First of all still new to unRAID. I finally got all three of my XBMC's boxes up and running.

 

I currently have a ReadyNAS NV+ running in x-raid (2TB X 4 Drives). Working fine but looking for more centralized data and larger capacity.

 

UnRaid appealed to me because it spins down the drives.

 

My Objective: Build the lowest power server with 8 drives. Use this server to hold all media and files, run SAB, couch potato etc... have as MySQL server.

 

Equipment I currently have (I know some of the equipment overkill)

8 x 3TB WD drives

1 x 64 GB SSD (Cache Drive)

1 x Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H

2 x (2X4GB) GSkill memory 1600.

1 x i5 3570K processor stock Intel Fan

1 x Silencer Mk II PS (+3.3V@25A,+5V@25A,[email protected], [email protected],+5VSB @ 6.0A)

1 x LSI 9207-8i SAS Controller

1 x NZXT Source 220 CA-SO220-01 Black Steel

2 x 120mm fans for front of case.

1 x unRAID Pro License (Pending feedback from this forum)

 

Here are my questions:

-- Any feedback on the build (Besides it being overkill)

-- Should I get a bigger SSD for cache drive?

-- What are some gotchas I should look out for?

-- Should I think about another RAID solution (FlexRAID, WHS etc...)

 

Again my goal to be power conscience.

I know this is an old post but i still thought id respond. although by now i'm sure youve already discovered the things im going to say. congrats and welcome to the community.

 

as for the build, i dont think it's overkill at all. especially once you start adding plugins. what some call overkill, i call future-resistant.

 

as for the ssd drive, that really depends on how much you need. the purpose of a cache drive is for temporary storage until it can be written to the array. if say, you have a lot a 1:1 backups of blurays, yea, that's probably going to be too small as 1 disc is 40-50gb.

 

the only gotchas i can think of are to remember that only the release candidate of unraid supports drives larger than 2tb and the new plugin system. you can still run sab and couch potato but it's easier, imho, on the new plugin system. even though it is technically only an rc and not a production release yet. people have been using it how you want to use it for a long time without many issues.

 

i've considered other solution but always come back to unraid.

 

as for power, i think unraid handles it fairly well. it doesnt need to spin up all drives, and an ssd cache drive helps as well. there are also power management plugins and features that can help with power consumption.