Hello everyone,

 

I am new here and have been researching NAS solutions for the past few days and found out about unRaid.  unRaid seems to offer everything I want -- easy to administer scalable fault tolerant array.

 

I've decided on a Prominent 9 case and a single Norco SS-500 5x3 cage, along with a Sandisk Cruz Fit; I'll be getting these parts in a couple days.  I have a motherboard, cpu, ram that I wasn't making use of and will use it for this system.

 

I also have the following hard drives:

 

HD204UI (bought this for $79 from newegg over a year ago)

WD20EARS (just bought off ebay used for $90)

WD20EARX (recently bought new off Amazon)

 

I have some questions about these drives.  They all have their own peculiarities especially the WD20EARS.

 

How would you configure these drives and what version of unRaid would you use?  5.0rc3 or 4.7?

 

I can sell any of these drives if they are going to be problematic.  The guy I bought the WD20EARS from on eBay said that this drive was never used in a raid and recommended not putting it in a raid because he said it "kills green drives".  I am thinking it will be fine though with unRaid, no?

 

Just tell me what I should I do please.. I can get rid of all these drives and buy better ones if I need to.  I don't want to have performance problems or mess up the drives using them in a raid.

 

Btw, before I used the HD204UI that I got about a year ago, I updated the firmware on it because I heard people were having some problems with corruption.

 

Thanks!

 

P.S.  I see some Hitachi 5K3000 hard drives on ebay right now, new for $119 shipped.  Should I just sell off the three I have now and buy three of these?  I read here on the forums that they are highly recommended.  However, I notice Newegg ratings only gave the drive 3 of 5 eggs, with lots of people saying they fail too soon. I also notice Newegg isn't selling them anymore.  Please advise, thanks!

Any of those drives will be fine in unraid.

 

as far as the Hitachi deckstars, rumor has it that Hitachi stopped making the deckstars.. those were made in China and the ultrastars were made in Thailand. when the flooding hit. they moved the more profitable ultrastar line to china and stop producing deckstars..

Has anyone here used the Prominent 9 with ss-500?  How do you like it?  I get mine tomorrow and will let ya know.

Well I got my Prominent 9 and SS-500 yesterday.  I am impressed with the quality of both. I only wish the plastic on the top of the case was a bit thicker or metal instead; if something dropped on it that was heavy I see it cracking. 

 

The SS-500 does look really nice in the case, but it was a pain to install it in this case, here's why: You have to bend down 8 little tabs inside the case, that hold up individual drives from the bottom, to be flush with the sides.  Then when you slide in the ss-500, it's aluminum sides get all scraped up of course.  Then I find the holes don't line up quite perfectly and have to drill out 8 screw holes with a bigger bit, then use washers to screw the cage to the case.  I am really glad the left side of my case does not have one of those see through plexiglass windows, because the scrapes on the sides of the cages don't look good at all lol.  Also, I had to vacuum out all the metal shavings from the bending, drilling and scraping.  But from the outside of this enclosed case, the cage looks absolutely gorgeous in this case.

 

 

I'm a big fan of the Prominent 9 and the SS-500 drive cages.  Bending down the tabs is always a pain, but this is true of nearly all cases on the market.  I've never had to drill new screw holes though...are you sure you installed the cages the right way around?  I always install them such that the release for each drive tray is facing down.  If you installed them the other way around then I believe the screw holes wouldn't line up.

I installed it with the release levers (blue tabs) facing up--which seemed the right way to me since the power and sata connectors are more readily accessable in the back then having to go up and over the fan in the back shroud.

 

I was contemplating flipping it to see if the holes lined up but the design begged for it to be installed this way cause of the connection points in the back lol. 

 

I suppose I could flip it.

 

No matter what though, it's gonna get scratched up going into the prominent 9 case right?  I mean for me it was a tight fit and I bent those tabs down all the way I thought.

I just searched google images and looked at least a dozen pictures of installations of ss-500 in various cases, and they all installed them like I did, with the levers up.

Side note: btw, as I mentioned in another post here on the forum, the data access LED on the first bay isn't working--sucks   The other drive LEDs are working fine.

I would always install it so that, if I lay the case down horizontally and the motherboard is on the bottom, then the drives will be right side up.

I would always install it so that, if I lay the case down horizontally and the motherboard is on the bottom, then the drives will be right side up.

 

That's the way I have it now.

Yes, the sides do often get scratched up. Not much that can be done to prevent it.

 

Perhaps I've been installing the units upside down, but since the screw holes all line up properly I figured that was not the case. I also think that it would be easier to accidentally eject a drive tray if all the eject buttons were facing up, but that really depends on the location of your server more than anything else. Ultimately I don't think it really matters either way.

Yes, the sides do often get scratched up. Not much that can be done to prevent it.

 

Perhaps I've been installing the units upside down, but since the screw holes all line up properly I figured that was not the case. I also think that it would be easier to accidentally eject a drive tray if all the eject buttons were facing up, but that really depends on the location of your server more than anything else. Ultimately I don't think it really matters either way.

 

Just make sure you vacuum and blow all the dust out before putting any electronics in that case after installing one of these aluminum houses cages lol.. i"m sure you do anyways   So annoying isn't it?

Just make sure you vacuum and blow all the dust out before putting any electronics in that case after installing one of these aluminum houses cages lol.. i"m sure you do anyways   So annoying isn't it?

 

Sage advice! Little metal shavings can cause all kinds of issues. It is indeed annoying, I wish more case manufacturers offered models without the tabs separating the 5.25" bays.