I hate posts that say help me build a computer but I can't figure this out.

The main things I want are: 

Raid protection. If was a way to double or triple protect that would even be better.

Lots of storage, for audio and video files. I don't know exactly how much, but I have somewhere around 200,000 worth of cd's and DVD's.

Low power usage, relitivly. I need the disks to power down when not in use.

Quiet, relitivly.

Cost is last on the list.

 

I will take a little time and build what ever is needed, 1, 2 or 3 towers. I was originaly thinking about one big tower but the idea of several with smaller arrays seems a good idea. 3 towers of 10 disks would give better protection than 1 tower with 30 disks. Is it worth it?

I'm a bit scared to put hard drives in those 4 in 3, or 5 in 3 cages because of the heat. 

These are the latest parts I've picked, will they work?

Mother board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253

processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115083

Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139077

Controller cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101358

Hard drives

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236344

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136874

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149397

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236380

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136939

The hard drive I picked is no longer avliable so I quickly picked some more.

In fact I've made around 10 lists of parts but they go out of production so fast I have to start over again. I've also read every page on this site more than once.

Thanks

Mike

Looks like you have been studying this for almost 4 years judging by your previous posts. Do you have any actual experience with building computers?

 

200,000 CDs and DVDs, guessing an average of 1GB each for a ballpark estimate, is 200 TB. Starting small and learning as you go is probably the best approach.

 

The drives you have linked are all 3TB or smaller. Since you are starting from scratch, if cost is not important you might want to go ahead with 4TB disks. It will still take a lot of those to get where you want to go eventually.

 

I think unRAID only supports 24 drives currently so you will definitely have to build more than one system and it's probably safer that way too.

 

That mobo is microATX. You might get more expandability from a fullsize mobo. Cases are designed with a specific mobo form-factor in mind so if you go with this mobo and decide to get a bigger one later you might also have to get a new case.

 

Actually you can ignore my mobo advice. I've never built anything as large as this. Looks like other large builds are doing something similar since multiple SAS controllers will be required.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

Looks like you have been studying this for almost 4 years judging by your previous posts. Do you have any actual experience with building computers?

 

200,000 CDs and DVDs, guessing an average of 1GB each for a ballpark estimate, is 200 TB. Starting small and learning as you go is probably the best approach.

 

The drives you have linked are all 3TB or smaller. Since you are starting from scratch, if cost is not important you might want to go ahead with 4TB disks. It will still take a lot of those to get where you want to go eventually.

 

I think unRAID only supports 24 drives currently so you will definitely have to build more than one system and it's probably safer that way too.

 

That mobo is microATX. You might get more expandability from a fullsize mobo. Cases are designed with a specific mobo form-factor in mind so if you go with this mobo and decide to get a bigger one later you might also have to get a new case.

I do have experiance building and repairing computers. I built 3 complete and many many repairs. I don't know anything at all about linux or typing code. Though I've wanted to learn. Every post that has a code as an answer scares me. I don't even know where to start with it.

I'll see if I can find 4TB drives.

Thanks for the reply.

You see any other problems? Will the parts all work together?

Thanks

Mike

I'll let someone else give you hardware advice on your big build, but have you seen this.

 

As for linux, most of what I know I learned here on the forum. If you don't try to get too fancy with addon applications (plugins, etc) you can probably get pretty far with just the web interface and posting system logs when you need more help. Learn as you go.

 

I didn't see it before, the Motherboard is out of stock already.

I think I got the parts on my list from "the beast". At least that's where I started or one of those type posts.

Thanks

Mike

 

You can use: X9SCL-F, X9SCL+-F,  or X9SCM-F.

Ok, thanks. I don't see much difference between any of them.

 

"... I have somewhere around 200,000 worth of cd's and DVD's "  ==>  Are you referring to the # of CDs and DVDs, or the number of MB or GB of storage you'll need?    Clearly that makes a difference in terms of just what you'll need for total storage capacity.

 

r.e. your comments r.e. 3 towers of 10 drives being "better" than 1 tower of 30 drives ==> certainly that spreads the risk.    With UnRAID, you only have a single parity drive, so no matter what size the array is, it's protected against a single drive failing.    With modern high-capacity drives, the statistical odds of a 2nd failure during a rebuild get appreciably higher with very large numbers of drives.    So an array with 10 disks is more likely to complete a rebuild with no problems after a disk failure than an array with 30 disks.  In addition, if you have 3 arrays, a disk failure on one array has NO impact on the other 2 arrays.

 

I have one UnRAID server with 18 disks, and another with 4.  The smaller (newer) array uses only WD Red 3TB drives ... so I get 9TB of protected storage in mini-ITX chassis that only draws 25w on idle;  40w when fully spun up.    With a larger case, this system could support up to 14 drives, and would still have a very low power draw when the drives were spun down.  With 3TB WD Reds that would be 39TB of protected storage;  or with 4TB drives it would be 52TB  [At current prices, I'd go with 3TB drives and build a 2nd server.]

 

r.e. the 5-in-3 and 4-in-3 drive cages:  I have several of these in a variety of systems, including my original UnRAID server.    The 5-in-3 hot-swap cages do NOT cool the drives as well as I'd like, but they're okay.    What I REALLY like because of their superb cooling is the CoolerMaster 4-in-3 cages.  [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002 ]    These aren't hot-swap, but because of that they can have a nice 120mm fan in front that blows directly across the drives.    These keep the drives VERY well cooled.    I built a 16-drive UnRAID for a friend using 4 of these in a full tower case, and the drives rarely get about about 30 degrees.

 

I like and use UnRAID, but if you really want to "... double or triple protect ..."  you should use a higher end RAID card that supports RAID-6 (which can lose two drives without data loss).    Personally, I think UnRAID's fine, as it gives the fault-tolerance I want on my media server;  and I'm not worried about the unlikely eventuallity of a dual drive failure, since I keep complete backups of all my data [Remember that RAID is NOT a backup -- whether it's UnRAID or RAID-6].

 

Yes it's disks not mbs or gbs.

The power usage is impressive, do Green drives use less power than reds?

Thanks for the rest of the info.

Mike