Landfill - My SFF unRAID with SAB/SB/PLEX


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  • 2 years later...

Still hard to beat the Q25 case.  I still use one for my backup unRAID box (PC-Q25A, H87-I Plus, i3-4350, 8GB DDR3L-1600, Silverstone 300W SFX, Noctua Redux 140mm, 256GB elcheapo Intel 5400s SSD cache, 3x6TB Seagate Ironwolf, 1x8TB Seagate Enterprise NAS).  Basically the same rig as yours, and it's been solid for years, though the drives were recently upgraded.

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  • 7 months later...

So a few additional upgrades that were never mentioned.

 

Swapped the case for the Silverstone DS380 a few months ago as I needed additional drive space.  I have to say, as long as you do the "cardboard" mod to seal off the airflow to force it to go through the drive bays before entering the rest of the case, this case actually keeps my drives cooler than the Q25 ever did.  Nothing against the Q25, it's a great case, I just needed more space.

 

Also, upgraded the CPU to the Xeon E3-1245v2 a couple years ago.  Much more horsepower for transcodes, VMs, etc.

 

You can't kill this thing, it just keeps on running.

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23 minutes ago, dirtysanchez said:

So a few additional upgrades that were never mentioned.

Maybe you'd like to update your sig then.

 

Yes, we still have sigs on this "newish" forum software, you just can't see them unless you enable viewing sigs in your account settings.

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  • 8 months later...
35 minutes ago, jrd680 said:

Hows your build now? Any changes?


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Still going strong.  It's been running 24x7x365 for over 6 years now.

 

There have been many changes to the server over the years, most all of which has been detailed in this thread.  Only changes since my last update were upgrading from 8GB RAM to 16GB RAM and finally getting around to converting all drives to xfs.  My sig below reflects the current state of the server.

 

I'll update the OP shortly with all the changes not already mentioned in the OP.

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  • 3 weeks later...
4 hours ago, jtmsrl said:

are you still using the Asus P8H77-I MOBO?

On 2/26/2019 at 12:02 PM, dirtysanchez said:

My sig below reflects the current state of the server.

Unfortunately, viewing signatures is disabled by default on this forum. At the upper right on this (or any forum) page, click on the dropdown beside your name and go to Account Settings to turn on signatures and also set your own sig if you want.

 

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Hi! I used your build as a template years ago and pretty much followed it pretty closely except I used a different mid-tower case, hard drives, and an i3-3240. I recently purchased an E3-1245 v2 to upgrade my CPU, and noticed you did the exact same thing. Did you have any issues with the upgrade, or did you just swap the CPU and call it a day? I believe my BIOS is currently on version 0904, which should support the chip. Does the motherboard support VT-d? I tried to do some research but couldn't find anything other than it supporting "Intel Virtualization Technology". Unraid currently shows that I support HVM, but IOMMU is disabled.

 

Also, I noticed that you are running 7 drives in addition to your cache drive. I went through the thread and unless I missed it, I didn't see mention of adding a SATA expansion card. I just wanted to know which one you used in case I want to expand in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to share your build, mine has been going strong for almost 6 years now!

 

Edit:

Just wanted to say that I ended up finding a response from you in another thread that VT-d is supported by this board. Thanks!

Edited by veeelad
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50 minutes ago, veeelad said:

Hi! I used your build as a template years ago and pretty much followed it pretty closely except I used a different mid-tower case, hard drives, and an i3-3240. I recently purchased an E3-1245 v2 to upgrade my CPU, and noticed you did the exact same thing. Did you have any issues with the upgrade, or did you just swap the CPU and call it a day? I believe my BIOS is currently on version 0904, which should support the chip. Does the motherboard support VT-d? I tried to do some research but couldn't find anything other than it supporting "Intel Virtualization Technology". Unraid currently shows that I support HVM, but IOMMU is disabled.

 

Also, I noticed that you are running 7 drives in addition to your cache drive. I went through the thread and unless I missed it, I didn't see mention of adding a SATA expansion card. I just wanted to know which one you used in case I want to expand in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to share your build, mine has been going strong for almost 6 years now!

 

Edit:

Just wanted to say that I ended up finding a response from you in another thread that VT-d is supported by this board. Thanks!

Congrats on the build, glad it has been working well for you.

 

Yes, I just dropped in the E3-1245v2 and called it a day, no issues.  Nothing special needed that I recall as long as the BIOS version supported the CPU, which you stated you already checked.  Yes, the mobo supports VT-d, my build shows both HVM and IOMMU as enabled.  The reason it shows as disabled for you is that the i3-3240 does not support VT-d.  Once you drop in the Xeon it should show enabled assuming you have it enabled in the BIOS.

 

I did add a SATA expansion card, but totally forgot to add that to the OP.  I used the IOCrest SY-PEX40039.  It uses an ASM1061 chipset.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005B0A6ZS/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Just FYI, before the IOCrest I ordered a StarTech 2 port PEXSAT32 card that uses the Marvell 88SE9230 chipset.  It did not work.  I don't recall if unRAID didn't detect the card, or if it detected the card but could not detect the attached drives.

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22 hours ago, dirtysanchez said:

Congrats on the build, glad it has been working well for you.

 

Yes, I just dropped in the E3-1245v2 and called it a day, no issues.  Nothing special needed that I recall as long as the BIOS version supported the CPU, which you stated you already checked.  Yes, the mobo supports VT-d, my build shows both HVM and IOMMU as enabled.  The reason it shows as disabled for you is that the i3-3240 does not support VT-d.  Once you drop in the Xeon it should show enabled assuming you have it enabled in the BIOS.

 

I did add a SATA expansion card, but totally forgot to add that to the OP.  I used the IOCrest SY-PEX40039.  It uses an ASM1061 chipset.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005B0A6ZS/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Just FYI, before the IOCrest I ordered a StarTech 2 port PEXSAT32 card that uses the Marvell 88SE9230 chipset.  It did not work.  I don't recall if unRAID didn't detect the card, or if it detected the card but could not detect the attached drives.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I figured IOMMU wasn't working since my i3 didn't support it. Good to know that it should be a seamless transition to the Xeon after dropping it in.

 

I'm considering upgrading from the stock Intel cooler on the i3 to something like the Cryorig H7 since I have more space in my tower. Did you ever run the Xeon on the stock cooler, and if so, did you notice temps go up? I anticipate my server doing a lot more Plex transcodes and want to plan accordingly.

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39 minutes ago, veeelad said:

I'm considering upgrading from the stock Intel cooler on the i3 to something like the Cryorig H7 since I have more space in my tower. Did you ever run the Xeon on the stock cooler, and if so, did you notice temps go up? I anticipate my server doing a lot more Plex transcodes and want to plan accordingly.

When I got the Xeon it was used and did not come with the stock cooler.  I used a stock i5 cooler I had lying around for a bit before I upgraded to the Noctua cooler.  Temps definitely went up compared to the i3 but nothing too drastic.  I think it was idling around 42C or thereabouts.  The server typically idles around that now as well, even with the Noctua cooler, but that's just what happens when you have a 77W CPU in such a small case. 

 

If you will be doing more transcodes temps will definitely go up so I'd put the biggest cooler on it you can fit.  I'm using the small form factor Noctua becuase I'm pressed for space.  Can't fit a much larger cooler in there.  When I've seen 3 or 4 transcodes running at the same time the CPU definitely spikes into the 60's.

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