My current build is in my signature. As I have gotten very low on free space over the course of the last few months I went out and bought 3 4TB reds. I am going to add these drives and not replace my existing reds (which is really another discussion in itself.) The upgrade question I am running into is due to the amount of RAM I currently have and the total capacity I will have. With all 6 drives that will equal an aggregate of 21TB. I know that the “rule” is that you want at least 1GB RAM per TB of drive space so that will definitely be under that threshold. My current board only has two RAM slots so I can’t increase RAM any further. While it theoretically supports 16GB DDR3 modules they don’t exist unless you are looking for ECC RAM (which I am not). I have managed to come up with three different upgrade scenarios. For the record my FreeNAS box only ever has to support a max of two “users” as I live alone and it is just for my own file repository so performance and reliability isn't at the same level as a business.
Option 1: Don’t upgrade anything
Cost: $0
Verdict: The performance impact could be significant?
Option 2: Replace my motherboard and add two more sticks of DDR3 to double up to 32GB
Cost: $120 Asus F1A75-V Pro board and $125 RAM (2 more of the same modules) for a total cost of $245
Verdict: Presumably the easiest upgrade path. The board is obsolete so I have to either buy one used or NOS
Option 3: Replace my motherboard and CPU. Add two more sticks of DDR3 for a total of 32GB
Cost: $95 Asus B150-PRO board, $125 RAM, $55.99 Intel G4400 CPU for a total of $276
Verdict: A more powerful CPU should improve performance I guess. Not really much more expensive than just replacing the board
Other musings. I will sell my old board and/or CPU to recoup some of the expense which really erases the cost difference between options 2 and 3. I could also go with an even newer board that uses DDR4 although it doesn’t appear there is a much of a price advantage between DDR3 or DDR4.
Option 1: Don’t upgrade anything
Cost: $0
Verdict: The performance impact could be significant?
Option 2: Replace my motherboard and add two more sticks of DDR3 to double up to 32GB
Cost: $120 Asus F1A75-V Pro board and $125 RAM (2 more of the same modules) for a total cost of $245
Verdict: Presumably the easiest upgrade path. The board is obsolete so I have to either buy one used or NOS
Option 3: Replace my motherboard and CPU. Add two more sticks of DDR3 for a total of 32GB
Cost: $95 Asus B150-PRO board, $125 RAM, $55.99 Intel G4400 CPU for a total of $276
Verdict: A more powerful CPU should improve performance I guess. Not really much more expensive than just replacing the board
Other musings. I will sell my old board and/or CPU to recoup some of the expense which really erases the cost difference between options 2 and 3. I could also go with an even newer board that uses DDR4 although it doesn’t appear there is a much of a price advantage between DDR3 or DDR4.
