Hi everyone,
First post and I have indeed read up on the FAQ's though I want to put my thoughts down and have them critiqued by the community.
I was going to go down the Thecus path though due to a small budget (I could only afford a N2200+) I've decided to reuse some old components and build an awesome FreeNAS setup.
FreeNAS: 8.2 Beta 2 (though I'm hoping by the time I complete the build 8.2 RTM is out) running on a high speed USB 2.0 memory stick
Case: An old ANTEC NSK6500 (this has 5x 3.5" internal drive bays, sitting behind 2x 92mm ANTEC tri-speed fans)
Case Mod: Drill two large (~70mm) ports in the cases plastic front immediately infront of the fans, possibly add short (10mm) PVC ports, add home made dust filters using flyscreen.
PSU: ANTEC Earthwatts 380W 80+
Motherboard: Gigabyte AM2 mATX (sorry, model number escapes me!)
CPU: AMD 5000+ (2x 2.6Ghz), 65W, underclocked to 2Ghz and undervolted
Memory: 4GB DDRII 667Mhz
Hard drives: RAIDZ1 5x 2TB drives
Project aims:
1. DNLA to PS3
2. Single storage location for approximately 10 machines, a mix of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Ubuntu variants, Ubuntu Server, CentOS 6.2
3. Users to support: Usually just 1, occassionaly 2
4. Streaming video and music on Android devices (phones and tablets) - if possible
My questions:
1. Are my above Project aims achievable?
2. I'm not planning on having an 'always on' system - I'll be powering it on when needed and powering it off when it's not needed. Are there any issues associated with this approach? Is 'wake on LAN' better in this situation (I have had 'wake on LAN' systems before that kept waking up when other machines decided to poll them, for whatever reason)
3. I've noticed a number of people using WD Caviar Green drives, some which Thecus have stated that they do not support. Are this a-ok for FreeNAS or should I stick to WD Blues or Seagate drives? Is there a FAQ in hard drives?
4. I'm eventually wanting to add a USB3.0 PCIe card and external USB3 drives, such as 2x 4TB Seagate USB3 drives (matching the 8TB usable of my RAIDZ1). These will turn on when the PC turns on (at least I hope that function is supported in the drives). What's the best way to snapshot/backup to the USB3.0 drives to provide disaster recovery?
5. Is CPU speed really important? I have a 1.9Ghz single core Sempron (45W TDP) that I can drop in - will I notice any drop in performance over an unclocked (to 2x 2Ghz) dual core AM2 5000+?
Thanks everyone!
First post and I have indeed read up on the FAQ's though I want to put my thoughts down and have them critiqued by the community.
I was going to go down the Thecus path though due to a small budget (I could only afford a N2200+) I've decided to reuse some old components and build an awesome FreeNAS setup.
FreeNAS: 8.2 Beta 2 (though I'm hoping by the time I complete the build 8.2 RTM is out) running on a high speed USB 2.0 memory stick
Case: An old ANTEC NSK6500 (this has 5x 3.5" internal drive bays, sitting behind 2x 92mm ANTEC tri-speed fans)
Case Mod: Drill two large (~70mm) ports in the cases plastic front immediately infront of the fans, possibly add short (10mm) PVC ports, add home made dust filters using flyscreen.
PSU: ANTEC Earthwatts 380W 80+
Motherboard: Gigabyte AM2 mATX (sorry, model number escapes me!)
CPU: AMD 5000+ (2x 2.6Ghz), 65W, underclocked to 2Ghz and undervolted
Memory: 4GB DDRII 667Mhz
Hard drives: RAIDZ1 5x 2TB drives
Project aims:
1. DNLA to PS3
2. Single storage location for approximately 10 machines, a mix of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Ubuntu variants, Ubuntu Server, CentOS 6.2
3. Users to support: Usually just 1, occassionaly 2
4. Streaming video and music on Android devices (phones and tablets) - if possible
My questions:
1. Are my above Project aims achievable?
2. I'm not planning on having an 'always on' system - I'll be powering it on when needed and powering it off when it's not needed. Are there any issues associated with this approach? Is 'wake on LAN' better in this situation (I have had 'wake on LAN' systems before that kept waking up when other machines decided to poll them, for whatever reason)
3. I've noticed a number of people using WD Caviar Green drives, some which Thecus have stated that they do not support. Are this a-ok for FreeNAS or should I stick to WD Blues or Seagate drives? Is there a FAQ in hard drives?
4. I'm eventually wanting to add a USB3.0 PCIe card and external USB3 drives, such as 2x 4TB Seagate USB3 drives (matching the 8TB usable of my RAIDZ1). These will turn on when the PC turns on (at least I hope that function is supported in the drives). What's the best way to snapshot/backup to the USB3.0 drives to provide disaster recovery?
5. Is CPU speed really important? I have a 1.9Ghz single core Sempron (45W TDP) that I can drop in - will I notice any drop in performance over an unclocked (to 2x 2Ghz) dual core AM2 5000+?
Thanks everyone!
