16GB RAM vs 32GB RAM

[Vode]

Assuming 16GB is a sufficient amount of RAM for a given NAS system used as a home file server with only 1 client accessing data. (No deduplication)

Will 32GB give any actual benefit? If yes, are there certain workloads (except deduplication) that benefit from more RAM? Is there a raw speed advantage?

 

[Ericloewe]

Everything benefits from more RAM. The question is "do you need/want to pay for more performance?"

 

[melloa]

@Vode, also consider what you are using as your network card, what you are trying to get from your FreeNAS (CIF shares, media streaming, etc). Memory will be used by ZFS and all other applications you are running on your server, so there is no one answer for all situations.

I'm a single user as you. At home I have 10x4TiB disks in Raidz2. I'm a firmer believer of using my FreeNAS to take care of my data, so I do avoid running applications in it. With that said, my 32GB are not utilized at all, so try to start with 16GB using as less slots in your motherboard as possible (if you have 4 memory slots, go for 2x8, instead of 4x4 memory sticks), monitor performance, check network performance and memory utilization, and adjust as needed.

 

[Convict]

Single user as well.
Only critical data photos,documents.
Here you can see an avarage usage reporting from freenas.

With my current setup i can easily get 800-900Mbit/s in large file tranfers.