FreeNAS Build - Fairly Old Hardware

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Yo dudes,

So I was digging around in my lounge room the other day and came across my PC from circa '08. I’ve been wanting to try out FreeNAS for a simple home NAS setup and feel this would be a good excuse to at the very least, try it out.

Bear with me as I am a total newbie when it comes to networking haha. I currently have this hardware from my old PC (booted up just fine running Windows XP SP3 haha)

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra 939
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Socket 939
RAM: 2 X Corsair CMX512 - 3200C2 512mb DDR (400mhz)
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce 7600GS 256mb GDDR2 (128bit)
PSU: Antec True Power 2.0 480w
HDD: WD 250gb Black

Both the CPU and GPU are passively cooled with these fat heat sinks, surprised they are still all good haha. I also have a spare 1tb WD Green lying around that I can attach to the build.

I figured the best place to start would be to see if these parts are even viable for a NAS. I’m not looking to do anything crazy, more of a fun side project. Also, the build doesn’t necessarily have to be in FreeNAS, if it’s possible in XP would be happy to do it there as well.

Cheers!

2

Yeeahh.... FreeNAS wont like that.

I'd look into a more lightweight alternative than FreeNAS if I was you.

Something like OpenMediaVault or even UnRaid might suit you better

1 Like
3

Yeah, you won't meet the minimum requirements for FreeNas......and I'd bet that board won't boot from a USB which is the preferred way to house and boot the FreeNas OS.

Hardware Requirements
4

Haha, alright thanks guys. Muchly appreciated! Was worth a shot anyway.

Will definitely check out OpenMediaVault and UnRaid

5

yeah omv (openmediavault) can run with about 256mb - 1gb of ram at a minimum.