And what's more it works, at least so far.

 

 

Sandisk micro cruzer U3

 

Gigabyte Mainboard GA-EP45-DS3L, LGA775 P45+ICH10, FSB 1600 MHz, DDR2 1200, PCI-E x16 2.0, SATAII 6 ports, GbN LAN, 7.1-channel, ATX.

 

Cooler Master Centurion 590 Case

 

Intel E5200 Pentium Dual Core Processor - LGA775, 2.5Ghz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache, 45nm

 

2x DDR2-667 Corsair 2GB-Kit [VS2GBKIT667D2 G] Value Select PC-5300 (667MHz), 240-pin DDR2, non-ECC, Unbuffered, 2x128Mx64, not compatible with DDR motherboards

 

620W "Corsair" HX-620 ATX Modular Power Supply, 120mm fan, Dual PCI-E Graphics Card Connector, 8 SATA Connectors, Universal AC input 90~264V

 

2x 1000GB 3.5" SATA-II Western Digital WD10EACS Caviar GP Hard Drive, RoHs Green Power 7200rpm 16MB

 

6x iCute SATA II HDD Mobile Rack BC/ iCute-iswap(MRA201)

 

The hole thing went very well, once I got the bootable flash straighted out. Then it was a dream install, the browser interface is very slick, well laid out and intuitive. I have 2 drives and going to add 2 more 1000GB next week one of them will be a parity.

The case was very nice, one of the best I have worked with. 3 of the sata cables were $5 cheapies probably live to regret that.

 

Sandisk micro cruzer U3 : This caused me alsorts of grief, mostly self inflicted. You have to get rid of the U3 partition which I worked out, then the how was bit of a issue. Would have been easy if I had bothered finding the detailed bootable flash creation wiki, once I did the install took me about 10 minutes

Perhaps a link from the  "unRAID Server OS" page (linked from the home page) to the detailed bootable flash creation wiki.

 

my two drives are running at 38°C and 34°C what's a good range for them to run at. perhaps I need to get the cardboard and tape out?

 

These forums have been a great help in selecting hardware, the setup and in deciding if unRaid was for me.

 

Thanks Guys

 

Since the hardware requirements for unRAID are so modest, I went with all used parts except for my HD's and enclosures.  I went with a LIAN LI PC-A17B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower, 'cause I really like LIAN LI products.  However, for a steel case, the COOLER MASTER 590 that you chose looks to be perfect for unRAID (and it's a LOT less expensive).  I'm anticipating at some point someone will see what I'm doing with my unRAID server and ask me to build one for them.  I'll try the COOLER MASTER case at that time.  My requirement for an unRAID case is if it will hold 3 - '5 in 3' SATA enclosures.  I'm using SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B enclosures and they look cool in my black LIAN LI case. (coolness does count!!)

 

I wish these large cases (yours and mine included) had more internal 3.5 HD space that didn't consume the external 5.25 HD bays.  As it is, with 3 drive enclosures I can only hold 15 drives.  Well, unRAID will do more drives then that and what about a cache drive and maybe an additional NTFS drive that's not in the array?  Oh, I'll figure something out when the need arrises I'm sure.  At the moment I have a 1.5TB Parity drive and only 4 -1TB data drives (soon to need a fifth).  I've still got plenty of space to expand

 

Now that you've got it all working it's time to play.  Next you need to start looking at unMENU (very cool - install this ASAP), bubbaRAID, email notification, and a couple other cool unRAID additions the Hero Members on this site are cooking up.

... my two drives are running at 38°C and 34°C what's a good range for them to run at. perhaps I need to get the cardboard and tape out?

 

Three comments about drive temps:

 

1. Comparing temps w/o knowing drive mfg and model is meaningless.  You provided this info, though those drives are 5400RPM, not 7200RPM

2. Comparing temps w/o knowing ambient temp is meaningless.  40C is awesome if the server is in a hot room in the middle of the summer but fairly poor if you are in the Arctic [insert global warming joke here]

3. While I am the first (and apparently only one) to slam the Google drive study, it does demonstrate to me that temps anywhere in the "reasonable" range of 20C-50C are fine and any extensive efforts to drop them a few degrees is probably a waste of time.  However, if you want to do so as a geek-challenge (as I do), go for it!

 

 

Bill

 

P.S. I have the same drives and see similar temps in a moderately warm location

I consider the threshold of getting concerned when drives are 45c and over.

On average my drives run from mid 30s to low 40s. Even in the hot summer without air conditioning.

In the winter they will run in the upper 20's to mod 30s.

I'm using SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B enclosures and they look cool in my black LIAN LI case. (coolness does count!!)

Post pics in http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.0

I would love to see the LIAN-LI case with the supermicro removables.