Would it be possible to increase the number of disks unRaid Plus can handle by 2 or 3 disks now that the Pro key is up to 21 drives now?  There is just a huge gap between the two and I feel there are many of us out there who would want a system with around 10 drives.  I ask this because of the many Micro-Atx or Mini-Itx builds.  I recently built a system using a Lian Li PC-Q08B case which holds 6 x 3.5" drives and 1 x 5.25" bay which can hold one more HDD for a total of 7 drives.  I'm also thinking about another build using Lian Li PC-A04 which adds 1 more 3.5" and 5.25" bay for a total of 9 drives.

 

So I was thinking if it's possible to increase the cap of unRaid Plus to maybe 10 drives or... allow users to pay $5 or so for each additional drive support.  So people who want 8(2 additional) drives would pay $69 + (2)5 = $79 and people who want 10(4 additional) drives would just pay $69 + (4)5 = $89.

This has been brought up a few times before, however I agree with the current pricing schema and think Tom has it right. It's a very fair price, if you want the additional support for drives you should really have to pay that extra sum. Right now you can fill your array with 2TB drives (soon 3TB), a 6 drive array holds 10TB's of usable storage + 1x 2TB cache drive... that's a heck of a lot of space especially when you consider the current cost of a Plus license. No one was complaining a few years ago when we had 1TB drives or 500GB drives to use with a Plus license and I see even less of a reason to do so now.

I'm not sure what this has to do with upcoming unRAID releases.  This is not a feature question.  Perhaps this should be moved to "General Support" or the "Lounge".

I'm not sure what this has to do with upcoming unRAID releases.  This is not a feature question.  Perhaps this should be moved to "General Support" or the "Lounge".

I think it is ok here... it is a "feature" of how many disks are supported via the various licenses.  It certainly is not a support function (it is not broke), and not a off-unraid-topic as would be in lounge.

if you take into account the cost of hardware compared to the cost of the  unraid licence. moving to pro license is a small fee compared to hardware cost

especially with bigger hardrives on the horizon which is already an extension on its own

This has been brought up a few times before, however I agree with the current pricing schema and think Tom has it right. It's a very fair price, if you want the additional support for drives you should really have to pay that extra sum. Right now you can fill your array with 2TB drives (soon 3TB), a 6 drive array holds 10TB's of usable storage + 1x 2TB cache drive... that's a heck of a lot of space especially when you consider the current cost of a Plus license. No one was complaining a few years ago when we had 1TB drives or 500GB drives to use with a Plus license and I see even less of a reason to do so now.

 

It's not really about the cost as much as it feels like I'm wasting potential for purchasing a Pro license and only using up 10 disks.  I was trying to point out that there are many builds that are limited to about 10 disks due to the small form factor of Mini-ITX cases.  It's also not about how much storage it is.  It's just the sheer fact that if I bought a Pro license, and put it on a machine that could only hold 10 disks, I feel like I'm wasting it's potential, hence the alternative pricing scheme of +$5 per additional disk support.

 

I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I don't know, maybe it's just me.

It's not just you... many people have stated the same question many times.  In the end, the licensing scheme makes sense to Limetech until they decide to change it.

I would certainly have preferred to have a cheaper 10-drive option, but I guess we all want to pay as little as we can get away with.

 

I suppose one way to look at it is to compare the tiered licensing structure of unraid to it's primary competitor: WHS.  WHS only has one price no matter how many drives you use.  So whether you're using a 2-bay NAS or building a 24-drive beast, MS still gets full price for it.  At least unraid gives you an option, even if that option isn't ideal for your particular setup.

So whether you're using a 2-bay NAS or building a 24-drive beast, MS still gets full price for it.

 

I'm an advocate of one license model.(PRO) For me it makes sense in support.

Less code to branch, Less code to test.

Dividing up the license structure to add a 10 drive model or pay per spindle model costs more in the end in dealing with support. Coding both on the server and for Managing licenses, managing fees. etc. etc.  People time comes into play here.

I guess I'm just a bit OCD.  It's just something about drive limits and needing to fill them that had me going with this idea.  If there were only 1 license, for some odd reason, I would actually be more okay with it.  I know I'm weird. 

 

Most likely I'll just end up purchasing two Pro licenses, one for my mini box and one eventually for the full setup with the Norco 4224.  That's actually cheaper than 1 Plus and 1 Pro license anyway. 

6 seems to be the sweet spot since many mobo's have 6 sata ports its easy to build a relativly cheap 6 drive server this way.

for expanding to say 10 drives you add (taken 2GB drives have best price/sizse ratio) 4 drives and addon card  is atleast 320$ + sata card , not counting extra drive bays and stuff.  the upgrade to pro is less than 17% of the minimal costs for the upgrade.

 

what weebotech makes sense too.  It will take away the feeling you pay for something that your not using, but  it will likely make small systems more expensive.

 

as said before if 3TB drives can be used  a  6 bay system will  increasy 50% in capacity . so a great upgrade is already on the horizon.

 

maybe unraid isn't very cheap but compared to the amount of money people spend on hardware it seems very reasonable

 

 

just my 2 cts

 

p.s. yeah sure i'd like it for free too, but i dont minds spending money on it that much either 

So whether you're using a 2-bay NAS or building a 24-drive beast, MS still gets full price for it.

 

I'm an advocate of one license model.(PRO) For me it makes sense in support.

Less code to branch, Less code to test.

Dividing up the license structure to add a 10 drive model or pay per spindle model costs more in the end in dealing with support. Coding both on the server and for Managing licenses, managing fees. etc. etc.  People time comes into play here.

 

+1