Use Computers Extra Power for FreeNAS

[JTF801]

I'm building a gaming computer and I was wondering if it would be possible to run a FreeNAS with its extra power? I know it's better to have a FreeNAS system by itself, but I don't have the money from a separate system after this gaming computer. Any help would be appreciated thank you!
Computer specs:
Intell I7-6800K
Asus X99-DELUXE II
Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8Gb) 2666MHZ
H100i v2
SuperNOVA 750G2 750W
NZXT S340 Elite
2x 500Gb 850 Evo
2x 4TB Western Digital Red 5400 rpm

 

[pirateghost]

No.

That's not how FreeNAS works.

 

[JTF801]

No.

That's not how FreeNAS works.

Would I be able to run FreeNAS through a virtual machine like this video, but instead of unraid use FreeNAS?
https://youtu.be/dpXhSrhmUXo

 

[pirateghost]

Would I be able to run FreeNAS through a virtual machine like this video, but instead of unraid use FreeNAS?
https://youtu.be/dpXhSrhmUXo

That's not what he's doing. He's running unRAID and putting Windows in a VM.

No. FreeNAS will not do this.

What do you think you will gain by using FreeNAS?

 

[JTF801]

That's not what he's doing. He's running unRAID and putting Windows in a VM.

No. FreeNAS will not do this.

What do you think you will gain by using FreeNAS?

I want to run plex media server
Use plug-ins so I get access to my server with a qr code outside my home Internet
Be able to store, backup, and access my data from my device throughout my house.
And other things. Sorry still new to FreeNAS.

 

[pirateghost]

I want to run plex media server
Use plug-ins so I get access to my server with a qr code outside my home Internet
Be able to store, backup, and access my data from my device throughout my house.

You can do all of that on your Windows machine.

People that are setting up a FreeNAS system are interested in an actual NAS, always on system. Your use case doesn't really coincide with those goals if your first priority is a gaming machine

 

[JTF801]

You can do all of that on your Windows machine.

People that are setting up a FreeNAS system are interested in an actual NAS, always on system. Your use case doesn't really coincide with those goals if your first priority is a gaming machine

I will leave my system on anyway, but can windows setup raids with ssd cache drives? And isn't my backups and long-term storage more vulnerable to virus since it's all on windows?

 

[RodyMcAmp]

windows 10 comes with a HyperV built in, if you are really set on FreeNAS you can run FreeNAS on top of HyperV and just pass the disks you want through.
https://www.servethehome.com/install-freenas-hyperv-part-1-basic-configuration/ this walkthrough is older but should give you some basic ideas on what you need to get started.

I'm not sure this is really a good idea but it will work. Like pirateghost said windows will do everything except zfs already.

 

[artlessknave]

why not just use unraid if thats what you want to do....thats basically a kind of hack; its cool, but linus does alot of things just to see if they work, not because they are a good idea. the point of a NAS usually is to differentiate the less reliable performance oriented (or otherwise specialized) hardware of a desktop/application server from reliable redundant hardware designed to increase data integretigy and accessability

 

[Richard J2]

I'm building a gaming computer and I was wondering if it would be possible to run a FreeNAS with its extra power? I know it's better to have a FreeNAS system by itself, but I don't have the money from a separate system after this gaming computer. Any help would be appreciated thank you!
Computer specs:
Intell I7-6800K
Asus X99-DELUXE II
Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8Gb) 2666MHZ
H100i v2
SuperNOVA 750G2 750W
NZXT S340 Elite
2x 500Gb 850 Evo
2x 4TB Western Digital Red 5400 rpm

No, it needs its own machine. FreeNAS can operate, and quite well, on almost anything. Obviously it runs better and more reliably on better equipment but if you want to try it out to see if it's for you, then almost anything that can run Windows will run FreeNAS. FreeNAS is so impressively wonderful it's a terrible thing to run it on rubbish equipment, but it will run on almost anything you are able to scrounge.

Sent from my GT-N5120 using Tapatalk

 

[lukyjay]

No, it needs its own machine. FreeNas can operate, and quite well, on almost anything. Obviously it runs better and more reliably on better equipment but if you want to try it out to see if it's for you, then almost anything that can run Windows will run FreeNas. FreeNas is so impressively wonderful it's a terrible thing to run it on rubbish equipment, but it will run on almost anything you are able to scrounge.

This is not correct. The hardware for FreeNAS and Windows are not the same. There's a huge difference in RAM for example.

 

[wblock]

This is not correct. The hardware for FreeNAS and Windows are not the same. There's a huge difference in RAM for example.

Well, there can be. Windows machines often don't have ECC RAM, but they can.

It's not so much Windows versus FreeNAS hardware as the goals are different. A Windows gaming machine is usually not well-suited to be used as a server. FreeNAS systems are usually put together with different goals, not for speed but for reliability and resources. A closer fit would be hardware meant for a Windows fileserver.

 

[artlessknave]

Well, there can be. Windows machines often don't have ECC RAM, but they can.

It's not so much Windows versus FreeNAS hardware as the goals are different. A Windows gaming machine is usually not well-suited to be used as a server. FreeNAS systems are usually put together with different goals, not for speed but for reliability and resources. A closer fit would be hardware meant for a Windows fileserver.

just because something *can* does not mean it *should*

zfs needs at least basically 4gb of ram to operate. 8gb is the FreeNAS listed *minimum*. windows will run fine with 4-8gb, and barely notice anything about that, unless you are running VM's, or some kind of graphics/video editing, or like 4 games heavy games at once.

FreeNAS will run better the more ram it has, more caching = instant speed as less hard drive access is required: more RAM means a cache drive could be useful (need a lot for a cache drive to even be usable at all)

a windows fileserver just won't have the same RAM requirements, because it doesnt use it the same way that zfs and linux/unix/etc do. unix based systems keep RAM FULL of something most of the time as a cache, dropping cached info on the fly for programs that request it and recaching when/iof it become available again. windows just does...nothing with RAM over what is actively in use (unless you have a RAM leak program, then it uses everything up till it stops entirely).

ECC does pretty much nothing for performance, its only purpose is data integrity.

 

[gpsguy]

ps. wblock knows that. He's the guy doing most of the editing on the FreeNAS docs.

 

[maglin]

It's not going to work as well as you think. It won't be always on. You will have to reboot for updates.

Now if you put say esxi on it and run both in a VM you would be better off but your Windows VM will not have the performance you built it for.

If plex and storage is what you want just use Windows. I did that for a few years until I ran out of space and SATA connections. Know that plex transcoding can take up some CPU and will impact your gaming experience. One of the main reason I moved to freenas and dedicated bare metal server was to use a SAS bus to connect as many drives as I wanted. I only have 15 drives currently but can connect over 1000 more to the server if I have the power to spins those drives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lukyjay]

Well, there can be. Windows machines often don't have ECC RAM, but they can.

It's not so much Windows versus FreeNAS hardware as the goals are different. A Windows gaming machine is usually not well-suited to be used as a server. FreeNAS systems are usually put together with different goals, not for speed but for reliability and resources. A closer fit would be hardware meant for a Windows fileserver.

I think a a better way of saying it is: FreeNAS systems can run windows, some windows systems can run FreeNAS.

FreeNAS is BSD right? The hardware support doesn't match what windows has unfortunately.

 

[wblock]

It's not a hardware support thing, it's what the hardware is designed to do. To use the traditional car analogy, someone buys a race car, then thinks "hey, this is really powerful, I'm going to start hauling cargo with it!" But that's not what the hardware was built to do, so it does not do it very well.