garycase

Has this card been tried with 4.5 final? I presume not, as there'd be dancing in the UnRAID streets ... but just want to confirm before I finalize my order for the parts for my new UnRAID server.

Thanks -- although I realized after I'd asked the question that I can simply look in UnMenu on the Disk Management page and see the Linux designations for each of my disks r.e. my question #3 ==> are the tests shown in UnMenu (i.e. the Short & Long SMART tests) "data safe" ?? i.e. can they be run without any concern for the data on the array? And do they impact the availability of the array (i.e. can you be streaming a movie while the test is in progress) ??

Okay, this looks like a nifty utility, but I want to be CERTAIN I'm doing this right so I don't destroy data already on the array. (If I understand it correctly, the script won't let me do that -- but just to be sure ...) So to use it, I do this: (1) Copy the script to the Flash drive (from Windows Explorer) (2) Run a Telnet client and type "o tower", then "root" to get a prompt from the UnRAID box (3) cd /boot to get to the flash drive (4) preclear_disk.sh /dev/sdX to start the preclear process Assuming that's all correct, I have a few questions ... (a) How do I determine what "X" is for line 4? Is there a Linux command that will list my drives with their serial numbers? (b) Do I have to leave the Telnet window open for the entire PreClear process? © Is there any analog to this process to test drives already in the array? In particular, what does the "Long SMART Test" do in UnMenu on the Disk Management section? I've installed UnMenu to look around, but am not sure I understand all of the various options. Is there a good "manual" to read through to help with this?

I had pretty much assumed as much, but just wanted to get some detailed stats if anyone had them available. I asked the same question on the AVSForum's UnRAID thread, and Joe L. provided some very detailed stats that clearly show there's no performance benefit from a faster CPU. As I have no intention of running additional software on the same box I'll just use a relatively low-end CPU (E5300). This CPU on a C2SEA should result in ~ 50w idle consumption, which is very reasonable. It'd be interesting to build an UnRAID box with an Atom ... but difficult to find an Atom-based board that will support enough SATA ports for the size server I plan (10-15 drives). Thanks for the input.

I know Tom uses Celerons in the servers Limetech sells ... and even the upgraded CPU he offers is only an E7400. I plan to build a new UnRAID box, and while I don't want to use more CPU than I need, I DO want to use plenty to get max performance. Clearly I don't need an i7 -- and I suppose not even a Core 2 Quad; but I'd be very interested in performance differences anyone's noticed who's using a higher-end CPU ... especially if you've used the same board with a low end Celeron or Pentium Dual Core before upgrading the CPU. i.e. is there any reason at all to use a CPU better than perhaps an E5300 Pentium Dual Core? [Can't quite bring myself to consider the lower-end Celerons.] I'm basically debating between an E5300, E8400, and Q9650 -- but don't want to buy the latter two if they don't actually provide some performance benefits to an UnRAID box.

Any idea when this might happen? I'm getting ready to build an UnRAID server using the WD drives, so would like to bypass this issue altogether if waiting a bit before setting it all up will do so.

This has likely been addressed before ... but I've looked for a couple hours and can't seem to find it ... If I don't assign a parity drive, I can copy files to my UnRAID server with ~45-50 MB/s throughput. But if I copy files FROM the UnRAID server it's MUCH slower (~ 1/3rd of that). All PC's have gigabit adapters with a gigabit router & switch connecting them. The UnRAID server and main PC are both connected directly to the router ... but the symptoms are identical with the PC's that go through the switch. Am I missing a parameter I need to set in UnRAID? Or is this simply a function of the specific network adapter? [The UnRAID server is on an Intel D875PBZ motherboard that uses an Intel Pro1000 adapter.]

The X7SBE looks like a very nice board. Does anyone using it have a Zalman CNPS-9700 or 9900 cooler on it -- just wondering if the angled CPU mount causes any issues with these.

Agree logs would be nice -- I suspect most would be surprised at how few cycles they're typically generating. bjp999 => Just for grins -- what temperature do you keep your room at? With your drives idling at 57°F that must be one COOL room

Spinning down a drive doesn't power off the electronics -- nor does it cool the drive completely. What it DOES do is let the drive cool down a few degrees and save a bit of power. The drives don't undergo a full thermal cycle, as the electronics are still generating heat -- turning the system OFF will drop the temps a LOT more. There's a difference between a power on/off cycle; and a spinup/spindown cycle -- I agree you would not want to have an excessive number of full power cycles every day. Personally, I NEVER power off the electronics -- my computers are never turned off (nor do I use S3). Whether you use 15 minutes or 5 hours for your setting, you're not likely to have more than a few spinup/spindown cycles per day in real world usage. If your drives are spun down 95% of the time (i.e. they're only powered up for an average of 72 minutes per day, that means you're only accessing each drive on average once every 4.2 days (since once you access it, it spins for 5 hours). In that case, a 15 minute spindown would make little difference in the number of spinup/spindown cycles -- but would save 4 hrs and 45 minutes of unnecessary spinup time. If you frequently have 30-45 minutes of inactivity during "active" use times, I'd set the spindown to 1 hour. There's a reason most commercial servers use LOUD, high-volume fans -- to keep the drive temps in the low 30's, as 40+ temps are generally undesirable (although the drives are typically rated to 50 or better (enterprise drives typically to 55). But most UnRAID setups use much lower-volume (and quieter) fans, and will run in the 40's when spinning. While this isn't necessarily "dangerous", it's a good idea to let the temps settle back into the 30's when possible ... and spinning the drives down achieves this easily. My drives typically run 38-40 when highly active; and in the low 30's when spun down. I agree, however, that as long as your thermals are good, it doesn't really matter if you spin the drives down.

Didn't really see a good answer to this ... so I'll respond. Modern drives have a spinup cycle rating of at least 50,000 cycles -- some are double or triple that. But using 50,000 as a baseline, that means if you spun the drives up every 15 minutes it would take about 1.5 years before the drives would, on average, begin to have problems spinning up. That's not very long ... HOWEVER => a spindown setting of 15 minutes simply means the drive spins down after 15 minutes. It would only then spin back up if you accessed it -- so unless you accessed your drives every 15 minutes plus 1 second (i.e. immediately after it spun down) repeatedly for 24 hours a day for a year-and-a-half, you wouldn't come close to that level. More realistically, if you spin down after 15 minutes of inactivity, it probably means you're not using the system. Since many of us use UnRAID for video servers; it's likely that a drive is either being accessed repeatedly (while streaming a movie) or ... if not accessed for 15 minutes, you're probably not using the ssytem at all. If you assume a drive spins up ten times a day, then it would take nearly 14 years to hit the 50,000 spinup point -- this is probably far more realistic, even with a 15 minute spindown setting. Bottom line: For any reasonable usage pattern, you can set the spindown timing to any value greater than 10 minutes and you'll be fine.

An alternative you may want to consider to the Norco is the Lian-Li PC-A70B with ONE 5-in-3 backplane. Total is just a bit over the cost of a Norco. The PC-A70B holds 7 drives in internal drive bays in front; 3 in a rear drive-bay; and with 5 more in a 5-in-3 backplane there's still room for two spare 5.25" bays, where you could mount two more -- a total of 17. The chassis has excellent ventilation (6 120mm fans). I just put one together with 17 1.5TB Seagates, and it's outstanding [i used an IcyDock 5-in-3 unit]. When I need another UnRAID server, I'll use the same chassis. By the way, the Play/Retrieve add-in for DVD Profiler works perfectly with the user shares. I've mapped my DVD's (~ 2500 at the moment) to \\Media1\DVDs\<name of DVD>\Video_TS\Video_TS.IFO with the "play" feature and they work perfectly. Just find the DVD you want to play; and click on the "Play/Retrieve" icon and it plays As you can see, I changed "Tower" to "Media1" -- in anticipation of additional servers in the future