Hi, long time lurker, first time builder.

 

My budget is $500 - $600 (including unraid license, not including drives).  My goal is to build a system that can ultimately expand to 15 green drives.  I would also love the system to be truly headless if possible.  I would love to never need to plug in a monitor and keyboard (though that is not an absolute necessity).  No plan to virtualize, though I will likely run Sickbeard, couch potato and maybe transmissions on the box.

Here is what I have so far:

Case:Antec 900 ($99.99)

Motherboard: Intel  BOXDQ67SWB3 ($124.99)

chip: Intel G630T ($74.99)

RAM: G. Skill reipjaw 2 * 4 gb  ($45.99 - this is overkill, but I am actually going to put this ram in a different box, and use the ram from that box in my unraid build)

power supply:    ?  ($100)

unraid licesnse:      ($129 )

 

Total: $574.96

 

 

I have a few questions. 

1) Has anyone used this intel board?  Does it really support headless operation?  Is it worth the extra money? (the supermicro everyone uses is out of my price range for this build).  It seems to have 6 SATA ports which is good, but I would take other MoBo suggestions

2) Should I upgrade this build to an Intel Core i3-2120T which is about $135 (and maybe drop down to a cheaper mother board)?

3) I was thinking of switching the case out to a Nexus Prominent 9, since it comes with room for 8 drives right off the bat, any thoughts on this?

4) I really can't decide on a power supply.  I like modular supplies if I can swing it.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks w0den

I use that board to run a Virtualized unraid. See the ATLAS build if you don't know what I am talking about.

 

You would need a VT-D capable CPU to do this such as an i5 2400.

 

I think I used the onboard SATA when I was first setting it up before I got my sata card. You can see more about my setup in this thread.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=19379

Thanks for the response.

I am not planning on visualizing (not right now).  How is the remote management on the board?  Can you build with never even plugging in a keyboard and monitor?  Can you change the bios via remote management?  Any issues with the board itself?

 

Thanks,

w0den