first unraid buid

[lars]

hi all,

 

finally all the needed parts arrived in kingston 2 days ago and the first unraid server (on my end) was build yesterday. so far all went way to smooth for my liking  , wondering when the first prob shows!

anyway... here the specs:

 

case: some no-name fullsize tower with 13 bays (3 x 5.25, 10 x 3.5) - completely gutted for case use only - $0

 

mb: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 (i went with it, even after reading all the iffy comments) - $58

 

cpu: AMD Athlon II X2 270 Regor 3.4 (had that collecting dust here) - $0

 

ram: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 8 Dual Channel Kit 1600 (surely complete overkill, but was something sitting around here as well for some time - client paid for it, never heard of again... so i used it  ) - $0

 

cpu-cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 (just improving cpu temp and noise factor) - $17

 

hdd: 6 x WD Green Desktop 3TB SATA 6.0 GB/s (new, that was a bummer) - 6 x $132

 

psu: OCZ ZT Series 550W Fully-Modular 80PLUS (new) - $85

 

video: since the mb has none, old pci ati rage (really crappy piece, but does the bios job) - $0

 

some old case fans (140 and 120mm variety) i had laying around

 

usb-stick: kingston 2gb (was some promo give away) - $0

 

unraid plus (for now)

 

the goal was to build a box at around $1000 (well knowing the hdd's alone will be around $800) as network server for audio and video (majority audio with about 80%). giving me a little room for the next couple month and til all the stuff is transferred to it. once that is done, some of the external usb-drives i used so far (mix of 3tb, 2tb, 1tb) will be gradually dismanteled and added to the server via controller cards. a cache drive is coming at this time as well + a move of all the stuff in a old 4u rack case i still have sitting here to accomodate all that.

 

at this point, all was starting smooth at first try (gave it a test run with únraid free first) and now also in full config (1 x parity, 5 x 3tb data), very pleased.

 

like to take this opportunity also to thank everybody on the forum for their posts in general (it was a great source so far for information all around) and the ppl keeping up with my questions etc.!

 

one thing i do not really understand is the moaning about the clearing times for the drives seen here in many threads! i read in more than one thread to expect times in the 25-30hr range to clear a 3tb drive... that sounds at this point outlandish to me! i just cleared (not the pre-clear script, just thought there was no point, since it is a new machine and no uptime gets lost) all (6 x 3tb) drives including formatting and (a useless, since empty) parity check in less than 8hrs!?

now , i put that (since i don't know better) to the last unraid (5-rc11) software and possible improvements there (tell me if you know better). i don't believe it is my hardware, which is middle of the road at best beside the outlandish ram.

since this really peaks my interest, i would love to hear of others about there drive clearing times with the latest builds. i can't imagine tom did the lars is the 10.000st user and is allowed to do it in a 1/4 of the time gig 

 

anyway, any comments, questions etc welcome. thx again all for your invaluable info's.

 

Lars

[jeff.lebowski]

(pre) Clearing is not the same thing as formatting. All disks must be formatted to become part of the unRAID array. All disks DO NOT have to be pre-cleared. But most users recommend it.

 

A pre-clear cycle does take as long as 30 hours. A lot of people run two or more cycles on a new disk, just to push it very hard. It's better to find any potential issue with that disk (even a new one) prior to adding it to the array.

[caseyparsons]

Looks like a great start. Get some pics of your gutted case. 

[mr-hexen]

pre-clearing does 3 main things.

 

1. reads the entire drive

2. writes 0's to the entire drive

3. reads the entire drive to confirm all 0's.

 

when a new array is started clearing is not needed. parity is calculated initially based on the contents of the drives.

 

when you add a drive to an active array its not pre or post read only 0's written. this ensure parity is valid after the drive is added w/o a parsync.

[JimmyJoe]

New drives some time have issues that you won't see right away.  It's strongly recommended to run 3 preclear cycles against all new disks to validate them before using them for your data.  If you adopt this practice, you'll likely have less issues and less headaches.  Also, if you find out sooner that you have a problem with a disk, you can often return it to the retailer instead of using the manufacturer warranty support.  Yes, it may take several days for a large disk, but in the long run it's well worth it!

 

[lars]

thx. as said before... did i actually? anyway unraid claimed to run to the clearing process... and it seemed to take little time compared to some claims. so i was positively surprised. i sure will pre-clear in future to keep my server up. with the new build it was just not really an issue. anyway, no idea what it did really... it claimed to clear the drives (took about 8 or 9 hrs for the three) and formatted afterwards (fairly short - 20min... 1/2hr!?). anyway did the job, the hdd's went to other stress-testing before. so i guess it's as good as it gets. consider myself anyway lucky that way... never ever a hdd disaster in over 20yrs.