Would these parts work well together?


eskro666

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Hi guys and thanks for reading!

 

I'm after a small form factor unRAID server

that will sit next to my HDTV.

 

because of that, i dont want the chassis to have LEDS in front and stuff...

 

Also, i want at least an unRAID server capable of holding 6 HDD's.

 

i only wanna use my server to feed 1080P movies to my HTPC.

i dont need my server to use addons such as sick couch bear...

i have a work PC for those....

 

therefor, i dont need super crazy powerful hardware.

 

so i came up with those parts here,,,

 

Yyk7es.jpg

[CASE] Lian Li PC-Q25A mini-ITX ($130)

[MOBO/APU] ASUS C60M1-I mini-ITX / AMD Fusion C-60 2x1.0Ghz (1.33GHz Turbo) 9W + Radeon HD 6290 ($77)

[RAM] Kingston 4GB (1x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1066MHz CL7 1.5V ($22)

[PSU] SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Single +12V Rail ATX12V ($60)

TOTAL: $330 shipped

 

So, what do you guys think? Any potential issues if i go with those parts?

 

thanks :)

 

 

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Another user on here posted about wanting to use that motherboard before but never posted back about whether he did or not. That hardware should run unraid fine as long as you don't plan on needing to do any on the fly transcoding of video or plan on running anything but basic plugins. Also, I'd recommend paying the extra few bucks and getting a 4GB stick of RAM in case you ever do decide to run some plugins. It's only $3 dollars more. (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145322)

 

Also make sure you are running the latest release of version 5 to ensure compatibility with that LAN chipset.

 

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I just received that motherboard on Monday but haven't had a chance to really work with it.  I can say it boots up and connects to the internet just fine.  All I've been able to do was start a drive preclearing on it.  Am planning to get to it this weekend and will try and update on how well it works.

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right on ccruzen!!

keep us up2date!!

thx :)

 

You could use a LIAN LI PC-Q08. A bit more compact than the Q25.

 

your right but as i check the dimensions, its almost the very same.

and the PC-Q08 has a LED fan in front which i dont like,

true that i can change it but, at this point, i think the Q25 is king!

:)

 

 

oh yeah and, is the PSU OverKill ??

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For the number of drives you can fit in that case it is overkill but it'll also give you some future proofing as well in case you decide you need more storage and upgrade to a bigger case and more drives. I would order it right now if you get this at the time of my posting because it's on a shell shocker deal plus there is a $10 rebate bringing the price all the way down to 38 bucks after rebate.

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So the Realtek 8111F NIC needs version 5.x ....  it can not run the 4.7 stable?

 

I had my mind on this board but if has that Realtek 8111F ....  I already have a server but I am thinking of going mini itx and moving all my hardware to a smaller case.  ;D 

 

 

ASUS P8H77-I

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841

 

The Fractal Node 304 case seems it would be nice also...

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=75056

 

Also been thinking of the HP N40L

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So the Realtek 8111F NIC needs version 5.x ....  it can not run the 4.7 stable?

 

I had my mind on this board but if has that Realtek 8111F ....  I already have a server but I am thinking of going mini itx and moving all my hardware to a smaller case.  ;D 

 

 

ASUS P8H77-I

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841

 

The Fractal Node 304 case seems it would be nice also...

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=75056

 

Also been thinking of the HP N40L

 

 

At this point 5.0 is considered stable. There are some new features they want to add before the 5.0 final release but at this point there is no reason to run 4.7. 5.0 is considered completely stable otherwise.

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So the Realtek 8111F NIC needs version 5.x ....  it can not run the 4.7 stable?

 

I had my mind on this board but if has that Realtek 8111F ....  I already have a server but I am thinking of going mini itx and moving all my hardware to a smaller case.  ;D 

 

 

ASUS P8H77-I

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841

 

The Fractal Node 304 case seems it would be nice also...

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=75056

 

Also been thinking of the HP N40L

 

 

At this point 5.0 is considered stable. There are some new features they want to add before the 5.0 final release but at this point there is no reason to run 4.7. 5.0 is considered completely stable otherwise.

 

Thank you... I guess I will be upgrading my 4.7 to version 5.0-rc8a AiO this is the correct one right the latest?

 

I am a little hesitant on doing it.  :o

 

 

 

 

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based on a review,

 

the PSU inside the Lian Li PC-Q25 needs to have a max length of 5.5" (140mm).

 

if more then that, it'll knock on the drive cage.

 

l9yVLs.png

 

hmmm,,, now which PSU...

 

Ok, found one, less Wattage but still plenty for my server --> see first post as i updated it with it!!

 

i also went for 4GB of ram, probably not needed for my situation since i wont sick couch bear but, so be it.

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That new SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W  PSU seems it will fit as you said it needs to be shorter.

 

Yes it does not hurt to get 4 gigs now of ram since prices are way low now and you never know when you might need some extra.

 

:o

 

Now buy it and let us know how that motherboard works...  ASUS C60M1 seems to be a good one for unRAID....

 

Hey eskro there is this review on that c60 I hope unraid does not have that problem with the NIC...

 

 

Cons: #1 Con: When people say the onboard realtek NIC sucks in FreeBSD, believe it. I loaded Freenas 8.3 beta for the sole reason that it has drivers for this realtek NIC. It does....and it does work but as soon as you have two large file copying sessions the NIC will stop responding. Not good for a NAS. (Even a small home NAS) I bought the cheapest PCI-Express Intel NIC I could find and it is working great now. So I knocked an egg off for the onboard NIC.

 

Maybe its drivers, maybe its the chipset or perhaps both but either way under FreeNAS the onboard NIC is terrible.

On the other hand I think ASUS has made it clear that they don't intend the board to be used with anything other than Windows 7 so perhaps the one egg reduction isn't really fair but I think the 1 egg should be deducted anyway for missing the point of having 6 sata ports on a mini ITX low power board. :)

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So no one done a full run through with this board and Unraid yet? I'm ready to pull the trigger on my first unraid setup and looking to go the SFF route. Been researching eskro's SFF build on XBMC forums and came across this post.

 

eskro: I'm no expert by all means but have you considered a low powered MB with 4 sata and a pcie slot? ie. ASRock E35LM1 AMD E-240 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157324

 

Might even save a few bucks doing that. But maybe you looked into that and decided that ASUS C60M1 is a better choice. Can you comment either way?

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I just received that motherboard on Monday but haven't had a chance to really work with it.  I can say it boots up and connects to the internet just fine.  All I've been able to do was start a drive preclearing on it.  Am planning to get to it this weekend and will try and update on how well it works.

Well, I didn't get to do all that I was planning but have worked with and been very happy with the Asus C60M1-I.  Threw a couple older hard drives in there for preclear.  Added to the array and moved a bunch of non-essential files over.  Don't have a parity drive installed yet as I'm waiting on a couple RMAs and a preclear.  Only possible issue that I know of is that I had a preclear stall on one drive but think it's probably a bad drive.  Started it again and it seems to be working fine now though. 

I've attached my syslog if you want to take a look.  Any questions you have, let me know.

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Well, I didn't get to do all that I was planning but have worked with and been very happy with the Asus C60M1-I. 

Any questions you have, let me know.

 

nice to hear its all doing great!

let us know how the NIC goes overall!

any problems feeding 1080P MKV's to your HTPC?

all butter smooth?

no quirks?

which unRAID version your on?

any CPU/GPU temps readings after watching a full 1080P movie?

thx :)

 

eskro: I'm no expert by all means but have you considered a low powered MB with 4 sata and a pcie slot? ie. ASRock E35LM1 AMD E-240 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157324

 

Might even save a few bucks doing that. But maybe you looked into that and decided that ASUS C60M1 is a better choice. Can you comment either way?

 

hi atom, i looked at the Asrock E35LM1 already but,

altho the CPU in the ASUS C60M1 isn't the most powerful one on the market,

i dont feel safe at all mentally going with a "more" anemic one like the E-240.

i know it may work just fine, but, thats me :P

and the ASUS C60M1 is noiseless/fanless

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nice to hear its all doing great!

let us know how the NIC goes overall!

any problems feeding 1080P MKV's to your HTPC?

all butter smooth?

no quirks?

which unRAID version your on?

any CPU/GPU temps readings after watching a full 1080P movie?

thx :)

 

Haven't had any issues with the NIC at all.  I haven't played any MKV's but can run a test tonight.  Will use the birds test from http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/ unless you have something else you'd like me to use.  I'll try to get the temps while it's streaming as well.

I'm using the latest release candidate (5.0-rc8a) with only Simple Features and unMenu for addons. 

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ccruzen, that's good news! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

 

Some thoughts/comments:

 

1. Even if the on board ethernet is problematic, i think it might be worth it to use the PCIe slot for a gige card. Unless you're trying to use all 7 slots, right? What do you guys think?

 

2. Any issues with the ASUS C60M1 and 3TB drives?

 

3. eskro, any reason specific reason you went with the SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Single +12V Rail ATX12V ($60) for this build over Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W 80Plus certified ATX12V ($34.99 after $10.00 rebate)

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1. why buy a card if the NIC works? keep the the PCI slot free is u need to add a 2-PORT SATA card later.

 

2. i dont know sorry.

 

3. the reason is, i dont trust the Corsair PSU's for many reasons which i wont go through.

however, SeaSonic is THE best PSU brand there is. and i dont like to cheap out on my PSU.

its an extremely important part of a build which you shouldnt overlook...

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ccruzen, that's good news! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

 

Some thoughts/comments:

 

1. Even if the on board ethernet is problematic, i think it might be worth it to use the PCIe slot for a gige card. Unless you're trying to use all 7 slots, right? What do you guys think?

 

2. Any issues with the ASUS C60M1 and 3TB drives?

 

3. eskro, any reason specific reason you went with the SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Single +12V Rail ATX12V ($60) for this build over Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W 80Plus certified ATX12V ($34.99 after $10.00 rebate)

1.  Haven't had any issues at all so see no need to use a PCIe ethernet card.

2.  I don't have any spare 3TB drives to test but since the mobo is pretty new I'd be incredibly surprised if it had any problem with them.

3.  FWIW - Mine is running off of the Corsair CX430 and like I've mentioned, not having any issues at all.

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nice to hear its all doing great!

let us know how the NIC goes overall!

any problems feeding 1080P MKV's to your HTPC?

all butter smooth?

no quirks?

which unRAID version your on?

any CPU/GPU temps readings after watching a full 1080P movie?

thx :)

 

Haven't had any issues with the NIC at all.  I haven't played any MKV's but can run a test tonight.  Will use the birds test from http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/ unless you have something else you'd like me to use.  I'll try to get the temps while it's streaming as well.

I'm using the latest release candidate (5.0-rc8a) with only Simple Features and unMenu for addons.

I ran the birds test video and I'd have to say it went really smooth.  I've uploaded a video of it here.  This is played in XBMC on a full Windows 7 install over samba.  Sorry for the poor quality but all I have is my phone.  FWIW, in the video I uploaded it seems to start out a little slow, that must be from my phone's camera because watching it live it looked perfect.  I also ran the video 4 or 5 times on my main computer, no stutters or issues at all.  I checked the temp immediately after and it was at 63.1 C.  For reference, it's been probably 1/2 hour since I ran anything off of that server and the temp is sitting at 62.0 C.  Overall I'm extremetly happy with this little guy.

Anything else you'd like me to check out, let me know.

 

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