU power, and will burn much less power as well. But DDR4 RAM is quite a bit more expensive, and the board would be limited to 64 GB of RAM.

Keep in mind, the 1 GB / 1 TB rule is a rough, and deliberately vague, rule of thumb. Your system will use all the RAM you give it, but you can do a lot with 32 GB.

 

[danb35]

I don't see why the Pentium G4400 has ECC memory support because most if not all of the motherboards I've seen don't support it at all

Ah, but some do--like the Supermicro board I listed above.

 

[Anonymouse]

https://ark.intel.com/products/97460/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G4620-3M-Cache-3_70-GHz

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-F.cfm

https://m.newegg.com/products/9SIA6ZP6YU1659/specs

Links for those interested. Thanks for that good information. The Pentium / Supermicro / 64GB combo is cool and who knows what'll happen in a couple years with RAM and being less expensive.

Just for like an idea of what I pay for electricity. I have 2 electric fans, a small refrigerator (100w), an induction stove, a small washing machine, and all the lights in the apartment (led 3w each). I pay 1,600 pesos per month. That's like 35USD.