Been asked this quite a few times and figured i answer this one.
So you upgraded you pc and got you are old quad core cpu/motherboard/memory sitting around can you use it?
Yes you can.
Be it amd or intel most desktop hardware is supported and you wont have issues.
You are already going to know its stable and working so that's not a issue.
Cpu
If you are using plex and doing transcoding i wouldn't go below a quad core as man dual core struggle to do the transcoding
You are going to need enough memory so sticking to recommended 8 gigs is a good idea.
This a purposely vague number but its a solid starting point for a stable system.
What boot drive type can I use?
You can use a usb or hard-drive but the usb is possibly going to have a additional drawback besides slow writes and shorter lifespans.
Some older motherboards had slow as hell read speeds when there was no os providing a driver for the usb up to a 15 min delay.
So using a cheap small ssd is going to save you a lot of headaches.
Can i use old harddrives i got laying around?
Yes with in reason as long as they are in good shape if you are doing little more then just file or media storage it should be perfectly fine.
For more important stuff use newer nas type drives like the wd reds so you can have enough storage for a redundant backup incase of failure.
Stay away from seagate larger drives they have appalling failure rate these days.
Sata cards
As mentioned in the hardware pdf many are frankly crap but this is a slight over generalization.
There are a few out there that work fine so do your homework if you need one.
Power.
Stay away from the weird named brands one and stick with the recommended wattage in the hardware guide so you don't end up with a headache.
Elcheepo power supplies cause more headaches then you would believe and frankly the cost just isn't worth the headaches.
I recently did a build with older gaming hardware left over from a pc upgrade
It was a amd quad core phenom with 8 gigs.
Used 3 wd red 3tb for enough storage and redundancy .
Super cheap pci express video card was added since there was no on board video and it may need to be worked on if there a harddrive failure or the like.
Ran smack into the slow usb boot issues so stuck in a small sdd.
This was done for a older lady friend so she could watch her old shows through plex on a roku so it was more then acquitte . ( ben hur 1925 silent film who knew)
For this purpose there is nothing wrong with using the older gaming hardware and is perfectly up to the job.
But if you are using it for more then this in large tb systems stick with the recommendations in the hardware pdf.
Otherwise have fun the worst that happens is it doesn't work which is frankly unlikely as long as you don't go below 4 cores and 8 gigs for media or minor file storage.
Freenas has a zfs based file system so its quite robust.
You can have a mother board cache fire or get electrocuted but not effect the data.
You could plug the hard drives into a new motherboard/cpu and ram with things very likely booting back up perfectly fine.
Now if you are doing this to back up the only copy of wedding pictures for the wife you are likely taking your life in your hands.
Just use a a little common sense and you are good.
Its a great use for hardware that would likely sit on the shelf and it makes a old friend happy in this case.
So you upgraded you pc and got you are old quad core cpu/motherboard/memory sitting around can you use it?
Yes you can.
Be it amd or intel most desktop hardware is supported and you wont have issues.
You are already going to know its stable and working so that's not a issue.
Cpu
If you are using plex and doing transcoding i wouldn't go below a quad core as man dual core struggle to do the transcoding
You are going to need enough memory so sticking to recommended 8 gigs is a good idea.
This a purposely vague number but its a solid starting point for a stable system.
What boot drive type can I use?
You can use a usb or hard-drive but the usb is possibly going to have a additional drawback besides slow writes and shorter lifespans.
Some older motherboards had slow as hell read speeds when there was no os providing a driver for the usb up to a 15 min delay.
So using a cheap small ssd is going to save you a lot of headaches.
Can i use old harddrives i got laying around?
Yes with in reason as long as they are in good shape if you are doing little more then just file or media storage it should be perfectly fine.
For more important stuff use newer nas type drives like the wd reds so you can have enough storage for a redundant backup incase of failure.
Stay away from seagate larger drives they have appalling failure rate these days.
Sata cards
As mentioned in the hardware pdf many are frankly crap but this is a slight over generalization.
There are a few out there that work fine so do your homework if you need one.
Power.
Stay away from the weird named brands one and stick with the recommended wattage in the hardware guide so you don't end up with a headache.
Elcheepo power supplies cause more headaches then you would believe and frankly the cost just isn't worth the headaches.
I recently did a build with older gaming hardware left over from a pc upgrade
It was a amd quad core phenom with 8 gigs.
Used 3 wd red 3tb for enough storage and redundancy .
Super cheap pci express video card was added since there was no on board video and it may need to be worked on if there a harddrive failure or the like.
Ran smack into the slow usb boot issues so stuck in a small sdd.
This was done for a older lady friend so she could watch her old shows through plex on a roku so it was more then acquitte . ( ben hur 1925 silent film who knew)
For this purpose there is nothing wrong with using the older gaming hardware and is perfectly up to the job.
But if you are using it for more then this in large tb systems stick with the recommendations in the hardware pdf.
Otherwise have fun the worst that happens is it doesn't work which is frankly unlikely as long as you don't go below 4 cores and 8 gigs for media or minor file storage.
Freenas has a zfs based file system so its quite robust.
You can have a mother board cache fire or get electrocuted but not effect the data.
You could plug the hard drives into a new motherboard/cpu and ram with things very likely booting back up perfectly fine.
Now if you are doing this to back up the only copy of wedding pictures for the wife you are likely taking your life in your hands.
Just use a a little common sense and you are good.
Its a great use for hardware that would likely sit on the shelf and it makes a old friend happy in this case.
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