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NAS4Free build - CPU requirement?

V

Valnar

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 3, 2001
Messages
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I am going to build a NAS for backup purposes. All my data is already stored on my (Windows) server so this will just be for backups. Since my Windows box can already run any media application I want (Plex, Sage, Squeezebox, etc), I don't need the NAS to carry any apps. This is why I think I want NAS4Free over FreeNAS.

I will want it to be as low powered as possible. It'll probably have 16GB RAM, run ZFS, and maybe up to six 4TB disks. The speed that matters is the Intel gigabit NIC that will be on whatever motherboard/CPU I choose. I probably will not do NIC teaming....although having a CPU that can handle 2Gb might be wise.

I couldn't find the benchmarks I was searching for. Basically I want to know what CPU speed is required to saturate simple gigabit ethernet with all the required ZFS background processing. Using PassMark as a guide, can anyone point me to the minimum speed for my application? That'll help me narrow down my motherboard choices, along with all the other strict Nas4Free and ZFS requirements (such as ECC).
 
A modest Celeron G530 handling ZFS doesn't break a sweat saturating 1GE. If minimizing power consumption is the goal look for something like an Avoton based system, the ASRock C2750D4I for instance. But make sure you have compatibility to NAS4Free, FreeNAS or whatever platform you'd like to use.
 
zrav said:
A modest Celeron G530 handling ZFS doesn't break a sweat saturating 1GE. If minimizing power consumption is the goal look for something like an Avoton based system, the ASRock C2750D4I for instance. But make sure you have compatibility to NAS4Free, FreeNAS or whatever platform you'd like to use.
Click to expand...

OK cool. I might be looking for something older, maybe cheaper. Definitely need ECC.
 
most of the Gigabyte UD# AMD boards support (and fully utilize) ECC ram, settings are defualt off in bios but easy to enable with supported ram). and Athlons and Phenoms all support ECC. they are a great low cost way to get a ZFS rig going. i do recommend a good pcie nic, the onboard stuff is high latency. The HP NC360T pcie nic is a very good low cost part to add to a home built NAS.
 
Always interested NAS I oriented hardware for sale on the Serve The Home forums. Be sure to research compatibility.

I use an i3-2100 in my N4F box. Use adaptive power settings and let the drives spin down and you'll be pretty decent.
 
The server in my sig (with a Celeron G1820 and 16 gb ECC) can transfer 10gb media files over NFS or SMB at ~105 MB/s and not break 25% (NFS) or 10% (SMB) CPU usage. Not quite saturating but reasonably close. This is a $43 CPU, but the rest of the system cost a lot more. I kill-a-watt'd it when I first built it.... but I don't remember the details. I think it drew around 50 w at idle with the 2 disks not powering down (need to set that up!).
 
I decided to splurge. Since this is a specific application that is unlikely to need a motherboard upgrade in the future (like a gaming machine), I ordered what I consider the perfect one.
X9SPV-F-3610ME

I'll outfit it with 16GB of ECC RAM but am undecided whether to go with 4TB or 6TB drives. Total storage on my server (for which this is the backup) is less than 7TB today. It's all media so I don't perceive needing dedup or compression, which means 16GB RAM should last me indefinitely (unless the ZFS Gods decide to bump up the code complexity even further)
 
Recommend using zfs compression, no downsides I have observed..
 
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