Hardware builds list/base ?

Bolos9000

Bolos9000

Hello guys,

I just discovered FreeBSD a few hours ago (I already heard the name before but it hadn't caught my attention).

I was looking for an hosting solution for websites, apps and data storage. After some reflexion, I'm finally looking to build my own server and make it run with FreeBSD.

The aim of all this is to simplify my computer/network needs with more independency and why not more anonymity.

So, firstly, do you guys think I'm on the right path or should I re-think my project ?

I'm a designer, I don't have a lot of knowledge in computer and network solutions.
That said, I build my compter myself, an Hackintosh to be precise.

If all good, I'd like to have some piece of advice/suggestions about which server I should build.

I'm used with TonyMacx86, which provide a lot of options and ideas for hackintosh building.
I'm a bit surprised that there's no such thing for FreeBSD, but there's maybe a good reason.

That said, I don't know what I technically need for my project, so here's some thoughts :

- I want a fast machine (I think I've got a good internet connection, I just made a speedtest here.)

- Can I have multiple drives like on a computer ? (thinking about SSD for the OS and HDD for storage)

I don't know on which budget I should go, I may invest like € 2,000 on it.

But it may be smarter to put less money in it as I don't really know where I'm going.

Sorry for all the writing and thanks for reading.

:)
 
If you're looking for something to host websites on, some apps and a bit of storage I would suggest getting a VPS instead. Virtual machines are ideal. With most providers you can easily up or downgrade CPUs, RAM and storage space. So it'll match your requirements better. There's also no hardware maintenance, i.e. stuff that breaks. No write-offs. And hosting it at a provider also means you get a decent internet connection regardless of the speed of your home connection.

FreeBSD Hosting/Shared/VPS/Etc
 
Thanks for your input SirDice, but after sometime thinking about NAS systems, going back to a server provider seems way too lazy for me.

- I need at least 400GB storage, this means $480/month at DigitalOcean
- Firstly personal, home and productivity solution
- What about anonymity ?
- I justed moved into a new flat, but so far, I'm very happy with my connection, didn't experienced any downtime and it's the fastest connection I ever had.

Maybe my first post was unclear (or my idea gets more precise), but I'm rather interested in long-term plans, building things.

In fact, it's not that I already made my choice, but I need to know more about home servers to make it.

So, can you provide me more FreeBSD-information about hardware maintenance, stuff that breaks and write-offs ?

Maybe I'm asking too much, I'll look for it. But if you have some information you think I should be aware of, please let me know.

Thanks again!
 
I can give you some specs from my own home server? I started from an "upgrade kit", which was a mainboard, CPU and RAM, sold as a set. The CPU is a Core i5, and there's 8 GB of RAM, I'll have to look up the exact type of mainboard, from the top of my head it was a MSI but I don't know the type. I used a Chenbro 19" rackmount case to mount it in my rack. Drives are 4 x 3 TB and 3 x 500 GB with RAIDZ giving me a total of about 12 TB of storage.

Except perhaps the storage I think you can build something similar for about $600. The upgrade kit costs around $300.
 
Yeah, I'd like to hear more about that kind of things!
Looks way more interesting than servers providers stuff.

I'd like to know what kind of hardware works best with FreeBSD.
I attached specs of my computer to give you an idea of what kind of power I'm looking for.
I believe there's no need for a graphic card and DVD drive.
 

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For a basic home server I think a Core i3 or i5 would do just fine. Running a couple of websites and a few applications doesn't really require a lot of CPU power (unless you start doing 3D rendering or something like that). My own home server (with a Core i5) is about 99% of the time just idling. The CPU is a bit overkill but I planned ahead as I want to play around with Virtualbox and bhyve on it. The mainboard has an on-board video card, which is usually enough, so a graphics card isn't needed. You're going to do most of the work on it remotely anyway. As for a CD/DVD drive, yeah, you probably don't need it. The last one I built into a machine has actually never been used.
 
File servers usually don't see a lot of CPU load, so the processor can be pretty small. I have a Pentium G3420 here, a Haswell variant, which is fine. The performance ranges are not clear-cut. For example, this newer "Pentium" is substantially faster than the first-generation i5 in one of my notebooks.

In general, I advise Intel processors and Gigabyte motherboards. That said, FreeBSD will run on most common PC systems, and it is not locked to particular hardware like Windows. So you could install it on any mediocre system available for testing, then move it to faster hardware when or if needed. Or install it in VirtualBox for testing, and move it to real hardware when it has been set up.
 
OK Cool, thank you for your input guys, so I don't need a state of the art machine.

Even if I like german cars and quality stuff, I'll look for some crappy hardware for testing.

You can't beat free!
 
That's mostly how my own home network started. I got an old P1-90MHz Siemens machine the company I worked for was going to throw away. It had been my firewall for many years before I replaced it with something a little more current ;)

Lots of stuff I have running as "servers" used to be a workstation. When I replaced my workstation with new stuff the old 'workstation' was transformed into a 'server'. FreeBSD can run on a wide range of old and new hardware.
 
Wow, the prices are high there. Also a lot of HPs, which might be fine, but I try to avoid. There are a couple of Acers that are probably okay. Might be worth looking for a local recycling place.
 
wblock@ said:
Wow, the prices are high there. Also a lot of HPs, which might be fine, but I try to avoid. There are a couple of Acers that are probably okay. Might be worth looking for a local recycling place.
Click to expand...
I'm told (by people I work with in Europe) that prices for computers (both parts and complete systems) are higher there, and that the build-to-order that we have here in the US is quite rare over there.

If you don't mind the fan noise and the form factor, any rackmount Dell PowerEdge system of Generation 11 or newer is quite power-efficient and will have more than enough performance for your requirements. These may be appearing at recyclers or on the used market now that they're going off-warranty. I fished a R710 with dual X5680 CPUs, 24GB of RAM, and 6 fast SAS drives out of a dumpster a year and a half ago, and it still had over a year of warranty left at that point. I'll admit that I was lucky (I also got a pair of 24TB NX3100's from the same dumpsters), but you may find bargains on the used market.

A Dell R300 is not a bad system (Generation 10), and is a 1 rack unit system which may or may not have redundant power and hot-swap disk trays (they were optional), but it can hold two 3.5" internal drives which should be more than enough storage to get you going.
 
Wow. That dumpster pic is cray. Love America.

At the moment I found a friend who can lend me his PowerMac G4 (Graphite edition by the look, but I'm not sure and I can't give you more specs right now).

Do you think I can make FreeBSD work nicely on it ?

I'm pretty sure he can give it to me if he sees that I'm really making something out of it.
 
Bolos9000 said:
Wow. That dumpster pic is cray. Love America.
Click to expand...
Those were just a few of the dumpsters out of the 100 or so, full of every generation of system from ones with ancient SMD drives to EMC arrays. I had advance notice from an insider so I got to pick and choose what I wanted.
At the moment I found a friend who can lend me his PowerMac G4 (Graphite edition by the look, but I'm not sure and I can't give you more specs right now).

Do you think I can make FreeBSD work nicely on it ?
Click to expand...
Well it seems to be supported by FreeBSD (reference), but it is a Tier 2 architecture (reference) so it may be more difficult to get started. Normally I'd recommend a beginner start with something in the amd64 or i386 architecture, as you are more likely to get answers from a larger group of users. Once you have experience with FreeBSD, you can experiment with more unusual hardware. An advantage of i386/amd64 is that almost all ports are available pre-built, very handy if you're using a slower machine where compiling from scratch is time consuming.
 
OK, sorry. I'll try to show something better really based on your suggestions (with SirDice and Terry) next time.

I don't know a lot of people with great knowledge in hardware in my place, maybe I can find better deals on the internet shipping included ?

If you've got some suggestions, I'm here!

I switched to ebay and look for PowerEdge racks right now.
 
Ask your friends and neighbors if they have any old computers. An old, slow machine for free is okay. Or just set up a VM, which will be very fast on your i7 Mac.
 
Yep. Thank you again for your help. I'll dig more around me. No hurry.
I'll let you know how things are going.
:)
 
I don't know if you can buy parts separately where you live. If you can, this is the best option from my point of view.

1) I've used WD Red series HDDs (a ZFS mirror of 2x1Tb), these were "designed specifically for NAS" and were 4k-alligned. Not all of them are, this must be checked closely with product numbers etc.
2) After some research I picked up an Intel Celeron CPU (2 cores, recent one) instead of the Core iN series. For a storage system you don't need a superpower CPU, I think.
3) Then I picked up some Gigabyte motherboard with a (then) recent enough chipset (Z77 to support the chosen Celeron model). At Intel site you'll find the hardware lists with CPU/chipset match tables.
4) Installed 16Gb of RAM, which seems to be an overkill... but with ZFS they say it's the more the better. 8Gb seems to be fine by all accounts.
5) Purchased a Zalman Z9 case (wasn't my money, so I thought why not??), a bit fancy with LED-lighted fans, and everything had screws and brackets to install thing into places. It was a mere pleasure assembling all that stuff together.

And finally, I would check to avoid buying any "super" modern motherboards. Gigabyte is good as it uses the more or less "mainstream" hardware on it, so FreeBSD will run fine on it. Something that's about 1.5 years on the market must be all right, I think.
 
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