Hi,

 

I'm new here and i'm very much interested in this product unRAID.

I'm currently using a ReadyNAS NVX with 3 1,5 TB drives in X-RAID2 serving my media to my Mac Mini which is hooked up to my TV and my iPad/iPhone.

On this Mac Mini i'm running SABnzbd+, Plex Media Server, CouchPotato and Sickbeard..

 

In the near future I would like to run these services (PMS, couch, sickbeard) on my NAS. The problem with my current situation is that the NVX is a very limited machine. Low CPU, RAM, etc. So for example when i'm watching a movie and SABnzbd+ is going to unpack/repair stuff i think my NVX is not going to pull this off.

I'm also sharing my library (myPlex) with a group of people. When they watch my media I've got this 'plex transcoder' which is requiring A LOT of CPU power.

 

I also want to use my NAS for time machine backups from my Mac Mini and 2 MacBooks.. Don't know if this is possible with unRAID?

 

So I came to this:

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 / 3.4 GHz

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB DDR3 - 1600 MHz

PSU: XFX ProSeries P1-750B-NLG9

Case: Fractal Design Define XL Black Pearl

Drivers: 3x WD Red WD30EFRX 3TB

 

What do you guys think? Is this overkill? What about power consumption.. etc..

Was looking for another case and found this:

Cooler Master CM Storm Trooper

 

Wonder if 3 of the SS-500's will fit in this case..

 

Also has a nice handlebar for emergencies (fire and stuff).

See my sig for my setup, a bit over EUR 500 but very happy with it in every aspect. Basically runs everything I throw at it without getting hot and without skipping a frame when I watch a vid.

I was in a simular situation to yours. Recently moved all my media from a Nas to Unraild.

My old set up was on a Qnap Qs259 Pro+ and I ran SB,CP and SAB and PMS. Setup worked perfectly. I decided to go with unraid because of my growing media collection.

 

Your ReadyNas might do a decent job running those apps. I think the model you have has a Intel cpu. Sad Cp and SB would run great. Lots of people run this on Arm based Nas gear without issue. On the other had PMS transcoding would probably be a no go.

 

In answer to your question, yes unraid will work fine  PMS trans-coding to  mutlipule clients requires a bit more robust CPC. I really like my unraiid box. The plugins for the apps you require are very easy to install.

 

I do think your shopping lis is overkill.

A low or mid range dual core cpu would be more than enough. My total cost to buld

My unraid box was $320 inculding 99.99 for the case.

 

Myspecs:

System: ASRock - 880GM-LE

CPU: AMD AthlonTM II X3 455 - 3.3 GHz

Cache: 384 kB

Memory: 8960 MB - 533 MHz

Network: 1000Mb/s - Full Duplex

Connections: Zero

Uptime:2 days, 12 hrs, 20 mins, 48 secs

 

 

 

 

 

Did some research, particularly in the signatures from other users. Was not completely happy with my configuration so I came to this:

 

Case: NORCO RPC-4224 4U

Fans: Norco 120mm Fan Wall Bracket, 3x FAN NB XL2 120mm, 2x FAN NB X2 80mm

PSU: XFX ProSeries P1-750B-NLG9 750W

 

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2

RAM: Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

Controllers: 3x Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

Cables: 6x SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable. L=50cm

 

Parity Drive: 1x 3TB Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX)

Cache Drive: 1x 1TB Western Digital Red (WD10EFRX)

 

Drives: 2x new 3TB Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX) 3x old 1,5TB Western Digital Red (WD15EARS)

 

A few questions about this.. What do you think about this? Will this work together.. and with unRAID software? Am I missing something?

Thnx..

I would suggest a small ssd for cache.. Not much space is needed

That's a beast...

 

One thing that concerns me. Is the E3-1230 V2.. While the V2 chips are certified for that board with a bois upgrade, I hear mixed issues with that board and V2 chips when you start loading up the PCI slots with drive controllers.

The slots are PCIe2 and the issues make it sound like the chip is sending out PCIe3 instructions or something.

 

I would downgrade to a V1 chip. then you will have a more solid server. I am running several of these beasts a baremetal and as hypervisor servers and have no issues.

 

you could also probably toss a sandybridge I3 on it and still have no issues. i doubt you would max out either chip before you saturated disk IO or network throughput.

 

PS, at this point it is no longer a NAS. It is a Server.. Perhaps a Storage Server. but a Server

Ok I will take a look at SSD for cache..

 

Will there be a big difference between xeon and i3?

I tried a Xeon E3-1265L, that does NOT work ok. But supermicro warns for that, so my own fault.

I had issued adding a Areca ARC-1200 next to 2 x AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 with that CPU. Have not tried it again with my current i3-2100T

Edit..

 

Case: NORCO RPC-4224 4U

Fans: Norco 120mm Fan Wall Bracket, 3x FAN NB XL2 120mm, 2x FAN NB X2 80mm

PSU: XFX ProSeries P1-750B-NLG9 750W Seasonic X-760 80+ Gold

 

Motherboard: Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Intel Core i3 3220

RAM: Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

Controllers: 3x Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

Cables: 6x SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable. L=50cm

 

Parity Drive: 1x 3TB Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX)

Cache Drive: 1x 1TB Western Digital Red (WD10EFRX) Samsung 830 series 256GB SSD

 

Drives: 2x new 3TB Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX) 3x old 1,5TB Western Digital Red (WD15EARS)

 

I've read in the wiki that it's better to connect parity and cache drive directly to the SATA on motherboard. Is this still the case with the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8? This card and motherboard both have 6GB/s throughput..

And if so, is this possible with the NORCO case. I thought in this case I can only use 1 SAS per 4 drives..

There seems plenty place to mount a ssd in the back part of that case, since it is a m-atx mainbord, and a full atx case. Also a hdd drive perform ok on a sata-2 interface...

 

So a backward breakout cable to the norco backplane can be plugged in 1 sata-3 connectors, en 3 to a sata-2 on the mainbord.

The ssd can than also be connected on a sata-3 interface.

 

A unRaid machine will never be a race horse, and the raw throughput to the drive will be limited by the way data is written to the protected volume i think.

Correct, it does not matter if drives are on mb or card.