March 14, 201214 yr First off, this is my first attempt at building a NAS of any kind. I've so far found this forum to be invaluable, as I was previously ready to just follow some pre-built guide. Thanks to a couple days reading here, I now have some idea of the whats and the whys to choosing hardware and such. Ok, so I'm looking to put together a budget box (<$300, not including drives). I plan on starting with 2TB Hitachi drives x3 (one for parity), and expanding up to 10-12 over the next year or so depending on prices/sales/etc. Primary use will be for data backup and media server. I am just starting to read into plugins, and will probably want to explore some of these in the future once I have the basics up and running and get comfortable with the system/configuration. My first shot at piecing together components is below: PSU (only thing I've already purchased) XFX Core Edition PRO550W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013 Case - (Leaning towards the Challenger currently) Rosewill Blackbone http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023&Tpk=rosewill%20blackbone Rosewill Challenger http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153 Antec 300 Illusion http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&Tpk=antec%20300%20illusion MoBO Intel BOXDG41RQI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121373 CPU Intel Celeron E3400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116348 Any input would be most welcome!
March 15, 201214 yr Your PSU is fine for 10-12 drives, and you have enough headroom that you can use either green or 7200 RPM drives without issues. Any of those cases will work for a budget build if you don't mind using some internal drives, but I would highly recommend a case with 9 x 5.25" bays, such as the Azza 910. This thread has a lot more options, but the Azza is one of the cheapest. You may spend an extra $10 - $30, but it will be well worth it in the long run, as a case with 9 x 5.25" bays will allow you to expand up to 15 drives and give you far more options for using different types of drive cages (5-in-3s, 4-in-3s, etc.). If 12 drives is all you ever need, you could start with inexpensive internal 4-in-3 cages such as these and then upgrade to nicer external (hot swap) 4-in-3s at a later point if desired. Also, while the Intel board is nice, I wouldn't invest in an LGA 755 socket board or CPU as that technology is pretty much obsolete at this point. For a budget build, look to an AMD AM3 board. There are plenty of options, but for a 12 drive build I recommend the BIOSTAR A880G+ and the AMD Sempron 145. The total for those two is only $10 more than the Intel kit you chose. For further suggestions, check out my 12 Drive Budget Box prototype builds.
March 15, 201214 yr While raj is correct and I agree with him about new purchases based on 775 technology is obsolete. I will point out that even older genuine intel technology is usually pretty solid. When I can, I like to stick to genuine intel. You can't go wrong with it usually. I have several old 775 based servers on intel boards going strong after several years. If you already have or are picking this stuff up dirt cheap, It might be a good investment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
March 15, 201214 yr Author Thanks for the feedback! I guess I had overlooked the convenience of going with the top-to-bottom external bay approach. I will have to select either the Helios or perhaps an XCLIO Nighthawk.... As for the CPU/MoBo kit, is there serious drawbacks to dropping to a single core? I know that I haven't stated any specific plugin intentions, I would like to have the option in the future once I am a bit more savvy....
March 18, 201214 yr I would recommend the XCLIO Nighthawk rather than Azza. I've got the Azza Helios 910, and you will have to bend the hdd tabs if you are looking in to installing a 3x5 hdd cages. The XCLIO does not have hdd tabs since it is tooless design.
March 18, 201214 yr Author Thanks for the tip! I will go with the Nighthawk then. I won't be installing any cages for a while, but when I do I prefer to go with the hot-swap 5x3s.
March 19, 201214 yr Thanks for the tip! I will go with the Nighthawk then. I won't be installing any cages for a while, but when I do I prefer to go with the hot-swap 5x3s. Yeah, I installed a Icy Box 3x5 hot swap in my Azza, and it didn't work out too well. My drives started getting hotter than I was usually getting from my stock 3x4 hdd cage. I ended up selling it and buying more stock cages. A lot of people who own the Supermicro and Norco 3x5 cages said they run cooler. I believe superbiiz (sp) has a sale on them right now for $99.00 dollars shipping included.
March 19, 201214 yr Also, while the Intel board is nice, I wouldn't invest in an LGA 755 socket board or CPU as that technology is pretty much obsolete at this point. For a budget build, look to an AMD AM3 board. There are plenty of options, but for a 12 drive build I recommend the BIOSTAR A880G+ and the AMD Sempron 145. The total for those two is only $10 more than the Intel kit you chose. For further suggestions, check out my 12 Drive Budget Box prototype builds. I'm looking at this MB too. Is a 12 drive built the maximum? Which additional controller(s) would I need?
March 20, 201214 yr Yes, 12 drives is the maximum on that board (technically you can add more drives on the PCI slots, but you will be introducing major bottlenecks). I spell out all the controllers and other things you need in my 12 Drive Budget Box post.
April 6, 201214 yr Author Ok, my parts are finally ordered and on the way! Here is what I've gone with based on suggestions here: Case: XCLIO Nightawk http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103030 MoBo: Biostar A880G+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138283 CPU: AMD Sempron 145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103888 Drive Cage (5x3): Norco SS-500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133030 USB: Verbatim Store 'n' Stay 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820235061 PSU: XFX Core Edition PRO550W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013 RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1066 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148149 Drive Bay (Single): SNT-125B http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993031 I'm debating between a 2TB Hitachi or shopping for a 3TB for the parity drive. Also, I'm holding off on the SAS card until I have a bit more coin and and am ready to bump up to the PLUS license in a couple months. I don't expect to fill the first 5x3 for some time. Any thoughts or concerns I should have about this build?
April 7, 201214 yr I'm debating between a 2TB Hitachi or shopping for a 3TB for the parity drive. Also, I'm holding off on the SAS card until I have a bit more coin and and am ready to bump up to the PLUS license in a couple months. I don't expect to fill the first 5x3 for some time. If all your other drives are 2TB as per your OP, then just stick with a 2TB parity drive and save some $$.
April 7, 201214 yr Author I haven't actually purchased any new drives for this build yet. I was planning on using a couple of old 1TBs I have in external enclosures currently for backup purposes to flush out the array. However, as I type one of them has just failed. Literally 2 minutes before your post i hit the power on the drive's enclosure to see how much data was on it and was greeted by Windows telling me that it needs to be formatted before I can use it. This isn't even one of the drives I was suspicious of!! They are all ~3 years old so I guess my hand is forced to go on an expensive shopping spree. I will most likely pick up 3x2TB drives for now. How difficult is it to swap parity drives once the array is up and running?
April 7, 201214 yr How difficult is it to swap parity drives once the array is up and running? assuming your parity is good, it is no more difficult then swapping out any other drive for a larger. I just did this last week swapping a 5400 for a 7200 parity drive. you do have to reconstruct parity after the swap, your data willl be unprotected while this happens. I just did it while I was work while no one was using the server. you could also do it overnight. Sorry to hear about the dead drive. it might just be a failed MBR. you might try to recover that.
April 7, 201214 yr Author Good to hear on the ease of swapping drives! I was able to boot up the drive this a.m. I'm hoping it is something to do with the enclosure. I'm furiously copying the backups off of it though just in case, considering it will be a few days before my components get here and another few while my new drives preclear. After all data is up and running on the new server I will try preclear on these older drives to see how they hold up. Do you need the paid license to do this on drives 4 & 5, or just when adding them to the array?
April 7, 201214 yr you can have more then 3 drives in the free version.. BUT. only 3 can be installed in the array (2 data and 1 parity). so yes, you can put drives 4 & 5 in the server and preclear them while deciding on purchasing a plus/pro license. Just and FYI, unRAID will not automatically spindown drives that are not part of the array. Once, those "extra" drives are precleared, you might want to pull the power plug out of them or remove them to save wear and tear and electricity. Sometimes I use a "free license" server for doing my preclears on. I'll run 4 drives at once in it when i buy blocks of new drives. For single drives i'll just stick it in my main server for preclear.
April 8, 201214 yr Author Excellent! Thanks for the tips! I have another newbie question, however... I just noticed that he Barracuda is an AF drive. I am correct in assuming/hoping that with version 4.7 I will NOT need to do anything specials with jumpers or firmware prior to adding this drive to the array?
April 8, 201214 yr Excellent! Thanks for the tips! I have another newbie question, however... I just noticed that he Barracuda is an AF drive. I am correct in assuming/hoping that with version 4.7 I will NOT need to do anything specials with jumpers or firmware prior to adding this drive to the array? you can set your unRAID to 4k for as it's default settings (sugested)... or when you preclear the drive, you can use the -A option to set it to 4ksectors while formatting.
April 8, 201214 yr Author Sounds good! I'll just set the default to 4k sectors and leave it for all drives. Thanks for all the tips! I'm really looking forward to putting this all together. It has been a lot of information to process, as I've never worked with any OS other than Windows or OSX, so I'm a little nervous. The guides and information available from this community are amazing, though, so I'm rather confident......
April 14, 201214 yr Author Parts are in and assembled! First order of business while MemTest runs, SHOP FOR A NEW FAN for the Norco SS-500! A few pics... https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HFxO3_LulUUeG_B65FXg7dMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OHT5ZLKoA22AHvm2aNZaIdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/id9SdJ-EXhId1O3k1-eXitMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
April 16, 201214 yr Author Thanks! Unraid is running, and I have completed the Preclear on all 3 drives (~26 hours). I"ve posted the results to be reviewed as I have no real idea what errors/warnings to be looking out for. Looks good as far as I can tell, though, so hopefully tomorrow I can create my shares and start moving data!
April 17, 201214 yr Author Array is up and running. I am transferring files from Win7 box to the tower using Windows Explorer over Gig LAN WITHOUT parity disk and getting speeds ~11 MB/s... Is this in the ballpark? I was expecting higher.
April 17, 201214 yr Author That's what I thought. I just ran ethtool eth0 and it seems to be auto-negotiating to 100Mb/s.
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