Hello - 

 

I was wondering if I could get people's opinions on my ideas for an unraid media server. I would like to put music and movie files.  My network consists of an xbox, PS3, apple laptops and maybe a few ipods and a few microsoft machines. I'd like to start off small with a few HD's and eventually move into a norco 20 HD server unit. 

 

What is your budget?  Ideally I don't want to spend over $200 dollars but I won't hesitate to spend

How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need? My first iteration would be just 3 2TB HD's and eventually I'd like to move to a Norco 20 HD rackmount case.

Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal? See Above

Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons? Yes.  I would like to run PS3mediaserver, unmenu, or anything that if someone.

Do you want to run green/low power drives or faster 7200 rpm drives?  Does not matter

 

Hardware list (if I'm missing something let me know) to get me started in the unraid game.

 

Case (Already have): Full Tower ATX Case

Motherboard (need to buy): Biostar Ta870U3+ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138303)  I like that the SATA connection is 6 Gb/s

CPU (need to buy): AMD Athlon II x2 3.2 GHz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.699100)

The Mobo and CPU is a combodeal available at New Egg.  The reason why I went with the Biostar is that I like the SATA connection. 

PSU (need to buy): CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020)

Memory (need to buy): 2 sticks of Kingston ValueRAM 1 GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134657)

Cabling (need to buy): Rosewill 19.7" Serial ATA III

 

I have the HD's and was just going to yank a video card from an old computer but maybe I should get a different mobo because to expand I'd have to use the PCI slot for another

 

What do you think?  Am I missing anything???

Boost the ram to 4 GB and drop the cpu to a cheaper model to trade off the cost.

The board looks interesting to me if you already have a (compatible) video card.  The 6GB sata won't matter but doesn't hurt.  

 

MB LAN Chipset is Realtek 8111E which is not compatible with unRAID.

back to the drawing board...I guess I also need something with more Pci slots for upgradeability huh?  Sata controllers can go on regular pci slots, correct?

PCI slots are sometimes used for a video card, a NIC card, or a SATA controller. But having more than a couple of disks on the PCI bus will slow down parity checks and are not recommended. It is better to use PCIe slots for SATA controllers.

Ok so I'm pretty sure I'm going with this setup -

 

ASUS M4N75TD AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131637

 

and

 

AMD Athlon II X2 255 Regor 3.1GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX255OCGMBOX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103896

If you are planning to upgrade to a monster Norco sometime later get the 750 watt power supply .  The 650 would probably do fine but that little extra gives some peace of mind especially if you have any 7200 rpm drives.

 

It's also $5 cheaper than the 650 today only

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL080411&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL080411-_-EMC-080411-Latest-_-PowerSupplies-_-17139021-L0C

 

Ok so I'm pretty sure I'm going with this setup -

 

ASUS M4N75TD AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131637

 

and

 

AMD Athlon II X2 255 Regor 3.1GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX255OCGMBOX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103896

 

You may also want to consider looking at a lower wattage cpu:

 

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=athlon+45w&hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1280&bih=784&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7284789031573264174&sa=X&ei=YOs6TviwJczdgQeKlKzPBg&ved=0CGQQ8wIwBjgK

 

Runs about the same price, and performs almost as well (And still twice as powerful as the commonly used Sempron 140):

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X2+240e

 

Should save you a bit in electricity over the long run...

 

Damnit...Already ordered. 

Has anyone used an IDE HD as a cache drive?