Will it work?

[cloud4607]

Hi all, i'm new to the NAS world, and was thinking i could do something with the hardware i have around (i'm an IT Technician), so i was wondering if any intel core 2 duo or quad will work.
I'm going to use this NAS only for simple file sharing and music/video streaming with DLNA and DAAP.

I have this two configs:

ONE
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7500
RAM: 8GB DDR2-800
MoBo: Intel DP35DP
GPU: ATI HD5770
HDD: i will buy 2x 2TB WD RED and run them in soft raid or something similar to prevent data loss if a disk dies.
PSU: Corsair TX750 (a bit overkill, but that's what i have, it's the old series btw)
Case: general ATX

TWO:
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
RAM: 4x 2GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3-1600 CL7
MoBo: Asus Rampage Extreme
GPU: NVidia GT710 (for power saving reasons)
HDD: the same 2x 2TB WD REDs
PSU: Same corsair TX750
Case: Cooler Master HAF922m

which one will be the most suited for a FreeNAS build? (At the moment i use an old AMD Athlon II X2 250 with 8GB DDR3 of RAM and 1TB HDD.)

Thanks in advance for the replies :)

 

[MatthewSteinhoff]

Here's the thing... If you're just playing around and don't care about data security, performance or supportability, FreeNAS will run on pretty much anything. To get a feel for FreeNAS, to see if it is worth actually using, put it on whatever you have available, play with the interface and see if you think it will work for you. You have my blessing.

On the other hand, if you care about your data, want good performance and expect forum-based support, you'll need different hardware. Read over the FreeNAS recommended hardware guide.

ECC RAM is pretty much mandatory. Neither of those CPUs will transcode and stream HD video well with Plex. FreeNAS doesn't need a GPU and will happily run headless once you get it installed.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[melloa]

which one will be the most suited for a freenas build?

Disclaimer: None of the configuration above are listed on the recommended hardware ;)

The answer depends on what you are doing with FreeNAS. If the intent is what's designed for: NAS, you don't need too much space, you don't need redundancy, you don't care if you loose data, etc, I'd go with the most powerful CPU. Both Motherboard are LGA775, so I'd think the CPUs are interchangeable, but the Intel doesn't support ECC, so Asus (?).

GPU: ATI HD5770

GPU: NVidia GT710 (for power saving reasons)

Why? It's a NAS. Is the vga port not working? You surely are not planning to build an esxi server and bypass the GPU ;)

 

[cloud4607]

Disclaimer: None of the configuration above are listed on the recommended hardware ;)

The answer depends on what you are doing with FreeNAS. If the intent is what's designed for: NAS, you don't need too much space, you don't need redundancy, you don't care if you loose data, etc, I'd go with the most powerful CPU. Both Motherboard are LGA775, so I'd think the CPUs are interchangeable, but the Intel doesn't support ECC, so Asus (?).




Why? It's a NAS. Is the vga port not working? You surely are not planning to build an esxi server and bypass the GPU ;)

The fact is that these motherboards won't boot without a GPU (no Integrated graphics) so i have to use one :)

Anyway, at the moment i don't care about anything, i'm only going to test if i can integrate this NAS on my network and use it on a daily basis, if i can then i will buy the appropriate hardware, with ECC support etc.
In the future i would like to try also virtualization, like unraid, to run different OS on the same pc. (for that i need at leas a Xeon CPU i know XD ).

As a "just for testing purpose" config i will go with the q6600 and i'll try to jam as much RAM as possible, as i read that the bare minimum is 8GB.

Hope i can install successfully the FreeNAS os, because i tried on an old Acer Veriton X270 (intel processor, 4GB of RAM) and after the first boot of the installer it won't respond to any command, only the reboot one.

 

[melloa]

The fact is that these motherboards won't boot without a GPU (no Integrated graphics) so i have to use one :)

RATS!

Anyway, at the moment i don't care about anything, i'm only going to test if i can integrate this NAS on my network and use it on a daily basis,

In that case ... I run FreeNAS on a laptop to test and worked, so go for it. Just keep in mind that, like they use to say, you get what you pay for, so don't expect a Hall 9000 performance.

i'll try to jam as much RAM as possible,

That always helps as ZFS uses a lot of memory.

because i tried on an old Acer Veriton X270 (intel processor, 4GB of RAM)

Don't remember the specific model, but some "proprietary" desktop do have issues. I couldn't install any FreeBSD on one Compaq I had laying around.

Good luck!

 

[Stux]

I run FreeNAS on a QX9650 as my back up machine. Works fine.