Hello,

 

Been spending the last couple of nights looking over my options for a media storage solution.  I have looked at doing a rebuild of my Windows Home Server 2011 with bigger hardware and using some of the add-ins (LDisk, Drive Bender, StableBits DrivePool) or using FlexRAID, FreeNAS, etc.  I have decided that UnRAID would fit the bill.  So I am jumping in with both feet.

 

Now I have combed the forum here and have decided to build a Goliath and adding a few of the part mentioned in the Atlas build.  A lot of thanks goes to Johnm for his well written builds.  I do not need the ESXi portion, but that maybe a possibility later down the road.  Since I am major MS Windows user, I have a separate machine with Hyper-V and it is working fine for me.

 

Also to note that I had already selected most of the parts mention in both Atlas and Goliath builds, prior to coming to forum.  Which is what helped me decided that UnRAID would be a good fit.

 

I have not ordered any of the parts yet, but here is what I have so far.

 

After some feedback and thinking I have made some changes to the items below.  I will not be doing an ESXi build in the near future.  My current Windows Hyper-V system is working just fine for me - actually I may rebuild it from a desktop tower into rackmount server later on.

 

Hardware:

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Case: Norco 4224 - 24 hotswap bays

Case Mod: 120MM Fan Wall for Norco 4224

Case Middle Fans:  Noctua NF-P12-1300 120mm Fan x 3

Case Rear Fans:  Noctua NF-R8-1800 80mm Fan x2

Power Supply:  Seasonic X750 Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold Modular

 

Mobo: SuperMicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O Intel 1155 C204 MicroATX

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core

RAM: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Unbuffered

 

RAID Controller Card: IBM ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller (flashed the firmware to IT mode)

Expander Card: Intel RAID Twenty-four port RES2SV240

Storage Controller Card: 2 AOC-SASLP-MV8

 

USB Sticks: Lexar JumpDrive Firefly 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

 

Accessory - 1 to 7 Molex Connector: NORCO C-P1T7 Molex 1 Male to 7 Female Power Extension Splitter Cable

Accessory - Norco Rails: RL-26 Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Slide Rails

Accessory - SAS Breakout Cable: Discrete SATA to SFF-807 Mini SAS Reverse breakout cables x 2

Accessory - SAS Cables: 1m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male to Mini SAS 36pin (SFF-8087) Male Cable x 4

 

Parity Drive: 2TB Hitachi 5K3000

Data Drives: 2TB Hitachi 5K3000 (9), 2TB WDC EARS (3), 2TB WDC EARX (4)

Cache Drive: 500 GB WD Black 2TB Hitachi 5K3000

Total Drive Capacity: 32TB Drives

 

Primary Use: Data storage, media streaming to HTPC and other computers

 

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Server Rack: APC NetShelter CX 18U or Kell Systems ComputerVault Mini with 12U Rackmount Option - See Note 1

 

Note 1: The reason that I picked this is because the server will have to live in our home office and not in the garage.  The garage gets plenty warm during the summer months.  Since it will be in our home office I want to keep the noise down to a minimum, so the wife does not complain.  Have to keep her happy.  Also I think that this cabinet is very nice looking.

 

Once the parts come in and I get ready to build the server, I will update with pictures.  I am sure I will be asking a lot of questions since this is my first build.

 

5/4/2012 Update:  about a month ago I swapped out the IBM card and the Intel Expander for 2 SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 ones, due to the issue with them not working properly with beta14 build.  I already had 1 AOC card and bought another 1.  Also I ah now up to 32TB of storage and currently using 10.6 TB (33%) of it.  I have a mix of Hitachi 2TB, WD 2TB EARS, and WD 2TB EARX drives - running pretty smoothly.  Swapped out the 500 WD Black drive - it was pretty much cooking itself temp wise - put one of the 2TB Hitachi's in it's place, I know it is a bit overkill but it had already went through preclear so I decided to use it.  It is on the second SATA3 port next to the Parity drive.  Been busy copying all of my TV series to the storage and updating MyMovies app to with the location - so far I am loving this unRAID solution. 

That is a huge processor and lots of ram for unRAID on bare metal. The X9SCM does support i3 processors and even half that ram 8G would be plenty.

 

You'll probably want to add a reverse breakout cable to get at least your parity drive on SATA3 motherboard port.

 

EDIT: since you're doing a dream build, add a UPS

That is a huge processor and lots of ram for unRAID on bare metal. The X9SCM does support i3 processors and even half that ram 8G would be plenty.

 

You'll probably want to add a reverse breakout cable to get at least your parity drive on SATA3 motherboard port.

 

EDIT: since you're doing a dream build, add a UPS

 

Thanks, I will consider all that.

That's a nice configuration, however the CPU and RAM is overkill for unRAID on bare metal.

For an ESXi machine, it's good,  for unRAID only, it's way more then unRAID would ever need.

That's a nice configuration, however the CPU and RAM is overkill for unRAID on bare metal.

For an ESXi machine, it's good,  for unRAID only, it's way more then unRAID would ever need.

 

Noted. Thx. 

the IBM ServeRAID M1015 do need to be reflashed to work in unRAId.

 

it is reported that the X9scm cant do that (i have not tried it  myself). you will need to use another pc to do that.

also teh yare not supported in 4.7. you need to run beta unRAID (or 5.x if you are reading this in 2016)

the IBM ServeRAID M1015 do need to be reflashed to work in unRAId.

 

it is reported that the X9scm cant do that (i have not tried it  myself). you will need to use another pc to do that.

also teh yare not supported in 4.7. you need to run beta unRAID (or 5.x if you are reading this in 2016)

 

Yes, that is what I have been reading from the various threads about updating the firmware on the RAID card.  Also I will be using version 5.x Beta from the start.

 

The whole idea behind this is a place to store all of my TV Series files for MyMovies database.  My WHS 2011 system is getting crowded, so I need to move them off.

Finally got the parts in last week and got it partly built, at least to get the configuration of the OS going.  I am now running the preclear on the 3 Hitachi drives.  I am amazed how quite the case is with the Noctua fans.