Which FreeNas Version to use?

[Milan Milojic]

Hello all,

I have some old computer laying around, its AMD Athlon 3000+ (64-bit single core), 2GB RAM, WD 250GB HDD and another old 40GB HDD. I was thinking of using the 40GB HDD as installation disk and 250GB as media storage. Now I already have a D-Link ShareCenter with 2TB disks (and funplug installed), but DLNA support is awful so my plan is to continue to use D-Link as file backup and create a FreeNas server for torrents and miniDLNA. I'm hopping to have a better config options with this rig.
The thing that struck me was reading that version 9.3 requires 8GB of RAM?!?!
I don't want to spend any money for this setup. I'm only willing to give up my 8GB thumb drive if the 40GB disk fails to work (I haven't seen it, let alone used it for ages). This FreeNas server will only be used for torrents and watching media content through DLNA on my TV. The D-Link which has some embedded CPU and RAM that is measured in MB can cope with that, so why not my old computer?

I have downloaded versions 9.3 and 8.2 (the oldest currently available). Which should I use?

Thanks and best regards
Milan

Off-topic, has anyone successfully managed to play subtitles through DLNA? :) They work fine when I'm playing a video from my USB thumb drive.

 

[jgreco]

The thing that struck me was reading that version 9.3 requires 8GB of RAM?!?!
e.

It's 2015, not 2006. 8GB of RAM is not an onerous requirement and has not been for several years now.

There are other NAS products with smaller footprints if 8GB is too much for you to swallow.

 

[BigDave]

I don't want to spend any money for this setup.

Freenas 9.3 will be an exercise in frustration with the above limitation and hardware.
Version 8.2 would be the lesser of two evils if you just have to try...
Nas4Free would be what I recommend.

 

[jgreco]

Freenas 9.3 will be an exercise in frustration with the above limitation and hardware.
Version 8.2 would be the lesser of two evils if you just have to try...
Nas4Free would be what I recommend.

No, 8.2 definitely needed 8GB too. The incessant user problems are what caused me to bump the requirement from 6GB to 8GB so I might have some insight into this.

 

[BigDave]

No, 8.2 definitely needed 8GB too.

I stand corrected
But I think it should count that I did mention that it was evil...

 

[jgreco]

Ok, you are evil. Happy now? ;-)

 

[Milan Milojic]

Thanks for your replies

 

[Vgrad]

Try openmediavault, should work good on this configuration.