Hello, first post here, been lurking in the forum for a while now.

 

What is your budget? 

Around $250 (excluding the hard drives)

How many drives do you want your server to be able to support and how much capacity do you need?

As many drives as I can stick into the case, most likely 5 or 6 drives.  For now 4 2tb drives for a total of 8tb.

Plan to get a license for 6 drives.

Is expandability important to you?  If so, what's your long term goal?

Not at the moment. Would like to buy a motherboard/cpu combo that would be a bit more future proof if in a year or two I decide to set up a larger storage.

Are you interested in running any unRAID Add Ons (see here)?  If so, which ones?  Be specific.

Unsure about addons, still reading up on them.

Do you have any spare parts laying around that you would like to apply towards your build?

Planned on building this last year, lucked out got them before microcenter raised the prices due to flooding in taiwan. Think the drives were bought for around $65 or so.

4 - 2tb Hitachi HDS723020BLA642 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145473

3 - 2tb Seagate ST2000DL003 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681

 

Anyone used this case before? Seems to have good reviews. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129034 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129034

I can get it for $50 locally new from someone. Has 2 5.25" drive bays and 2 internal 3.5" bays. Looks like the 5.25 bay can be modded a bit and fit in 3 drives there.

Have 4gb of ddr2 and 8gb of ddr3 memory.

 

Unsure about what motherboard/cpu combo to go with. Something that will still be relevant a year or two from now if I decide to move to a larger setup. Gotten stuck at this point, have read through the forum posts for builds people have done, and still not sure what motherboard/cpu combo to go with. About the only thing that is holding me back from moving on with this build. Could really use some help with this. Perhaps i3 cpu and some mb.

 

Microcenter and fry's both have motherboard/cpu combos frequently for sale, so would most likely buy from them. Also they are both a short drive away. Though I will buy online if need be.

links to those stores http://www.microcenter.com/  http://frys.com/

 

 

 

Microcenter has some cpu/mb combos going on. This looked decent

Motherboard is mATX and has 6 sata on it, free with purchase of FX4100 or FX6100

 

http://www.microcenter.com/product/366104/GA-78LMT-S2P_Socket_AM3_760G_mATX_AMD_Motherboard

$90  http://www.microcenter.com/product/376784/FX_4100_Black_Edition_36GHz_Quad-Core_Socket_AM3_Boxed_Processor

$100 http://www.microcenter.com/product/375766/FX_6100_Black_Edition_33GHz_Six-Core_Socket_AM3_Boxed_Processor

 

 

If you want to go AMD then looks for something FM2 based.  FM2 is the newest socket from AMD, so there might be some teathing yet but it will be your most future proof later on.

 

If you don't want FM2 then look for FM1.

 

As for the case... that is more of a HTPC case and not a server case.  Getting any amount of drives in there with decent cooling is going to be a complete pain.

This looks like a better option in terms of cooling potential and air flow if you're looking for a really small case at around the price point you listed. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119258

 

Looks like it comes with a power supply but it's almost certainly a piece of junk so you'll want to replace it.

You are right about the case, looked at in person and it was a lot larger than it appeared in the pictures. Decided to just put the unraid server in the basement, will be canalizing an old dell poweredge tower and power supply for it. 

 

Looked at FM2, didn't seem to be a whole lot at the shop for it yet. Think I'll just get a basic mb/cpu for now. Looked around a bit online, seems like microcenter probably be my best bet for a decent cheap mb/cpu combo. Will be picking something up there this weekend. The total cost of this build will be just the motherboard and cpu, minus the drives and ram will be $100-150.

 

 

Ok went with your suggestion prostuff1, went ahead and ordered this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1076937 $145. A bit more than needed for unraid, but figure I might end up reusing it in the future for something else.

Spent a few hours reading over old threads here on the forum. Came across someone selling a hp proliant N40L for $150, picking it up tomorrow morning. Couldn't help pass up the deal. Will end up using that instead of putting together a box. Not sure what to do with the cpu/mb I ordered, will figure that out when those parts arrive Monday.