Can I install FreeNAS on a 2006 Mac Pro?

[markpat3rson]

Does anybody have any thoughts or experience running FreeNAS on an intel Mac Pro?

I've seen several 2006 Mac Pro's (model 1.1) for under $400 on eBay. These have 4 3.5" SATA bays, 2 5.25" PATA bays (for optical drives, but can have PATA drives installed), ECC ram (up to 32 GB supported), and 2x Xeon Dual Core either 2.0 / 2.66 / 3.0GHz.

Seems like a good deal right?

My use would be 1-2 users max, basically just ZFS with AFP for file sharing & time machine.

I have 6 3TB Green Drives that i'd want to install in it (I guess 2 would be via an external eSATA enclosure).

I've thought about the HP MicroServer G7 but it only supports 8GB of ram, and seems like 16GB support is kinda flakey.

 

[cyberjock]

Depends on the CPU and how much you "think" you are going to save.

DDR2 isn't cheap so the cost to upgrade may exceed the cost of building something more modern.

If the CPU doesn't support x64 you shouldn't try to use it as you'll forever be limited to 4GB of RAM no matter how much you add.

You'll have to look at the hardware compatibility matrix for FreeBSD 9.1 to see if the Mac's hardware is compatible.

Performance may not be all that great(and may be downright horrible).

In all honesty I doubt I'd buy something that old. You are literally buying a 7 year old computer and trying to repurpose it. You can probably build a much faster, much more power efficient computer for just slightly more than the money you will have to sink into that Mac to make it sufficient for FreeNAS. I'm sure it doesn't come with 32GB of RAM already installed, etc.

 

[markpat3rson]

noted. thanks. The Mac Pro is definitely 64 bit, but you're correct about the high cost of DDR2 - didn't think about that!

So something like the Lenovo ThinkServer TS130 would be preferable? albeit with some more RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859106336

I dont want to consider building my own. So an off-the-shelf is the only thing i'll consider. The TS130 can take up to 32GB of ram, but DDR3, so quite a bit cheaper than DDR2.

 

[pirateghost]

I thought 2006 stuff was still PowerPC?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[markpat3rson]

You're thinking Power Mac.

Mac Pro = Intel
Power Mac = PowerPC

 

[pirateghost]

Ah. Yeah. Looking up the specs now. Two things:
That ram is fb-dimm, regular ddr2 sticks don't fit and vice versa. I have some servers with the same problem here.
How easy is it to get that model to boot from USB?
Honestly I think its not worth the hassle. You could build something nicer.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[russnas]

you hold control to boot off usb, disc, I remember doing that on power pc,

Unit is heavy at 20kg, inefficient 171watts at idle, you would want to replace the fans as they are loud.

Lga 771 sockets PC5300 DDR2 ECC
And you need a gpu for console too

Those old macs stay expensive for some reason but no one is fooled by the old technolgy the cases are good though, I managed to get 3.