New Build

[potts.mike]

I am looking to convert my windows home server motherboard over to an unraid setup so that I can get some better redundancy out of the system. I am currently running an old dell E521.

 

Dell Dimension E521 Hardware Setup:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0GHz, Socket AM2, 2.0GHz HT, 512k L2)

nVidia nForce 430 chipset with GeForce 6150LE IGP graphics (64MB)

4x512MB (2 GB total) Samsung DDR2-533

 

I want to pull this board out and was thinking of putting it in a norco case.

NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case

Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021

 

I realize that at some point I will need to add an expansion card for more SATA ports but for the time being I will just have 3 1TB drives,

 

I have two real questions here:

 

1. Where should I start to make sure that this motherboard is supported by unRaid?

2. Any experience with this case? Do the hot swap bays work fine with unraid?

 

Thanks for any help,

-Mike

 

[speeding_ant]

I think the best way to start is to go through your BIOS and see if you can see a USB boot option. You can easily setup UnRaid on a spare flash drive to test if it works. If it boots, then chuck in a spare hard drive and see if it functions without issue. Then go get yourself a decent flash drive and set it all up. Remember to check the network etc.

[ilovejedd]

Seriously, you're likely better off just buying a new motherboard. Some Dells don't use normal power supplies. You have no way of knowing if yours uses a regular power supply or not. It's also possible you might have to dremmel the case in order to remove the motherboard. I've worked with both a Gateway and a Dell like this.

 

Since you're only using three hard drives initially, just use the Dell case in the meantime. Normally, a lot of OEM cases come with 2 internal 3.5" bays and 2 external 5.25" bays so you can buy a $10 5.25" -> 3.5" bay adaptor to house one of your HDDs.

 

Nice thing about unRAID, you can just move your flash drive and hard drives to a new rig once you've built it and it'll still work. Since you've got a Socket AM2 CPU and DDR2 RAM, you can buy pretty much any new AMD-based mobo and re-use your old CPU and RAM.

[NAS]

Seriously, you're likely better off just buying a new motherboard. Some Dells don't use normal power supplies.

 

Unless your own time is worth nothing to you then I agree with ilovejedd. Dells are never designed to do this and lots of things you assume are standard just wont be and will consume lots of time to accomodate or with the example of PSU above just wont happen without wiring diagrams, cable snips and serious messing about. IMHO this is a false economy.

[lionelhutz]

Yes, consider a new board. I'm using a ECS A740GM-M with good luck, and you should be able to find this board for < $60. I have 2x1T and 2x500G drives connected at the moment. If you go up to $100 you can find a number of good board candidates.

 

But, if you want to test it then basically create a boot USB stick and try booting the computer with it. If you can get it booted, then try to access it via \\tower from another computer. If that works, go to the devices page and see if the hard drives show up. If all that passes then you're likely good to go.

 

Peter