Repurposed Desktop: i3 based desktop

[Damianos]

Hello everybody. I'm planning my first FreeNAS installation. I'm hoping the FreeNAS community can help give me some insight on how well this setup will work for me. I currently have a desktop that I'd like to repurpose as a FreeNAS box. I need it to last a year or two and then I'll probably just buy a FreeNAS Mini. The specs and relevant info are below. Please tell me if this setup is realistic for what I want to do.

What I have:
Motherboard: Gigabyte MicroATX board (forgot the model#)
CPU: Sandy Bridge i3
NIC: Onboard Intel (I think)
RAM: 16GB (2x 8GB non ECC)
SATA Ports: 4
SATA Drives: 2TB x 1 : (7200 RPM HDD. Formatted ZFS using OpenZFS for OSX}

What I'll Add:
2TB x 5 (7200 RPM HDD. 3 for installation and two to have on hand)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MTJTDGI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A10GIQVUTYZMGS

Planned ZFS Configuration:
2 vdevs. Each vdev set as a 2 x 2tb mirror.

Use Case
This is for personal use. I'll be using it for backups, network shares and to run a freebsd vm for web development. I also would like to use it to boot a diskless windows clients (one at a time) via iscsi although this is not a deal breaker.

I guess the main thing I want to know is how big of a risk am I taking by using this old hardware and what is the best ZFS configuration for my use case? From what I understand, my planned ZFS configuration will only give me half the total capacity but be more performant than a raidz1 correct? Also, I don't have enough SATA ports for a zil or l2arc. Do I need them? If I do need them, is there a recommended pcie solution for adding additional SATA ports to my motherboard?

Any tips would be much appreciated!

 

[Jailer]

Generally the use of old desktop parts is frowned upon. It will work but the lack of ECC memory can potentially put your data at risk. But it's your data and you'll have to decide the level of risk you are willing to take with it.

Also, I don't have enough SATA ports for a zil or l2arc. Do I need them?

For your use case no.

 

[chris crude]

Should work as a starter kit. Everyone will drop in and tell you about the dangers of using non-ecc Ram and the dangers are real. As long as you have backups and aren't worried about losing data, there's no reason you can't use this box as a learning experience.

 

[Damianos]

Thanks for the insights. It is a low capacity stop gap setup. I can keep backups on an external 4TB drive and just be careful until I have some funds for a proper machine.

 

[Dice]

I like your idea on ZFS configuration for your application.
I must concord - ECC is a must for anything close to trustworthy.
If, as @chris crude mentions, you can use this as a learning experience .....this implies that you do not put any data on the drives that is not safely backed up elsewhere. The learning machine should not be involved in syncing operations in ways that can compromise your data on other backups. Just to be clear. Your data is at higher risk, learning experience is about the system functionalities and should not be confused with "good enough for a starter system, until I upgrade".

 

[chris crude]

You say you might upgrade later on, it sounds exactly like my experiences. I used FreeNAS for about 6 months on old gear, liked it, then tore apart my old PC. upgraded motherboard, CPU, memory, plugged my boot and storage drives into the new gear and everything started up where I left off with absolutely no configuration of new hardware aside from configuring my network address. Easy process if you choose to go that route.

 

[Damianos]

Damn, I haven't been on top of the news for a couple of weeks and just today I read all the hoopla about Corral. I guess 9.10 is the version to install. Pity, I was looking forward to the new UI.