Reddit reviews Crucial 8GB Single DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL11 Unbuffered ECC UDIMM 240-Pin Server Memory CT102472BA160B

Can confirm, own this machine. Love it. I've run 3 streams simultaneously no problem, 2 were transcoded 1 was direct stream but it looked like it would handle another transcode just fine.

Stuff I learned:

1. You don't need to buy Lenovo rebranded ram. Crucial makes an 8 gig stick for 80 bucks that works fine. Link.
   
   
2. If you want an additional NIC: Almost no reasonably priced PCI-X network cards work in that box. But thats fine because there is a PCI port. An Intel PRO/1000MT PCI gigabit card is 17 bucks and works out of the box. Link. If you want more, the PRO/1000MT Dual Port adapter is 50 bucks. Link. I've used both of these and they work fine.
   
   
3. You can mount a 3.5" HDD in the drive bay under the DVD drive without purchasing an adapter.
   
   
4. It will be easier to set everything up if you use straight sata cables (not the 90 degree bend cables).

I pulled the trigger! I ended up getting 2x this in the end: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006YG8ZNI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 the comments are full of people using them in the 140, and in fact it's not much more money and it's EEC - so I'll end up with 20gb of RAM which is plenty for my needs!

Also went for the 140, because that cashback is a pretty good deal and from doing some searching on this forum the 140 gets a lot of love. I'm going to stick with the 1TB HDD it comes with at first and then migrate the VMs to a SSD when I upgrade to one next month.

Cheers for the help guys

Not too much more. I think it's worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116974
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182835
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-240-Pin-CT102472BA160B/dp/B006YG8ZNI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396539130&sr=8-1&keywords=crucial+ecc

I am using 4 of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YG8ZNI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not sure if its 1.35 or 1.5, but works fine.

I think you'll find that building a freenas box without a lot of regard to parts might also be power-hungry...you'll spend a little more for it to be cheap on electricity and quiet.

AMD will use more power (and generate more heat) but I find the savings to be negligible, especially given the how the processor is generally so much cheaper. I would think it would have to run a long while to even out. Here's some links to parts to a build I've put together (by no means should you feel this to be forced upon you, this is just the same mobo, cpu and a few other things I use in an affordable but quiet case).

ECC RAM isn't on pcpartpicker, so you'll have to shop around for that...I got mine on Amazon very reasonably priced, and since you won't be overclocking you could go with 1600 MHz memory or even lower.

• Memory - $90.20 - This is ECC memory. I went with two of these, but I also have 12TB of disks. (The rule of thumb is ~1GB for every TB of disk space, you'll probably need even less if you're only using one disk)
  
  
• CPU - $96.78 - I've had zero problems with this, and I do a lot of plex transcoding, often to multiple clients at a time. Comes with its own fan and heatsink, so no need for extra cooling.
  
  
• Mobo - $44.99 - Supports the above CPU and ECC RAM. Boards for AMD chips that support ECC are not that easy to find.
  
  
• Quiet Case - $94.99 - My NAS actually uses a different case, but I ended up using this case for something else...it is dead silent. Has plenty of drive bays for possible expansion. Well worth the cost, if you care about power and noise.
  
  
• Power Supply - $88.98 - Not the absolute cheapest, but very efficient. Since you care about power consumption. You can go lower in terms of wattage, but it's harder to find a low-watt PSU that is this efficient, not to mention if you add disks later you don't want to run into a power ceiling.
  
  
• NIC - $27.49 - I read a lot on the forums about onboard NIC's having problems, this was universally recommended, so I got one. I obviously don't know what to tell you about what it is like not having one, but it's cheap and I've never had any problems with it.
  
  This all comes out to about $450, plus disk(s) and maybe a few cables or fans.
  
  Again, this is just an example of what you can do without getting into buying a Xeon or something equally (in my opinion) asinine. There will be plenty of other recommendations from others, almost anywhere you look, and I also don't know what hardware you might already have laying around. But maybe this will help. You can also search on the forums for a user named Joeschmuck who has a very similar build.
  
  Lastly, here is a link to my first thread so you can see my thought process and how I reached the conclusion of a lot of the hardware I'm running.
  
  And just to reiterate, this is not the only way of doing this...but I'm really really happy with what I have and how much it cost, so if it will help someone else I'm pumped.
  
  P.S. - Look into a UPS system, they don't have to be expensive...with more than one disk the chance of a power outage seriously messing you up goes WAAAAY up. I got a UPS a few weeks after I built my system. Good luck and let me know what you decide!
  
  Edit: You can also disable a lot of on-board crap you don't need, like the NIC (assuming you use this one) or the USB ports that go to the front of the case, hibernation settings, etc. which will likely save you power and CPU cycles.

ECC is $90 at Amazon. Just get 1 stick for now of 8GB.

Toss in 2x 1TB drives (WD Red's) and put them in mirror. It won't win any 'storage wars' contests but it'll be reliable and with ECC memory. Plus for all the stuff OP listed jails/plugins don't take up much space. OP could add hard drives as needed. If I cut what I own down to the essentials and didn't keep every other TV series on hard drive I could live with 1TB for a little while then add another TB or 2 when funds allowed.

First things I'dd add when money came available would be a Intel NIC (FreeNAS will live happier) then hard drives and RAM. If OP runs out of places for hard drives a cheap RAID controller flashed to IT software would make FreeNAS happy as well.

(Toss in 2x4GB USB drives for mirrored boot).

It has plenty of room to grow and is a good base. I've been there and done other routes and it always ends up more expensive with non-ECC RAM, consumer drives, etc.

Maybe a Mobo more like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D65MWL6/?tag=extension-kb-20


RAM: http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-240-Pin-CT102472BA160B/dp/B006YG8ZNI/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1415207955&sr=1-1&keywords=8gb+ECC

And for Hard Drives WD Reds or WD enterprise are preferred.


These aren't "the best" mobo or ram just an example of where you should be looking.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-240-Pin-CT102472BA160B/dp/B006YG8ZNI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1462927299&sr=8-3&keywords=8gb+ddr3+ecc

This is the server I'm using. I added 8 gigs of ram (12 total), this video card, and a 3TB Hard drive.