molaqq

So I'm just about ready to start putting together my new unraid server and thought I'd post my potential hardware list to see if anyone had comments: Case: LIAN LI PC-A17B (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112164) Power supply: PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005) Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128086) Processor: Intel Celeron 440 Conroe-L 2.0GHz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116038) RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144) Video card: ATI 100-436012 Radeon 9250 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102434) Backplane: SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405) Drives: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148298) Jumpdrive: Lexar JumpDrive FireFly (Blue) 1GB Flash Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820191025) Appreciate any feedback. Probably going to order things in the next couple of weeks. Jeff

Thanks everybody for the replies. I hadn't noticed the power supply was on the bottom in the Centurion. I'm not thrilled about that. And I really like the look of the Lian Li. Maybe I'll just suck it up and buy the more expensive case. Has anybody used the supermicro 5-in-3 in the Lian Li (I think this is maybe one of the currently available MD-1500 configurations)? I would likely be more inclined to go this route despite the greater cost, if there were limited modifications needed to get the trays to work in the case with good airflow. Rob_Esc, wrt your question about the motherboard, I think I really want the EP35, not the EP35C. Thanks for pointing this out. The only difference seems to be that the "C" vrsion supports DDR3 in addition to DDR2? Is that correct.

Any opinions on the relative merits or downsides to these cases. I am planning my first unraid build and was originally looking at the Lian Li, however it seems the Centurion has been getting some good reviews here and is quite a bit cheaper. Also looking for opinions on drive trays for either of these cases. I mostly care about easy access for replacing drives. Willing to bring the system down for drive replacement although hot swap would be nice. Had been looking at the SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B to go with the Lian Li, but wondering if the COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP would work ok if I went with the centurion. I would probably be fine with only 12 drives instead of 15. Right now I am leaning towards using a GIGABYTE GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard with one of these to case/drive tray combos. appreciate any opinions, tips etc.