FreeNAS Chronicles!

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Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
Messages
200
Hi,

I'll be building two identical FreeNAS boxes, one to store and serve my media, and another as backup.

I'll be using FreeNAS to back up my Win7/Ubuntu install images, download torrents, and stream 1080p content/music to a future HTPC/PS3. (Different thread)

I don't really have a set budget for this build, I'm an enthusiast and will spend what I'm comfortable with for the best parts....debt up to my eyeballs!

Build so far...x2 of course...

Intel BOXDH55HC LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156
Transcend 4GB Compact Flash (CF)
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 PC3 12800
SYBA SD-CF-IDE-A IDE to Compact Flash Adapter
Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EARS 1.5TB - Unknown amount ***NOT INCLUDED IN BELOW PRICE***

$457.45 x2 = 914.84 without tax/shipping.

What is going to be the most efficient method of setting up the hard drives on these two systems? I want one to be the one I access 24/7 and the other I want to keep offline and power up to do a quick sync with the first box to backup every few days.

I'd like to have maybe 4 TB useable in my system, and the ability to fully backup that 4 TB on the other machine. So, if I use 1.5 TB drives, I'd need 8...?
 
I used 8x 1.5TB drives which gives just about 8TB usable if I recall. BTW at 8 drives, you start getting into where having a hot spare starts to make sense territory for RAID 6. I remember being home one day, hearing the Adaptec alarm go off for a second, then seeing the Adaptec storage manager rebuilding immediately. That was a good feeling.
 
Cheaper and faster could be an AMD-platform with a 45W quadcore; or the 65W one it doesn't really matter for idle power consumption.

A better mobo also would allow more PCI-express and full solid caps, while at the same time being cheaper than the Intel mobo.

So perhaps an AMD build makes more sense here? BSD loves multicores, much more than Windows does. And AMD had very efficient and cheap quadcores at the moment:
AMD Athlon II X4 610e (2.4GHz) or the 600e (2.2GHz) quadcore

If you ever want to do encryption, the AMD cpus would provide higher speeds due to their higher FPU performance; even though generally the Intels are the faster processors. So for multiple reasons an AMD cpu can make sense here: to get more performance and save money. And you will be getting a better motherboard than the one in your TS.

You may also need to manually align the partitions that FreeNAS creates; since the EARS are 4K sector drives they need proper alignment or they will be very slow.
 
I used 8x 1.5TB drives which gives just about 8TB usable if I recall. BTW at 8 drives, you start getting into where having a hot spare starts to make sense territory for RAID 6. I remember being home one day, hearing the Adaptec alarm go off for a second, then seeing the Adaptec storage manager rebuilding immediately. That was a good feeling.

I think that's 8 drives between the two systems, 4 per box. Doing the Raid 5 with Freenas will put the total useable at 4.5 TB per box, right in line with the OPs storage target.
 
Ah I misread. That would be OK too (although I would strongly suggest Raid 6 over Raid 5 using large SATA drives).
 
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