OK.. first off .. hello ! I have been lurking here for a few months trying to glean enough info to begin my server build .. the time has come to ask for confirmation to my plans .. initially I had knee-jerk reaction to losing a Seagate 1.5 tb drive due to the lack of a firmware update .. (which I had the files retrieved at considerable expense .. ARGH ! !) I promptly bought two 1tb velociraptor drives that I planned to run in raid 1 to mirror my files and provide redundancy .. upon further discussion I found that would not be the best approach and further research led me too the UnRaid approach .. so, on to the plan .. nothing too huge by the standards of most here but since I have the Velociraptors already and  will use them as Cache, striped in raid 0 and short-stroked to boost performance (these may be swapped out later to provide space for another WD 4TB data and warm spare/cache WD 4TB drive)..

 

 

OS at time of building:

CPU:

Motherboard: (proposed) http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/P8Z77I_DELUXEWD/  http://www.logicsupply.com/products/nf9g_qm77

RAM:

Case: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=584&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=64

Drive Cage(s): 5 x hotswap built in

Power Supply: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=342&area=en

SATA Expansion Card(s):

Cables: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10226&cs_id=1022602&p_id=8786&seq=1&format=2

Fans: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=366

watercooling: http://www.swiftech.com/H220.aspx

 

Parity Drive: 1 x 4tb wd caviar black http://ncix.com/products/?sku=78374&vpn=WD4001FAEX&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD&promoid=1324

Data Drives: 2 x 4tb caviar black  http://ncix.com/products/?sku=78374&vpn=WD4001FAEX&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD&promoid=1324

Cache Drive: 2 x 1tb wd velociraptors http://ncix.com/products/?sku=71363 short stroked and striped in raid 0

Total Drive Capacity:

 

Primary Use: home server/back up

Likes:

Dislikes:

Add Ons Used:

Future Plans:

 

Boot (peak):

Idle (avg):

Active (avg):

Light use (avg):

 

 

 

 

Closing comments

 

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future edits

 

To date all I have purchased is the Lian li PC-Q25 case .. 2 Velociraptor drives .. 2 WD 4TB drives .. the Silverstone PSU .. and "pre-ordered" the Swiftech water cooling kit ..  as funds permit..

 

Feedback welcome  ! ! Thanks Ahead .. Noah ! !

Why watercooling? 

Why watercooling? 

Yeah, you are not going to get that CPU cooler in the case. Total overkill for a home file server. Cooling the drives should be your primary concern.

 

I did go for a different CPU cooler than Intel stock in my build though, mostly for the lower profile. Noctua NH-L9i.

 

You probably don't need the fans either. The case fans are working fine for me in my build.

 

I am using a raptor for cache also since I had it laying around. It does tend to run a little hotter than the other drives but not really a problem.

 

Would love to have that PSU in my build. Edit: In fact I just ordered it. I can re-use my other PSU in another build I'm starting anyway.

Why watercooling? 

Yeah, you are not going to get that CPU cooler in the case. Total overkill for a home file server. Cooling the drives should be your primary concern.

 

I did go for a different CPU cooler than Intel stock in my build though, mostly for the lower profile. Noctua NH-L9i.

 

You probably don't need the fans either. The case fans are working fine for me in my build.

 

I am using a raptor for cache also since I had it laying around. It does tend to run a little hotter than the other drives but not really a problem.

 

Would love to have that PSU in my build. Edit: In fact I just ordered it. I can re-use my other PSU in another build I'm starting anyway.

 

Thanks for the responses ! ! I was beginning to think I should ask to have this thread moved to a more appropriate section or something

 

As to "why water-cooling ?" ...  I just thought it would be the better solution with less weight to hang on the motherboard .. leaving more unobstructed space to bring fresh cool air through the case and provide more efficient cooling to the hdd's .. I do think the radiator will fit on the lower level area, possibly on the existing hdd rack drawing from within the case so as to not disrupt the existing airflow dynamics developed by the front intake fan and top exhaust fan, but possibly on the floor of the case with ventilation draw or exhaust from the bottom vent (expanding the existing vent) .. plus the "cool" factor .. plus google is a dangerous thing for me

 

I do appreciate the suggestions and the NH-L9i is/was high on my list along with the Noctua fans .. Glad to highlight the Silverstone PSU for you and also relieved you considered the choice for your build as well ( I see it in your sig already !! cool).

 

I do have some other concerns with my pending choices .. such as whether one needs ECC memory with the supported and compatible motherboard/cpu's etc.  (Xeon) ?? 

 

Noah ..

 

Never thought about putting fans at the bottom. I have my parity and cache drives there. Those plus the 5 bays on the backplane max out my plus license. I use an esata enclosure for the occasional preclears and mounts outside the array.

 

Never had a mobo that supported ECC but I think there may be some other builds that use it.

Not sure an Intel 82579V network chip works in unRAID - yet.  Hopefully it does but I know it doesn't work in ESXi 5.0 without a hack.  If you find it doesn't Tom would probably add support if you ask.

Yeah, I agree that fitting that watercooler in the case would take quite some effort.  The PC-Q25B is a great case, but it's definitely tight quarters even with a low profile CPU fan.

 

As to what trurl said, the stock case fans work great.  I did upgrade mine to Noctuas, but I did it for noise reasons, not cooling.  The stock fans are not that loud, but I wanted it nearly silent.

 

Also, looking at the pics of the mobo, it appears to have a daughterboard of some sort that sticks up perpendicular to the main board (power regulator board digi+ vrm).  The way that board orients into the case, that daughterboard would wind up in the top right side corner of the case.  I'm pretty sure that it would occupy the same space as the top fan in the case.  So you might be looking at not being able to run a top fan (at least without some serious modifications) with that mobo/case combo.

Any particular features of the mobo you chose that drew you to it?  The P8H77-I that trurl and I both run in the PC-Q25B is a great unRAID mobo, IMHO.

Thanks for the input

 

Not sure an Intel 82579V network chip works in unRAID - yet.  Hopefully it does but I know it doesn't work in ESXi 5.0 without a hack.  If you find it doesn't Tom would probably add support if you ask.

 

Not ready to commit to this board .. so adding support for the Intel 82579V network chip may not be a priority yet .. though I did find a thread lamenting some success with unraid and this network chip ..

 

Yeah, I agree that fitting that watercooler in the case would take quite some effort.  The PC-Q25B is a great case, but it's definitely tight quarters even with a low profile CPU fan.

 

As to what trurl said, the stock case fans work great.  I did upgrade mine to Noctuas, but I did it for noise reasons, not cooling.  The stock fans are not that loud, but I wanted it nearly silent.

 

Also, looking at the pics of the mobo, it appears to have a daughterboard of some sort that sticks up perpendicular to the main board (power regulator board digi+ vrm).  The way that board orients into the case, that daughterboard would wind up in the top right side corner of the case.  I'm pretty sure that it would occupy the same space as the top fan in the case.  So you might be looking at not being able to run a top fan (at least without some serious modifications) with that mobo/case combo.

 

Well .. the Swiftech  H220 showed up in the mail (as did the Silverstone SFX psu .. sweet !) so we will find out I guess .. and yes, the waterblock/pump is larger than I presumed but my hope is the smaller footprint sfx power supply will afford enough space to house cpu cooler ..  The swiftech H220 is also expandable so water-cooling the dual raptor raid 0 cache has also crossed my mind  (stacked on the bottom tray beside the Swiftech's rad/fan assembly) ..  this train of thought all stems from trying to balance heat dissipation and noise most effectively .. I am not married to any of these ideas and apt to change for sure

 

Yes P8Z77-I mobo may present issues with space for the upper case fan and the P8H77-I is also a prime candidate .. honestly I am sort of stuck here, my research tends to lead me off the garden path at times, and I end up dwelling on points of reference that may not be a problem initially but might prove solvable early on by asking the proper questions .. the sticking point for me is the need or not for ECC memory in a "perfect" server world and the need or not for vt-d option .. or if I wanted the flexability to explore ESXi at some time which mobo would best suit these ideas .. more research on my part is obviously needed, and the journey to understanding is part of my enthusiasm for these excursions of knowledge but I do and will accept direction from people "in the know" and thanks ahead to those willing to share

 

Any particular features of the mobo you chose that drew you to it?  The P8H77-I that trurl and I both run in the PC-Q25B is a great unRAID mobo, IMHO.

 

I think it is a "hot rod" idea more than anything .. the options list is overkill no doubt for an UnRaid server but working from a position of trying to cover the most bases for the buck, the board with the most options seemed logical The overclocking aspect intrigued me as I was hoping to run the dual raptor cache in raid 0 through the two on-board 6 gb/s connections (on the floor of the case) and then run a IBM M1015 card for the five hot swap bays with parity and data hdd's ... eventually as fund$ permit:)

 

Noah 

 

 

I think it is a "hot rod" idea more than anything .. the options list is overkill no doubt for an UnRaid server but working from a position of trying to cover the most bases for the buck, the board with the most options seemed logical The overclocking aspect intrigued me as I was hoping to run the dual raptor cache in raid 0 through the two on-board 6 gb/s connections (on the floor of the case) and then run a IBM M1015 card for the five hot swap bays with parity and data hdd's ... eventually as fund$ permit:)

 

Noah 

 

While I think it's smart to be looking into cool features, I think you're trying to put too many eggs in the basket. If you're the tinkerer type, I can understand, but you're dealing with a server here. ie- Set it up and leave it alone, especially in an environment dealing with data storage.

 

But that's just me

 

PS- I do like the idea of RAID0 raptors. But why not just use a really fast single SSD?

the sticking point for me is the need or not for ECC memory in a "perfect" server world and the need or not for vt-d option .. or if I wanted the flexability to explore ESXi at some time which mobo would best suit these ideas ..

 

Yes, in a "perfect" world, all servers should run ECC memory (at least in mission critical data critical environments IMHO), but for the typical uses of unRAID I personally think its overkill and unnecessary added expense.  In the end though, that's your decision to make.

 

As for VT-d, the P8H77-I is VT-d capable, at least from what I've been able to gather from the Asus forums.  I can't confirm this though as I have not tried, my CPU isn't VT-d capable.  No idea about the P8Z77-I.  You'll also need to make sure whatever CPU you select has VT-d, basically Core i5 minimum up through Xeons.

Board is way overkill and has only 4 SATA ports. That has got to be one of the worst SATA port count to price ratios on the market.

 

I also saw you mention overclocking. Leave that, along with the water cooling, for the desktop gaming PCs. No need to add unneeded stress to hardware that is just serving files. Even a Core i3 is more than capable of transcoding blurays on the fly if video conversion was on your mind.

 

I realize you already have the 2 Raptor drives but the heat and noise generated in that small case outweighs their benefit IMO. You'd be better of with a fast SSD on a SATAIII port. No noise, little heat, and can be tucked away without having to take up 3.5 inch bays.

 

I think it is a "hot rod" idea more than anything .. the options list is overkill no doubt for an UnRaid server but working from a position of trying to cover the most bases for the buck, the board with the most options seemed logical The overclocking aspect intrigued me as I was hoping to run the dual raptor cache in raid 0 through the two on-board 6 gb/s connections (on the floor of the case) and then run a IBM M1015 card for the five hot swap bays with parity and data hdd's ... eventually as fund$ permit:)

 

Noah 

 

While I think it's smart to be looking into cool features, I think you're trying to put too many eggs in the basket. If you're the tinkerer type, I can understand, but you're dealing with a server here. ie- Set it up and leave it alone, especially in an environment dealing with data storage.

 

But that's just me

 

PS- I do like the idea of RAID0 raptors. But why not just use a really fast single SSD?

the sticking point for me is the need or not for ECC memory in a "perfect" server world and the need or not for vt-d option .. or if I wanted the flexability to explore ESXi at some time which mobo would best suit these ideas ..

 

Yes, in a "perfect" world, all servers should run ECC memory (at least in mission critical data critical environments IMHO), but for the typical uses of unRAID I personally think its overkill and unnecessary added expense.  In the end though, that's your decision to make.

 

As for VT-d, the P8H77-I is VT-d capable, at least from what I've been able to gather from the Asus forums.  I can't confirm this though as I have not tried, my CPU isn't VT-d capable.  No idea about the P8Z77-I.  You'll also need to make sure whatever CPU you select has VT-d, basically Core i5 minimum up through Xeons.

 

and finally

 

Board is way overkill and has only 4 SATA ports. That has got to be one of the worst SATA port count to price ratios on the market.

 

I also saw you mention overclocking. Leave that, along with the water cooling, for the desktop gaming PCs. No need to add unneeded stress to hardware that is just serving files. Even a Core i3 is more than capable of transcoding blurays on the fly if video conversion was on your mind.

 

I realize you already have the 2 Raptor drives but the heat and noise generated in that small case outweighs their benefit IMO. You'd be better of with a fast SSD on a SATAIII port. No noise, little heat, and can be tucked away without having to take up 3.5 inch bays.

 

Thank you all for your voice's of reason .. I hear you loud and clear .. and so I am beginning to think that I am to be building a more minimalist server with a less power/less heat is better approach .. and yes an SSD cache makes great sense .. I am leaning towards a mobo that has one or more on-board msata ports so that I might explore ESXi though .. strangely enough I am sitting here with an old scsi box stripped apart on my lap exploring the idea of using it for a mini "mini" unraid box .. originally the scsi box had 3 scsi compact disc players that have the cd cartridge etc. .. so my initial steps into the Unraid world have "back-tracked" a bit .. more of a "baby-steps" approach  and I am OK with that as I learn the basics

 

.. I will update my build list soon but for now I need to get some rest .. so thanks again all who posted  .. 

 

..and yes the raptors can better serve me in my existing desktop that is woefully void of hdd space as well ..

 

Thanks again .. noah

Hi again .. changed the proposed motherboard in my build list .. will this one work?? I like the idea of a daughterboard option .. 2 x PCIe Mini Card Slots as well .. not sure on the vt-d but should be relative on any current mobo I hope

I couldn't find any builds using that motherboard, so even though it SHOULD work, you'll never know until you try.  According to Jetway's site that mobo supports VT-d, with the appropriate CPU of course.  BTW, not all current motherboards do.

 

Personally I think that mobo is a bit overkill again.  For that kind of money, I think you'd be far better off going with a tried and true SuperMicro mobo.  Just my $0.02.

I couldn't find any builds using that motherboard, so even though it SHOULD work, you'll never know until you try.  According to Jetway's site that mobo supports VT-d, with the appropriate CPU of course.  BTW, not all current motherboards do.

 

Personally I think that mobo is a bit overkill again.  For that kind of money, I think you'd be far better off going with a tried and true SuperMicro mobo.  Just my $0.02.

 

Agree, motherboard is still overkill. If you want a server motherboard in the Mini-ITX form factor this one from Intel would work great for $100 bucks cheaper. It supports Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge Xeons. http://www.provantage.com/intel-dbs1200kpr~7ITEM0RN.htm

 

An mSATA slot is not required for ESXi. Not sure where you got that idea. ESXi runs off a USB flash drive just like unraid. All mSATA will do is allow you to install an overpriced mSATA form factor SSDs.