Most of my parts have arrived, I've finished constructing the server excluding the HDDs at this point.  I successfully loaded my flash drive with unRAID 5.0 14b and booted into it, it boots up fine.  Checked the menu from another machine on the network, it appears as if we're in business. On a side note - The XCLIO Nighthawk btw does appear to be an excellent case.  I went ahead and removed the front two fans and relocated them to the top of the case since I'm planning on having NORCO SS-500 x3 which will take up the entire front of the tower.

 

Question - Is it recommended to update the drivers for things such as the NIC after the initial build?  I would think so, only I'm not sure how to do that on a system that doesn't have an OS installed.  I'm thinking you may be able to achieve this using a flash drive?  For example download the necessary drivers from another machine with windows on it onto a flash drive, then use that flash drive on your unRAID machine? Would you be able to install the drivers from the bios?

 

I'm currently waiting on this - NORCO SS-500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133030)  so that I don't have to remove the HDDs and put them back in the case after my 5x3 bay arrives (which should be tomorrow). Although I'm currently debating just going ahead and preclearing the drives since that's apparently going to take a while.

 

Another question - I have read about cache drives and the answers seem to vary. With a 15 drive set up, clearing using the unRAID for streaming (hard wired, of course) media such as movies, tv shows to another pc running XBMC will I really need a cache drive? Should I be fine playing large movie files upwards of 15 gig?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Unless there is a real reason (ie, you have issues/problems with the current version or there is a known issue with what you are running) then i wouldn't touch it.

 

cache drives don't affect playback, they improve write speeds.

When you copy a file onto the server it will write it to the cache drive and there is a script that runs every night that moves data on the cache drive to the array.

 

for more information see the wiki

 

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#Cache_Drive

Drivers are built in. The upgrade path is with a new release so no you can't upgrade drivers at least not in traditional terms.

 

You could recompile with new/upgraded drivers but that process is involved. You would have to recompile if the latest release is missing what you added at the time you upgrade. Easier to just stick to known working hardware. This is why most with nic issues just add a intel nic and disable the other.

 

Go ahead and pre clear. It will take some time.

 

As explained cache improves perceived write speeds. Has nothing to do with playback. I stream 15 Gb video files to xbmc using 4.7 and smb shares no problem.