McFly

Thanks. I tried to setup the BIOS to run headless, but the motherboard won´t run unraid unless the graphic card is installed. I will get back to you all with stability reports when I have more info.

I just fired up my first unraid system. Im using the gigabyte GA-965-DS3 motherboard because I had one just lying around. I´m currently testing it with a unregistered version of unraid, using three hard drives. The fan on my Radeon X16ooPro ICEQ is vibrating and making lots of noise. Is there any way I can make unraid to work without having a graphic card installed? It won´t boot unless I have the graphic card installed...

OK, cool, thanks. I thought I would have whole next week "wife-and-kids-free" so I could play with and setup my server... Now it seems that I will be joining them on a holiday to Norway. Bye bye computertweakingtime... And also I found a rather big bill that I thought that I already had paid (that´s what you get for configuring a HTPC several nights in a row, LOL). So I will have to push my serverbuilding for the future, if it is for a few weeks or for a month or two I don´t know. Only time will tell. Thanks for your help though. Now I know more about what hardware I will use. I will definetly go with a Conroe-L CPU.

Cool, thanks.

Hmmm, now I checked the Celeron Conroe-L Model 420 (1.6GHz). Isn´t that a bit slow? Wouldn´t it be better to use a Celeron Conroe-L Model 430 (1.8GHz) or a Celeron Conroe-L Model 440 (2.0GHz) instead? The price difference is very small, but if the slowest of them is more than enough I guess it is totally unnecessary. Regarding the memory, there are three different sets with 2x512MB in the webshop I plan to buy most of the stuff from, I chose the medium priced set. They have one set that is a bit more expensive and one set that costs about 50% of my HyperX set. But I though that going with the cheapest possible set would be a bad idea (I prefer to use a bit overkill rather than to go el-cheapo and suffer the consequenses). The cheapest set is: Kingston 2x512 MB DDR2, PC4200 DDR2-533 - KVR533D2N4K2/1G (half the price compared to the HyperX set). Is the cheapest set still good enough, or preferrably a bit more than enough? I prefer a bit overkill, but total overkill is just wasting money. I ain´t rich. Thanks on the Bios tip, sound easy enough! Good that floppy-flippin´ isn´t needed anymore.

OK, thanks. I will try to hunt down some Celeron 420-L then. I hate to fiddle with BIOS stuff though... I think I will have to use a friend of mine to do that. Not sure if HyperX is high end or not... they cost 639:- SEK (about 65 Euro I think). It was just something I found that seemed to fit...

OK, so I will sadly drop the idea about getting a Gigabyte motherboard. They are not tested or not fully compatible yet, and I cannot wait any longer. I put together a bunch of hardware, I just thought I would throw the setup at you guys before ordering the stuff (I have never put together a computer myself before). Motherboard: Asus - P5B-VM/DO, Intel Q965 / vPro, GLAN, CPU: Intel Celeron D 335J 2.8GHz 533MHz/256KB s775 Memory: HyperX - 2x512 MB DDR2, PC4200 DDR2-533, CAS 3-3-3-10 - KHX4300D2K2/1G Drives: Samsung 500GB, 7200rpm S-ATA II , 4 drives to begin with. Raid system: Unraid Pro Case: CoolerMaster - CM Stacker 830 evolution Drive modules: Coolermaster 4-in-3 , 2 sets (one comes with the case) PSU: Chill-Innovation CP-450A4, ATX 2.2 , this will only be used with the system and 4 drives, when I add more drives I will add a second PSU. When I need more drives than the Asus can handle I will get some Promise SATA 300 TX4 Serial ATA 3Gb/s PCI Controller For 4 Serial ATA/300 HDD I don´t want hot swappable disk modules, I had 3 sets with hotswap disks in different computers in the past, 2 of them failed and screwed the computers (they still worked with the drives attached to the motherboards directly, but if I used the hotswap bays the whole computer went sllllooooowwwww!). Anyone see any problems with the hardware, Unraid related or some other hardware related stuff? Will the memories I specified work with the motherboard? I know that memories have different compabilities sometimes, but I don´t know why...

Will it work with Corsair Flash Voyager? I already bought a Flash Voyager... and I am on the verge of ordering that specific motherboard. I need to get the stuff so I can put the server together next week, I will have the whole week "wife-and-kids-free" to fiddle with the server.

That is the board I have been looking at, but I won´t buy it unless someone can confirm that it works flawless with Unraid. And here comes the answer I was hoping I wouldn´t get... not fully compatible yet. I am at the very edge of putting together my server now, I finally received my HTPC, configured it and I have everything but the remote configured now. It is time to get the server... damn drivers for not being ready! Perhaps I will have to get a board with less SATA ports, or a Asus board or something. I really wouldn´t want a Asus, but if I have to choose between a fully compatible Asus and a not yet compatible Gigabyte (that perhaps never will be compatible?), I would probably go with Asus. Think I need to check the forum for some news and updates, I have been away from here a long time now...

Nothing yet. I will get my HTPC sometime this or next week, I will get started with the Unraid shortly after I get the HTPC perfectly configured...

I think it is better to go with 2 psu sompared to one. They will probably be cheaper. I can probably spread the power-up to 2 "hits" for my UPS. First power up the hard drives on the "hard drive only"-psu, and then power up the system and the rest of the drives. However, how to power up the drives on the drive-only psu... I have no idea. I guess I need to shortcut some wires on the motherboard connector, so the PSU thinks the motherboard wants power or something...

Hmmm, interesting. I never thought that a 650W psu would be enough, but apparently it isn´t way too low. I guess it makes sense starting with a lower rated PSU. How about two 550W units (or 500W)? One with the system and 4 drives (would peak at about 260W), and one for 12 drives (would peak at 300W). That should be a easy task for the 550W units, I prefer to keep them with a bit of overkill capacity, I imagine they will last longer if never stressed out to the maximum capacity. Sounds OK to me, I will plan accordingly (if nobody else comes with better suggestions) and begin with one 550W unit for my server.

If the regular UnRAID server is filled up with harddrives, how much power does it need? I know the drives need more when they spin up, but how much? If I would fill my UnRAID with the maximum amount of disks (I guess 16 disks), how much power would I need? I think I will probably start with a PSU that is good but not great (one that won´t be able to feed all disks), since I won´t need all that power to begin with. I will probably start with something like a 650W PSU now and then later on add another PSU when I add more disks (instead of buying a monster PSU right now), but I have no idea how many disks this first PSU can handle without any problems. When do I need to add another PSU? Or is it better to buy a monster PSU directly?

Ah, OK. I tried a quick search for a patch instead of driver... no luck. Perhaps it doesen´t exist yet? I think I will put this motherboard search on hold right now. Perhaps in a few weeks someone else has tried Gigabytes motherboards, or perhaps the patch reveals itself from somewhere. Then I can start planning my mediaserver again, for now I am stuck at the motherboard. (I know the rest, a Coolance case filled with their 4-in-3 and two PSU). It is a too expensive motherboard to try without knowing it will work, not to mention all the time that goes lost in building the server...

I´m not trying to build the ultimate server. Just the ultimate UnRAID server. This is exactly what I will be using it for, a huge non-critical storage with all my DVDs, HDDVDs, Bluray Discs, family photos and such. It has to be able to play a stream of 1080p without stuttering, that is basically all the speed I need from it. I prefer overkill in speed, but "total overkill" is not necessary. All my family photos and important stuff I will backup to DVDs (several copies), keep a few in my fireproof safe at home and another copy in another house (in case a huge emergency happends and the safe is lost). The safe is never locked, so any thiefs breaking in can see that all that is in there is my backup DVDs and the paperwork for my company. I don´t want them blowing it up or stealing it thinking it will contain jewelry or money.