Raj's Prototype Designs [Discussion Thread]

[jeff.lebowski]

I have one of those in my main server. It's in the middle position (5 in 3 above and 5 in 3 below). The disks sit just a couple degrees above ambient when not spinning. I think the fan is plenty strong to push air across the disks.

[mjstumpf]

Thanks all for this great info.  I really appreciate it.  However, I'm getting really lost.

 

Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-O is regarded as really stable.  I get that.. but,

 

Can it take 2 of the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards at .21 firmware?  (I want to be able to use 4tb drive)

 

I saw one mention about losing ability to monitor temperature.. does this happen?  Is there a workaround?

 

 

[GhostM]

I am new here i am looking at the 24 budget build. I am not to familiar with sas cards and how they work.

 

One thing that confuses me is  two separate sets of cables and cards... what does each plug into?

 

  "Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

    SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132) x 1

Cables:

    House Brand Molex 79576-3007 Mini SAS / SATA Cable x 2

    1m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male to Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male Cable x 4"

 

Shouldnt the house brand molex cable be X4, if theres 2 ports on each card, and you have 2 cards...And that would come to 16 connections?

 

Im just quite confused on how these cards connect to the cables, and how many connections each can handle.

 

 

[Rajahal]

Thanks all for this great info.  I really appreciate it.  However, I'm getting really lost.

 

Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-O is regarded as really stable.  I get that.. but,

 

Can it take 2 of the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards at .21 firmware?  (I want to be able to use 4tb drive)

 

I saw one mention about losing ability to monitor temperature.. does this happen?  Is there a workaround?

 

Yes, it will accept both cards with the .21 firmware.  You will not lose the ability to monitor temps.

 

I am new here i am looking at the 24 budget build. I am not to familiar with sas cards and how they work.

 

One thing that confuses me is  two separate sets of cables and cards... what does each plug into?

 

  "Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card x 2

    SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132) x 1

Cables:

    House Brand Molex 79576-3007 Mini SAS / SATA Cable x 2

    1m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male to Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male Cable x 4"

 

Shouldnt the house brand molex cable be X4, if theres 2 ports on each card, and you have 2 cards...And that would come to 16 connections?

 

Im just quite confused on how these cards connect to the cables, and how many connections each can handle.

 

You seem to be looking at outdated information.  The most current info (and links) are here: Greenleaf Prototype Builds.  Scroll to the very bottom to see the 24 drive build.

 

The miniSAS cables connect one port on the SATA card to one port on the backplane.  The reverse breakout cables connect standard SATA ports on the motherboard and SIL3132 card to the backplanes.

[wheel]

Raj, thank you again for all of your hard work - I couldn't have built my first box without your help!

 

Secondly, I'm still combing through threads to wrap my head around the LSI issue, but figured I might ask here for my own (and hopefully others') benefit: is your 20-drive budget tower currently 100% unRaid v5.0 RC3-compliant?

 

I'm seriously thinking of starting the part-ordering procedure tonight and tomorrow, but would hate to realize I'd misread a post and ordered the wrong SAS card or motherboard... Thank you in advance!

[Rajahal]

Raj, thank you again for all of your hard work - I couldn't have built my first box without your help!

 

You are very welcome, glad to be of assistance!

 

is your 20-drive budget tower currently 100% unRaid v5.0 RC3-compliant?

 

As far as I know, yes.  However, I have not tested it personally.  None of my builds use any LSI cards, so all the issues currently surrounding them can be safely ignored.  The most recent testing I personally conducted on that hardware was with unRAID 5.0-beta-14, which uses an even newer version of the Linux kernal than RC3.  Therefore, I am confident in recommending it yet I cannot be 100% sure.

[flimflamman]

Hey Raj. Just looking through your website at your 15 drive budget box. What motherboard do you recommend in place of the ASUS M4A78LT-M?  I like this setup - it looks like the Norco drives are available in the U.S. again. I think I'll upgrade the CPU as I plan on using it as a Plex Media Server  with version V.5.0. Just getting your thoughts.  Thanks for all your hard work!

 

 

15 Drive Budget Box

Mobo: ??

CPU: AMD Sempron 145

RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333

PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W

Case: Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02

SATA Expansion Cards:

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card

SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)

Cables:

0.5m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male w/ Latch to SATA 7pin Female (x4) Forward Breakout Cable x 2

non-locking SATA x 5 (2 included with motherboard)

Hot Swap Drive Bays: Norco SS-500 x 3 (The Norco SS-500 drive cages are currently unavailable in the US.  I list two replacement options below. Both have their pros and cons. You can read my review of all three cages here.)

Icy Dock MB455SPF-B x 3 (replacement option 1)

Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B x 3 (replacement option 2)

Fans:

Coolink SWiF2-801 80mm x 3 *optional (Norco SS-500/Icy Dock MB455SPF-B fan upgrade if quieter performance is desired)

GELID Solutions FN-PX09-20 92mm x 3 *optional (Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B fan upgrade if quieter performance is desired)

[Apex77]

Hey Raj. Just looking through your website at your 15 drive budget box. What motherboard do you recommend in place of the ASUS M4A78LT-M?

 

If his recommendation from February still holds then it is the ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

[Apex77]

About to pull the trigger on a 5-drive budget box enabled for expansion all the way up to a 15 drive system.

Here is my bill of materials. What may I be missing?

 

MoboECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)

CPUAMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz

RAMKingston 2GB DDR3 1333

PSU CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W

SATA  Expansion CardSilicon Image SIL3132

Hard DrivesWestern Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB

CaseAZZA Helios 910 CSAZ-910

Cables18inch SATA Serial ATA cable

5.25 to 3.5 converterCooler Master 4-in-3 Drive cage

USB StickKingston Data Traveler 2 GB

 

 

[jeff.lebowski]

About to pull the trigger on a 5-drive budget box enabled for expansion all the way up to a 15 drive system.

Here is my bill of materials. What may I be missing?

 

MoboECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1)

CPUAMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz

RAMKingston 2GB DDR3 1333

PSU CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W

SATA  Expansion CardSilicon Image SIL3132

Hard DrivesWestern Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB

CaseAZZA Helios 910 CSAZ-910

Cables18inch SATA Serial ATA cable

5.25 to 3.5 converterCooler Master 4-in-3 Drive cage

USB StickKingston Data Traveler 2 GB

 

You won't need the drive cage, nor the SATA card until you exceed four (and then five) disks. Otherwise it looks fine to me. Hell, you could use a couple single 5.25 to 3.5 tray converters if you get to five (or seven) and stay there for a while. And once you get past seven disks, you'll need SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 SAS SAS RAID Controller

 

Mobo has five sata slots. Add a 2 port SiL card, that makes seven. Case holds four disks without modification.

[Rajahal]

Sorry guys, I haven't had the chance to start another round of motherboard testing due to budget constraints and other active projects. As Apex77 said, the ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1) is still my go-to budget board for 15 and 20 drive builds as long as it remains available, especially at that price!

[Rajahal]

20 - 24 Drive Prototype Builds updated! Some new hardware in the mix, notably the Supermicro X9SCM-F-O and Intel Pentium G620 combo. All 'beast' builds now have 8 GBs of RAM simply because I can't find any compatible 4 GB kits (if you come across any, please let me know). I also added the IBM ServerRAID M1015 as an alternative to the stalwart Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 for those having trouble finding the SASLP in your country.

[Apex77]

Trigger Pulled !! 

 

I followed Jeff's advice and didn't get the drive cage or the SATA card.

I got Barracuda 2TB green drives as they are on sale right now for $99

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL061212&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL061212-_-EMC-061212-Index-_-InternalHardDrives-_-22148681-L0B

 

Will be building next weekend I guess. 

 

 

 

 

[wheel]

Raj, I was about to start my new build when I saw this thread RE: AOC-SASLP-MV8 performance on 5.0rc4 (and based on limetech comments, 5.0final) -

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20633.15

 

If I can't track down the IBM and want to maintain peak speeds, do you recommend a "third option"?

 

Thanks in advance!

[mrow]

Raj, I was about to start my new build when I saw this thread RE: AOC-SASLP-MV8 performance on 5.0rc4 (and based on limetech comments, 5.0final) -

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=20633.15

 

If I can't track down the IBM and want to maintain peak speeds, do you recommend a "third option"?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

That thread is about a NIC.

[wheel]

I'm sorry if I'm completely off-base - I was just thrown by this exchange:

 

"Doh!  I was starting to get excited after the beta's appeared to work with this r8169 driver (which cause my 4.7 box to occasionally kernel panic under heavy network load) and also support my AOC-SASLP-MV8. 

 

Am I reading the various threads correctly in that now neither of these are supported (i.e. working without issues) in the current RC?"

 

Response: Supported, but not working to full speeds/ability.

 

I read that to mean there was a problem with the AOC-SASLP-MV8 based on the "now neither of these are supported" part... I really wasn't following much of the NIC discussion up to that point, but being so close to trigger-pulling on my new build, I'm hyper-sensitive to the shifting 5.0 landscape. 

 

Hope this clears things up!

 

[Rajahal]

All of my designs are built for unRAID 4.7 (the latest stable version). I simply don't have the resources to update them with each new beta/RC release, especially with the recent flurry of development activity. The SASLP card works perfectly well in 4.7. RC-5 was released just a few hours ago and the release notes mention some issues with the MVSAS drivers. If you are building for a trouble-free 5.0 build, then some more research may be in order. However, given that the SASLP is one of the most popular, if not the most popular HBA card used in unRAID, I think it is a safe bet that LimeTech will give it a lot of preference in solving any issues that arise. The attention paid to the MVSAS drivers in the recent RC releases seem to indicate this is true.

[Apex77]

Build complete and just performed the first boot.

Running the memory test now and headed to bed.

[drumstyk1]

 

Hey Raj (and others)

 

I would like to humbly ask why you chose the supermicro mobo for your i3 20 bay rack build. Like many others here, I am searching for the perfect cpu+mobo pairing. Last week, I picked up an AMD A4-3400 for $39 here: http://slickdeals.net/f/4915798-AMD-A4-3400-Processor-39-Micro-Center-B-M. I thought this was a pretty good deal but it seems that most of the veterans here lean towards the i3 for its low power consumption. So i doubted my decision and have been looking at the i3 but the motherboard you suggested with it is $200 (vs $50-$60 options for the amd). I realize that the power savings will only be a few dollars a year. Is there something else i'm missing about this $200 board? I definitely want the ability to run sickbeard/couchpotato and the other little goodies that I don't know about yet. I have never messed with virtual machines and I may never do any transcoding but would like the ability even if it's slow. I just don't understand why people would pay $300+ for the intel mobo+CPU vs <$100 for AMD just to save $5 a year in electricity?? Can you guys help me understand this one? 

 

The best option that I can see for the i3 setup is at frys for $89 and then you get $40 off any of the boards they sell for it. Problem is that all the affordable ones (<$100) have that dreaded lan thingy 8100E. I would rather pay more up front to avoid the headaches but I'm having a tough time making the jump without any perceivable feature benefit.

 

Thanks for all the help! You guys have all  helped me way more than yall know!

[AwesomeD]

For the 15 Drive Budget Box build it uses the Xigmatek Utgard Window CPC-T90DB-U02 case, which appears to no longer be available. Can Rajahal or someone recommend something similar. I want to build a silent server. Thanks

[servion]

I'm about to pull the trigger on an unRAID, and I'm also fighting the whole "choosing a good non-discontinued mb/case" issue.  Here's what I've come up with based on scouring this forum/wiki, etc.

 

I want to build a budget oriented, scalable, unRAID-proven server that is quiet, efficient and capable of transcoding.  I plan to start with only 2x2TB drives, but I will be adding to the case as deals arise.

 

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352021

 

MOBO: ECS A885GM-A2 (V1.1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

 

PSU: Corsair CX500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

 

CPU: Athlon II x3 450 Rana 3.2ghz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886

 

Memory: Crucial 4g (2gx2 sticks) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148221

 

Flash stick: The recommended Kingston 4gb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139245

 

Total without storage: $345.

 

Questions:

1) Will this full-size MB fit in the Fractal mid-tower case?  The case looks beautiful and excellent for cable management/cleanliness, it also claims to support ATX sized boards, but Raj has mentioned that the non-full tower cases can get cramped with this board.  Anyone use this combo?

 

2) There is a newegg review that sounds very intelligible on the current CX500 which isn't very promising:

 

Pros: Just so you all know, there's been a change in Corsair's line of "CX" power supplies.

 

The original Corsair CX400 was one of the best sub-$50 power supplies available, a SeaSonic S12II unit with 30A on the +12V rail. Group regulated so not the best performer on the block, but middling and very well priced.

 

The CX400 has been discontinued. This is probably because SeaSonic is discontinuing S12II in favor of S12II bronze; basically the same thing, but more efficient. And more expensive. Corsair didn't want to pay the extra for the Bronze version of the platform, so when their contract for S12II units ran out they jumped ship.

 

Cons: Now we've been given the CX430, CX500, and CX600. These power supplies are all based on the CWT DSA platform. Now, DSA is a solid platform, that performs similarly to or just behind the SeaSonic S12II platform. But there's some shenanigans going on.

 

First off, a close look at the CX430 will tell you something interesting. The Corsair CX400 has a +12V rail rated for 30A. However, the 430W, presumably 30W more, has a +12V rail rated for 28A. Those 2A less means 24W less on the +12V rail, which is what really matters when it comes to "real" wattage.

 

Long story short the CX430 is more of a 380W in comparison to the old CX400. It should have been rated 50W lower than it actually is.

 

Other Thoughts: Then we have the CX500 and CX600. Corsair reps have been interestingly tight lipped on these units, especially in regards to what platform they are based on. However, they appear to still be CWT DSA. A little research will show us that CWT DSA only goes up to 500W. So how do you get a 600W DSA unit?

 

Corsair pulled one of the oldest tricks in the shoddy PSU book, and rated it at room temperature. Ok, a smidgen above room temperature. 30 degrees Celsius, vs. 40-50C for all their other power supplies. So by rating the CX600 at thirty degrees instead of forty or fifty they can squeeze out an extra hundred watts. For an estimate, I'd say that the CX500 is a DSA 450W, and the CX600 is a DSA 500W.

 

Any thoughts on this?  Is there a better budget PS in order?

 

3) Is unRAID able to work with only 2 drives to start (1 parity and one storage)?  In this configuration, if either of these drives dies, am I still able to fully recover all my data?

 

4) What 2TB HDDs are currently recommended (august 2012)?  Reading newegg reviews is very discoraging.  I've alreay been bitten by the clicking seagate drives and amd thus not eager to repeat the same mistake.  It seems that the samsungs are now re-badged seagates.  WD looks ok, but there are a bunch of horror stories there too.

 

5) If nobody has any better suggestions for this build, I'm planning on ordering these exact parts.  What else do I need besides drives?  I'm thinking I can wait on the 5-in-3, etc. as the case will hold them just fine for now.  any power cable extensions?  Additional fans, considering I'm starting with only 2 drives?  What about a CPU cooler - does the CPU come with one that is sufficient?

 

Thanks for all the advice!!!

[beckp]

Servion,

 

I don't have much time to explain now, got to make a living by working.

 

Choose another power supply. Not knocking Corsair, as you see from my profile I have one. There has been some changes.

 

PB

 

[servion]

Fair enough, I appreciate the put! 

 

Wht abotu this one?  450w rosewill, 80+ GOLD, modular, currently 20% off so it'll run ~$67

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182261

[beckp]

What about this one?  450w rosewill, 80+ GOLD, modular, currently 20% off so it'll run ~$67

 

I looked at the specs on the manufactures website. Looks good.

 

Continuous 450W@50°C

12V 37A Single rail

5 yr warranty (says something about the capacitors they use) They say they use Japanese Capacitors.

Modular cables

 

PB

 

 

[evlo]

Why everybody chose AMD Athlon II X2 over A4?