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Convert Old Desktop into NAS?

S

StangMan04

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 9, 2006
Messages
234
I have an old desktop that i want to convert to a NAS using Freenas.

Specs:

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
-G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
-OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
-ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Would it be beneficial to replace the CPU with Intel Celeron 430 Conroe-L 1.8GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 35W Single-Core Processor?

I am mainly looking to lower the power consumption. Would replacing the PSU also benefit me?
 
Would it be beneficial to replace the CPU with Intel Celeron 430 Conroe-L 1.8GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 35W Single-Core Processor?
Click to expand...

I do not think so.

I am mainly looking to lower the power consumption.
Click to expand...

I am thinking the only thing that will do is lower your performance. Remember if a low W processor takes longer to accomplish the same task it does not really save energy.
 
drescherjm said:
I do not think so.



I am thinking the only thing that will do is lower your performance. Remember if a low W processor takes longer to accomplish the same task it does not really save energy.
Click to expand...

Oh okay, so I should be good with power consumption with the setup above?
 
StangMan04 said:
Oh okay, so I should be good with power consumption with the setup above?
Click to expand...

I think so. It won't be as good as current 32nm Pentium or i3 procesors but it will be pretty good as long as you leave the power saving features of the processor on.
 
StangMan04 said:
Oh okay, so I should be good with power consumption with the setup above?
Click to expand...

A core2duo is way overkill for a NAS, even an atom should do.

if you have a spare celeron, then use it. Again a 700w PSU should have a better use.

may I suggest the celeron, you can even underclock it for even better power savings. 1gb of ram and a cheap 400w PSU. that setup should handle up to 4 hdds
 
Your system will work fine for a FreeNAS setup. Dual core CPU's are preferred for the ZFS filesystem which I assume you want to use, so stick with what you have, most of the time the CPU will be idling, so buying a Celeron really wont be of much benefit.
 
Stoly said:
A core2duo is way overkill for a NAS, even an atom should do.

if you have a spare celeron, then use it. Again a 700w PSU should have a better use.

may I suggest the celeron, you can even underclock it for even better power savings. 1gb of ram and a cheap 400w PSU. that setup should handle up to 4 hdds
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't have a spare celeron, I would have to buy the celeron I linked. And I would have to buy a new PSU. Just asking if the savings is worth purchasing those or anything to help with power savings.
 
Just asking if the savings is worth purchasing those or anything to help with power savings.
Click to expand...

I do not think there will be much if any savings. Again if it takes 2 times as long at 35W to reach the idle state than a chip at 65W max the 65W chip would be more energy efficient.
 
Okay thanks, saves me from having to buy any parts. Just need a USB drive or SD Card reader now to install Freenas to.
 
tdg said:
Your system will work fine for a FreeNAS setup. Dual core CPU's are preferred for the ZFS filesystem which I assume you want to use, so stick with what you have, most of the time the CPU will be idling, so buying a Celeron really wont be of much benefit.
Click to expand...

Bumping this old thread. But is there any benefit to me using ZFS compared to UFS? Since all I intend to use this for is storing my tv recordings/blu-ray movies and accessing them from my HTPC and other computers. I read a minimum of 4GB of RAM for ZFS and I only have 2GB.

I am finishing my HTPC build and wanted to check up on this.
 
This is a common misconception. ZFS can and will use RAM aggressively to cache for later reads if it is available. If you have a low(er) RAM setup, there are tuning options you can set to prevent that from being an issue.
 
danswartz said:
This is a common misconception. ZFS can and will use RAM aggressively to cache for later reads if it is available. If you have a low(er) RAM setup, there are tuning options you can set to prevent that from being an issue.
Click to expand...

Oh, I did not know that. All I read are people saying get like 8GB of RAM. And I am just trying to reuse my old hardware. If there was a significant difference in performance I may consider buying more RAM or just rebuilding it to DDR3 with a new cpu and motherboard. But, I am trying not to unless I will see a huge performance increase.
 
If your job mix is read-heavy and latency dependent, the read caching is a win, otherwise, no. ZFS offers a ton of other advantages, so if read caching is not a win for you, still worth doing, IMO.
 
danswartz said:
If your job mix is read-heavy and latency dependent, the read caching is a win, otherwise, no. ZFS offers a ton of other advantages, so if read caching is not a win for you, still worth doing, IMO.
Click to expand...

Well if I intend to use ZFS since you say it is worth doing, is there a guide of what tuning I should do to be able to use my hardware?

Is this the tuning I would need to do? http://harryd71.blogspot.com/2008/10/tuning-freenas-zfs.html
 
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