Radagast

$129.99 at Memory Express this weekend: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX44463 I was tempted to order some of these, but I did just get 6 HGST 4TB from BB a few weeks ago when they were clearing them out. Edit: Whoops, just noticed your other thread @ $119, but FWIW the NCIX link shows up as $127.99 for me: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=44255.0

HGST Ultrastar A7K2000 DL-HUA722020ALA331 2TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Use promo code: CEMCKANT25 The $10 discount with the promo code also applies to the volume discounts. After applying it the discounts are: 1 $54.99 ea. 2-4 $50.99 ea. 5+ $48.99 ea. Limit 5 per customer. Discounted prices and/or promo codes are valid till 2015-11-1. I wasn't too sure about buying a refurb, would prefer lower RPM for temps, only 2 TB, and these are older drives/technology (manufactured circa 2010-2011)...but I figured for the price, why not try some. I'm still hoping to pick up some 4 TB at a good price in the coming months.

I'd probably be buying if they shipped to Canada. I really like these drives, and they go for $210+ regular price locally.

Have you considered using a HBA + SAS expander combo instead of one larger HBA? Because the expanders only require power from a PCI-E port, you could use a PCI-E x1 to PCI-E x16 riser (or whatever is available, I got a x16 off ebay) for the HP expander, or in the case of the Intel & Chenbro expanders, they have onboard Molex connections for power. I found that going this route was cheaper and more expandable than the single large controller.

I'll second the commendation for the Monoprice cable, I don't see any issues whatsoever.

FWIW I find that my older AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz quad core transcodes and serves up media to multiple devices with no issue.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133047 Or a much cheaper option would be to just buy whatever case you want and use a controller in your main case to run an expander like the Intel, HP or Chenbro cards in the second case. The Chenbro's like a CK23601 have external SFF-8088 connectors which would work perfectly here. Will require a slight mod to get a PSU running in the second case without a mobo, or you could throw any old mobo in their just to make the PSU run.

FWIW, the 1x to 16x adapter I got works fine, powers the HP expander without issue and I didn't have to buy a mobo with more PCIe slots. The only disadvantage I see is that the card is not as structurally sound without a solid attachment on the bottom.

Check for availability of 3TB or 4TB Hitachi/HGST 5K4000. The 4TB Hitachi would be my drive of choice, WD Red second. Edit: Check for 5K3000 line for the 3TB option I believe.

I've recently RMA'd a couple drives with Seagate that were not dead, but had a number of reallocated sectors. I confirmed with a Seagate rep before RMAing that this was sufficient cause for it to be replaced under warranty. As mentioned above, I've gotten the impression that while they reserve the right to return your fully functioning drive and charge you for all the shipping, in actuality they seem to take anything you send in. Edit: And I received two refurbished drives from Seagate for the two I RMA'd. They definitely aren't new, but oh well, they are in better shape than my returned ones.

Ah, posting at the same time. I'm going with the HP expander because I got a fantastic deal on one yesterday ($80 brand new, yay me). Otherwise I would probably be going with the Chenbro CK23601 or perhaps the Intel, since either could be powered by Molex. I will try the x1 to x16 adapter.

Correction, this may indeed work for me. That looks like an x1 to x16 adapter, and I do have a spare x1 slot. Ordered one off ebay for a bucks, hope it works for me. Is anyone else using these flex card risers? I did read that some risers may not properly handle all the circuitry correctly, such as "PWRGD".

Interesting idea, I wasn't aware of these, but I don't think it helps my particular situation. Thanks.

Ok next question...what's a "flex-riser card"? All I saw was an M1015 plugged into something besides a mobo and was intrigued.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how impmonkey ran his M1015 without being plugged into PCI-e on the motherboard? The mobo I'm using has only one PCI-e to use for my M1015, but am just now acquiring an HP SAS Expander and I have to decide how to upgrade to allow me to use it. Not having to upgrade my mobo would be great...

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=57130&vpn=ST1500DL003&manufacture=Seagate&promoid=1060 Maybe not the perfect HDD, but a decent price for 1.5TB. I got Memory Express to price beat this, ended up paying $72.49 each for 2 drives.

Gotcha, I was not sure what type of player you were using; I try and avoid transcoding wherever possible.

Serving up media files, 1080p or not, should take very little CPU power on a Q6600. If Plex is doing some transcoding for your file to play properly on the player, then you could have significant CPU usage. You might want to look into any options that avoid transcoding where possible.

FWIW, you can get one at NCIX for $410 + $35 shipping. http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55462 I'm currently waiting/watching to see if Newegg or NCIX have a sale.