May 16, 201115 yr I am basically copying Raj's 20 Drive Beast build, but I have a few questions. I have browsed and searched the forum for these questions, so I apologize in advance if I have missed the answers. 1) What would be the disadvantage of using the Norco RPC-4224 vs the 4220 other than I lose a front USB bus? At this time the 4224 is only $10 more. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038&cm_re=norco-_-11-219-038-_-Product 2) Does unRaid intend to support over 20 drives in the future? If not this would answer my previous question. 3) Would it be advantageous to up the ram to an 8GB kit for the build? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262 4) What is the maximum RAM unRaid supports at this time? Any plans for increasing it in the future? 5) How would one set up backups? Do you just select the server as your backup location? Does Apple Time Machine Work with unRaid? I have a Windows 7 Ultimate PC and two Macbook Pros. 6) Cache Drives - Does this count against the 20 drive limit of Pro? Thanks again in advance for your answers. I will post more questions as they come along, but I am ready to pull the trigger on this in the next few days.
May 16, 201115 yr unRAID supports 20 data drives + 1 cache drive + 1 parity drive = 22 drives total. So I would get the 4224. You can also use the 2 additional drives outside of unRAID using SNAP addon
May 16, 201115 yr Author Thank you for the quick reply. I will go research the SNAP addon. What is your opinion on the RAM?
May 16, 201115 yr unRaid is a 32bit OS - so maximum addressable RAM is 4GB That is NOT correct. unRAID includes PAE so that more than 4GB of RAM can be seen and used. I have 10GB in my machine and I have built a number of machines for clients that have had more than 4GB of RAM.
May 16, 201115 yr 1) What would be the disadvantage of using the Norco RPC-4224 vs the 4220 other than I lose a front USB bus? At this time the 4224 is only $10 more. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038&cm_re=norco-_-11-219-038-_-Product Get the 4224 2) Does unRaid intend to support over 20 drives in the future? If not this would answer my previous question. Get the 4224 3) Would it be advantageous to up the ram to an 8GB kit for the build? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262 Unless you plan on running PS3MS, Airvideo, or some of the other heavy addons 8GB of RAM is overkill. 4) What is the maximum RAM unRaid supports at this time? Any plans for increasing it in the future? A lot, though I have never tested it. My machine runs 10GB and I have built a number of machines for clients that have run 8GB of RAM perfectly fine. 5) How would one set up backups? Do you just select the server as your backup location? Does Apple Time Machine Work with unRaid? I have a Windows 7 Ultimate PC and two Macbook Pros. Time Machine only works with the 5.0beta series as it includes AFP. There is a thread about Time Machine in the AFP subforum a little further down. 6) Cache Drives - Does this count against the 20 drive limit of Pro? 20 data, 1 parity, and 1 cache.
May 16, 201115 yr Author So that answers the RAM question. I will stay with the 4GB kit. Another question has come up though. Looking at Raj's Recommended 20 Drive Beast build. If I am going to get the RPC 4224 that would require 24 SATA connections or 6 SFF-8087 connections. The motherboard recommended does not have any SFF-8087 connections so Raj recommended two controller cards. Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182211 Controller Cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358 Would I be correct in assuming I could just add 3 of the controller cards since the motherboard has 3 PCI Express slots and plug all 6 SFF-8087 connections into three of the controller cards? Or do I have to have at least one hard drive plugged directly into the mobo? Thanks.
May 16, 201115 yr So that answers the RAM question. I will stay with the 4GB kit. Another question has come up though. Looking at Raj's Recommended 20 Drive Beast build. If I am going to get the RPC 4224 that would require 24 SATA connections or 6 SFF-8087 connections. The motherboard recommended does not have any SFF-8087 connections so Raj recommended two controller cards. Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182211 Controller Cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358 Would I be correct in assuming I could just add 3 of the controller cards since the motherboard has 3 PCI Express slots and plug all 6 SFF-8087 connections into three of the controller cards? Or do I have to have at least one hard drive plugged directly into the mobo? Thanks. You can use the motherboard ports along with this card to get the ports you need. You need a slightly different cable to go form motherboard port(normal SATA) to backplane put the card plus cable ends up being way cheaper than another SASLP card ($100) and 2 cables (30ish).
May 16, 201115 yr You need the following to hook up all 24 drives 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller 1 x SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132) 2 x House Brand Molex 79576-3007 Mini SAS / SATA Cable these are REALLY long...lol 4 x NORCO SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable I'm in the process of building my first computer and these are the ones I used. Take a look at my build in my sig.
May 16, 201115 yr Author Thanks for all of the quick replies. I will post up some pics once I get it built. Is there a timeline when unRaid 5.0 will be released? All of the pictures of my daughter are on my wife's Macbook. I do not feel comfortable running the beta version as my primary backup.
May 16, 201115 yr I used the sandybridge update of the same motherboard. I do have 8 gigs in my system and I don't think I'll get close to using half of that. I am using he same cards / cables as those listed above. the only exception is I spent a few extra bucks to get the Norco OEM reverse breakout cables. I only did that to get all of my stuff from one vendor. plus, there was a one day sale on all cables so it was not as bad of a price hit. As far as MAC. While 4.7 does not have AFP, you can still use the Samba for now. Either copy the files over manually or look at a time machine alternatives like superduper until 5.0 is released. Edit: Oh and nice build plans! nothing like jumping in with the biggest and best you can go!
May 16, 201115 yr Would I be correct in assuming I could just add 3 of the controller cards since the motherboard has 3 PCI Express slots and plug all 6 SFF-8087 connections into three of the controller cards? Or do I have to have at least one hard drive plugged directly into the mobo? Theoretically that should work, but some people have reported issues when using three of the SASLP cards. Two works fine, but three seems to start causing issues. Plus, there's no reason to waste money on a third SASLP card when the motherboard ports plus the $20 monoprice card will give you the same functionality. You don't HAVE to use the motherboard ports, but it is recommended that your parity drive and cache drive (if used) are connected to the motherboard ports if possible.
May 17, 201115 yr Author Thanks for that info. I will definitely connect the cache and parity drives to the mobo. Another question, I found 2TB WD Caviar Black drives for $99.99 at Micro Center today. The downside is that they are 32 MB cache. The upside is that they are $60.00 cheaper than their comparable 64 MB cache drives on newegg. I am looking on buying two of them. One for my cache drive and one for my parity drive. The rest of the server will be filled with WD20EARS which have 64 MB cache. Is there a noticeable performance increase when going with 64 MB cache over 32 MB cache drives for my parity and cache drives? Will there be an issue because the rest of the hard drives have 64 MB cache? Thank you again for your answers.
May 17, 201115 yr Thanks for that info. I will definitely connect the cache and parity drives to the mobo. Another question, I found 2TB WD Caviar Black drives for $99.99 at Micro Center today. The downside is that they are 32 MB cache. The upside is that they are $60.00 cheaper than their comparable 64 MB cache drives on newegg. I am looking on buying two of them. One for my cache drive and one for my parity drive. The rest of the server will be filled with WD20EARS which have 64 MB cache. Is there a noticeable performance increase when going with 64 MB cache over 32 MB cache drives for my parity and cache drives? Will there be an issue because the rest of the hard drives have 64 MB cache? Thank you again for your answers. I doubt you will any noticeable impact or issues.
May 17, 201115 yr If you're using unraid as a media server, the answer is no, you're files are all going to be larger then the cache anyways. Altho i have noticed a slight performance increase with a 7200 parity drive when im writing to 2 differant drives at once. the parity drive is the weakest link in copying to multiple drives at once. (assuming your bypassing the cache drive)
May 17, 201115 yr EARs are about $75 now. you just have to catch the sales. they make fine parity/cache drives if you're looking for cool and and lower power consumption. the blacks eat more power and run warmer with a very slight performance boost in unraid. the question is what is it you are after? most of the time a green drive is fine for parity. especially if you have a cache drive. Its a personal preference, that's all. I'll probably keep a faster green drive for parity and 7200 for cache.
May 17, 201115 yr Its a personal preference, that's all. I'll probably keep a faster green drive for parity and 7200 for cache. Same here, that's what makes the most sense to me.
May 18, 201115 yr Author Well I placed the order. Norco R4-15U Rack http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133039 Norco RPC 4224 Rackmount Server Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219038 Norco Sliding Rails (Free w/ Case purchase) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811997301 Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F-O http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182211 4 - Norco SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Cables http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133034 2 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Controllers http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358 1 Kingston 8GB Kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262 2 WD20EARS (I will add to this later) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514 2 3ware Break Out Cables http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116101 Core i3-550 (On sale at Microcenter Yesterday but gone today. I got it for $99.99) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115065&cm_re=i3_550-_-19-115-065-_-Product 2 WD 2TB Caviar Black (One for Parity and one for Cache) (On sale at Microcenter for $99.99) http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0347356 I will post pics as the build comes along.
May 18, 201115 yr looks good, one thing i might point out. If I'm not mistaken, that rail kit wont work with that rack. I know they are free, but i wanted to give you a heads up. My buddy had that rack and ended up ordering several shelves. one for each server and one for his routers and switches.
May 18, 201115 yr Author DOH! Oh well it was free. Do you have a link to the shelving your buddy got? Also, on preclear. How many cycles should I run each drive? I will have 3-2TB drives and 2-1TB drives initially.
May 18, 201115 yr DOH! Oh well it was free. Do you have a link to the shelving your buddy got? Also, on preclear. How many cycles should I run each drive? I will have 3-2TB drives and 2-1TB drives initially. See here and here
May 18, 201115 yr Check this post out. links are at the end. http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/09/24/hands-norco-r415u-19-open-frame-steel-rack/ He went with the more expensive shelves because the side screw mounts (SA-3202) are a pain if you have a full server and need to get it out. I'm not sure why he didn't get 2 sets of SA-3201 per server. maybe it wont work? $24 is cheaper then $65 in my book. Personally, I'd wait to see if your rails do work before you order anything.
May 21, 201115 yr Author Well it's official. The RL-26rail system will not work. Now I have to decide between the shelf or the SA-3201 or SA-3202.
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