recycling really old pc... (from 2003 or so: athlon XP, no sata on MB)

[luneart]

Hello everybody!
well, the subject is explicit: I'm trying to use my dug-out from old junk computer.
It has got a A7V8X-X motherboard (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_A/A7V8XX/#specifications) with an Athlon XP 2800+ proc (AXDA2800DKV4D). It also had 512Mo of DDR, but I'll throw it out for 2Go of DDR (PC3200), the max allowed by the MB. (btw, can I leave it on the 3rd slot while the 2 1Go are on the first two?)

The system is 32bits and with only 2Go of RAM I may use UFS.

Of course, the MB is not equipped with SATA controllers, so I planned on buying a cheap PCI SATA controller. Any suggestion?
If not, I found a cheap model, but I would have appreciated more SATA ports: http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00111318.html (french website, sorry guys :) )
Moreover, I'm not convinced it will be supported by openBSD (I did saw this page: www.freebsd.org/releases/8.2R/hardware.html#DISK but I don't know what the disk controller is).
I found cards with more than 2 SATA ports, but they're like 5 times more expensive than the cheap one so I figured out why not buy 2 cheap ones?
Is there any limitation on the HDD capacity with the UFS? (I have at least 2x2TB+2x1TB disk to plug in)

Another topic is the ethernet port. Should I buy a PCI card for a 1000Mps port? or is the 100Mps enough?

I read I need a 2Go drive for the OS. I'm worried the usb thumb will die quickly because of the R/W ops. Should I use a small IDE HDD? (which will still be way oversized)

Last word, can make any use of the graphic card still inside for now?

Thanks a lot for having read me so far =)
and, of course, for any help you could bring me!

 

[bman]

Hi luneart. I hope your build is going well. I'm a newbie to FreeNAS, so I'm not going to be much help. I can offer encouragement and some information on things I've discovered.

I've just started a similar project using a vintage 2004 PC. It has:
• 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 (Northwood) Single Core CPU – it’s a 32 bit processor.
• 2.5 GB of RAM.
• Onboard 100 Mb Network Controller.
• Motherboard has 2 SATA I connections and 2 EIDE connections.
• Motherboard only has PCI slots.
• A 250 GB EIDE Harddrive.

My system is 32 bit also. I think we are stuck with the 32 bit version of FreeNAS. The FreeNAS documentation recommends using UFS with 32 bit systems.

It looks like your MB has PCI slots only. The SATA Controller you picked is PCIe. I don't think it will work.

I've researched PCI SATA Controllers. I’m thinking of getting a PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II (3.0Gb/s) 4-Port Adapter. I've read reviews where people have this card working with FreeNAS. I plan to upgrade to 2x2TB drives.
Here’s the link. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102065

I've also researched 1Gb PCI Network Controllers. I'm planning to upgrade to the D-Link DGE-530T Gigabit Desktop Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI 1 x RJ45. It's listed as a supported device in the FreeBSD hardware.
Here’s a link http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127134

I'm running the OS from a USB thumb drive I had lying around. My reading indicates a 2GB USB thumb drive is a good choice for the boot/OS device.

*** UPDATE. THE COMPLETED PROJECT ***

The final hardware is a bit different than I originally planned. Here’s how it ended up.
• 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 (Northwood) Single Core CPU – it’s a 32 bit processor.
• 2.5 GB of RAM.
• NIC TRENDNET TEG-PCITXR. Its a PCI 1.0 Gb network controller. I tried the D-Link, but it failed. It turns out there are 3 hardware revisions of the D-Link. Revisions A &B work fine with FreeNAS and FreeBSD. Revision C - the card I bought - is based on a Realtek controller and is not properly identified by FreeNAS and FreeBSD. Therefore, the proper drivers are not loaded and difficult - nearly impossible - to load them manually. After much searching, I decided to take the same approach as many others - I returned the D-Link and bought a different card. The TRENDNET worked right out of the box with FreeNAS.
• Motherboard has 2 SATA I connections and 2 EIDE connections.
• Motherboard only has PCI slots.
• HighPoint RocketRAID 1720 controller. The Promise card above became unavailable. Further research, indicated the HighPoint card work should be an adequate replacement. I bought the HighPoint and it worked right out of the box with FreeNAS and FreeBSD.
• 2 Western Digital 2TB Green drives for storage. These are unRAIDed.
• 4GB USB Thumbdrive for the OS.

I've installed the 32 bit version of FreeNAS 8.0.4 Multimedia. I've configured it as a DLNA server by following joeschmuck's procedure found in this post
http://forums.freenas.org/showthrea...ts-in-8-0-3-RELEASE_MULTIMEDIA&highlight=dlna.

The storage is configured as UFS - because my system is 32 bit based. The shares are configured as CIFS - because my clients are Windows 7 based. I setup the shares and permissions for groups and users by following the procedure outline here
http://protosd.blogspot.com/2011/12/general-permissions-sharing-folders.html.

CONCLUSION.

I can successfully stream my music files to a networked stereo receiver. I'm also able to backup my home PCs. I've developed a basic understanding of permissions and created private storage areas on the NAS for network users. All original goals accomplished.

Many thanks to the developer's of FreeNAS. Its easy and straight forward to install. And it works!

Many thanks to the posters on the FreeNAS forum for freely sharing their knowledge. Their easy step-by-step instructions allowed me to successfully configure FreeNAS to provide the functionality I desired.

 

[luneart]

Hi!
yes, I noticed my mistake about the sata card.
Actually, as I absolutely have no sata slots on my MB unlike you, and the sata I PCI controllers are quite expensive (I want to set up a raid5 with 4x1To, so I would need 2 of them).
I'm just gonna buy a new MB, with 4/6 sata slots (still hesitating between 2 MB), gigabit ethernet, lots of ram... I'm up to 150€ with the new config, still less than what I would have put in my oldie.

About you, I noticed you have a 250GB HDD. unless you reuse it in some other application, I would advise you to put the FreeNAS os on it. The 2gb card won't be enough if you decide to add functionalities to your freenas. I went through the forum here, and the possibilities seem promising, but you need some spare space.

about the sata/pci: be careful: pci is 133Mo/s, sataII is 3gb/s=384Mo/s (theoretically, 280Mo/s in the real world says wikipedia). What I'm trying to says is, if you're doing operation from one HDD to the other WITHOUT going through the MB, fine (actually only the case if you use the H/W raid of the card, and it's not advised because if the card crashes, then you loose your data and you cannot get it back by connecting the HDD to another raid controller), but if you use freenas with the standard use, meaning software raid, then you go through the MB and all data transfert is limited to 133 Mo/s at best. (for a 2To transfert, that means about 4h and half.... if the speed really is the theoretical one, which is unlikely.

Ok, I hope I have been useful :)

 

[rcrh]

I'm also starting on a build with similar hardware. What's weird is that I also have a Pentium 4 3Ghz processor. But, I pulled down the 64bit version and it boot. So, I'm just not sure if all Pentium 4's are 32bit 'cause mine seems to be 64bit. My big hurdle is that I can't go beyond 4 gig or RAM.

 

[ProtoSD]

I read I need a 2Go drive for the OS. I'm worried the usb thumb will die quickly because of the R/W ops. Should I use a small IDE HDD? (which will still be way oversized)

This isn't an issue at all, there are VERY limited writes! FreeNAS reads from the flash drive during boot and creates 3 RAM disks where all the activity happens. You can't even write to the USB because it is mounted read-only. There are only a few SMALL log files and also the database that stores your settings and is only written to when change your settings.

I would suggest using a 4GB USB flash drive over a 2GB because most 2GB disks are actually less and FreeNAS needs the complete 2GB. Also remember, even though you may have a flash driver larger than 2GB, the way FreeNAS partitions it, you can't use the remaining space for anything.

 

[bman]

I'm also starting on a build with similar hardware. What's weird is that I also have a Pentium 4 3Ghz processor. But, I pulled down the 64bit version and it boot. So, I'm just not sure if all Pentium 4's are 32bit 'cause mine seems to be 64bit. My big hurdle is that I can't go beyond 4 gig or RAM.

Some Pentium 4's are 64 bit - it depends on which "family" the processor belongs too. My processor is a "Northwood" which is 32 bit. You may have "Prescott" which is 64 bit. You can find more information here....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_4_microprocessors

I have completed my build. Its been very successful. I'm not an expert my any means - but will help where I can.

 

[willydoo]

Hi luneart. I hope your build is going well. I'm a newbie to FreeNAS, so I'm not going to be much help. I can offer encouragement and some information on things I've discovered.

I've researched PCI SATA Controllers. I’m thinking of getting a PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II (3.0Gb/s) 4-Port Adapter. I've read reviews where people have this card working with FreeNAS. I plan to upgrade to 2x2TB drives.
Here’s the link. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102065

I bought this sata card and it works very good on my P4, just be aware that i do not think a 2tb drive will work, i try 1tb and it works well, but 2tb i doubt.

 

[rcrh]

Some Pentium 4's are 64 bit - it depends on which "family" the processor belongs too. My processor is a "Northwood" which is 32 bit. You may have "Prescott" which is 64 bit. You can find more information here....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_4_microprocessors

I have completed my build. Its been very successful. I'm not an expert my any means - but will help where I can.

Thanks bman. I'll let you know as my build progresses. I have a bit of clean up I need to do with my data first and then I'll be all over it.

Richard

 

[AlexT30]

Muy interesantes los comentarios que han posteado, me servirán para animarme a iniciar el proyecto un una pc vieja, seguiré los consejos; que han dado.
Saludo a todos !

 

[pirateghost]

Muy interesantes los comentarios que han posteado, me servirán para animarme a iniciar el proyecto un una pc vieja, seguiré los consejos; que han dado.
Saludo a todos !

English, man

And this thread is over a year old. You better have a good reason for bumping it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus