nas4free box to replace existing PC

[thisguyhere]

When I built my nas4free box, its sole intended purpose was just to be a NAS.

Having used it for some time now, I'm seeing just how capable it is, and in light of VirtualBox working, it can really perform any kind of computing (to a certain extent).

I guess I'm seeking some advice on whether what I'm planning to do is the right thing to do.

As it stands, the nas box I built is woefully under powered as it's an embedded board with a N3700 processor. This board is pretty stable, does it's basic NAS duties pretty well, albeit a bit laggy with max read / write speeds averaging 80Mbps.

This build, however, CANNOT handle plex, and running any vbox instances is painfully slow.

I'm using a desktop PC but want to move all of its duties to a dedicated "server" that will have nas4free (freebsd) as its main OS. Is anyone else running their setup like this? If so, how is it working out for you?

The new NAS box I'm planning will run a current Xeon processor on a server board with ECC ram.

What my setup looks like now, and how I intend to update it.

[apollo567]

Well the Info which is lagging atm, is where do you want to do the Gaming ?

Having a Server for Storage, plex, VMs and Torrents only should be a reasonable configuration for a FreeBSD Server / N4F.
Depending what you are really doing, a server grade Mainboard and a potent Xeon and lots of Ram will for sure be the right setup there.
I use such a mainboard in my NAS-Box with an i3 only, which I use for storage tasks only. My max CPU usage I got yet was about 37%.......

[thisguyhere]

Well the Info which is lagging atm, is where do you want to do the Gaming ?

Great point.

I don't do much gaming anymore, but in the event something comes out that I HAVE to play (HL3?), I can swap out the boot drive in the NAS box and hookup my video card, and boot into Win10. Kinda wonky, but gaming accounts for less than 1% of my PC time, so it should be nearly negligible. On the other hand, it is MAINLY used for VMs - Plex - Torrents, and some work, which can be offloaded to my laptop connected to a monitor.

I'm just kind of worried about dumping $$$ into a new box and realizing it was the wrong move. So far, though, it seems like the right move.

[apollo567]

[and some work, which can be offloaded to my laptop connected to a monitor.

'Work' only as storage of files which you are working on (like some Powerpoint, Excel - Files) , or how is this to be understood ?

[thisguyhere]

'Work' only as storage of files which you are working on (like some Powerpoint, Excel - Files) , or how is this to be understood ?

'Work' as in actual work, I do programming as a trade and often work off my laptop sitting in front of the TV.

[Parkcomm]

I have the set up you are showing on an extremely low power cpu - there are a few caveats:

- If plex needs to transcode you need to, nah forget that, dod not use a low power nas to transcode
- you can only get a way with a small humber of VMS, especially of they are using MySQL or similar, don't expect stellar performance
- I only us 10Gig of RAM (ECC) seems adequate
- its super stable, although I pay attention to VM memory vs ZFS ARC usage just in case

a decent XEON should romp the above in and more

[thisguyhere]

I have the set up you are showing on an extremely low power cpu - there are a few caveats:

- If plex needs to transcode you need to, nah forget that, dod not use a low power nas to transcode
- you can only get a way with a small humber of VMS, especially of they are using MySQL or similar, don't expect stellar performance
- I only us 10Gig of RAM (ECC) seems adequate
- its super stable, although I pay attention to VM memory vs ZFS ARC usage just in case

a decent XEON should romp the above in and more

yes, i tried plex on my current nas box and it just can't handle it at all. also a vbox instance (win7) and it was really slow.

so that's the plan, consolidate two separate systems (PC and NAS) into a single box, so put some good power in it. that'll reduce monthly electricity usage and will only need to maintain a single box instead of two. i like the simplicity of it.

ok, i think i'm gonna move forward with the plan.

thanks all.

[apollo567]

Please post your new build then in the gallery !

[thisguyhere]

Please post your new build then in the gallery !

Will do, parts are on the way.