mjreddy

Hey everyone... So I made the decision this past weekend to go ahead with an unraid build and started looking for deals on the components, luckily looks like things have been working in my favor with the right items coming on sale somewhere at the right time. I would appreciate if everyone could take a quick once over at what I have so far, and the price I paid and comment on whether I should go for a different part or have paid a better price. Thanks! Case: CoolerMaster STC-T01-UWK $133.57 shipped (-5% discount for Jellyfish.com, and potential $40 CM rebate = $86.89) TheNerds.net http://www.thenerds.net/COOLER_MASTER.ATXBTX_Silver_Chassis_Black.STCT01UWK.html Motherboard: Asus P5B-VM DO Motherboard $108.11 shipped Lagoom.net http://www.lagoom.com/ASUS_Motherboard_P5B-VM_DO_LGA775/P5B-VM_DO/partinfo-id-569698.html PSU: Corsair CMPSU-550VX $72.99 shipped (-3% for Jellyfish.com, -$15 Corsair rebate, -$10 Buy.com rebate = $45.80) Buy.com http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx-550w-power-supply/q/loc/101/205852646.html Ram: HP 1GB PC2-5300 (DDR2-667) RAM x 2 $45.98 shipped (-$20 HP rebate x 2 = $5.98) CostCentral.com http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/HP/PX976AT/L49299 Processor: This is the one component I haven't bought yet. Conflicted as to whether to go with the a Celeron D at higher clock speed and lower price, or a Celeron 440 (about $65) with its lower power consumption and better microarchitecture over older Celerons, or with a lower end Alllendale (E2140 for about $70) in case unraid will ever support dual core. Please help me decide which one would provide the best performance for unraid (or are all these processors pretty much more than enough for unraid requirements anyways). The only other thing you may notice is that the RAM i got is 667, while the bus speed of the processor will likely be at least 800Mhz if i go with the celeron 440. I went with this RAM for now because it is decent stuff and is DIRT cheap right now. You guys may wanna pick some up, you can get up to five sticks at 2.99 each after rebate, with free shipping. Is having the RAM at 667Mhz going to affect performance on any noticeable scale? As always, I'm etremely appreciative of everyone's thoughts, suggestions, and comments...

Hey, guys! What does everyone think of this case: CoolerMaster STC-T01-UWK I've read multiple posts on this site that a lot of people here go with CM, but there are so many CM cases I was wondering if this is a good one for an unraid build? Specifically will this thing be good to eventually sport three 5-in-3 cage/backplanes for SATA drives? On some of the pics it looks like a few of the drive slots are taken by CM 4-in-3, is this removable? Thanks in advance, all help is greatly appreciated! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039&ATT=11-119-039&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Cases+(Computer+Cases+-+ATX+Form)-_-Cooler+Master-_-11119039

thanks for the reply. as for your last comment, i didn't mean that i wanted to replace it later with a larger one... but presumably the "suggested" ones are more reliable? i was going to get started with a random USB stick i had laying around but since it seems that if a usb stick fails you have to rebuy the license I didn't want to continue with the cheapo one once I purchased a license.... is my thinking correct?

I'm going to setup a trial rig to try unraid out. My question is, if I use a dinky usb stick i have laying around to start with the free trial version of unraid, load a couple drives, start transferring data to them, and then at some point switch to a GUID enabled/reliable USB stick without having to restart the process of loading data to the drives. i.e. will switching to a new usb stick cause unraid to clear the drives and reformat them, or will the new stick just recognize it and accept them -- allowing me to continue adding drives? Thanks!

fatal, looking at the pictures on your avsforum thread, it looks like you only have six drives hooked up and no promise card in there, is that true? Also, when you eventually expand this server to 16 total drive (15 + parity) will you utilize the esata port? Thanks...