July 8, 201114 yr Afternoon All, My wife and I are quickly outgrowing our current storage solution and are looking to take the plunge into UnRaid. With that in mind, I have put together the following components. Ideally, I would like to pull the trigger on this tonight (stupid limited quantity sales), but I will wait until I get some good feedback. Thanks in advance MOBO = Supermicro X9SCM-F-O CPU = Intel Xeon E3-1220 *Overkill?* = Intel i3-2100 RAM = Kingston 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM w/ TS Server Elpida C = Kingston ValueRAM KVR1333D3E9S/4G 4GB 1X4GB DDR3-1333 240PIN CL9 FBDIMM W/ Thermal Sensor Memory PSU = Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750 Case = Norco RPC-4224 Parity = Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB Cache = Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 2TB HDD = Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB x2 SAS Cards = Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 x2 USB = OCZ Diesel 4GB = Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 4GB USB 2.0 = USB A TO USB MOTHERBOARD HEADER - I really liked the idea of keeping everything internal, so I really hope this works Misc 120mm Wall Bracket Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male to Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male Cable x4 Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male w/ Latch to SATA 7pin Female (x4) Forward Breakout Cable x2 120mm Fan x3 80mm x2 I will be (initially at least) looking to run the following programs --> Torrent Client SABNZBD Couch Potato SickBeard Air Video Subsonic (or something similar) EDIT - I've also seen talk lately of an application drive. What is the purpose of this, and is it something I should look into? *I would also like to move some Windows folders to the array, but I have to figure out exactly what, and how I want to do this. I'll probably have questions.
July 9, 201114 yr I would say the Xeon is probably overkill. The board looks like it claims compatibility with the consumer-class i3 processors, and the i3-2100 has plenty of horsepower, more than the i3-540, which I understand was a favorite for more CPU-intensive unRAID addon implementations.
July 9, 201114 yr Dropping the Xeon means also dropping the ECC memory. How about the E3-1220L? Much lower power consumption apparently.
July 9, 201114 yr Dropping the Xeon means also dropping the ECC memory. ...not true for a XEON server board, at least for the SM boards I know. You can mount an i3 but still will be in need to run it with ECC RAM.
July 9, 201114 yr Author After re-considering my options (while working a 20+ hour shift), and looking at some further benchmarks, I decided that the i3-2100 was the better CPU to get... though the 1220L looks sexy. Unfortunately it looks like that chip is impossible to source in Canada or the US. Thanks for the help, any other comments are appreciated!
July 9, 201114 yr Maybe a comment for that USB stick Make sure it has a Unique Flash GUID: so if you buy a plus or a Pro licence ,, Tom can generate also a unique register-key file for you. Otherwise you will be stuck to the free 3 drive version.
July 9, 201114 yr After re-considering my options (while working a 20+ hour shift), and looking at some further benchmarks, I decided that the i3-2100 was the better CPU to get... though the 1220L looks sexy. Unfortunately it looks like that chip is impossible to source in Canada or the US. Thanks for the help, any other comments are appreciated! the i3-2100 chip hard to find?
July 9, 201114 yr Author Sorry, brain is still foggy from lack of sleep. The Xeon 1220L is hard to find, the i3 is no problem. As for the USB stick, I ended up changing it to one of the unraid suggested ones... I need to update my post to what I ordered... stay tuned?
July 10, 201114 yr btw the board has a usb port on it so you shouldn't need the adapter 9x USB 2.0 ports total (2x rear + 6x via header + 1x type A)
July 10, 201114 yr That build is very similar to mine. That board does have a USB port inside it. I have been running that same board for a while now with both an I3 and a Xeon. The xeon is crazy fast in windows and ESXi, I had 6 Windows hosts running on it with little lag. but in unraid it is just sitting there idle.. that board only uses Unbuffered ECC ram as i recall. I am thinking about replacing my MV8's with something that is 3TB compatible now that 3TB have been seen for $109. Something to think about before you pop $200+ for he MV8's. they are starting to show their age. EDIT* I should say that the MV8's are great little cards for the price. Personally I am thinking about future-proofing and getting different cards for my main unraid. I would then bounce my MV8's to my second unraid. I have plenty of 1-2tb drives for them to see many years of use in my house. PS. they do actually work with 3tb drives (in windows at least).
July 10, 201114 yr Author Whoops, I had changed the ram but forgot to update my initial post... updated now. As far as the internal USB, not a big deal, I'm sure I can find a use for the piece I bought
July 12, 201114 yr You have an incorrect cable. You need two reverse breakout cables, such as this (monoprice doesn't carry reverse breakout yet, only forward breakout). Since you are using a cache drive, the 7200 rpm parity drive will be somewhat wasted. Anything you write to the user shares will be written to the cache drive and then later moved into the parity protected array in the middle of the night, when it won't matter how fast or slow it is. It is possible to configure certain shares to use the cache drive and others to ignore it, so if that's your goal then the faster parity drive can come in handy in any circumstance in which you are writing to multiple data drives at once. In all other cases the extra speed won't make any difference. For the cache drive, the 7200 rpm drive will be marginally faster than the 5400 rpm drives, something on the order of 5 - 10 mb/s. Personally, I don't think this meager speed increase is worth the extra money, but that's ultimately your call. I prefer to go for green drives all around. That way if an array drive fails you can repurpose your cache drive as a quick replacement (this is known as the 'warm spare' method). 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm drives will work equally well in this application, but if you use a 7200 rpm drive then you'll probably want to replace it with a 5400 rpm drive at a later point to save power. I would suggest just using 5400 rpm drives for everything - parity, data, and cache. That way they are all interchangeable and you don't have to think about balancing power usage, speed, etc.
July 13, 201114 yr Author Raj, Thanks for the feedback. I had actually caught my mistake with the cables and had monoprice remove them from the order. Unfortunately the were sold out of the other cables I needed (SAS 8087) so I had to scramble to find some of those at a reasonable price. Took a chance with an e-bay seller, so we'll see how it goes. As far as the faster drives, my intention is to have exactly the situation you described... some folders writing to the cache drive, others writing directly to the array. While I know the speed 'increase' is minor, I got a good deal on the drives so I wasn't to concerned. As an aside, I'm thinking of repurposing one of my smaller drives to be used as an app drive. I like the idea of segregating addons from the main array.
July 17, 201114 yr So......are the mv8's 3TB compatible? What about the SATA version of the mv8's? http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14021.0;topicseen
July 17, 201114 yr Hi there, new poster, long time reader. I'm also jumping in and finally building an UnRaid box. I'm thinking of almost the same system, except in the AZZA 910 case with a low power CPU. MOBO = Supermicro X9SCM-F-O CPU = Intel i3-2100T RAM = Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) KVR1333D3E9SK2/4G 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory PSU = CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 Case = Azza Helios 910 Parity = WD Caviar Black 2TB HDD = 8 various 1-2 TB drives I have in external enclosures now. (All green drives) (in SS-500's) SAS Cards = Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Cable = NORCO C-SFF8087-4S Discrete to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cable x2 Does anyone have any tips on this? Does it sound like a good build? How loud is that Azza case? Should I replace the fans to make it tolerable in the office? Is this the right breakout cable? It seems that I need a "reverse" cable to go from the MV8 to the drive cages? Cheers! whiteatom
July 17, 201114 yr Author The only suggestion I would have (and of course I can't find the link now) is to just get the normal i3-2100, as the difference in power savings is virtually non-existent. Just google i3-2100 vs i3-2100T... the general consensus being that the performance hit is not worth the virtually non-existent power savings. PS - I'm still waiting for all my stuff to be delivered, so I can't yet comment on how well it works
July 17, 201114 yr Hi there, new poster, long time reader. I'm also jumping in and finally building an UnRaid box. I'm thinking of almost the same system, except in the AZZA 910 case with a low power CPU. MOBO = Supermicro X9SCM-F-O CPU = Intel i3-2100T ~snip~ Cheers! whiteatom Because that is a serverboard, It might not work with the 2100T. It might work fine, it might not. I'd contact SM before you bought it. I do know the plain i3-2100 is rock solid. (I did try an I5 for giggles, wont post) The only thing you loose by using that over a Xeon E is the ECC and VT-d (and some horsepower\threads you wont use). both not needed for unraid. plus you save over a hundred bucks.
July 18, 201114 yr Single socket H2 (LGA 1155) supports Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 family, Intel® 2nd Generation Core i3 & Intel® Pentium® family processors oops I just looked and I have the 2100t can't test cause I have no ram yet. going of the supermicro website i3 seems to be supported besides look at this post http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12956.0 poster is using the 2100t. eather way once the ram comes in I will let you know if it works or not
July 18, 201114 yr I honestly think you will be OK. That poster has a differant mobo BTW. Let us know how that works for you.
July 18, 201114 yr It does seem that the power savings are minimal.. Honestly.. it's the heat i'm worried about, not the power. This thing is going to sit in the corner of my office with two silent iMacs, so I don't want too much heat that will require loud fans. To anyone with the Azza case, or the SS-500's: How loud are these? Ideally, I'd like the hard drives to be the loudest part.... Do I need to get some after-market fans? CPU Cooler? Cheers - and thanks for the quick responses! whiteatom
July 18, 201114 yr Author Well power produces heat, so in theory both the 2100 and 2100T should run at the same temps. I've also heard that the stock coolers on these chips are very quiet... I would try it out, and if it's too loud for you, then get an aftermarket one
July 18, 201114 yr It does seem that the power savings are minimal.. Honestly.. it's the heat i'm worried about, not the power. This thing is going to sit in the corner of my office with two silent iMacs, so I don't want too much heat that will require loud fans. To anyone with the Azza case, or the SS-500's: How loud are these? Ideally, I'd like the hard drives to be the loudest part.... Do I need to get some after-market fans? CPU Cooler? Cheers - and thanks for the quick responses! whiteatom I should know more about this come tonight. I will try to remember to post back here once I get the norco cases in the Azza.
July 18, 201114 yr That would be great.. thanks! I found (somewhere in the bowels of google) a poster who said that the IceDock's are not much louder than the drives inside them, so if the same is true for the SS-500, that would be great to save a few $$. Cheers! whiteatom
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