DoeBoye

Excellent point! And mine doesn't get booted for months at a time (Only if I'm fiddling with it). Just goes to sleep when 'turned off', and wakes up before the rest of the system is even ready. I use a Harmony remote to do it all at once, and never need to wait for XBMC. Very high WAF factor .

I personally use XBMC on an Acer Revo, and LOVE it (Not to mention that anyone who comes over and sees it begins lusting after it as well ). The interface itself is beautiful and truly makes your media library shine. Until recently, I haven't seen any other media player/streamer able to come close. That said, Popcorn Hour seems to have released a new version of their jukebox that actually looks quite nice, and seems to incorporate a lot of the visually goodness that is XBMC. It displays cover art, downloads data automagically from IMDB, sorts by genres etc... I believe it comes standard on the A210, and can be installed on many of their newer models as well. The only negatives I've seen is that it runs a bit slowly because the hardware is a bit dated... Keep in mind this is not my opinion based on facts, merely regurgitating Internet dialogue ....

So just an update for anyone considering the PWM route. I ended up going with the big brother of the fan from my previous post, the Scythe Slip Stream 120mm PWM High RPM CaseFan. Variable speed from 500 to 1900 RPM. Maximum airflow of 110CFM. This is one sweet fan. Coming from my virtually silent Nexus fans took some adjusting, but the cooling difference is night and day (I couldn't imagine having anything spinning faster then these guys though. The noise would be deafening!! ). I implemented PWM using the fan_speed.sh script that is floating around the forums (Thanks Aiden, xamindar, Starcat et all!), and it works perfectly! These fans are virtually silent now, unless temps start rising (i.e. parity check etc). I did have to tweak the script a tiny bit to add control for a second header because I didn't feel comfortable putting all three fans on the same header (Each fan pulls .5amps). The Interwebs claims that Gigabyte boards support up to 3 amps on one header (unverified forum post from somewhere), but I figure 1 amp a header might be a bit safer... [EDIT for Stats] Case: Norco 4224 Drives: 15 drives total (13 green, 2 7200rpm) Average drive temp: Between 28 and 31 Celcius, except cache drive, which hangs around 33-34 (Ambient temp is around 22-24 Celcius) Average fan speed when not parity checking: Ranges between 1000 and 1200RPMs I could lower the speeds further by adjusting the script (at the expense of temps), but I find that speed is the best compromise between cooling and noise level .

Not trying to rush anything, just curious if there is an ETA on an updated email status package that includes the new variables? I'm assuming it will need to be a forked version, as the new variables don't exist in the earlier versions of UnRaid... Thanks!

The Scythes are already en route! Though that Delta has some big numbers (113 CFM). I'm pretty confident the 3 Scythes, though not as powerful as the Delta, will be good enough. Until recently, the Nexus fans worked well. These new fans have twice the CFMs, so should bring temps back down... Worst case scenario, I'll replace them with something stronger... Thanks for the recommendation though. Something to fall back on if these don't work out!

Yeah. They are dead silent, but were re-purposed from another build that wasn't putting out nearly as much heat. I just ordered 3 new fans to replace them. I got some Mid-speed PWM-controlled Scythe SlipStreams, in the hope I can get that PWM script I've seen floating around the forum to work . The specs show the new fans push double the air at full speed, so hopefully it will be enough to cool these toasty drives down! Thanks for the tip . I'll give this a whirl! I actually just came across some old packing foam this morning as I was rooting around for some tax stuff. Seems like the Fates want me to try it out!

So looks like I lied . Once I got home from work I checked my build and looks like I used Nexus Real Silent fans instead of Noctuas this time. The Nexus fans are rated quite well, but the Noctuas push 9cfm more air then the Nexus...

Ok, so it turns out I don't need to pull any of the trays. The Norco shipped with all the air vents open, so I just had to close the vents on the empty trays. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. I had hoped they were closed so I could open them and drop the temp a bit. Ah well. Thanks anyways for the NYF!

Hi, Just a quick sanity check. Here's the situation: 1. Currently running preclear on 3TB drives. 2. All drives in the array are running warmer then I like 3. Just learned about air vents on Norco 4224 Drive Trays 4. Would like to remove trays/drives from server (one at a time) to set vents correctly without shutting down server (and so avoiding having to begin the 90 hour preclear process over again - 3TB drives. 3 cycles) From my understanding, if I stop the array and pull the trays one at a time and then replace them after confirming vent situation, my array should have no troubles starting up again once done (without needing a reboot), and the preclearing will continue? NOTE: Obviously the two drives being pre-cleared will not be pulled!! Any advice or shouted "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOU FOOL!!!" appreciated

I've noticed over the last few months my drive temps slowly creep up as I add more drives to my system. I replaced the fan wall with the 120mm fan wall when I first purchased it, and am using some near-silent Noctua fans. When there was 10 drives in the system, my temps were pretty good, but now that I am up to 15 drives, my temps during parity checks/pre-clearing are breaking 40 on several drives. As much as I have loved Noctua fans for years, I think perhaps they are not up to the task of keeping this many drives cool. As sound level is not nearly as important as it was, because the server no longer lives beside my desk, I thought more powerful fans (and louder) might do the trick. Anyone have an opinion on these Ultra Kaze fans? Currently I am putting a 20 inch box fan in front of my Norco, whenever I pre-clear or parity check, which is a bit of a pain in the butt... Also, a bit of a face-palm moment , but I just learned about the "air slides" in the Norco trays! I don't know how I missed the various threads on these guys!! It would certainly explain why a few random drives consistently get warmer then others... I can't wait to get home to check and see if this is causing air-flow issues as well. Closing empty bays might also help a bit... Has anyone 'documented' temp change from opening previously closed Norco air slides? Thanks!

Figured it was something like that!

'unassig.img': This threw me for a loop. I actually googled that before I realized it's a typo for 'unassigning', yes?

Are you permanently removing a drive from the array, or replacing a bad drive?

If you want to get something a bit more current, the 60GB OCZ Solid 3 is on for $89.99 Not sure you would see much difference, unless your laptop supports SATA3 though...

I installed an Intel x25-v with lower specs (170MBps/35MBps R/W) in my desktop a few years ago and saw an enormous speed upgrade. It's by no means cutting edge compared to newer drives, but you're also paying less than $1/GB. If you've never had one, for $50, you can't go wrong. Just keep in mind the reduced storage space (Mind you, my drive only has 40GB, and I've survived ).

That makes sense. I was getting about that when I used 200mbps units. I found it was perfect for streaming SD, useable for 720p, but no good for 1080p.

Were you using the 85mbps, 200mbps, or newer 500mbps model? The SmallNetBuilder article got 60mbps as the absolute worst-case scenario in their testing of the 500mbps model, with 100mbps being attainable... (NewEgg reviews seem to support their numbers as well)

It all has to do with the electrical lines. Usually the newer houses do a bit better. I would try the 500 mbps versions they tend to do better, even with the crappier electrical networks. Check out the Small Net Builder reviews. They looked at two models. One did better then the other...

+1. If wired ethernet is not an option (gigabit preferably, but even 10/100 is do-able for streaming HD...), look into Ethernet over Powerline, or Ethernet over Cable. There's a recent thread in here discussing the pros and cons, so I won't bother going over them again, but worth a read. Personally, I would stay away from wireless for streaming completely. Just too many outside variables can affect it for reliable HD streaming. NOTE: If you go with Powerline, make sure to get the newer standard (500 mbps). 200 is marginal for HD, and 85 is unusable for anything but SD. Also, nothing wrong with SMB for streaming media over a network. I'm streaming uncompressed blu-ray with 30+ mbps streams from my Unraid server without a hiccup using SMB.

Not to mention it could simply be a bad drive... Of course, being the first person to try a 3TB WD drive as parity makes it difficult to diagnose .

There is no need to drag wives and girlfriends into this discussion. Perfect examples of faulty... 10 foot pole... Check. Backing away slowly... Check. .... Oh... Look! Someone's having share security problems over there. What's that? ... OK! I'll be right over!

Until Aug 31st. Use code: NC10 DB.

Hi Sammy, As I'm not currently in front of my system to test, I cannot say for sure, but as far as I remember, the above statement is not entirely accurate. The way I thought it worked (flawed though it is), is that if your Super User were to sign into one share, the rest of the shares become available to anyone (in the manner you describe above), while if a limited user (such as Ami) signs in to one share (that he has been granted access to), any share that he is not authourized to access becomes unconnectable until reboot, or fancy cmd prompt disconnecting (Even to Super User!!), as the lower access signing is 'already in the system'.... I haven't tested in awhile, so perhaps this model has changed... Though I can't see how as it is a Windows issue, or so I understood.... Does anyone else have some insight?

Unfortunately, this is considered normal, expected Windows behaviour . This is how Windows was designed.

Just a shot in the dark, but could this have anything to do with the Windows behaviour of remembering your credentials once you enter them for one share, and automatically applying it to any other share you try and access, while on the same windows machine, whether you want it to or not? I'm told this is how Windows is supposed to work, even though it makes no sense to me. I would have assumed that every share you open prompts you once for the UN/PW, and if you don't save the credentials, once you close the Explorer window to that share, you need to re-enter them again to open....