dirtrunner0519

Sounds good. I will start the build hopefully sometime next week and let you know how it goes.

Yes you are correct, i was not planning on using it as a tower for the unraid, but it is just sitting there. I do like the fact i can put a screen on it and not have to set another one in the room. Any other ideas for that case then?

My Chassis is huge. Chassis: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lian-li-thermaltake-spotswood-unique-atx-cases-compared,1561-5.html I am open to upgrading the motherboard. I would be fine with that. So i can run more controllers. The computer will be hooked to a switch for the whole house, so access will not be done over wifi.

DoeBoye- Should i scrap my spare parts and future proof maybe with dual Xeon processors? I really want something i can set up now and will last me a few years, before i get bored again and start tinkering. I will look at the 4tb HD they seem to be the best bang for your buck right now. Thank you for the comments.

No comments or solutions?

What is your budget? Without HDDs and the price of unRAID, I'd like to keep it under $900. How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need? I currently plan to start with two 8TB Red drives and then will expand over time. Most of my storage will be blu-ray rips, photos videos, files. I could see getting to 6 drives total (10 storage / 2 parity) but 12 drives would be the distant future. Is expandability important to you? If so, what's your long term goal? I want to be able to expand for sure. I want to use this as a whole house system. Access from any smart TV or nettop computer. Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)? If so, which ones? Be specific. I only plan on using this for file storage/backup with possible CrashPlan and as a Plex media server. I would like to do a VM eventually just not sure how to go about it. Usage would be across the whole house. We will be building a new home. I will have a server room this will be based in. I will have cat 6 lines in every tv location and computer location, only wifi will be used for is smart home devices and tablets/phones. We will have 4 bedrooms and my son likes to listen to music all night (newborn). You can follow the house build here if interested- http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=335191 Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives? If you don't have a specific need for 7200 rpm drives, then choose green drives. Would be willing to run lower rpm drives as long as I do not have any lag on the receiving end of the service. Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build? This includes drives. Have a lot of spare parts see list below. CPU: Intel Core i5 6500 3.20 GHz Quad Core Skylake Desktop Processor, Socket LGA 1151, 6MB Cache [BX80662I56500] Power Supply- EVGA 650 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 650W, Semi Modular, 5 Year Warranty, Includes FREE Power On Self Tester, Power Supply 110-BQ-0650-V1 HDD- Samsung 750 EVO - 120GB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-750120BW) RAM- Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin - BLS2K8G4D240FSB (Gray) Case- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133027 (Thermaltake Mozart TX Case) I am willing to change out any of these components for others.

So the sparse image will just mirror our hd on the Mac computer? What if I want everything on unraid and not the Mac as the photos I have are 3tb

I did not even think of the DVR thing for tv. I was thinking of running a small nettop of that. But if the server is going to be cable of that then i would be more than happy to use that. I just dont want to build a computer with a 200 dollar motherboard and two years later it be out of date, as i have done many times. I looked at alot of the Unraid plug-ins do those use CPU usage for downloading the tv-shows you ask it to search for etc. or is it mainly based on your network capability. I have access to a fiber line that i could run straight into the server if needs be. Can i run and i3 to start, and then when i move and build my storage tower upgrade to an i7 on the SM X9srl. 295.99 is not to bad for that board. As far as the case goes, i am custom building it to my specs, i really like the Mozart tx case or the Lian PC cube case. but when i can build something for half the cost and do crazy lazer engraves etc on it. i am all for the custom.

Well my budget is not endless but that mother board just really appeals to me for some reason. I just want an all in one machine with whs unraid and then also maybe win7. They will all have to be virtual machines I am assuming. I am not sure where I want to go with this build anymore. I will give a little understanding of what I will use it for. Storing blue ray movies and streaming them, wife has a huge collection. I have a rather large library of music I have collected since I was about 10 in mostly from cd and they are all on existing hard drives. My wife likes to take tons of photos and I mean thousands. So it will be also a database for this. I have a pc she has a Mac. He hates pc so what ever the solution we will go from there. Any suggestions.

@mrow I too would be interested on a little more direction on the sparse image.

Ok, then can i run a WHS and unraid with this board. I think that i can find it for cheaper

I am not sure if this will work for two systems, but it seems like it may, Two Unraid systems or maybe a WHD and Unraid. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121585

So how do you like it with Iphoto, are the photos kept on your disk drive as in the Mac Device or are they on the Unraid server and you can view them via iphoto. Thank you for responding

Can i run two systems with it. If i can then i am all freaking for it. i am sick of two cases etc? DO you know if mac plays well with Unraid

Edit: It doesn't explain if and works well with streaming or with the Mac platform