NAS + PfSense machine configurations

[Misinthe]

Hey everyone, I'm planning on making a central NAS for storage of home computers, Flex server for our movies, regular backup of our computers among other things. And I want a pfsense machine to regulate our network and creating parental blocking and stuff for the kids. I have two old computers that I'm wondering if are worth using or if I should get something like a Dell r710 off of ebay and use it for both things at the same time? My computers are:

 

1) Hp Pavilion 512n

• CPU: Intel Celeron 1.4 GHz

• RAM: 512MB PC133

• HDD: 1 x 60GB 

That's pretty much the main components of the small machine, it's old and stock so not really that much to talk about.

 

2) Alienware Custom

• CPU: Intel Pentium 4, 2.4Ghz
• RAM: 512MB DDR2
• HDD: 1 x 80GB WD UltraATA
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4600
• Network Adapter: Intel PRO/1000 MT Gigabit

Thanks for the comments and help! 

[tt2468]

Get an r710. Better yet, get 2 r210s. One for pfsense, one for the nas. Those machines you got are not powerful enough to run even ubuntu server, but might work for <50mbps pfsense.

[leadeater]

Yep the only usable one is the P4 for pfsense and that is marginal at best. Unless you have a rack you're better off buying a tower variant since they are slightly quieter and have better capacity for 3.5" drive bays, harder to find though.

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yep the only usable one is the P4 for pfsense and that is marginal at best. Unless you have a rack you're better off buying a tower variant since they are slightly quieter and have better capacity for 3.5" drive bays, harder to find though.

I don't have a rack, what would you recommend instead of two r210? I want something with DDR3 RAM, DDR2 is expensive.

[tt2468]

R210s are actually VERY quiet. I have an r220 sitting right next to me, and my computer's fans are louder.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Kyle Manning said:

R210s are actually VERY quiet. I have an r220 sitting right next to me, and my computer's fans are louder.

Yep only down side is 2 3.5" bay support but really not that bad unless you need heaps of storage.

 

@Miguel552 How much storage space you need? It is much easier to find a rack server than tower and if 8TB or less is all you need then the R210's will be perfect.

[tt2468]

Just now, leadeater said:

Yep only down side is 2 3.5" bay support but really not that bad unless you need heaps of storage.

 

@Miguel552 How much storage space you need? It is much easier to find a rack server than tower and if 8TB or less is all you need then the R210's will be perfect.

Could use a raid expansion card.

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yep only down side is 2 3.5" bay support but really not that bad unless you need heaps of storage.

 

@Miguel552 How much storage space you need? It is much easier to find a rack server than tower and if 8TB or less is all you need then the R210's will be perfect.

I don't know if I would need more than 8TB for the NAS but it would be nice to have option to expand.

2 minutes ago, Kyle Manning said:

Could use a raid expansion card.

Would something like http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MUYOLW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=6W530XELPZ99&coliid=I1UKUN2C27P4WM work?

[tt2468]

Just now, Miguel552 said:

I don't know if I would need more than 8TB for the NAS but it would be nice to have option to expand.

Would something like http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MUYOLW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=6W530XELPZ99&coliid=I1UKUN2C27P4WM work?

That's part of the system. If you can manage to fit the thing in 2 raid1 drives, you dont need to think about expansion cards.

[Misinthe]

3 minutes ago, Kyle Manning said:

That's part of the system. If you can manage to fit the thing in 2 raid1 drives, you dont need to think about expansion cards.

What do you mean it's part of the system? That's an external USB stock. What do you mean fit them in two raid1 drives?

[tt2468]

Just now, Miguel552 said:

What do you mean it's part of the system? That's an external USB stock. What do you mean fit them in two raid1 drives?

Well, the server already has 2 drive bays. Using usb is a waste of drives. The nice thing is that your dock has esata, and the server does too. I'm not sure how well raid would work across esata though...

[Misinthe]

2 minutes ago, Kyle Manning said:

Well, the server already has 2 drive bays. Using usb is a waste of drives. The nice thing is that your dock has esata, and the server does too. I'm not sure how well raid would work across esata though...

Oh yeah, if I could just use that, that would be great. I can't go past 16TB anyways as the r210 only supports 16GB RAM and I've read that you need at least 1GB per TB of HDD? But I heard somewhere that it was only if you used the option to scan for duplicates?

[tt2468]

Just now, Miguel552 said:

Oh yeah, if I could just use that, that would be great. I can't go past 16TB anyways as the r210 only supports 16GB RAM and I've read that you need at least 1GB per TB of HDD? But I heard somewhere that it was only if you used the option to scan for duplicates?

1GB per tb is Recommended, but not required. The specific recommendation belongs to ZFS. You could probably pass with using one of the internal drive bays as a boot drive, and the 3 other available bays for storage. This would allow you to use windows. Ubuntu server with SAMBA would also work fine, but is hard to master. There are also other options like freenas which can run off of usb sticks, too.

[Misinthe]

1 minute ago, Kyle Manning said:

1GB per tb is Recommended, but not required. The specific recommendation belongs to ZFS. You could probably pass with using one of the internal drive bays as a boot drive, and the 3 other available bays for storage. This would allow you to use windows. Ubuntu server with SAMBA would also work fine, but is hard to master. There are also other options like freenas which can run off of usb sticks, too.

Well I was thinking on using FreeNAS off of a USB stick. Is that good?

[tt2468]

Should be

Just now, Miguel552 said:

Well I was thinking on using FreeNAS off of a USB stick. Is that good?

 

[Misinthe]

7 minutes ago, Kyle Manning said:

Should be

 

Alright, thanks for all your help!