March 17, 201313 yr This is my first unRAID build, I'd like some critique and/or blessings Use: Serve movies, music, pictures to 3 XBMC clients. Will run Plex Media Server, MySQL for Library syncing, and Couch Potato, SAB, SickBeard Case: Rosewill RSV-L4000 $79.99 @ newegg.com Motherboard: AsRock B75 PRO3-M $69.99 @ newegg.com CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 $46.66 @ Amazon.com Power Supply: Seasonic S12II BRONZE $59.99 @ Amazon.com Parity Drive: WD RED 3TB $159.05 @ Amazon.com Data Drive: WD RED 3TB $159.05 @ Amazon.com Cache Drive: 2.5" 5400 RPM drive I have from a Mac mini RAM: 2GB Crucial CT25664BA1339 DDR3 1333Mhz $16.29 @ Amazon USB Boot Drive : 1GB no-name thumb drive I have laying around. Total $591.02 w/o shipping on newegg items. I plan on adding drives as I go. I don't even own 20 Blu Rays and have maybe 100GB in music so I'm thinking 3TB is fine for starting out. My budget is as cheap as I can get without using super crappy parts, I want this to be reasonably well built, but not overbuilt. Any suggestions of where I can cut cost would be appreciated, yes it has to be rackmounted... thanks
March 17, 201313 yr Browndog, Hopefully you'll get some feedback on the CPU and RAM selection from people who've been running a server with all those plugins. My fear is that you're a little underpowered and low on memory to run all those. The noname thumb drive is fine as long as you don't need any more drives. Should you need to buy the UnRAID Plus license then you may need a USB drive that has a unique serial number. That shouldn't hold you back at this stage though. Regarding the PSU, the Seasonic may be adequate. However, the Power Supply Thread recommends a PSU with a single 12V rail. The Seasonic has two 12V rails according to Newegg. Modular cables are nice too, as they make it easier to minimize restrictions to airflow inside the case. There are a few PSUs on Newegg that are modular and single rail that come in at the same price or lower than that Seasonic. Unless you're planning on buying a new PSU down the road, you need to give some thought to the max number of drives you want the system to hold and buy the PSU with that in mind. The cache drive strikes me as slow considering its role. With those WD Red drives, writes to the array may be just as fast. Again, no firsthand experience so hopefully someone who's used a 5400 rpm drive for cache can give you meaningful feedback. However the cost is right! If I were in your shoes I'd try without the cache and with, measuring performance fir both. Empiricism! I spent some time agonizing over my purchases, then realized that I was overthinking the process. Since I am in the habit of building and upgrading computers for my wife and kids, I can readily re-purpose anything that gets upgraded in the UnRAID box. For someone that doesn't do that as much as I, it may be worth your time to consider buying a part just once and perhaps buying more than you need today to ensure you don't need to replace it in the future.
March 18, 201313 yr Author Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm actually likely to drop the Usenet plugins very soon. The only plugin that will get normal use is the mysql. Plex transcoding will be very minimal. I had that drive mislabeled. It is really a plugin drive, not cache. I read that it's best to have a drive outside the array for apps. I don't plan on using a cache drive. At max I plan on having 8 drives. 1 parity, 1 for apps, and 6 for data. Using PC parts picker my estimated wattage with 8 drives was under 430w so I went with that PSU. I will definitely look at the single 12V rail PSU. With the above clarifications, is the build looking better
March 18, 201313 yr I'm looking at doing a very similar build so I'd be interested to hear if someone does have some feedback on SAB/Sickbeard/Couch Potato running with this CPU/MB combo.
March 18, 201313 yr That's really not enough grunt to throw at a sab/sick/couch combo.. every time sab does an unpack or par repair for example, everything else will crawl to a halt with that Celeron CPU. If you really want to do Plex transcoding as well (even just a little) then you absolutely need to up the ante. I'd suggest at a minimum an I3, but if you want the ability to transcode AND for sab to repair/unpack at the same time, then you really need to consider a quad core processor of some description imho. I'd also suggest going for 4Gb memory - it's so cheap anyway What you've listed would be fine if it was just vanilla unRAID, but you've picked two of the most CPU (and RAM to some degree) intensive plugins that unRAID has to offer. Also. be careful with that USB stick - chances are if it is a no-name drive, it won't have a unique GUID, therefore can't be used with a registered unRAID license.
March 18, 201313 yr You have my blessing ( ) for a single rail and 4 GB, but then I'm a RAM whore and would just as soon see any new comp have 8 GB. It sounds like you're definitely aiming for the low end when it comes to CPU power. One option is to just try it, but if it can't keep up with mysql syncing (no clue here as to how much processor that requires) then you can always upgrade the CPU.
March 18, 201313 yr Author Awesome thanks, I'll post which PSU I go with b/f moving ahead of course :-)
March 18, 201313 yr Author I just looked up the Red power consumption. The WD product sheet has average power requirements at 4.5 watts. Toms hardware has it at just over 5 watts for the 3TB model at max write. The documentation on this site says 26 watts per green drive (going from memory). Is this correct? 5x7 +60 for MOBO + 36 watts for app drive = 131 watts. So I can get by with a 200w power supply for eight drives? That seems low.
March 18, 201313 yr So I can get by with a 200w power supply for eight drives? That seems low. It is low! Search the forum and the Wiki for PSU advice. Ignore any power ratings (especially average power requirements for the drives). The important factor is the current available on the 12V rail. One of the features of unRAID is that it will spin up all drives simultaneously. Each drive will draw anything up to 3 amps as it starts spinning. Assuming that you have eight 'green' drives, which draw close to 2 amps as they spin up, that will be the equivalent of almost 200 watts - just for the drives, and just for the 12V rail. You need to reckon on at least a 400W psu, and make sure that it has just one 12V rail.
March 18, 201313 yr Author How bout this? 430w, bronze certified, highly rated, 4 sata, and 3 peripheral - which I could use with a sata power splitter. $25 after rebate plus free shipping from the egg! Oh yeah, and single 12v rail. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-139-026
March 18, 201313 yr How bout this? 430w, bronze certified, highly rated, 4 sata, and 3 peripheral ... That should fit the bill nicely ... as long as it's compatible with the motherboard you select. As an example, some people have had problems with CX series and Supermicro boards.
March 18, 201313 yr I plan on running this Celeron, but the only plugin that I am going to use is MySQL. Hopefully it will work, I was under the impression that MySQL was mostly RAM intensive. Edit: I have the G1620, but I'd assume it is just about the same.
March 21, 201313 yr Hard to argue with the price on that Corsair PSU. Newegg shows it now at $19.99 after rebate. Even if it dies in a few months it makes a very handsome doorstop at that price. Have a look at the 20 hdd capacity build PSU recommendation thread. There's some good info posted there by experienced users (not counting myself in that lot). My read of the WD Red data sheet is that you can expect 21 W draw at power-up or spin-up per Red 3TB drive. If you think you may get beyond 12 drives in your server, you'll need something beefier in the way of a PSU. When you start getting serious numbers of drives in your system you'll want the reliability and efficiency of a not-so-cheap PSU.
March 28, 201313 yr Author I ended up getting an Asus C601-I , and I didn't use the cache drive. No plugins either. So far it's running great. I've watched 30GB Blu Ray rips while copying Blu Rays to the array and it hasn't missed a beat. Really loving my first unraid build!
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