Choosing a system from limited options

[Luisgp]

Hello, I'm new to the forum but familiar with FreeNAS, I have used it informally for a couple of years and followed the forum for a while.

I want to build a 6x4TB RAIDZ2 Freenas Box.

I would like to know your opinion on the following:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SRM-LN5F-2358.cfm

1) Supermicro A1SRM-LN5F-2358 integrated atom motherboard with 6 SATA ports, ECC support and Quad Intel Gibabit

2) Used but known good IBM x3100m4 server with Xeon 1220 v2 processor, ECC support and 6 SATA ports, dual Intel gigabit.

Being in Mexico with limited budget and vendors narrows my options quite a lot but after a spending time with different vendors and hardware I can get, these are my current options. I have already discarded others like an AMD FX6300 based on the recommendations of this forum.

While we are ay this, what are your thoughts on the HP Microserver G8 with G2020 CPU?
Is the drive ST4000M000 feasible/recommended for FreeNAS use?

Thank you very much for your input and help.

 

[Luisgp]

I got the option of a better Supermicro Atom board

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SRM-2558F.cfm

I see that indeed this one is recommended on the forums.

So this one will be.

I still would like to hear your opinion on the x3100m4, HP Micro G8 and ST4000M000

Thank you.

 

[Ericloewe]

C2550 is a better option than C2558, which is meant for network devices like routers.

 

[danb35]

Among the options you list, the IBM box would be the most powerful CPU-wise, even with a pretty low-end Xeon. The Avaton will likely use the least power. What do you intend to do with the server?

 

[Luisgp]

I need the machine to serve around 2tb of files to 15 users, and will also receive nightly backups from other machines and replicate to an offsite on weekends.

No jails or plugins at the time, I have a separate ESXi machine (also an IBM x3100m4) for VMs.

Thanks

 

[danb35]

That doesn't sound like a very demanding workload. Honestly, I'd think any of the CPUs you mention would be adequate.

 

[Luisgp]

Yes, I think I am ok CPU-wise, I was thinkng more about compatibility, specially the IBM box which I already have. Not much is said about these in the forums in favor or against.

I installed 9.3 last week on the IBM and it was having trouble with the network connections (intermittent detection of carrier on gigabit speeds) , I learned elsewhere that some FreeBSD versions had a driver problem with Intel adapters. With linux it was fine, it was clearly a FreeBSD issue. The dual integrated NIC model is 82574L in case you know anything about it.

So I downloaded FreeNAS 9.10 and currently it's on for testing. Everything seems to be fine now.