[SOLVED] FreeNAS with cheap old i5 PC or Synology DS218j ?

[metalhusky]

Hi,
so, yeah, thats the question, what do you think is better?
Getting an old Fujitsu PC like that one for 70 Euro and using FreeNAS
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Fujitsu-Esp...837513?hash=item4d9ac13e89:g:MHUAAOSwQd5cZAoq

or

the Synology DS218j for ca. 160 euro?
https://www.bueromarkt-ag.de/nas-se...MIyvz-_rSm5AIVhOAYCh2STA6QEAkYASABEgImPPD_BwE

I mean i look at the specs and the Fujitsu PC is clearly better, but in terms of power usage, how much more power will it use compared to the Synology one.

Also, i have 2 x 2TB WD Black HDDs, i could use them as NAS storage, i know that Red ore better for a NAS, but still do you thing i should?

Thanks

 

[kanewolf]

I think FreeNAS requires 8GB RAM so you will have to change the RAM.
The Synology is plug and play. Put some disks in, boot it up, and you can almost immediately access it via the web interface. FreeNAS is not difficult, but not THAT easy.

 

[jsmithepa]

how much more power will it use compared to the Synology one.

Good question. Power consumption of the Synology should be stated in the docs. A generic PC, I have yet found anything that sucks less than 30 watt idle (sans drives) and that was an i3.

Few years ago I dabbled with the idea of a freeNAS and found its hardware requirement "scary," but prices have gone down.

Lately my requirement include multi-front-removable bays, so I can remove/add drives without having to take apart the thing and that driving me to a ready-made box.

 

[USAFRet]

For power, my 4 bay QNAP eats 32watts in use. 18 watts at idle.
https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/ts-453a/specs/hardware

 

[metalhusky]

I think FreeNAS requires 8GB RAM so you will have to change the RAM.
The Synology is plug and play. Put some disks in, boot it up, and you can almost immediately access it via the web interface. FreeNAS is not difficult, but not THAT easy.

Yeah I just looked it up, 8gb is needer you're right, I'll see what I can do about that.

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[metalhusky]

For power, my 4 bay QNAP eats 32watts in use. 18 watts at idle.
https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/ts-453a/specs/hardware

Good flex, but I have no such money.

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[metalhusky]

Good question. Power consumption of the Synology should be stated in the docs. A generic PC, I have yet found anything that sucks less than 30 watt idle (sans drives) and that was an i3.

Few years ago I dabbled with the idea of a freeNAS and found its hardware requirement "scary," but prices have gone down.

Lately my requirement include multi-front-removable bays, so I can remove/add drives without having to take apart the thing and that driving me to a ready-made box.

I am OK with working on I, I like ** around with this stuff.

So I looked up some processors, looks like there's is quite a lot of options for a complete DIY, I found this xeon E3-1220L, the TDP is only 20W and it costs about 40 euro. So I think now maybe of completely building it from used parts, with 8gb of ram. And FREENAS or maybe so other free software.

I don't know if this is the best cpu though if you have something better, tell me, ye?

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[failboat]

I like end of life stuff for tinkering around. Not crazy about running anything 24/7. They are likely to die and they use a ton of power. J4105 is not too expensive and it's great for running a few headless vms. It's expansion is very limited as it only has 6 PCIE 2.0 lanes for everything.

 

[metalhusky]

I like end of life stuff for tinkering around. Not crazy about running anything 24/7. They are likely to die and they use a ton of power. J4105 is not too expensive and it's great for running a few headless vms. It's expansion is very limited as it only has 6 PCIE 2.0 lanes for everything.

as you said, old stuff is for tinkering, it is for me as well, i dont need it to be an absolutely rock-solid server, i want to see how it all will work out for me using it, if it dies after a year or two, I'm fine with that, i'll try to repair it, and if i realize i can't live without it now, i'll buy a conventional NAS for 500-600€ or so, probably.

I am a total noob in the whole NAS thing, i just see people on the internet saying NASs are cool and i have to agree, they look very practical.

I mainly want it as a KODI/PLEX server for my movies, shows, music and just sharable file storage in general.
Using it together with PLEX on my Samsung TV without turning on my Tower PC is probably the most important thing to me, so power draw is important.

I also thought about a Raspberry Pi 4 NAS, but an intel machine is more familiar to me, i kinda feel a bit more safe with one.

Thanks for the suggestion the J4105 looks pretty good on the specs, i'll see if i can find everything compatible with it, for a good price.

EDIT
oh, i didn't even realize it's Soldered-down, thats probably even better for me!

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I believe the 8gb is only for certain file systems.

The middle system in my description is really weak but runs FreeNAS well.