Hypothetical question guys, what's the absolutely cheapest unraid one could find/build that would hold say 4 drives?

 

Just curious

 

Thanks

 

George

Hypothetical question guys, what's the absolutely cheapest unraid one could find/build that would hold say 4 drives?

 

Just curious

 

Thanks

 

George

Hypothetical answer $69.00

 

It would take a "PLUS" license from unRAID (so you could use 4 drives)  and old hardware and disks you already have or can beg from friends, etc.

(The $69 is for the license)

 

So really any mobo that can take one raid card or hold 4 sata drives?

 

Cheap enough 

 

Thanks

 

George

Pretty much. I would be very careful with the Gigabyte cards because of the HPA issues. Its best to check the compatibility list on the wiki thou.

So really any mobo that can take one raid card or hold 4 sata drives?

 

Cheap enough 

 

Thanks

 

George

NOT a raid card, but a SATA disk controller card (or a raid card that can be set to non-raid mode and act as a bunch of individual disks)

These are only needed if the motherboard does not have SATA or IDE ports, a card (or several) that do have 4 ports that can be used as individual ports.

 

I've used two of the really inexpensive two port cards ordered from e-bay to add 4 SATA drives to one of my servers 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10165.0  $18 would give you 4 ports.  Or, you can use an older motherboard's IDE disk controllers and IDE-to-SATA convertors.

 

I've used IDE to SATA convertors to add SATA drives to another server that only had IDE ports on the motherboard, and I've used a SATA to IDE convertor to use an older IDE drive on a SATA port.  These IDE based drives/controllers work, just not as fast as modern PCIe/native SATA, but still plenty fast enough to serve movies.

Here is one example :http://www.amazon.com/Bidirectional-IDE-to-SATA-Converter/dp/B000RK89M4  With those you can use older disks on SATA ports, or newer SATA disks on older IDE based disk controllers.  here is another example http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040701&p_id=327&seq=1&format=2

Hypothetically $49.50

 

If you buy two plus licenses and split costs with a 'friend' also wanting to build a server...

If you are buying hardware instead of the beg borrow steal route, the hp microserver is probably the cheapest solution, even cheaper if you are in the uk..

 

 

Well, let's say that I can't build it myself or that my parts are too old or something. What's the cheapest route with something already built for instance?

 

If I were to do this, I'll probably have one built anyway but I was curious and sat there and started thinking about it.

No money right now so all this is hypothetical anyway and it got started when I saw this very cheap D link, two disk nas.

 

Links to pics of units or whatever would be cool.

 

Thanks

Also, if anyone's wondering about getting a second unit, let's just say that when it comes to me and computers, the weirdest things always happen and half the time I have no idea why and of course, if I don't, I can't fix it.

 

Here's one example..http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=15017.0

 

Here's another..http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=38148657

 

To those who don't have these problems or know more than I do about computers (which is probably everyone on this forum),

all this may seem far fetched or like I'm paranoid but I can assure you, this for ME is reality and it sucks.

 

Last year when my puter kept crashing, I kept backing the same stuff over and over to the unraid and recently when I went to clean it out and consolidate files, I found as many 3-4 copies of some folders with as many as a few hundred thousand files in each.

 

Are there things I could improve about how I do things? Sure but I also have things happening that's NOT supposed to happen or even possible.

 

By the way, feel free to discuss the other stuff in this thread if you guys want to. After all, I started it and the purpose of a forum IS to share ideas and to learn so go fer it!

 

Now, before someone misunderstands the purpose of this thread, let me just point out that I DO like my unRaid and I'm very happy with the service and help I've gotten from Rajahal

who built it.

 

George

Here's a possibility. Probably not the cheapest, but an option.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859105954 The HP Proliant micro server, with 4 bays. $309 currently. Seems there's other models avail there too.

So, will all these HP's run unraid?

All HP Microservers should run unRAID, but I don't know if anyone's tried the new 1.5GHz version. See more info in my signature:

Another possible option would be an Intel SS4200-E(HW).It has been discontinued, but there might still be some surplus units, and also used sales. Newegg closed out its supply last November for $130 each (I bought my 2nd & 3rd).

 

But, I wouldn't call this unit "cheap"; it is a solid, top-quality (almost industrial class) Intel engineering/design. I'm a terrible procrastinator, and haven't installed unRAID on it yet, but others have (search the forum). One caveat: it doesn't (easily) accomodate a video card. You would access/manage it via network (telnet, etc).

 

--UhClem

 

Thanks

Found a cheap Intel unit online but hell, I don't even know how to do telnet 

 

Here's a question. One of my drives has a red dot in front of it in the web interface, that means a bad drive

from what I understand. What's the difference between the dot blinking and steady light (in both instances it's red)?

 

Also, it's a 2 tb drive with 700 gigs available. IF it fails or has failed, my stuff's still ok, right?

 

Well, I have 3.5TB available out of 12.2 tb. Does this mean that I could afford to lose another drive and still be protected or this has to be replaced, pronto?

 

Thanks

Found a cheap Intel unit online but hell, I don't even know how to do telnet   

 

Here's a question. One of my drives has a red dot in front of it in the web interface, that means a bad drive

from what I understand. What's the difference between the dot blinking and steady light (in both instances it's red)?

Sleeping, vs. spinning. 

 

A red indicator means a "write" to the drive failed.  It has been taken out of service.  The drive may be at fault, or cabling, or power, or the disk controller.

Also, it's a 2 tb drive with 700 gigs available. IF it fails or has failed, my stuff's still ok, right?

Only if ALL the other drives in your array are working properly.

Well, I have 3.5TB available out of 12.2 tb. Does this mean that I could afford to lose another drive and still be protected or this has to be replaced, pronto?

Nope... you lose another, and you lose BOTH and also the lose ability to reconstruct ANY others that may subsequently fail.

 

It has to be resolved... pronto.  First step is to determine if it is the drive, the cabling, the disk controller, etc.  Before you do ANYTHING post a copy of your syslog for analysis, or, if you know how, look in for for a clue on how the drive failed.

 

Then, get a smart report from the drive.  Then, stop the array, power down, check cabling, both power and data.  Be careful to NOT dislodge the other cables... remember, lose two and you lose both.

 

Power up, get another smart report.  If good, you'll need to re-construct the failed drive. (remember, a write to it failed, so it is guaranteed to be wrong)

 

Whatever you do, do not re-format anything, or set a new disk configuration.  Those would prevent recovery.

 

Joe L.

Thanks

Ok, here's the syslog and for now, the unraid is running..

 

http://www.extuff.biz/images/syslog.rtf

 

Thanks

Ok, here's the syslog and for now, the unraid is running..

 

http://www.extuff.biz/images/syslog.rtf

 

Thanks

That log is from Oct 7th... and shows no errors.  Is there a more recent one?

I can take another one to see if anything has changed.

 

By the way, if someone wants one of those Intel servers, I found one very cheap on craigslist and since I don't think something that I have to telnet to would suit me, maybe someone else here would want to buy it. $75 

Ok, just took a new syslog..

http://www.extuff.biz/images/syslog-10-10-2011.txt

...

By the way, if someone wants one of those Intel servers, I found one very cheap on craigslist and since I don't think something that I have to telnet to would suit me, maybe someone else here would want to buy it. $75   

and, earlier

Found a cheap Intel unit online but hell, I don't even know how to do telnet

 

You are a wise man. [As tempted as you might have been ...]

 

Many of us could take a lesson (self included).

 

As Dirty Harry said, "A man has to know his limitations."

=======

For anyone who likes to tinker, that SS4200 is neat little server box. Like a mini-Cooper, but made by Mercedes (~size of a briefcase). 1.6GHz Celeron, 512MB ram (upgrade to 2GB), 4 internal SATA2 "bays", 1xIDE, 4xUSB2.0, *plus* 2x eSATA ports [controlled by on-board SiI3132] *and* an Intel 1GbE (no RealTek headache).

=======

 

[but, back to a much more serious matter (George's bits!) ...]

 

--UhClem

 

Yep, if it's anything I know, that's my limitations and I've learned a long time ago not to mess with stuff I can't figure out.

Sadly and especially on the forums, this is very often mistaken for laziness. Granted, I AM lazy but, the reason I don't

do these things is because it's NEVER easy for me and just about every time I'm doing something, there's ALWAYS

something else happening that wasn't supposed to be there and then I'm freaked out.

 

Anyway, if anyone wants the info on that server, I'm sure I can find it again.