Migrating from my QNAP 409 to my first unRaid build. Ideally, I want it to match these criteria:

• Media storage. Serving content to separate xbmc htpc.
  
• Media downloader and organizer through Sabnzb \ Couch Potato \ SickBeard setup
  
• Transmission torrent daemon through the UnMenu package.
  
• Background transcoding jobs for doing the occasional conversion for my iPad. Not a top priority.
  
• Silent and low-power is definately a high priority. I don't have closet space for stowing it unfortunately.
  

 

Case: I've gotten my hands on a second-hand Fractal R3, so that basically limits my long term drive capacity to around 10, which should be sufficient. Thought that would be a nice silent, cool and expandable case.

 

HDD: Initially it will be loaded with the 4x WD Green EADS 1TB I have from the QNAP NAS. I plan on getting a new WD EARX 2TB for parity.

- Any known issues with the EARX?

The Deskstars that everybody seems to like at the moment are for some reason roughly 20$ more expensive here (Denmark) I know I'm kinda putting all my eggs in one basket here with the 4 EADS's; they were bought in pairs, a few months apart, but I could still conceivably have the dreaded double drive failure, but I'm not throwing them out!

- I'll probably add a write cache drive at some point as well; I'm assuming that's a good idea since the machine will be my "download center" so to speak, right?

 

CPU: I am figuring I need something a little beefier for my tasks than the Sempron favored in most of the build suggestions. My first thought was going for the Intel i3 2100, possibly undervolting/underclocking it to "imitate" a i3 2100T.

- Are there any other options I should be looking at, "bang-for-the-buck"-wise?

The i3 seems particularly well suited as it has a very low idle power consumption.

 

MB: Currently I'm looking at two AsRock boards:

• http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=H61M/U3S3
  
• http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=H67DE3&cat=Specifications
  

Both have 6 SATA and onboard graphics. One has an Atheros NIC, the other has the (still problematic?) Realtek RTL8111E NIC.

Good ideas for the mobo / suggestions anyone?

 

PSU: I'll be going the Corsair CX430. From what I gather that should just about cover it. If problems arise, I can swap it for the PSU in my desktop which is a Seasonic S12 500W.

 

 

That should cover it I guess. The cpu and mobo are the parts I'm most undecided about. Any help/input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

No issues with the EARX drives that I know about.  A few users report success in this thread.

 

As long as your EADS drives pass one or two preclears then you have nothing to worry about. The EADS line proved to be very reliable through its life (more than I can say for the EARS line).

 

Since you mention video transcoding I agree that the i3 is an excellent choice.  Don't feel confined to the second gen i3s, the first gen models are also excellent.  You could also consider just a regular dual core (such as an Athlon), but your server will use more power when idle.

 

As you mentioned, both Asrock boards you linked have incompatible NICs.  Some users are having success with the Realtek 8111E in the latest beta, but I still recommend avoiding them if possible.  Keep looking for a better board (maybe an LGA 1156 board as it is more likely to have a compatible NIC).  If you don't find one, then you can always come back to these and use a PCI NIC (Intel is generally the best).

Thanks for a really helpful reply I had overlooked that the Atheros was also a "troublemaker", so thanks for the heads up!

 

I hadn't thought about the 1st gen i3's; I thought they'd be out of stock by now, but you're absolutely right - they are a pretty good alternative. But the mobos left in stock with the dealers here are almost as expensive as the newer LGA 1155 boards, and aren't as attractive feature-wise.

 

I think I've decided on this board for the Sandy Bridge i3 2100, which uses an Intel NIC and is pretty well stocked with regards to features.

http://ark.intel.com/products/51856/Intel-Desktop-Board-DH61BE

 

So, at local prices I can go for either:

1. i3 2100 + Intel DH61BE: 153 USD + 107 USD = 260 $

or

2. i3 540 + an appropriate board: 135 USD + ~110 USD = 245 $

i3 2100 here I come The 2100 has an 5-20% perf. advantage over the 540, depending on the type of work - I'll happily pay the extra 15$ for that.

 

Thanks for the input!

Btw. assuming the price for a WD Green EARX and a Hitachi Deskstar were the same, what would be preferable (and why)?

Looks like a nice board!

 

I would choose the Hitachi.  The EARX drives are brand new, so they haven't had enough time in the market to really prove their worth yet.  The Hitachi drives have been the best option in the market for months now.  It may be that the EARX are actually better drives and will prove that over time, but at the moment the Hitachi is a safer bet.

Sound reasoning Cheers and thank you again for your input.

Quick question, what version of unraid will you be running?

 

If i recall correctly, all of the Intel LGA1155 desktop boards with intel NIC's are running the Intel 82579 Chipset (for VPro support).

 

I do believe those might not be supported until 5Beta4?

 

other then that, that should be a pretty solid board supporting about 18 drives fully maxed out.

Well, poop...

 

Yep, that board uses the Intel 82579V NIC. There sure are a bunch of incompatible chipsets out there. Maybe the Wiki page could use an update?

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dh61be.html

 

I was planning on using the latest stable build (4.7), but since I just ordered the parts today and don't want to cancel them, I guess I'll have to run a beta version.

 

Any beta versions that are preferable/more stable than the others?

 

Is there any upgrade path from a beta to the final, stable release 5.0 version?

 

Thanks for the warning though, I figure you just saved me endless hours of frustration trying to get 4.7 to work.

I would give 4.7 a test and let us know how that went.

 

If you do not need AFP or 3TB+ support, 5Beta6a was very stable for most people.

Anything after that should work also, you don't have any of the hardware that effects those beta's.

 

If you need AFP, I believe beta11 was the  one to go for. beta12 was to fix the 8111e issues.

Heh. I can't decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that Johnm replied to in this thread. After reading the VM ESXi setup thread, I got totally hooked and have decided to build a beefier server for ESXi too. Curse you for your inspirational setup! 

 

Now trying to track down a shop with Supermicro X9SCM's to go with the Xeon e3-1230. Or possibly a Tyan S5510GM3NR. *sigh*

mehh..

I'm a windows Admin and hardware guy for a very large web e-tailer. I am an unRAID noob...

 

The Tyan might make a better board for ESX then the SM due to the NIC config.

I just work with SM boards so I stuck to brand loyalty. sort of "go with what you know".

That, and i could not get my hands on the Tyan at that time.

 

My issue with the C202/C204 servers for ESXi is the lack of flipping 8Gb udimms for the boards at this point. When I built Atlas, I had thought we would see those by now.

Now I am wondering if i should have gone with an LGA1156 board. 16GB out of 32GB limit is starting to hurt...

 

as far as this build, some people preach, beta=bad for production...

for windows, I would say very true.

for unraid, as long as you know the bugs with each beta and are not the first to jump up to the latest, you "should" be ok.

 

Nonetheless, your well-documented thread on the esxi setup made all the difference for me, convincing me to go that route as well.

 

I think my choice of motherboard will be decided by which one I'm able to find - turns out no retailer here have them that I could find. Also looking at the Tyan S5512 for its built-in extra sata ports. Trying to get in contact with both super micro and Tyans Danish distributor to figure out where to get them.

 

With regard to ram, I can get 8 gigs sticks here for the same price as 2x4 but am I looking at the wrong kind perhaps? 1333 ECC should be alright, right? What's the difference to the LGA1156?

 

I don't have any qualms with the beta, I live on the bleeding edge with a few other pieces of software and am a reasonably seasoned Linux guy.

 

Thanks for your input and help!

if I recall correctly. the C20x chipset uses DDR3 ECC Un-Buffered memory (UDIMM). while most server memory is DDR3 ECC Registered memory (RDIMM)...

 

LGA1156 = a generation older = xeon 3400. those tend to use the DDR3 ECC Registered memory. like the X8SIL for example.

 

Axiom made them for a while. impossible to find now..