First attempt at unRaid are my specs good enough?

[eros28]

Hello all,

 

After countless hours of reading I am comfortable enough to try and get my hands dirty with installing unRaid on an old computer. I don't have use for it as I have a Macbook Air and a Asus netbook. The primary reason for the server is to use it as a media server. With many macs and windows machines plus an iPad and an ATV 2...it'd be nice to be able to stream music/movies from a central point.

 

Two points of concern is if my hardware is good enough for my second concern which is speed. I was thinking about a Qnap system but would rather save a couple of bucks and upgrade my old pc. Will unRaid and my hardware give me speeds to match a 4-bay Qnap system (412)? Any info is greatly appreciated.

 

Here are my specs:

 

Case: Antec P180 (the old steel/aluminum  case)

MB: Asus P5K (775 intel chipset)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual-Core Processor, 2.4 GHz

PS: SilverStone SST-ST50EF - 500W (80 PLUS)

HD:

1) WD Raptor 74.3GB x 1 (thinking of using this as my cache drive)?

2) WD Green 1.5TB x 1

3) WD Green 2TB x 2 (one of which would be my parity drive)

 

The only thing I would like is to add a drive cage (do any fit the P180?) and future  proof  my server. Also I'd like to be able to transfer/server files quickly and to multiple sources.

 

Any advice? Thanks for helping out a noob.

[prostuff1]

Hello all,

 

After countless hours of reading I am comfortable enough to try and get my hands dirty with installing unRaid on an old computer. I don't have use for it as I have a Macbook Air and a Asus netbook. The primary reason for the server is to use it as a media server. With many macs and windows machines plus an iPad and an ATV 2...it'd be nice to be able to stream music/movies from a central point.

 

Two points of concern is if my hardware is good enough for my second concern which is speed. I was thinking about a Qnap system but would rather save a couple of bucks and upgrade my old pc. Will unRaid and my hardware give me speeds to match a 4-bay Qnap system (412)? Any info is greatly appreciated.

As far as processing power the unRAID server will be faster and better.  If the QNAP is doing a RAID 5 you will likely see faster copies over the network with the QNAP.

 

Here are my specs:

 

Case: Antec P180 (the old steel/aluminum  case)

Should work, though not the greatest choice for an unRAID server

 

MB: Asus P5K (775 intel chipset)

Should work , and looks to have some expand-ability options

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual-Core Processor, 2.4 GHz

Plenty of processing power for unRAID

 

PS: SilverStone SST-ST50EF - 500W (80 PLUS)

This is NOT a great choice for a PSU for unRAID.  It has 2 +12V rails with 18amps each.  You could put no more than 5 7200RPM or 7 Green drives on the supply.

 

HD:

1) WD Raptor 74.3GB x 1 (thinking of using this as my cache drive)?

2) WD Green 1.5TB x 1

3) WD Green 2TB x 2 (one of which would be my parity drive)

Based on these drives the PSU you listed will work.  If you ever want to add more drives you are going to have to add a better PSU to the system at the same time.

 

The only thing I would like is to add a drive cage (do any fit the P180?) and future  proof  my server. Also I'd like to be able to transfer/server files quickly and to multiple sources.

It looks like the p180 has 4 external 5.25 bays so you should be able to get a 5-in-3 drive cage in there to maximize its use.

 

Any advice? Thanks for helping out a noob.

Hopefully some of the stuff above helped out.  If you need clarification just ask, the community is very helpful!!

[WeeboTech]

Those parts will work if you do not go past 7-8 drives.

[eros28]

Thanks for the info Prostuff1 & WeeboTech.

 

I bought a new case (Fractal R3) and a new power supply (Corsair HX650). I really like the layout of the R3.  I'm building this unRaid server for my brother and when I get around to building mine I'll use a larger case with cage drives.

 

The server is going through it's pre-clear right now. Even though I don't have any linux background I found it quiet easy to follow the directions. I do have a question if someone could be kind enough to shed some light on. 

 

I intend to test the server for a few days once it's all done and after purchase a license to put more drives in. My question is how can I set the server up for speed? Would it be best to put the cache drive on a motherboard port instead of the expansion card? Also, is there such a thing where you can run two cache drives in Raid 0 for maximum speed?

 

My thought process is to have my 74GB WD Raptor drive as the cache drive and on the motherboard as well as my 2TB WD drive that will at as the parity drive.

 

 

[S80_UK]

Cache and parity drives on the motherboard is generally regarded as a good thing. 

 

Regarding using Raid 0 for the cache - personally, I wouldn't.  Don't forget that the cache only speeds up writing to the server - it makes little or no difference to reading (and no difference after the files have been moved to the protected array).  The cache drive simply allows data to be stored quickly with single write operations rather than the two reads and two writes that are needed when writing to the array.  (Reading from the array involves only reading the one disk that has the file being read.)

 

A single cache drive will generally be able to take the data as fast as your LAN can get the data into the server, so I would be inclined to avoid the complication of adding a Raid 0 controller.