CyberSkulls

The LSI 9201-16e was mentioned earlier and I happen to run two of them in unRAID and they work perfectly fine. I only bring that card back up since they are fairly cheap on eBay these days. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The only windows machine I have left is my gaming rig. I don't play much BF4 anymore but when I do, I wish it could be *nix based. So till that time comes I have to keep one of those "you need some updates, let me reboot at the worst possible time" boxes around. So I kinda envy your windows free environment. Maybe someday.. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I almost feel bad when someone asks this question as the same unRAID users bust out their pitchforks bringing up the cost of their hardware or free upgrades. I'm not singling anyone out by any means, but there is no reason for any of that. The cost of hardware has nothing to do with the cost of the OS, absolutely none. The OP asked a simple question and the simple answer is no, unRAID doesn't really go on sale. If you see enough value in purchasing it, thats great and I personally feel that after (6) Pro licenses, I'm still happy with my purchase and the purchase price for that matter. But that doesn't mean everyone does or that everyone will. Is it worth the purchase price? That's completely subjective and based on each of our own unique use cases. Where a lot of you see extreme value in the addition of Docker support or VM's I see no value whatsoever. Where others might see little value as a pure storage OS, I see extreme amounts of value. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine have been running for less than a month but they honestly perform just like my Reds. It's possible WD has different manufacturing lines for each model of the same drive but my shooting from the hip guess is they are virtually the same with a different color sticker and slightly different firmware. I would venture to guess the internals are identical. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry man, that was in reference to the other guy. I didn't want him to think they are all that loud. I wasn't callin ya out or talkin trash about your set up, I promise Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can change out the power supplies to something either very quiet or damn near silent with Supermicro SQ power supplies. If your using active CPU coolers you could also turn your mid plane fans way way down. When I was running (6) 846 chassis full of 2TB drives I used them as a file servers and only filer servers. Full of drives but spun down they idled at 60 Watts. Also has the fans running of the motherboard fan controller so they were extremely quiet, no hacking the crap out of the chassis required. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sadly I can now here Gollum saying "my precious" in that creepy voice. I'll have that in my head the rest of the night now. Thanks a lot!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Everyone has their own comfort level. I ran (4) 28 drive arrays and never had to worry about any of it. I just let unRAID do its thing. I now run (2) 112TB/EA (14x8TB) arrays. All my 2TB drives will be sold. But with 24 bay SM 846 chassis being dirt cheap, you can build a running chassis for the cost of a 8TB drive if like in the case of the OP, you already own the drives. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While I agree that larger drives are an option I have yet to see any 8TB drives for free to match the free cost of your current drives that you already own. So short of spending a bunch of money on new drives that you probably don't want or need, I'll try to answer you actual question. You can stuff 12-20 drives in most mid to full towers these days using drive cages, hot swap or not is up to you. As an example, using case labs drive cages I can put 12 drives in the front of my Fractal Define S, and another 8 up top for a total of 20 drives in a mid tower case. For rack mount, the sky is the limit. 24 bay chassis like the Supermicro 846 are very common on eBay and built like tanks. Supermicro also offers 36 and 45 bay version of that chassis called the 847 I believe? Don't quote me on that one as I don't own any. Once you go larger your looking into the disk shelf or JBOD arena which will get you into the 60-90 bay range. Unfortunately once you hit 28 data drives your at the max array limit for unRAID where you will have to start adding unassigned devices via plugin or cache only shares. So I was only able to use half of my 60 bay chassis for unRAID as I didn't want a giant cache only share nor did I want to have a bunch of unassigned devices scattered throughout the GUI. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got tired of everyone posting specs saying this color is designed for this and that color is designed for that and blah blah blah. I bought (16) 2TB Blues to run along side my 50+ 2TB Reds and wouldn't ya know it, same exact performance, same exact temperate, even the same exact model number on the PCB. Granted TLER is off in the firmware but I don't use it anyway, even on my Reds. So the three differences I was able to come up with is: different model number, different color label, and about 20% cheaper at the time. So I came to the conclusion that as long as I don't talk about it in front of the drives, they don't know they are different and they will happily store data along side their siblings Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm honestly not sure. All of the WD 8TB drives look identical to me. I don't know this but it wouldn't shock me if all the drives were 100% the same drive with slightly changed firmware and whatever color label WD felt like printing that day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They aren't sold retail. They come in the 8TB My Book. It's a white label WD 8TB, Model # WD80EZZX. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha. I bought (3) of the white label 8TB drives from Amazon as well, so I snagged a total of (26) 8TB drives in less than a week. Unfortunately the Duos were $200/drive after the plex 20% coupon from the WD Store but have a 2 year warranty outside of the enclosure so I was happy with that purchase. I spent something like $5,400 on 8TB drives last week. Not an unlimited budget by any means as I had sold off some of my 2TB drives already to help fund this purchase and will recoup the rest of that cost by selling off the rest of my 2TB Drives. So although I spent a bunch of money, I didn't gain any more space per say, just reduced my drive count from well over 100 drives and multiple big chassis down to 26 drives. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I truly wonder how many were sold over the weekend between the few forums I've read this on. I ended up with 11 of them. Well 2 from the retail store and 3 orders of 3 shipped out this morning. Add that to the (6) 16TB Duos I got last week, so (12) more 8TB Reds, and holy data storage Batman!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I feel ya. It's been so long for me since I had been there that the old store closed, and they built a new one. Since Amazon and Newegg came along so many years ago, I rarely go into a store. But ya, for a deal like this I will. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After I wrote that I have since went to my local Best Buy and bought the two they had plus ordered 9 more from their website. Tried to be gentle with the enclosure, it bit my finger, i was bleeding, I got pissed, and needless to say they are already in my chassis. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would have also put a fan on them. That's just over 127F! I just sat an old 140mm fan I had over the top of three of mine during testing and they never broke 30C. Hottest one got up to 29C. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't blame ya at all. If ya need more 8TB drives, and you happen to be a Plex Pass subscriber, or a student with a .edu email, they have a 20% off coupon code for the WD store. I bought 6 more 16TB Duos for $400/EA so $200/Drive, 2YR warranty and no shucking required. And no I'm not saying I got a better or worse deal than you since I also have some WD 8TB drives liberated from their external shells. I didn't care about the tabs once they tested good, I broke them open and set them free Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My understanding is that you will have to carefully put them back in the enclosure to RMA for all the externals with the exception of the Duo's which maintain the warranty outside the enclosure. So those drives can be sent in like a normal drive. Take that all with a grain of salt as I haven't had to RMA one yet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I could be wrong but I don't think Backblaze uses archive drives. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't even know where to start.. I want that! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While I don't use Docker or VM's I do understand why most do. I also came from WHS2011 and honestly came to unRAID as a simple storage OS. While I only wanted a storage OS with a nice GUI, my options were very limited to say the least as there really isn't a true NAS OS left on the market. Pretty much everyone does VM's and Docker these days. While I wish unRAID was still just a storage OS so all development went into that aspect, I know it's not realistic and I know I'm the minority. I find that unRAID also just works for me and since I don't use VM's or Docker, I never really have any issues that aren't self inflicted. But I'd be lying if I said I don't hope that someone comes along with a pure storage OS without all the other crap bundled in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I haven't bought tower cases in so long, I really don't know. I knowing going to hot swap cages sounds cool but if your using good quality drives you will rarely be changing hard drives. Don't let me talk you out of it, but I currently run 60 bay top load HGST chassis that are obviously all hot swap as well as a handful of Chenbro 12 bay hot swap chassis and TBH, I don't change out hard drives anymore. One of my oldest drives from 2010 (2TB WD RE4) was swapped out this year as it was showing some vibration. Other than that, all my Reds (over 50 of them) are all over a year old and none of them have been touched. I have (16) Blue drives that run perfectly as well. My point is if I was starting over from scratch I would go with a simple tower with 8-10TB drives. I have Fractal Define S chassis that can hold 12 drives (CaseLabs drive cages) so each of those mid towers could hold 120TB of drives and run damn near silent. But since I'm so invested in a rack setup, I picked up some of those Chenbro 12 bay chassis for $109 new in the box on eBay. They will be fitted with 4TB Reds or Blues and replace the fans with Arctic 80mm fans. I've built two of them and they are quieter than my Fractal Define R4 sitting on my desk. I mention 4TB drives since they run way cooler than the helium drives and swapping to the Arctic fans greatly reduces my cooling capability so those chassis need to run with cool drives from the start. I could run higher CFM fans but I'm ready to get back to silent servers and my 60 bay chassis are defiantly not silent! I know that's a lot of into to read through but just trying to give you some other options to think about. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just glanced at the listing and the title states SAS2 so if that's the case it will support drives >2TB. As to the fans, a lot of people buy servers and try to put consumer grade fans into them to quiet them down. This can be done but your drive temps will suffer greatly. Your much better off sticking with the high static pressure fans and running them off a motherboard fan controller assuming they are 4pin. That will bring the noise level down quite a bit. I don't know what power supplies it has but I run SQ's in mine to make them silent. But to be completely honest, if your leaving this in a living area, I honestly think you need to skip the hot swap servers and go with a traditional tower chassis with large free flowing fans. Your going to be disappointed if you buy a chassis like this and keep it in a living area. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My 2TB Reds and even my Blues are basically dead silent. I have a couple 4TB Blues that make a little noise while seeking but zero vibration. Even putting your hand on any of them you question if they are powered on or not. So I'm thinking with the vibration/quality issues WD has with their entire line of 8TB drives, I'll probably try some of the 8TB/10TB Seagate drives. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk