B1G Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 My unRaid obsession started out of simple curiosity. I already had an HP Media Vault that was used for backups. I didn't really need anything more. But stumbling on this FREE server possibility I couldn't help but download and try it out on a really old computer I had. (Sorry I cant remember what that computer was ) To my surprise it worked without any glitch! Well now... I just couldn't resist. I took my home PC (Pentium 4, 3.4GHz i686, P5GD2) and installed unRaid on it. I did this just for fun Figured I'd reinstall windows later. (I like to do a fresh reinstall of Windows every year or soc anyways...) I ended up looking for a reason to keep this server up.. That's when a friend showed me his movie collection and voila ! Now I also have an XBMC HTPC in my home theater rack, running on windows 7. (Originally the HTPC was to run on Ubuntu. But an HDMI sound problem I couldn't solve made me go with Win7) Transmission is heavily used. I have a 120G IDE drive outside of the array reserved for Torrent stuff. I also send my work backups to the unRaid every night. I keep really important files backups on a separate WD Black drive. This drive is stored away in a drawer until needed and is hooked up to the unRaid or Windows machine with eSATA. This is where SNAP comes in handy (Thanks queeg) I use PuTTY, MC and SNAP to copy files between this drive and the unRaid. This is slightly faster then doing it from my windows machine. OS at time of building: unRaid 4.7 CPU: Pentium 4, 3.4GHz i686 Motherboard: ASUS P5 GD2 Deluxe RAM: 2X Platinum 512M DDR2 Case: Antec 900 two Drive Cage(s): Original Antec Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W Modular SATA Expansion Card(s): Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 plugged into the video slot Cables: StarTech Serial Attached SCSI SAS, Custom made power cables for the SATA drives (See pics) Fans: Original Antec Parity Drive: 2T WD2002FAEX (Black) Data Drives: 1x 2T WD20EARS (Green), 1T Samsung ST31000528AS, 2T Hitachi Deskstar 5k3000 ..Data Drive: old WD 136AA IDE, 120G Maxtor IDE Cache Drive: 500G WD5000AAKS (Blue) Total Drive Capacity: 9 (Could go up to 15 with 3 ICY DOCK MB455SPF-B and two Ebay 2 SATA port controllers) Primary Use: Media files Likes: Dislikes: Add Ons Used: unMenu, Transmission, ssmtp, mc, unraid-mover-conditional-sync, Add Ons Used: Power-Down on disk overtemp, Clean Powerdown Future Plans: Would love to find a good reason to build another one Will be upgrading to unRaid 5 when a stable release is available. Boot (peak): Will get to this when I get something to measure pwr consumption... Idle (avg): Active (avg): Light use (avg): My custom cables. Having lots of fun with this. Can't wait for a stable release of vers 5 future edits Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 Very nice. Very nice custom power cable. Only one suggestion to improve your build. The specific devices (sda, sdb, sdc, etc) can change from one boot to the next, even if you make no changes to the wiring. They depend on the order in which the disks initialize and present themselves to the OS. It is far more useful to have the last 4 characters of each disk's serial number on the backs of the disks. Much easier over the long term. Joe L. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 Very nice. Very nice custom power cable. Only one suggestion to improve your build. The specific devices (sda, sdb, sdc, etc) can change from one boot to the next, even if you make no changes to the wiring. They depend on the order in which the disks initialize and present themselves to the OS. It is far more useful to have the last 4 characters of each disk's serial number on the backs of the disks. Much easier over the long term. Joe L. Thanks Joe, That explains why I've been ripping those labels off thinking I've just been inaccurate in my notes... !?!?! I'll make does changes and finish off the "labeling" once and for all. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Nice build. Definitely a good idea to have an external backup drive to duplicate your critical files. If you have the option to store it off-site at a friend's house, office, etc., then you'll also be covered if there's some natural disaster. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 15, 2011 Author Share Posted August 15, 2011 Nice build. Definitely a good idea to have an external backup drive to duplicate your critical files. If you have the option to store it off-site at a friend's house, office, etc., then you'll also be covered if there's some natural disaster. I have that off-site backup pretty well covered. My place of business is across the street from my home. I have a wireless access point that extends my work network to my home. So backup from work go to the unraid. The external disk is two-fold. It's very useful for backups and for when I go to friends place and we exchange movies. Quote Link to comment
kizer Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Now that is awesome having your backup across the street and wifi to the rescue. LOL Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Now that is awesome having your backup across the street and wifi to the rescue. LOL Being so close to work has it's up n' downs... You can believe me ! I've been looking at drive cages to up my maximum drive capacity. I know about cages like the ICY DOCK MB455SPF-B. 5 in 3 seem appealing but I think they are a bit pricy. I found these on NewEgg: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817996019 4 in 3 at that price... Hummm I like. But they don't seem to comme with front grills. Does anyone know if I'll be able to attach the front grill of the Antec 900 on those cages? Quote Link to comment
cyrnel Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Wouldn't these sit behind existing grilles? Do the 900 Two fan grilles attach to the fans instead of the fascia? Seems like you'd want to keep those, what with the speed controls. Tear out the XIGMATEK fans? I'll join the crowd on your power cables. Nice work. That gives it a very professional appearance. Quote Link to comment
Johnm Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 +1 on the power cables. Where did you get the parts? I have been thinking about making some for my norcos. that is something those cases need badly. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 EDIT +1 on the power cables. Where did you get the parts? I have been thinking about making some for my norcos. that is something those cases need badly. Great place for computer parts... FrozenCPU Here's a link to thier connectors page... http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l1/g51/Connectors.html If you do make your cables MAKE SURE you invert the two black wires between the molex and the SATA plugs. Like in this pic. If you don't you'll end up frying your drives. BELIEVE me, it happened to me... Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Wouldn't these sit behind existing grilles? Do the 900 Two fan grilles attach to the fans instead of the fascia? Seems like you'd want to keep those, what with the speed controls. Tear out the XIGMATEK fans? I'll join the crowd on your power cables. Nice work. That gives it a very professional appearance. On the Antec 900 two the grills are fixed to the drive cages. I guess that is because the speed control knob is on the front grill. Anyways, the XIGMATEK cages look very similar to the ANTEC's Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Copying files is kinda long. I would have thought that using a cach drive would have solved that but I still feel it's a bit longer then it should. Could I need more RAM. All I have now is 2X512 ddr2. Can I mix the ones I have with 2X2g ? Quote Link to comment
SMH Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I have that Xigmatek cage and it's real nice. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Can I mix the ones I have with 2X2g ? As long as you have enough DIMM slots, yes. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Can I mix the ones I have with 2X2g ? As long as you have enough DIMM slots, yes. Great, thanks. I heard that your RAM will be as fast as your slowest installed RAM sticks. Is that true? How can I tell what speed my current DIMM are ? Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Yes, that is true. It is OK to mix RAM of different speeds, but it will all run at the speed of the slowest stick. I definitely do not recommend overclocking - you want your server to be stable first and foremost, speed is an afterthought. DIMMs are just the slots on the motherboard that the RAM plugs into. Just open up your case and see how many you have. Most motherboards have either 2 or 4. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 Yes, that is true. It is OK to mix RAM of different speeds, but it will all run at the speed of the slowest stick. I definitely do not recommend overclocking - you want your server to be stable first and foremost, speed is an afterthought. DIMMs are just the slots on the motherboard that the RAM plugs into. Just open up your case and see how many you have. Most motherboards have either 2 or 4. Thanks for that info. I wasn't sure what the difference was between RAM and DIMMs. Now I know Well I already checked that. I have four DIMMs on my motherboard. I'll be getting 2 RAMs and report back with my observation Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 I decided to get then CoolerMaster 4 in 3 cage... http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002 instead of the XIGMATEK because the fan on the CoolerMaster is fixed to the outside of the cage. This way I was able to remove it and fix the Antec fan assembly to the 4 in 3 cage. This way I retain the Antec 900 Two look and the easy to clean filter... I used the fan screw holes to fix the assembly to the new cage. All that I needed where slightly longer screws. Quote Link to comment
tminator Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 +1 on the power cables. Where did you get the parts? I have been thinking about making some for my norcos. that is something those cases need badly. For those not quite as handy as B1G (like me) I found some pre-made sleeved power cables over at Amazon. NZXT CB 44SATA-R Singled Sleeved 4-Pin Molex to 4 SATA Premium Connector Cabl http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSCZTO They also have some slick sleeved SATA Cables that help keep things looking tidy. NZXT CB-SATA-44P-R Individually Sleeved 4 SATA to 4 SATA Premium Cable http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCAMM2 Quote Link to comment
ProfQ Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 The NZXT cables are also available in black. Quote Link to comment
B1G Posted October 25, 2011 Author Share Posted October 25, 2011 +1 on the power cables. Where did you get the parts? I have been thinking about making some for my norcos. that is something those cases need badly. For those not quite as handy as B1G (like me) I found some pre-made sleeved power cables over at Amazon. NZXT CB 44SATA-R Singled Sleeved 4-Pin Molex to 4 SATA Premium Connector Cabl http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSCZTO They also have some slick sleeved SATA Cables that help keep things looking tidy. NZXT CB-SATA-44P-R Individually Sleeved 4 SATA to 4 SATA Premium Cable http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DCAMM2 Nice Find Quote Link to comment
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