Hi everyone,

 

I'm brand spanking new at this but although I've spent hours combing though posts on this and other sites I'm not quite sure if I have my unraid server design down.  Here's what I'm considering:

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253

 

Fractal Design Define XL Titanium Grey  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352018

 

SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

 

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 8-Port SAS/SATA Add-on Card  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358&Tpk=AOC-SASLP-MV8

 

Intel Core i3-2100    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078

 

8mg ECC DDR3 of ram  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262

 

Cable  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116097

 

Drives:  I'd buy a parity, cache, and a couple data drives at the beginning but I'm not sure which ones.  I'd probably stay with 2tb drives because of cost but I'm pretty confused about which brand is more reliable, value of 7200 vs slower drives, green vs black, etc.

 

You'll probably notice that my configuration is somewhat similar to Goliath.  What I'd like to do is to copy all my blu-rays and conventional dvds onto the unraid so I can view them on my home theater via a Mac Mini and Plex.  It's important that my copied blu-rays project as well as the disks because I just bought a honking plasma and I'm just blown away by its ability to show blu-ray detail.  At the same time, I'd like to build a configuration that is flexible enough to run other applications in the future.  Since I'm not sure where I'll locate the box (could be in the living room or cabled somewhere else), I'd like it to be quiet and minimalist in appearance, hence the Fractal Design case.

 

1) Can anyone tell me if my configuration makes sense?  I've never built a computer before (although I've added drives and cards and swapped cases) but software and driver glitches that might take a minute or two for you pros to fix could take me hours of research to resolve, so I'd prefer to avoid unnecessary hardware incompatibility issues if possible.

 

2) Is my power supply big enough?

 

3) Should I be considering additional fans?  I thought I'd just install the drives in the existing internal bays.

 

Thanks so much.  I think I'm going to have a lot of fun building this baby.  I never would have considered this project had I not found this website. 

 

-Erik

 

 

 

1) Can anyone tell me if my configuration makes sense?  I've never built a computer before (although I've added drives and cards and swapped cases) but software and driver glitches that might take a minute or two for you pros to fix could take me hours of research to resolve, so I'd prefer to avoid unnecessary hardware incompatibility issues if possible.

 

2) Is my power supply big enough?

 

3) Should I be considering additional fans?  I thought I'd just install the drives in the existing internal bays.

 

Thanks so much.  I think I'm going to have a lot of fun building this baby.  I never would have considered this project had I not found this website. 

 

-Erik

 

 

 

1. Makes perfect sense... List looks good.

 

2. that depends on how many and what type of drives your get. It is most likely going to be fine for filling that case with green/LP drives.

if you are going for 7200's we should do the math of drive power draw VS the max # drives you will buy.

 

3. yes.. I think..  it looks like it comes with 2 140mm and 1 180mm.. It looks like you might want to get one more 140mm for the front if it blows on the drive bays.

 

1. Makes perfect sense... List looks good.

 

2. that depends on how many and what type of drives your get. It is most likely going to be fine for filling that case with green/LP drives.

if you are going for 7200's we should do the math of drive power draw VS the max # drives you will buy.

 

3. yes.. I think..  it looks like it comes with 2 140mm and 1 180mm.. It looks like you might want to get one more 140mm for the front if it blows on the drive bays.

 

Thanks so much for checking out my configuration.  Your fan suggestion makes sense...I noticed that the Fractal Design case bundles the internal drives down below and was wondering if another fan aimed directly at them would be necessary.

 

As for the drives, my initial idea was to go with whatever was least expensive but that had a three year warranty (I know--a very rudimentary measure of quality) and add as I need them.  The consensus seems to be that the Hitachi 5K3000 drives are pretty good but I guess I should do the math on power since the case can ultimately hold ten drives.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Erik

Your motherboard has 2 fast SATAIII ( 6Gb/s) ports besides the 4 SATAII ports, but the SASLP controller is a SATAII controller only (3Gb/s). I would get the SAS2LP card instead, that's the new version which supports SATAIII. That way you have 10 SATAIII ports and 4 SATAII ports. Maybe find a mainboard that has even more SATAIII ports?

Your motherboard has 2 fast SATAIII ( 6Gb/s) ports besides the 4 SATAII ports, but the SASLP controller is a SATAII controller only (3Gb/s). I would get the SAS2LP card instead, that's the new version which supports SATAIII. That way you have 10 SATAIII ports and 4 SATAII ports. Maybe find a mainboard that has even more SATAIII ports?

 

For spinning disks it doesn't even matter. A spinning disk can't even saturate SATA II. A 4x PCIe card has 2gigaBYTES/s of bandwidth. Well over what 8 spinning disks can do.

I think you're mistaking bits for bytes According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA SATA2 has a 2.4 Gbit/s (300 MByte/s) throughput. SATA3 has a peak throughput of about 600 MB/s. My current Hitachi 4TB 7200rpm disks can do  150MB/s each... ok, not a typical household situation having 4 disks running at full speed, but still... or am i missing something here?

My current Hitachi 4TB 7200rpm disks can do  150MB/s each...

 

And that = theroretical SATA I speed... Not even close to SATAIII speeds..

 

yes. 8 of those Hitachi drives could possibly oversaturate that card during a parity check.

real world result = the parity check taking an hour or two longer...

 

The saslp-mv8 is stable and reliable.

 

the sas2lp-mv8 while sounds good.. still only works in some betas (not all). it also still special order.. usually...

 

I still recommend the SASLP-MV8 or the m1015 for those that are a bit more experienced since you have to reflash it.

 

there is no right or wrong answer here... it is stability, availability, skill level and preference. all 3 will do the job.

This is a very interesting discussion.  I chose the saslp-mv8 over the sas2lp-mv8 since it seemed to be more widely used.  That, and I think I recall a thread on this site where a couple people ran into compatibility problems with the sas2lp.  I could be mistaken however.