JimmyJoe

Yup, thanks. That is one of the threads that I read through before and actually had me change my HW from the Ivy I originally had on my list to a Sandy.

jesseasi - Read through this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22327.0 RockDawg was getting 4MB/s parity on an Ivy and 75 MB/s after switching to Sandy. Based on that, you may want to try a Sandy Bridge CPU first. I suspect that will correct your slow parity issue. The drives dropping out is probably a different issue, and hopefully an earlier unRAID RC will help you like it did Johnm.

Ya know, maybe what I read are old issues, I don't know. Honestly, I would prefer to use Ivy's newer technology, 22nm and 69W, if I it was as rock solid stable as Sandy Bridge. Is it?

That's intentional. In my research I've read that Sandy Bridge CPU's are more stable on the server platform. Ivy's are fine for the desktop, but can cause issues with ESXi, Supermicro server motherboards and passthrough of controllers. I found more than one occurrence where someone was having some weird issue, replaced their Ivy with Sandy, and the problem went away. Maybe it was just growing pains of the newer CPU and bios related issues, I don't know. I'll likely be memory constrained in the system anyway, not CPU, and much prefer rock solid stability. To me it seems like Sandy will give me a greater chance at being rock solid stable. Here's an example: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=23603.msg208733#msg208733 Is there some viable reason that an Ivy Bridge CPU would be preferred over Sandy Bridge for a ESXi build?

Let me start by saying I am no expert. I am about to run ESXi for the first time myself too. I have been doing a considerable amount of reading on various forums though. I wanted to share my thoughts, and hopefully someone can correct me if I am wrong. The MV8's once hacked should be fine. M1015's would be better. 1430sa (I also have two of these) I read somewhere that someone was having difficulty with these and ESXi. Went back to try and find the link, but can't for the life of me find that thread. The issue I read about was regarding passthrough of the 1430sa. I don't remember the details, just remember that I didn't want to try it myself and plan on buying IBM M1015's instead. CPU - I also read about people having various oddities with ESXi and an Ivy Bridge Xeon, which it looks like you have. It seems that Ivy Bridge just isn't as stable as Sandy Bridge on the server platform. I would want to validate the hardware, but wouldn't risk using any of my production disks (data that I care about) in doing so, especially since you already had one red ball. I would recommend trying to reduce the components you have in order to identify the problem. Here's things I would try if I were you. 1. Disconnect all drives that have data on them that you care about. Make sure you have a good inventory list first. 2. Remove the 1430sa's and one of the MV8 controllers. 3. Test with passing through one MV8 with 3 disks (new ones, or old ones you don't care about the data). 4. Install unRAID on a new fresh USB stick and use that. 5. Try a Sandy Bridge CPU if you have one readily available. 6. Try a few different versions of unRAID. - I think this is what Johnm meant with regards to the latest RC and rolling back due to drives dropping out with passthrough of the MV8. Change one thing, test and verify. If you start running stable in some configuration, start adding other components back in one at a time, test and verify. Hopefully this will help identify the root cause of your issue.

Just ordered 2 80mm fans to replace those in the rear. ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan

Looks like the DM is starting to pop up on a couple of other retailers sites too. I am not familiar with the company, but they have it listed for $190: http://www.ctistore.com/catalog/cat/prod,655530.html?gclid=CPqD_YGX0rUCFW3hQgod9RsAcw Hopefully the start of 4TB price decreases across the board!

None of my DX drives had the foil but all of my DM drives did. I was able to gently pull it off the drive in case I need to put it back. Yup, the sale ended yesterday.

HAhahahaha.... It's all good!

Thanks so much for this thread. It inspired me to build my own ESXi box. I have some of the components already, and started my own build post here. I am about to purchase the rest of the components and would like to get a sanity check that my hardware choices make sense. Any feedback or suggestions are warmly welcomed. Thanks! Proposed components yet to be purchased: CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 Sandy Bridge $199 Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-IIF-O $193 RAM: 32GB - 4x Super Talent DDR3-1333 8GB ECC Micron $208 Controllers: 3x IBM M1015 ~$80 each from ebay? Cables: 6x 1m Forward Breakout Cable $60 Anything different that you would recommend?

As far as I know, it's not. You must have missed the note below the screenshot. While the preclear was running, I changed the timezone. That rolled back the system clock. So the script did the math from the wrong time, hence the inflated number. Feb 23 14:50:49 defiant crond[1211]: time disparity of -479 minutes detected

I'm sure you'll be happy with the DX drives, they are very fast! Heat makes a difference for me because I want my new system to be silent. I am about 1/2 way through my 3 preclear cycles on 7 of my DM drives. Looking good and temps from 33-38C right now, couple more days to go! Just got back from Costco. I LOVE Costco. I really do. I just returned 8 DX drives, all had been opened. A little casual conversation, checking inside the boxes and I was good to go. Didn't even need to talk with a manager. $1400 back on my card! It's also not too often that you leave Costco with more money than when you walked in the door. I bought about $100 worth of food, but also had them cut me a $850 check for my American Express annual rebate. Today is a good day!

It took me a few purchases to figure out which ones were DMs. They have Windows 8 printed on the box itself (inside the clamshell). The ones with a sticker on the box are DX. Picture here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25675.msg228280#msg228280

You're welcome. Glad it worked out for you to get the DM drives! Gotta love Costco's satisfaction guarantee.

I just ordered 4 Noctua NF-P12-1300 fans off ebay for $16 each with free shipping. For that price, I went ahead and ordered a spare for a little less than buying 3 from newegg.

Yup, I didn't see that thread until after I posted. Now I know!

New drives some time have issues that you won't see right away. It's strongly recommended to run 3 preclear cycles against all new disks to validate them before using them for your data. If you adopt this practice, you'll likely have less issues and less headaches. Also, if you find out sooner that you have a problem with a disk, you can often return it to the retailer instead of using the manufacturer warranty support. Yes, it may take several days for a large disk, but in the long run it's well worth it!

Very interesting read on port multiplier and the ASMedia ASM1061: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-948964.html

Just thought I would share that I built a new 5.0rc11 system with an ASRock Extreme 4 Z77 MB which has an on-board ASMedia ASM1061 controller and it's working great in unRAID so far. Have not tried to use the port multiplier.

OK... I had to share this... now that's performance! WOW! 800-900MB/s!!! Ok, so I adjusted the time zone setting after the preclear started and that moved the clock back, so the math is wrong. But it just looked so cool that I had to share.

I disagree on the cache drive. It's more than just a cache drive for me, it's a warm spare. So if another drive fails, I can swap it into place right away. My first cache drive was 250GB. I started filling that in a day.... got frustrated. My next one was 500GB. Then I started filling that in a day.... more frustration. I don't want to be frustrated. Warranty - Maybe and Yes. I bought the drives from Costco and pulled them out of the external enclosures. According to the Seagate website they are under warranty until 4/30/15. Will Seagate honor the warranty if I send them an internal drive that was purchased in an external enclosure? I don't know. Some people have done this with success, doesn't mean it would work for me. I look at it this way, if down the road Seagate won't honor the warranty, Costco has a satisfaction guarantee and will take the drive back anytime in the future and give me a full refund in cash. So, I would say I'm covered. Costco gets a LOT of my money because of their satisfaction guarantee. I'll even buy something from them when it costs a little more, just for the piece of mind. I don't end up returning that much stuff, but sure feels good knowing that I can if I need to.

Thanks! It was fun!

+quite the awesome post, thanks for the work and details. Thanks! It was fun testing the drives, I really enjoyed it. Personally, I am going to use the DM drives for everything, including parity. I am going to return the DX drives to Costco, they just run WAY too hot for me. I completely agree with c3, you're not going to feel the performance increase from the DX in daily operation of an unRAID server, but the heat and fans required to cool them you will for sure. I am very pleased so far with the performance of the DM drives. They are faster than any of the drives in my old array, even 7200rpm drives that run warmer. I think it's a great balance of performance to heat. Now I am just crossing my fingers since I bought several of them from the same batch. Ya just never know with new drives. I currently have 7 of the DM drives preclearing in my new system with temps holding steady from 32-37C. Build info here.

I recently moved and my Norco 4020 with stock fans is too loud because it's now somewhere that I can hear it. So I built a new quiet system and I am very happy with how it turned out so far. This will allow me to take my sweet time and rebuild my Norco into an ESXi box and mod it for 120mm fans. When I went looking for a case, I wanted something quiet in mid-sized tower that could hold at least 6 drives and make it easy to change them out. When I need to change a drive, I either wanted a hot-swap tray, or just unplug the cables for the one drive. I saw the NZXT H2 case at Frys and it was EXACTLY what I wanted. It has 8 front accessible drive bays with tool less drive trays that have rubber grommits to reduce noise and vibrations. It also has 2 120mm fans that easily clip on with a wireless connector. That is SOOO DAMN COOL! I LOVE IT! It only takes one second to take the fan off the front. It's got cool wow factor too when I show it to friends, I pop the fan off while it's running, show them as it spins down and then pop it back in and it spins up. Also, it has a built in fan control for L/M/H speeds that control all 3 120mm fans. The case also has a docking bay on the top for another sata drive. I plan to use this to connect backup drives. My MB choice may not be popular, but I really like this ASRock MB. I have built 4 PCs with it and they have all been rock solid. So, I decided to give it a shot. If it doesn's workout well, I'll just replace it with my Supermicro C2SEA when I rebuild my Norco and use the ASRock for another desktop. I may even do that anyway, don't know yet. OS at time of building: 5.0-rc11 Pro CPU: Intel Pentium G2020 Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 SuperMicro C2SEA RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) Controllers: 2x Adaptec 1430sa w/2507 bios Case: NZXT H2 $100 Drive Cage(s): N/A - Case has 8 front loading trays. Currently unused bays can hold future 5x3 cage. Power Supply: CORSAIR HX750 $130 SATA Expansion Card(s): N/A, 8 ports on MB Cables: 8x18inch SATA 6Gbps $5 Fans: 3 120mm stock case fans with controller Parity Drive: 4TB Seagate ST4000DM000 5900RPM 64MB 4x1000GB CC43 $160 Data Drives: 6x4TB Seagate ST4000DM000 5900RPM 64MB 4x1000GB CC43 $800 Cache Drive: 4TB Seagate ST4000DM000 5900RPM 64MB 4x1000GB CC43 $160 Total Drive Capacity: 8 drives Cost of system: ~$235 (used many components leftover from previous build) Cost of drives: ~1,350 Total cost: ~1,585 Primary Use: Data storage, Media streaming to TVs, PCs and Projector Likes: Very quiet, runs cool, easy to change drives, front fans are awesome!, CPU is a bargain at $70, Seagate 4TB DM drives run fast and cool Dislikes: None so far! Add Ons Used: preclear, MySql, unMENU, apcupsd, bwm-ng, socat, unraid_notify, cache_dirs, rsync Future Plans: None Boot (peak): TBD Idle (avg): TBD Active (avg): TBD Light use (avg): TBD Pic with the ASRock MB: Pic with the C2SEA: The hard drives I pulled out of external drive enclosures I bought at Costo. First thing I did with this build was performance test Seagate 4TB drives and I really like the DM drives. My performance test results are here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26140 Edit 1: All drives precleared successfully for 3 cycles. Several TB of data copied to the array. Parity Sync and Parity Check complete with no errors. Syslog is clean. Life is good. Edit 2: If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I swapped out my HX-750 power supply for an older TX-750 because I wanted to use the HX-750 in another build. I started having sata problems a couple days later. In the process of trying to determine the sata errors, I first swapped sata cables and then MB/CPU. That didn't fix it, but then I pulled the TX-750 and put in a new HX-750 and my problems went away. So, the ASRock MB was probably fine, but I don't think I am going to put it back in to find out, I'll just use it for a desktop build. Edit 3: Been running rock solid for another week. Added one more 4TB drive, now fully populated with 8 drives. I am very happy with this build, I would do it again. Case is great!

Nothing is 100% but that worked for me every time.