I've already successfully built an UnRAID system with 2 drives in an MSI Wind PC on an Atom processor.  But in the end this didn't have near the horsepower I needed.

 

So I'm looking to build an ESXi host with UnRAID thrown in the mix of VMs I would mess with.

 

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3 AM3+ AMD 970 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128553

Drive bay - ICY DOCK MB455SPF-B 5 in 3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994028

Video - PowerColor Go! Green AX5450 512MK3-SH Radeon HD 5450 (Cedar) 512M - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131339

CPU - AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960

Memory - G.SKILL Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1600 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231559

Hard Disks - 3x Western Digital WD AV-GP WD30EURS 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

Hard Disks - 2x Western Digital 640GB Hard drives I have sitting around (one would be for the cache drive, the other would be for a VMFS volume)

PSU and Case - I have a Lian Li case sitting around and a 750watt Thermaltake ToughPower as well lying around.

 

Total is around $1000ish there, of course I'd like to get cheaper... but consider that a maximum threshold for the project.

 

I'm looking for any suggestions.

 

The goal for this system is to be a test bed for Linux servers for me, but it's primary purpose would be for UnRAID as a Plex media server to stream to 2 Roku's and then use DLNA on the PS3.

 

Are you planning to run ESXi  and use RDM paths for your disks into the unRAID VM?

I would recommend to go for passthrough of the controller instead (in which case you are missing one from your shopping list).

 

Here's a thread concerning ESXi builds on AMD platform....http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22553.0

Yeah basically I was going to do RDM paths for the 3 - 3TB drives and 1 - 640GB drive.

 

The other 640 I was going to build a VMFS volume for VMs.

 

I assume this is almost the only way to do it, as I've thought about different ways of configuring the drives.  I was even thinking about creating a RAID 5 array with the 3 - 3TB drives and just making one large VMFS volume and then making several virtual drives for the UnRAID VM.  But I just had this feeling that, this wasn't really designed to work that way.

I remember that the first ESXi build that was introduced here and which sort of started the "VM frenzy", was build on RDM.

However , I'd say that since the discovery of vmdirectpath, the majority of builders is using this method.

Using RDM paths for unRAID is an extinct method as far as I can tell....not many unRAIDers around, not that much of experience to be shared (being it good or bad).

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd go for a controller card to be passed through.

I was really hoping to avoid that passthru, I wanted to use the available SATA ports on the motherboard to help keep the cost down.

 

I guess I could always look for a cheaper motherboard to try to offset the cost.

Well, AMD based builds are also very rare.

Getting a combo of CPU, mobo and BIOS with support for vmdirectpath that is confirmed to work is not easy in that domain.

In the thread I linked, this mobo is confirmed to work: ASRock 970 extreme4

 

This will add some extra costs already.

If you are lucky, you could pass-through the onboard controller...but I don't know if that'll work out.

You could save on the GPU card...no use with ESXi, but I don't know if a desktop board without one would even POST.

If you are going ESXI and still need the video card, a PCI one may be a better option so you don't lose a PCIE slot.  Also, be careful with Gigabyte motherboards and HPA.

I've revised the configuration.

 

Drive tray - SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B 5 x 5.25" to 5 x 3.5" Hot-swap SATA HDD Trays - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405

Memory - Kingston 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ECC Registered - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239235

CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1220 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117288

Motherboard - SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-O LGA 1155 Intel C202 Micro ATX - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182252

Hard Disks - 3x Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

Hard Disks - 2x Western Digital 640GB Hard drives I have sitting around (one would be for the cache drive, the other would be for a VMFS volume)

PSU and Case - I have a Lian Li case sitting around and a 750watt Thermaltake ToughPower as well lying around.

 

I'm not sure if VMDirectPath will work with the 6 SATA ports on this motherboard or not.  But if it doesn't I still have 3 PCIE expansion slots to work with.

 

I still think I'd like to try to do a hardware RAID 1 configuration on the 2 - 640GB drives use it as a VMFS volume.  Then see if I could just pass thru the 3, 3TB drives.

 

That would be the ideal configuration in my book anyway.  I've got a good bit of experience with VMware (normally the enterprise plus version though... ), but I'm really new to UnRAID and it's needs.

...wrong memory...1155 only goes with unbuffered ECC

 

....vmdirectpath will only work on pci(e) slot level.

That means you can only pass-on the complete onboard S-ATA controller (if it works at all, I don't know), not individual ports.

 

Many people use the X9SCM board...which has even more slots.

Also look for the -F model, which comes with IPMI and a small onboard GPU.

Sometimes the -F model is just 5 bucks away from the non-F.

Thanks, yeah for some reason I thought that said unregistered instead of registered...Always why I like a 2nd set of eyes.

 

But the thought is enable VM DirectPath on whatever PCIE card I have, and keep the on board stuff maybe with the 640GB VMFS volume, if I understand correctly.

I guess my next question working through this build is with regards to cheap 4 port SATA card suggestions.