February 15, 201115 yr It's disappointing that I didn't stumble onto this site last September. The money I spent on a Synology 411+ would've been better spent on an unRAID system. The week after I bought the NAS, I found 6-8GB was just not enough for my needs. Just my luck. Now to turn that luck around. I've spent the last 16/20 hours reading through unRAID (am I now UCD?). I'm on information overload yet I'm floored by the amount of interest and support for unRAID. Excited to join the community and contribute. I'm planning on building the 20 Drive Beast: CPU: Intel Core i3-540 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115221 Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182211 RAM: Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/4G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139040 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358 and the SAS cables. Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&cm_re=corsair_650-_-17-139-005-_-Product Case: Norco 4220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219033&Tpk=norco%204220 At this time I have 3 WD Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136456&cm_re=wd2001fass-_-22-136-456-_-Product I plan to be up and running with 20 drives by the end of the year but of various other drives as I've read these drives are overkill. My unRAID will be used for a media server, and backups of my console/PC games, movies and pictures. There's a strong possibility I may use it for temporary storage of my newsgroup downloads also but I need to spend a little more time reading into that. I'm trying to understand if I'll need to leave it on 24/7. I don't understand the benefits of this yet. Also, this system will be headless. So with all this background information, here are my questions: 1) What applications would one need to use 7200 rpm drives as opposed to WD green ones? 2) What applications would one need to use more RAM for in an unRAID system? 3) Why is the server kept on for 24/7 as opposed to turning on when it is needed? 4) Does this motherboard support WOL? 5) Do I need a keyboard/monitor plugged into this whenever I turn "The Beast" on? Phew! I appreciate any feedback. Thank you.
February 15, 201115 yr Nice build, looks familiar The i3 540 is currently out of stock at Newegg, so if you want to buy today you might have to upgrade to the 550 (only $10 more) or shop elsewhere. 1) What applications would one need to use 7200 rpm drives as opposed to WD green ones? There are quite a few, but they aren't terribly common. The only thing that comes to mind that might actually require faster drives is recording TV shows directly onto the server. There are other add-ons, such as VMs, that would benefit from faster drives but still work on slower drives. However, most people that run these types of IO intensive add-ons generally do so on a cache drive outside the parity-protected array. In that case it wouldn't matter what type of drives you use in the array, as the cache drive will be much faster than any of them anyway. 2) What applications would one need to use more RAM for in an unRAID system? Cache_dirs, torrents, and VMs will all benefit from more RAM. The more the better. I'm sure there are others as well. I'm currently using cache_dirs with just 2 GBs of RAM and the only issue I ever see is that if I boot and then reboot the server in quick succession (during troubleshooting, for example) I have to wait a good 10-20 minutes for cache_dirs to rescan all the folders (it does so on every boot). Since I generally run my server 24/7 this isn't a common issue. However, if you plan on rebooting often, then you will almost certainly want more RAM (4 - 8 GBs). 3) Why is the server kept on for 24/7 as opposed to turning on when it is needed? Mostly personal preference. I seed torrents from my server so I like to keep it turned on 24/7 (the client is on my desktop PC, so it stays on 24/7 as well). There are certain cases in which it is more efficient to run it 24/7 as well. Every time you turn on a server (or PC or pretty much any appliance) there will be a spike in power usage as all the parts spin up, initialize, etc. My server spikes to about 220W during boot for a minute or two. Then it settles out to around 70W. You can run some rough calculations to see how often you would have to reboot your server for it to be more efficient to run it 24/7. In general, I would estimate that if you plan on turning your server on and off multiple times per day, then it is worth it to just leave it on. However, if you only will use it once per day or less, then it is probably appropriate to turn it off in between uses. The other option is S3 sleep (suspend to RAM) and WOL (wake on lan). If you can get these working, they are a perfect middle ground between 24/7 operation and turning the server off and on. Personally I've never bothered because my server is in almost continual use, so it would never sleep anyway. S3 and WOL are very tricky and in general a huge pain to configure. 4) Does this motherboard support WOL? I don't know as I've never tried it. 5) Do I need a keyboard/monitor plugged into this whenever I turn "The Beast" on? No. Technically you never need a keyboard and monitor with this server since it has IPMI. Still, if you have a set handy, it will certainly make your first set up steps considerably easier. However, here's how you could set up your server without ever connecting a keyboard and monitor: 1) Build the server, connect two network cables to it (one to the port near the USB ports (this is the IPMI port), and the other to either of the other ports (both are regular ethernet ports)), boot it up. 2) Look in your router logs. The server will report two IP addresses - one is the IPMI address, the other is the unRAID IP address. Guess and check to see which is which. 3) Access the IPMI address through a browser and configure the server's BIOS to boot from the USB flash drive. You'll also want to disable INT13 on any SASLP cards. There are a few other BIOS tweaks you can do, such as setting the video RAM to the lowest server and disabling unused peripherals, but none of them are strictly necessary. 4) Access the unRAID IP address through a browser to get to the unRAID web management page. You can also access this page through the server's name (//tower), though I've found this to be a bit finicky on my network. I recommend that the first setting to change is to set the server to a static IP using something easy to remember, such as 192.168.0.100. Once you change the IP address you'll have to update the IP in your browser to get back to the unRAID web management page. 5) Assign your drives and away you go! The above is all theory, I haven't tested it out myself. However, having used this board several times in the past I believe it is completely possible. I build so many servers that it makes far more sense to me to just keep a keyboard and monitor around just for them. However, if you don't have shelves of spare hardware like I do, then the above may be very useful. Word of warning: I designed the 20 Drive Beast to support up to 20 green drives. The Corsair 650W PSU is not large enough to support 20 black (or otherwise 7200rpm) drives. I would recommend that you use the three black drives you already have (1 for parity, 2 for data) and then fill it up with green drives from there on out. The 650W PSU will handle a few black drives mixed in with the green drives, just not a full set of 20. When you do eventually fill all 20 bays with green drives, you can then make the few black drives the first ones you replace with new green 3 or 4 TB drives (or whatever is popular and cheap at the time). Also, if you want to use a cache drive then one of the black drives would make a good candidate for that. However, most users find that a cache drive is unnecessary. I suggest that you start without one, and then only add a cache drive if you find the server's write speeds to be too slow. My guess is that you will be happy with the performance without a cache drive. Word of advice: While I haven't fully spelled it out anywhere (I ran into the character limit in my prototypes thread!), I also have a design for a 22 Drive Beast. Basically, it is all the same parts from the 20 Drive Beast except that you substitute the Norco 4224 for the 4220, and you add a second reverse breakout cable. Eventually when unRAID supports 24+ drives you should be able to add a cheap 2 port SIL3132 card and make use of all 24 bays in the Norco 4224. Nothing wrong with the 20 Drive Beast, I just figured I should point out that there is a larger option as well. Note that unRAID currently limits you to 22 Drives in the following fashion: 1 parity, 20 data, 1 cache. You can't have 1 parity and 21 data at the current time, but that limit will be lifted eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later). Also check out the ever-useful configuration tutorial (link in my sig).
February 16, 201115 yr Word of advice: While I haven't fully spelled it out anywhere (I ran into the character limit in my prototypes thread!), I also have a design for a 22 Drive Beast. Basically, it is all the same parts from the 20 Drive Beast except that you substitute the Norco 4224 for the 4220, and you add a second reverse breakout cable. Eventually when unRAID supports 24+ drives you should be able to add a cheap 2 port SIL3132 card and make use of all 24 bays in the Norco 4224. Nothing wrong with the 20 Drive Beast, I just figured I should point out that there is a larger option as well. Note that unRAID currently limits you to 22 Drives in the following fashion: 1 parity, 20 data, 1 cache. You can't have 1 parity and 21 data at the current time, but that limit will be lifted eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later). Also check out the ever-useful configuration tutorial (link in my sig). Most of the cases I've looked at looks like the 20 drive set up is about max on them. Can you run eSATA drives (maybe in a Sans Digital enclosure) or usb external to get the other two drives in? I don't know if USB 2.0 would give problems, but would think USB 3.0 would have the speed. If external does work which drives would you want to be on the external? (I think I read somewhere that you can go external but I'm not positive)
February 16, 201115 yr Word of advice: While I haven't fully spelled it out anywhere (I ran into the character limit in my prototypes thread!), I also have a design for a 22 Drive Beast. Basically, it is all the same parts from the 20 Drive Beast except that you substitute the Norco 4224 for the 4220, and you add a second reverse breakout cable. Eventually when unRAID supports 24+ drives you should be able to add a cheap 2 port SIL3132 card and make use of all 24 bays in the Norco 4224. Nothing wrong with the 20 Drive Beast, I just figured I should point out that there is a larger option as well. Note that unRAID currently limits you to 22 Drives in the following fashion: 1 parity, 20 data, 1 cache. You can't have 1 parity and 21 data at the current time, but that limit will be lifted eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later). Also check out the ever-useful configuration tutorial (link in my sig). Most of the cases I've looked at looks like the 20 drive set up is about max on them. Can you run eSATA drives (maybe in a Sans Digital enclosure) or usb external to get the other two drives in? I don't know if USB 2.0 would give problems, but would think USB 3.0 would have the speed. If external does work which drives would you want to be on the external? (I think I read somewhere that you can go external but I'm not positive) eSATA in an external case is not a problem. No USB drives are recognized when assigning drives to an unRAID array, so NO usb connected drives can be used. Joe L.
February 16, 201115 yr i3 540 is also OOS at TigerDirect, where I had mine ordered until I got the backorder notice, waited a few days (they said it was coming in the next day), got a "next week" ETA, cancelled, went with the 550 from newegg w/ free shipping, and I am holding it in my hands as we speak.
February 16, 201115 yr Author Rajahal, Wonderful! I appreciate all the info. Due to availability, I'm going with the i3-550 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115065&cm_re=i3-550-_-19-115-065-_-Product Also upgrading the RAM to 8 GB http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262 Word of warning: I designed the 20 Drive Beast to support up to 20 green drives. The Corsair 650W PSU is not large enough to support 20 black (or otherwise 7200rpm) drives. I would recommend that you use the three black drives you already have (1 for parity, 2 for data) and then fill it up with green drives from there on out. The 650W PSU will handle a few black drives mixed in with the green drives, just not a full set of 20. When you do eventually fill all 20 bays with green drives, you can then make the few black drives the first ones you replace with new green 3 or 4 TB drives (or whatever is popular and cheap at the time). Also, if you want to use a cache drive then one of the black drives would make a good candidate for that. However, most users find that a cache drive is unnecessary. I suggest that you start without one, and then only add a cache drive if you find the server's write speeds to be too slow. My guess is that you will be happy with the performance without a cache drive. I'll test the cache drive at a later time. Rest assured, I won't be buying any more Black drives. I'll go with the green ones for the unRAID. I have a 7K3000 around here somewhere also, so I may add that in the mix too. How do I determine what size power supply to use? I recall reading about calculating Amps of the different units but that still made little sense to me. I've used the Antec Power Supply Calculator http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine and continue to receive under 550W with a max of 20 drives and such. As for the Beast, I'll keep the Norco 4224 in mind. For the short term, I'm going to use some cheap case lying around and when I need the extra space, I'll get the 4224. Hopefully, I'll find it on sale before then.
February 16, 201115 yr If you plan to expand to 20 drives eventually I would look at something around the Corsair CMPSU-650TX it has 52A on a single +12V rail. You can look at other good brands also (Antec, Enermax, PowerPC and Cooling, Seasonic) but make sure the PSU has a single +12V rail and has 50+ amps available for the 20 drives.
February 16, 201115 yr How do I determine what size power supply to use? I recall reading about calculating Amps of the different units but that still made little sense to me. I've used the Antec Power Supply Calculator http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine and continue to receive under 550W with a max of 20 drives and such. Just look at the +12V rail, it is the most important aspect of a PSU in the unRAID world. Estimate 2A for each green drive and 3-5A for each 7200rpm drive. Then leave a bit of overhead for the fans and other peripherals. As prostuff said, 50+A should cover just about any 20 drive build as long as there aren't too many 7200rpm drives.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.