technochick

Thanks a bunch, Joe. I'm all set up now.

I'm truly enjoying my unRaid server. Even though I configured it using really old hardware to archive family photos, it's also working great as a video server! I'm running unRaid 4.5.6 and have been using unMenu "Version 1.3" (as reported by unmenu_install -v). I'd like to have a bittorrent client running directly on the unRaid box. I saw this thread about a Transmission package available via unMenu. I determined that I should begin by updating my unMenu installation. I think I shot myself in the foot ... It wasn't clear if I need to manually download the latest copy of unmenu_install1371.zip from http://code.google.com/p/unraid-unmenu. I decided that was not necessary and simply did the following: telnet <IP address of my Tower> cd /boot/unmenu unmenu_install -u There were a number of error messages such as: Downloading images/stock/Hitachi.png /tmp/unmenu_tmp/images/stock/Hitachi.png: No such file or directory rev $Revision: 24207 $ $Date: 2010-12-29 13:44:58 -0500$ sed: can't read /tmp/unmenu_tmp/images/stock/Hitachi.png: No such file or directory egrep: /tmp/unmenu_tmp/images/stock/Hitachi.png: No such file or directory 256bc8a5ca79f968858544157ee5c3c8 != d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e, /tmp/unmenu_tmp/images/stock/Hitachi.png not installed (I can post the rest of the output if needed.) The update appeared to "work". unmenu_install -v now reports "Version 1.3.7.2". But my unMenu webpage now returns "Server Not Found" on everything but the top half of the main page. Even rebooting the Tower does not resolve this. So apparently I'm not as clever as I thought. If anyone has the time, could you please point me to info describing how to properly update unMenu to the version supporting Transmission and instructions for getting Transmission properly installed and configured. Thanks for your help. I'm always pleased by the friendliness and helpfulness of this forum. What a great community!

Thanks! I've got a WD black 1.5 TB parity drive on order. This weekend I'll try hooking it up to one of the onboard SATA I ports. To get started I'm going to use an old 160GB EIDE data drive on one of the onboard IDE ports and an old 120GB SATA I data drive on the second onboard SATA I ports. Once I learn my way around managing an unRAID server I'll begin to migrate to larger data drives (as my budget permits). This is gonna be fun! Thanks again.

Thanks, Kaygee. I wasn't aware that there are IDE/SATA converters. That opens up new possibilities. The system currently contains an ATA/IDE 7200 rpm 160GB drive connected to one of the two ATA-100 ports. Perhaps I'll use this as my second data drive for a while. Later I could replace it with an inexpensive 500GB SATA drive using a dongle. Thanks for this useful information!

Thanks so much BRiT for your reply! You have helped quantify my generalized performance expectations. I appreciate you taking the time to provide that clear explanation.

I want to build my first unRAID system from an old Dell Dimension 8300. I plan to use this system to archive family photos. Since it will not be used to stream video, performance is not as critical. But I would like to ask a few "performance" questions just to make certain this system isn't too old to be a reasonable platformer. System specs: 3 GHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM, 2 SATA I ports on motherboard, 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet on motherboard, PCI bus, PCI Gb/s Ethernet NIC, 350 Antec BP350 ATX power supply. I've removed the 2 DVD drives and plan to install a 3-in-2 ICY DOCK drive bay (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994026) to hold three data drives. I plan to mount the parity drive internally. I'll need to add additional SATA ports through a PCI card. I've seen a post recommending the PCI SATA II Promise Tx4 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102065&cm_re=promise_tx4-_-16-102-065-_-Product) and the PCI SATA I Rosewille 209-EX 4 port (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132013&Tpk=rosewill%20209). Questions: 1) Is there any reason to pay extra for a PCI SATA II controller or will the PCI bus be maxed out by several drives at SATA I speeds? (BTW, I plan to connect the parity drive to one of the SATA ports on the motherboard.) 2) Any comments on the performance hit of having to use a gigabit Ethernet controller and SATA controller on the PCI bus instead of directly on the motherboard? 3) If I understand correctly, the Antec BP350 is not a single rail power supply. Comments on running four hard drives with it? 4) This motherboard also has EIDE ports. Comments on EIDE ports on motherboard vs. SATA I ports on PCI bus card? I know there's not a lot of interest in this type of old system. But if you have knowledge you wish to share or can point me to earlier posts that address any of these questions, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for any information you can share!