alans17

Agreed about the marketing. Once you pass 5 drives, WD/Seagate assumes you're an enterprise user and starts wanting you to buy enterprise-class drives with a 5 year warranty and even lower failure rates. However, that doesn't mean you CAN'T put more than 5 Reds into a server.

FWIW, the linux version of geekbench can be run from command line.

Very slick!

It showed me they would ship next month. Anyway, the Bitfenix Prodigy has the same basic board/PSU layout, and it's worked for all those users. That one gets top marks (even though I think it's uglier than sin). I still prefer the PC-Q25B, but it's always good to have options.

A few observations and/or questions... Why have you settled on 10 drives? A pro license bumps you from 7 to 20+ drives so you're not really utilizing it if you upgrade. If you're trying to reach an eventual size for your array, could you not achieve the same result from just using larger drives in a smaller array? I would attempt to maximize a "plus" license (a 7-drive array) if it were me. After a cache drive, though, that actually becomes 8 drives. That will sve you a few bucks on the pro license. The Lian Li PC-Q25B is a very popular choice for such a "plus" license setup. However, the Bitfenix Phenom has just been made available for pre-order. The mini-ITX variant can support 7 drives. Not sure about 8. Either way, it's cheaper than the PC-Q25B if you're budget-conscious. Both cases are more appropriate for a file server, and a 5-in-3 cage will end up costing you a lot of money when you finally have to go down that road with the case that you picked. the caveat on both of these cases is that they'll require a mini-ITX board. most haswell mini-ITX boards I know of have just 4 SATA ports, but you can always add a cheap expansion card down the road. It'll help offset some up-front cost. Is money the only reason you're not bumping up to an i3 processor? Otherwise, the speed bump coupled with hyperthreading would give a significant performance increase. It might be overkill if you're transcoding, but a little money to make something a bit more future-proof can help. I don't think your cache drive needs to be that large. You could probably get away with 250GB, but the smallest Scorpio I saw was 500GB so that might be the thing to do. it's not a huge savings, but it's betetr than nothing. I wouldn't spend money on an aftermarket cooler for such an underpowered processor. Just use the one that comes with the processor. it's all you'll ever need. Heck, if you save them oney on the cooler, you can pretty much afford the entry-level i3. It's a much more worthwhile upgrade.

Hmmm... Ok, so maybe it wasn't just announced, but it's now available for pre-order from newegg if that's your thing.

It looks like it's got the same space as the venerable Lian Li PC-Q25B at a budget price. Granted even the Lian Li can be had at $80 during a good sale, but that's the Phenom's everyday price. Pros: cheap better PSU layout than PC-Q25B there's a micro-ATX variant Cons: not hot swap plastic rather than aluminum not as serviceable as PC-Q25B slightly larger than PC-Q25B

FWIW... My fans are relatively loud, too.

A valid point.

Thanks for all the opinions. The needs have changed so I've actually decided to go in a different direction with the whole project. The new design will have much larger storage needs so it's either back to the venerable Lian Li Q25B or the U-NAS NSC-800. the Lian Li is cheaper, but I've already done it, and the NSC-800 is downright cool. ... or I might just say "screw it" and go with an HP Microserver and just use larger drives.

Ok, maybe I should further qualify that statement. What's the total cost of ownership for a 12GB array with parity?

I've read countless posts and articles regarding the merits of various file server OS's, but I've never seen anything regarding total cost of ownership. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

Anyone have experience with this "DIYPC V3Plus-B Black Aluminum Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case "? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353014 It looks just barely large enough to fit the bill. The one 3.5" bay could be split into two 2.5" bays. I also have a spare 2.5" hot swap bay that fits into a rear slot. That would give me 4 2.5" bays or two 2.5" bays and a 3.5" bay. Anybody see a reason why this wouldn't work? Anybody have a better idea?

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a small case. The smaller the better. I love the Lian Li Q25B, but it's too large for this application. It needs to fit several drives and mini ITX board, but that's it. I'm open to using 2.5" drives, but 3.5" would be prefered. Thoughts???

The title pretty much says it all. Can anyone recommend a 4-bay external enclosure? Even though it's slow, it needs to be USB. This is for a non-unRAID project so I didn't know where else to put this. Thanks in advance.