Hey Everyone,

 

So like many others before me, this is going to be my first build. All the kudos to the community and all of you who have inspired me to build my first rig. I have a couple of questions that might have been answered before but I haven't found the answers. The following is a rough idea of what I am looking at for parts, I took a lot of it from Raj's 15 drive prototype. The server will be used as a media Hub, storing mostly TV, Movies and streaming to a couple of Boxee Box's around the house. I would like to have SB and CB as add ons.

 

Mobo: Asus F1A55-M LX Plus Motherboard'

 

CPU: AMD A4-3200 (65w)

 

Case: Antec 900 (V1 - USB 2.0)

 

Drive Cage: Norco ss-500 (x3) - 15 Drives

 

PSU: Seasonic S12II 620w Bronze

 

Hard Drives: Mostly all 2TB WD Green (upgrade to 3TB) at some point.

 

Memory: whatever I can find on the cheap...4GB of something

 

My main question is with the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card can this handle 3TB drives? Someone told me there is another version 2 of this card which could handle 3TB... not too sure. I'm also looking for advice on the case, I know the Antec 900 is well received but if someone has a better option for a 15 drive build I would love to hear some more options. Secondly, do you think the A4 CPU is worth it to run SB and CB or should I step it down to save some cash for the Sempron 145? Thanks for the help.

the SASLP-MV8 can handle 3TB fine, providing it's not on an old firmware level.  Just make sure it's up to date.

 

To be honest though, if you're looking at one of these controllers, go down the M1015 route instead.  Check the buy and sell forums here, Seanant sells them for $70 delivered and cross flashed to LSI IT.  They are a better choice imho.

Thanks for the advice, I will take a look at that controller for sure.

As a previous Antec 300 and 900 user.... I'd recommend just going with the 1200 from the start.  My only issue has been the USB 3.0 plugs on the front, my motherboard doesn't have the 15-pin connectors for USB so I've been trying to find a PCI-E card with the connectors x 2 (recommendations appreciated!).

 

I'd also humbly recommend bumping up your processor and motherboard and going down the virtualized route, aka Johnm's Vitualized unRaid posts.  It really adds a lot of functionality for very little initial cost.

As a previous Antec 300 and 900 user.... I'd recommend just going with the 1200 from the start.  My only issue has been the USB 3.0 plugs on the front, my motherboard doesn't have the 15-pin connectors for USB so I've been trying to find a PCI-E card with the connectors x 2 (recommendations appreciated!).

 

I ran into the same problem with a client's build. As Lian Li and other case manufacturers are including USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 pin header adapters with their cases, I felt justified in contacting Antec and requesting that they send me some of these adapters. Success! They got back to me fairly quickly and sent me one adapter. As I need two of the adapters to connect all three front side USB 3.0 ports, I requested that they send another. They claimed they have, it should be in the mail right now.

 

Granted, this approach will limit the ports to run at only USB 2.0 speed. If you want USB 3.0 transfer speeds then you will need to find a PCIe card. I think this approach will be difficult since the card may need drivers not included in unRAID. Still, best of luck!

 

See the Greenleaf Hardware and Software Blog for my brief review of the latest version of the Antec Twelve Hundred.