Will freeNAS work on this computer?

[S.huahin]

Motherboard: gigabyte GA-A75M-DS2 (rev. 3.0)
CPU: AMD a4 3300
Ram: 8gb ddr3/1333
hdd: Seagate iron wolf x3
os ssd: Kingston sata 120gb

 

[Evertb1]

The only thing that can be said about your CPU, motherboard and memory is that it is x86 compatible. Nothing of it is on the recommended hardware list. Will it run? Most likely (if the not so good Realtek LAN chip on the motherboard is supported). Will you end up with a decent, reliable FreeNAs server? Likely not. The times of reusing random old PC hardware to build a FreeNAS homeserver are years behind us. The HDU's and SSD are OK though.

 

[S.huahin]

It is running windows 10 64 bit at the moment , but I’m getting a new pc soon and l don’t feel like throwing it away or keep it in a corner collecting dust. And about the lan chip, can I use a TP-LINK TG-3468 PCI EXPRESS GIGABIT PORT?

 

[Fredda]

Chipset: Realtek RTL8168B
Better get a card with an Intel chipset.

 

[S.huahin]

This is a checklist I made for myself
note: I can upgrade the ram to 16 gb

 

[S.huahin]

Chipset: Realtek RTL8168B
Better get a card with an Intel chipset.

Any recommendations?

 

[S.huahin]

And to be clear the TP-LINK TG-3468 PCI EXPRESS GIGABIT PORT Is not compatible? But I saw it on the free bsd hardware compatibilit list

 

[jgreco]

There are a lot of things that are ""compatible"" (note airquotes) with FreeBSD or Linux, but which may soak up CPU, not work all that well, etc., because many manufacturers do not supply data for their chipsets, most of which are built for PC's anyways.

If you want a trouble-free experience, you need to pick your parts carefully. The Intel Desktop CT adapter, despite having the word "desktop" in it, is a high quality chipset with an Intel-authored driver that is very good. Cost is usually about $35USD.

 

[S.huahin]

There are a lot of things that are ""compatible"" (note airquotes) with FreeBSD or Linux, but which may soak up CPU, not work all that well, etc., because many manufacturers do not supply data for their chipsets, most of which are built for PC's anyways.

If you want a trouble-free experience, you need to pick your parts carefully. The Intel Desktop CT adapter, despite having the word "desktop" in it, is a high quality chipset with an Intel-authored driver that is very good. Cost is usually about $35USD.

I tried Googling but since I live in thailand all the options are out of the country and if I add import fees it will cost around 75 usd + I have to wait 1-2 months for it to arrive + they are all secondhanded. So all I want to know is if it would run with the TP-LINK TG-3468 PCI EXPRESS GIGABIT PORT (v.2) and all of my hardware I mentioned earlier?

 

[S.huahin]

I suppose it would work because someone on pcpartpicker.com did it

 

[jgreco]

I tried Googling but since I live in thailand all the options are out of the country and if I add import fees it will cost around 75 usd + I have to wait 1-2 months for it to arrive + they are all secondhanded. So all I want to know is if it would run with the TP-LINK TG-3468 PCI EXPRESS GIGABIT PORT (v.2) and all of my hardware I mentioned earlier?

We don't know if your proposed setup will work. It might. It might not. Unfortunately, new magic options do not materialize just because you live in Thailand and cannot get the recommended bits cheaply or easily -- it's not that we wish it to be this way. The TP-Link card looks like it might be based on Realtek 8111 which has been problematic for other people, in part because there are so many knockoff versions of Realtek's chips out there that make their way into products.

We recommend certain hardware to people because we expect those suggestions to be problem-free.

If you use a Supermicro X9, X10, X11, etc., board with a Xeon CPU and Intel ethernets and LSI HBA, we know these things work well as a NAS.

If you get a generic no-name mainboard from the corner computer store with some AMD CPU and a Realtek ethernet and Marvell SATA ports, we know that these things each tend to be much more problematic, and that the end results might not be satisfying.

 

[S.huahin]

So In conclusion this system won’t run freeNAS
could I try running it though

 

[Evertb1]

So In conclusion this system won’t run freeNAS
could I try running it though

Yes you could try running it. And who knows it might work, but how good, nobody knows. And nobody stops you from playing around a bit with it on some old hardware. Learning al about it can be fun. Just don't trust it with your valuable data if you hardware is not up to the task.

Most people go with FreeNAS because it uses ZFS for a filesystem and offers a pretty nice GUI to manage it. But at the heart of it is the ZFS file system. Because of ZFS FreeNAS can be looked at as pretty demanding if you compare it with something like OpenMediaVault for example. But what you get back, if you run it on the right hardware, is a robust system that is a safe home for your precious data, with ZFS being one of he best filesystems that is available. It's very nice to have a home server with some enterprise like features. But ZFS comes with a price. You need to be picky with your hardware.

The wrong hardware can give you a false sense of security until something gives out and you loose your data.