FreeNAS file server...which hardware to choose?

[George Hartzell]

Tim Judd writes:
 > On 7/19/09, Aleksandr Miroslav <alexmiroslav at gmail.com> wrote:
 > > On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Aleksandr Miroslav
 > > <alexmiroslav at gmail.com> wrote:
 > >> What kind of RAID chassis, computer system should I get for this setup?
 > >> Would a soekris be sufficient, or is that overkill?
 > >
 > > Or should I just buy a barebones headless desktop PC (Dell has them
 > > cheap now for $241) for this task?
 > 
 > I don't like OEMs.  I would rather build my own.
 > 
 > Recently well-reviewed Via ARTiGO A2000 is a 2 SATA drive enclosure.
 > You can install anything you want in it.  I don't think it has onboard
 > raid, but a software raid (in a lightly loaded NAS) should work pretty
 > well
 > 
 > Let me know what you choose.

I have an A2000 running -STABLE and another running a slightly hacked
version of FreeNAS.  All of my FreeNAS support hacks (and then some)
have been merged into the image available at:

  http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2009/05/11/custom-a2000-freenas-image/

I don't have any connection with them except as a happy
camper/customer.

You'd need to hang the third drive off the USB connection, so it
wouldn't be a screamer, but it should work well.

Both systems are running the 1TB Western Digital green drives.
Otherwise they're plug and play.

g.