Intel BOXDG965WHMKR running

[JRS]

I received my motherboard today and it is now running the free version of unRaid.  For months I've been looking at moving my file server duties off my htpc and on to something else.  I've looked hard at every nas device, Win Home Server, etc.  I am a self-employed programmer and am very diligent about backups, but I have wanted something more efficient than simple file duplication to protect against a hard drive failure.  Duplicating every important file just wasn't going to work over the long haul.  Standard raid setups wasn't appealing, as I just can't cough up the bucks to purchase a number of same size hard drives at once.  The misc hard drive size and efficient (drive spin down, simple cpu/ram requirements) of unRaid are real appealing for me.

 

I had been surfing the unRaid site/forums for awhile and was giving it some consideration when one day I was rebuilding a PC and realized it would temporarily be in a state where I could try out unRaid and get an idea of the difficulty factor.  The motherboard I tried it on was a Gigabyte GA-8I865GME mATX, which is a great board to put to use any legacy DDR/AGP parts you may have, but not an ideal unRaid, at least not for SATA as it only supports two sata 150 on the motherboard (with two ide connectors).  I stole my wife's Lexar Jump Drive 512 as it had been gathering dust for a couple years and in about 15 minutes (including all the time to configure the flash drive), I had unRaid running with one IDE and two SATA drives.  It happened so fast I almost fell out of my chair.  I was thoroughly impressed. 

 

Fast forward a couple weeks to last week - after way too much research (but I still manage to make messed up purchases on occasion), I ordered a celeron 420 for the cpu.   The only thing I dislike about this CPU is that it comes with a 3-pin fan.  Not a big deal for my unRaid server as it will be out-of-site and hearing range, but for anything else, a low end dual core that comes with Intel's stock HSF with four pins is probably a better choice for the money.

 

I went with some kingston value ram and the unofficial (or maybe official) unRaid flagship motherboard, an ASUS P5B-VM DO from lagoom.com.  Unfortunately it was not meant to be.  It constantly started on its own, regardless of the bios settings, and then would power off most (about 90%) of the time.  I tried a number of different configurations and parts, but with no success.  I won't ever completely rule out my own ability to screw up hardware, but I build or rebuild a pc every six months, so working in the bios, seating ram and cpu's is not too foreign to me.  Never before did I have so many fits with a new motherboard.  I sent it back and ordered an Intel motherboard to try.

 

It came right up, although it would not boot with a cheap PNY 1 GB flash, but it took to the Lexar just fine.

 

Here's what I am running:

 

CPU:  http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116040

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134116

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121052  - now deactivated on newegg, maybe I got the last one!  :~)

 

PSU:  Antec earthwatts 380 that I've had for awhile, it's currently available for a decent price and free shipping - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005.

 

The motherboard's last PCI slot has absolutely nothing behind it, which makes it an ideal spot for a supermicro PCI-X Sata x8 card.

 

For hard drives, I only have a refurbished western digital 250 gb sata drive in it, as all my other drives are in my current file server.  Tomorrow I'll pull out my Hitachi 750gb drive and add it to my new unRaid and I have a western digital green 750 gb on the way (should show next Wed) to add to it:  http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136150  - I nailed it with the weekly email offer, $20 off the current price and free shipping, which may make it close to the best GB/$ deal out there right now.  See the thread in Good Deals! for more info.

 

I'm still looking at a case.  Considering how prices are dropping on hard drives, I should be okay with no-more than 10-12 drives for a few years, so I'm thinking about holding off on an expensive tower for now.  As part of newegg's weekly specials, I am considering this rackmount, which has free shipping and $10 off this next week:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811182566   Whatever case I get, my unRaid server will go onto a shelf, so any tower I get will end up on its side anyway.

 

My plan is to run the free version of unRaid for a few weeks, let it grow on me a bit, make sure the parts all "burn in" well, track down a backup flash drive, and then spring for a unRaid pro purchase for both flash drives.  Then I'll port my other two SATA drives and their data from my htpc to the unRaid box.  I'll stay on the hunt for hard drive deals (cuz I'm a cheap bastard) and add to the server as those deals allow.

 

Kudos to Limetech for such an innovative product.

 

fyi - it's late, had a long day at work, so forgive any grammer, spelling or technical screw ups in my post. 

 

Edited to add:  dooh!  I forgot to mention, I am running 4.2.1.

[jortan]

Here's what I am running:

 

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121052  - now deactivated on newegg, maybe I got the last one!  :~)

 

I took the liberty of adding the intel motherboard you listed to the Hardware Compatibility page on the wiki.  I also added the network chipset on that board, which I'm guessing is working fine?

[JRS]

Yes, it appears the network chipset is working fine.  Most of the data I've moved so far is backing up some virtual pc images onto it from an external-usb hard drive.  When the western digital green 750 gb drive gets in this week, I'll be able to me a chunk of media files and if there are any performance issues with the network chipset, I'd think they would show by then.

 

Thanks.