April 28, 201214 yr About ready to take the plunge and build my first unRaid! I currently have a Synology 4 drive NAS and filled it up way faster than I thought, so I am going big now and plan to build the following 20 drive server: Case: Antec Twelve Hundred V3 HDD Cages x4: NORCO SS-500 5 Bay PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W CPU: Xeon E3-1225 3.1GHz 4C/4T 95W LGA 1155 / Intel HD Graphics P3000 CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-F MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 chipset microATX with IPMI Memory: Kingston ValueRAM KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G DDR3-1333 ECC CL9 2 x 4GB Kit HBA x2: Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 8-port SAS/SATA 6.0Gb/s Controller (link was to SASLP, not SAS2LP) HBA x2: SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Cable x4: 0.5m SFF-8087 to Four SATA Forward Breakout Cable (3ware CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M) Flash Drive: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Most of these parts were taken from a suggested list for a 20 drive hot swap box on AVSForum so I would like to know if this is a good set up for unRaid and how I plan to use it. It's use is for streaming movies (full Bluray rips from original discs), music, and photos. I would also like some type of remote access which I believe Remote Potato or Plex offers. From what I have read, it seems Plex is the best option as I would most likely want to transcode to an Android phone or similar. In home, everything will be streamed wired to an HTPC (i3 2125) and other computers using XBMC. Please give me your input on my proposed set up- does it all work together, overkill, underkill, etc. I also have some specific questions: 1) I am still reading up on the Plex add-on, but am I right in that if I use it, I will be able to access and stream (via transcode) to remote computers when traveling. Has anyone done this and is it effective (ie, no stuttering, long buffering, etc.)? Is it better to use Plex as the add-on to the unRaid server, or would it be better to set it up on the HTPC? 2) The SATA controller is listed as part SAS"2"LP, but on New Egg, the "2" isn't there. And from the original post I got it from on AVS it says the card has 6GB/s transfer rate, but on New Egg it says 3GB/s. Is the linked card the correct on I need? Thank you and I am looking forward to entering the world of unRaid!
April 28, 201214 yr About ready to take the plunge and build my first unRaid! I currently have a Synology 4 drive NAS and filled it up way faster than I thought, so I am going big now and plan to build the following 20 drive server: 2) The SATA controller is listed as part SAS"2"LP, but on New Egg, the "2" isn't there. And from the original post I got it from on AVS it says the card has 6GB/s transfer rate, but on New Egg it says 3GB/s. Is the linked card the correct on I need? Thank you and I am looking forward to entering the world of unRaid! Could this be the card you are looking for: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358
April 28, 201214 yr there is a SAS2LP-MV8 and a SASLP-MV8. I am not 100% how stable the SAS2 version is in unraid right now. they are about the same price but the SAS2 has about 4 times the bandwidth IIRC..
April 29, 201214 yr Author Correct, the card Frank1940 and I linked to at New Egg is the SASLP-MV8. The card that was originally suggested to me is the SAS2LP-MV8. So I still need to confirm which one I should get. Also still looking for the Plex advice.
April 29, 201214 yr Wouldn't get a e3-1225, the motherboard already has a video-chip. Better get a 1230.
April 30, 201214 yr Yes, change the 1225 to a 1230. You don't need the onboard GPU from the 12x5 series, and could better use the hyperthreading that the 1230 offers. You may want to consider a m1015 flashed to LSI mode like a lot of us others are using (see both Johnm's sig and mine.) You'll just have to stick to b12a of v5 of Unraid at the moment. They are very fast and stable (providing you stick to the mentioned beta revision.) Re: your Plex question - signing up and using Myplex results in remote access to your library (it just appears as another tab in any plex app or Klexi (a plex client alternative.) Stuttering etc depends entirely on your upstream/downstream when you're out and about. You can set the transcoding bitrate to suit if for some reason your connection sucks.
April 30, 201214 yr Author Copy that, will update my specs to the 1230. For the HBA, it looks like I should probably go with the SASLP (not the "2") version as I searched around after reading your responses and saw the "2" does have compatibility issues and is somewhat harder to find available. Seeing as four of the six SATA ports on the motherboard are 3Gb/s anyway, does it really matter not having 6GB/s on the controller cards- especially for what I'm using it for? BetaQuasi- thanks for the info on Plex, looks like it's covered for me. I see your rig is similar to mine. I noticed you have 16GB of memory as opposed to my 8- do you think it will be a big benefit to me going to 16? Want to make sure I'm not over looking anything.
April 30, 201214 yr I think the question is, Are you going with straight baremetal unRAID or a virtualized unRAID inside ESXi? If you are doing only unraid. the 8MB will be fine. In fact, you could downgrade to an I3 CPU to save a few bucks. If you are going the ESXi route. in most cases, the more ram the better (basically get all you can afford).
April 30, 201214 yr Yeah exactly what John said - I sort of automatically assumed you were doing a virtualised build based on your selection of hardware, my bad!
April 30, 201214 yr Author I was not going for a virtualized unRaid, just "regular" v5. The parts I selected were from a list not specifically targeted for unRaid so that's why I'm not sure if it's over or under kill for my needs. So it looks like I need to reexamine the parts (CPU, motherboard, ram). Suggestions?
April 30, 201214 yr tbh if you can afford it, stick with what you have got - that way you have proper server-level hardware and can go down the virtualisation path if you want to in the future (run extra VM's to do other things all on the same box.) Having IPMI on unRAID is the ducks' nuts regardless.. if you do want to save a few bucks though, drop to 4Gb of RAM (plenty for unRAID) and an i3 CPU as John suggests.
April 30, 201214 yr Author Cool deal, thanks for the input! I think I will stick with what I have then. Last question I can think of right now is since I will be using 3TB drives, I know I need to go with version 5. Just want to make sure the latest Beta 14 is what I should install?
May 1, 201214 yr Yeah. B14 will be fine. I am running B14 on Goliath. Same parts almost. It is rock solid.
May 1, 201214 yr You may want to consider a m1015 flashed to LSI mode like a lot of us others are using (see both Johnm's sig and mine.) You'll just have to stick to b12a of v5 of Unraid at the moment. They are very fast and stable (providing you stick to the mentioned beta revision.) Is it possible to do this flashing on a X9SMC?. Or do I need another motherboard for this?
May 3, 201214 yr You may want to consider a m1015 flashed to LSI mode like a lot of us others are using (see both Johnm's sig and mine.) You'll just have to stick to b12a of v5 of Unraid at the moment. They are very fast and stable (providing you stick to the mentioned beta revision.) Is it possible to do this flashing on a X9SMC?. Or do I need another motherboard for this? unfortunately.. you need another motherboard. even then it is hit or miss... It is possible there might be a bios update for the X9SCM or some odd setting to make it work. I have not had time to investigate
May 9, 201214 yr Author I have started to compile the parts for my build along with an HTPC build at the same time and now have this potential mix up to my setup: Last week I purchased an ASUS P8Z68-M Pro motherboard on a Newegg deal intended for my HTPC motherboard (to be used with an i3-2125). This week, I found out that I can get a Ivy i5-3570K w/Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H motherboard for only $50 more than the Asus/i3 combo. So, my thinking is to use the Asus as my server board along with an i3-2100 (instead of the E3-1230) and the i5/Gigabyte for my HTPC as after doing some more research, I don't think I would really use IPMI on the Supermicro. Is this a good idea? Does the Asus provide a solid choice considering the rest of my parts/intended use?
May 10, 201214 yr You may want to consider a m1015 flashed to LSI mode like a lot of us others are using (see both Johnm's sig and mine.) You'll just have to stick to b12a of v5 of Unraid at the moment. They are very fast and stable (providing you stick to the mentioned beta revision.) Is it possible to do this flashing on a X9SMC?. Or do I need another motherboard for this? unfortunately.. you need another motherboard. even then it is hit or miss... It is possible there might be a bios update for the X9SCM or some odd setting to make it work. I have not had time to investigate What are the symptoms when it goes wrong? The dreaded PAL error?
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