I'm in the planning my first unRaid server to meet the following requirements

 

• Should accommodate up to 20 disks (or 18 + parity and cache)
  
• Server should run headless
  
• Will be used to  store blue ray + DVD's, MP3's, Photographs, general office docs etc.
  
• Will serve no more than 2 films simultaneously (to media PC's running XBMC)
  
• Will be left running 24x7, so low power consumption would be desirable
  
• Connected to Gigabit Ethernet LAN
  
• Obviously I don't want to waste money, but I'm prepared to spend whats needed to build a rock solid system that will do the job
  
• The server would not be required to do any strenuous processing (on the fly encoding etc), but every so often I will have a need to read 10-15 GB of photographs, so good read performance would be desirable.
  

 

 

So far I've based my design on the 20 disk beast described here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Compatibility#20_Drive_Beast , but I've got a couple of questions regarding the selection of CPU and MOBO and would apreciate any comments, advice etc:

 

• Is there any particular reason why an i3 processor is suggested, as I'd always understood that Xeon processors were better suited to server environments?
   
  
• Bearing in mind that the motherboard is perhaps the single most important decision that i will have to make, is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O  still the most appropriate, based on the requirements i listed above (i did notice that the memory requirements for this MOBO are quite specific)?
   
  

 

Any comments, advice etc would be gratefully received.

Is there any particular reason why an i3 processor is suggested, as I'd always understood that Xeon processors were better suited to server environments?

 

but you're not running SQL, Sharepoint, VMs, etc, etc.

File Servers don't really need much grunt, many people are running with cheap dual cores or event single cores (ie, Celerons and Semprons)

 

Plus, an i3 is going have a lower power draw than a Xeon

 

Bearing in mind that the motherboard is perhaps the single most important decision that i will have to make, is the SUPERMICRO MBD-X8SIL-F-O  still the most appropriate, based on the requirements i listed above (i did notice that the memory requirements for this MOBO are quite specific)?

 

from what i understand that mainboard has been used by many people with unraid. There is nothing that will hold you back with what you are doing. Why risk potential unknown problems by buying a different board?

This isn't a traditional "server" with all the needs that go with that. You're building a light-weight NAS. Even with running a bunch of plugins you won't need much horsepower. If you want to go the ESXi route, then that is a different story....horsepower is good then. But running regular unRaid you'll be fine with just about anything you can buy new.

 

The i3 is one of the, if not the, best values for performance, price, power draw, etc. I love the Intel Core i3-560 (new version is i3-2120) that I have in my VM server. But only use the Sempron 145 in my unRaid box.