Zyph

So, as the title says I'm currently planning my first ever NAS system and decided to run with an unRAID setup after hearing so much positive feedback of it. It would be used to store and stream data to 2-4 PC's, a HTPC running XBMC and possibly mobile devices. Most importantly I want to be able to stream full HD (1080p) video with HD audio bitstream and FLAC music. Plan is also to manage torrents in a client on my primary PC, but direct the downloads to be placed directly on the NAS and when finished continue seeding directly from the NAS. This is all possible, right? I'm also curious about a possibility of accessing the files on unRAID remotely outside of the LAN via FTP either from a webbrowser setup or any FTP client. Is this possible? Here's a planned setup which I've put together so far, would really appriciate if someone more experienced in these matters would look it through and point out any possible problems or incompatibility issues etc. (The links are for a finnish store, I apologize for the foreign language, but the important stuff should still be quite universal ) Case: Nexus Prominent 9 HDD Cage: 3x Cooler Master 4-in-3 MOBO: Asus P8H77-M PRO Intel H77 LGA1155 MicroATX CPU: Intel Core i3 2120 3.3 GHz LGA1155 RAM: Kingston HyperX blu 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 CL9 XMP PSU: Corsair TX650W V2 Enthusiast Series ATX HDD: 1x Western Digital Caviar Red 1TB SATAIII 64MB (cache) 3x Western Digital Caviar Red 3 TB SATAIII 64MB (1x parity, 2x storage) Selections offered by this store: MOBO's Intel LGA1155 (microATX) Intel LGA1155 (ATX) CPU's that match socket Again, sorry for the store being a finnish one. Reason why I'm limiting myself to their selection is that I can get items for the buy-in price from there which allows me to save a considerable amount of money. I picked the MOBO I did due to it having 7 SATA connectors which seems to be a rare amount. This would allow me to postpone having to purchase & install separate SATA cards on the MOBO longer. Plan is to eventually fill all the slots, that is 12 HDD's total. Even though I'm only buying ~4 HDD's to start with, I though it would be a good idea to install all the Cooler Master HDD cages already as they provide air ventilations, they don't cost much, and I'd anyway have to do it sooner or later. Misc questions: 1. Should I have a faster (7200RPM opposed to intellipower) HDD as cache? Would a SSD be worth considering here? 2. If a MOBO only has two (2) SATAIII (6gb) ports, I'm guessing these should be used for the parity and cache drives? Or does it make any difference? 3. Does it matter do I use SATAII or SATAIII cables when connecting SATAIII HDD's to SATAII ports? 4. What type of transfer/streaming speeds I should expect on a gigabyte LAN with cat5e cables? Should I be able to stream HD video and music at several locations without buffering and stuttering? 5. Does unRAID support any form of HDD encryption (such as True Crypt for example)? Thanks in advance, would really appriciate any input and suggestions. Would hate to spend all that money just to notice that something isn't just right...