Freenas on X79 and Intel 3930K

I had some time this past weekend to clean up an old computer I no longer use. It was a X79 platform that was replaced by X99. For many months it has just sat there turned off. I did upgrade the old OS (Windows 7 Home) to Windows 10 Home.

Recently, I lost my back up to my Synology DS1815+. I needed to find another way to back up the data off this NAS. I figured I could repurpose this machine since it’s not doing anything. The first thing I needed to do is clean it up. Check the fans and filters and clear the dust. Check the wires and cables and improve the air flow.

IMG_0274.JPG
The radiator is dusty

Next, I removed the CPU heatsink and checked the thermal paste. I used isopropyl alcohol to remove the thermal paste. Make sure you use this in an open area. The smell can be harmful. Also, don’t spray directly onto the component. I sprayed it onto a paper towel then used it to wipe off the paste.

IMG_0272.JPG
Isopropyl alcohol

Make sure you remove the paste thoroughly. When applying new paste, make sure you don’t put too much. It is suggested to use a pea size.

IMG_0273.JPG
Pea size thermal paste

The ram I have installed is 32GB (4x8GB). I found some old ram that should work. Two sets of 2x4GB. Both are running at 1866Mhz but different models. The 32GB is running 1600MHz.

IMG_0276.JPG
Mix and match ram

They still worked together. They will only run at the lowest speed though.

IMG_0277.JPG
32GB+16GB does not equal 49152MB

I’m not sure why the BIOS calculates the total ram to be 49152MB. It should be 48GB (48000MB). I used a 16GB Kingston DataTraveler to install Freenas.

I used Seagate 2TB drives from an old Freenas server. I had 8 but somehow I can only find 7. I configured it to be a RAID5 in ZFS where 1 of the 7 drives is the parity drive. This should be large enough to be the back up of my Synology server.

view_disks.jpg
7x 2TB Seagate HDD

The total capacity is just under 11TB. I’m running a script right now to do the back ups. I can’t seem to get the rsync service to work on Synology to Freenas. I’m using a Robocopy script to do the back up. I’m experiencing a lot of permission issues so some files are failing to be copied over. I may jump on macOS and use rsync to handle the rest of the back ups.

Check out my parts list if you’re curious about the details of the parts I used. The H80i is a loud cooler though. I want to switch that out some day.

Similar Posts

3 Comments

  1. “32GB+16GB does not equal 49152MB”

    Yes it does, a gig is actually 1024MB. The 1000MB/Gig only came around with the bigger hard drives. Basically lazy math for marketing purposes – calling a 2tb drive 2000 gigs instead of 2048 was easier.

    Great post – I love freenas. The new version 10 uses containers vs. jails which should make the permissions thing much easier to deal with.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.