April 1, 201313 yr Hi, I'm new to Unraid and have done a little bit of forum trolling here. Thanks to all the posters for the useful information. I'm looking for a little bit of buying advice for a motherboard / CPU for my first Unraid server. My total budget is $700 for the HW excluding HDDs (including a 5x3 cage, PSU, Mobo and CPU, RAM, case). Right now I've budgeted about $250 for the Mobo and CPU Goals - Scale up to a 16 drive system (this includes a cache and parity drive). Short term storage (initial build) 8 - 10 Gb of storage (4 - 5 2TB drives) Use with 1 client for streaming video Long Term - Max out the drives as necessary Use with 1 or 2 XBMC client for streaming video (all with their own dedicated HW decoders). Perhaps an additional client for streaming audio. Might experiment with Plex for transcoding video for tablet devices Uses Itunes storage Photos Time Machine Backup for 1 - 2 computers 720p and 1080p movies (Rips) Plugins Sab Couchpotato SickBeard Dropbox Transmission Case Zalman MS-800 (already purchased but open to other suggestions, can't find the easy favorites like Antec 900 or Azza Helios 910 easily) http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=747 Motherboard options http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157302 ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($90) http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157314 ASRock B75 PRO3 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (8 SATA ports) ($95) http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304 ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard ($110) CPU http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116773CVF Intel i3 3240 ($150 - $160) Mobo / CPU COmbo - http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_3240_Z77VLXhttp://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_3240_Z77VLX Asus and Intel I3 3240 ($250) http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_5300_A85XAG65A4-5300 APU Processor w/ MSI A85XA-G65 FM2 Motherboard Bundle Most of the CPU and Mobo options are Intel but only because I am not familiar with AMD. If there is a good AMD option or suggestion I would be open to looking at those as well. Thanks.
April 2, 201313 yr Author I would suggest a Supermicro server mono instead. Hi GfOviedo, Thanks for your reply and suggestion. Can I ask why you recommend the Super micro server board? Is it because of the added PCIe slots for expander cards for more HDDs or the build quality of SuperMicro boards and their proven track record with UnRaid. If I buy a SuperMicro Server board (e.g. MBD-X9SCM-F-O) I will probably look at a 2nd Gen i3 as a CPU. Will this have enough processing power to try Plex at some point. I want to try it out but not necessary need to install and use it. Thanks
April 2, 201313 yr I can't stress how much I like the supermicro boards for server builds. I've been using them since the mid 90s. Each board has provided me years of reliability. My last machine was in use 24x7x365 for over 6 years. The popular supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O has 4 PCI slots, 32GB ram capability and IPMI built in. Once you set up a server with IPMI, you never want to go back to dragging a monitor and keyboard along. With the right CPU and hardware you can divide up the machine's resources with virtualization. You could even run OS/X in a virtual machine. As far as processor, you can buy cheap now, and upgrade later. I would still suggest going with that motherboard. The i3 can probably handle all your file serving and app needs. I do not know if it will handle the transcoding for plex. The popular CPU around here for that motherboard is the I7 Xeon E3-1230. It will set you back more money, however I'm sure it will have the horsepower to do anything you throw at it. You can probably go with a less powerful xeon. I choose that one as it has an 8M cache and supports hyperthreading. SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253 Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115083 Some people choose the v2 ivy bridge CPU's. Do research on the forum for that one. I'm not as familiar with that setup since I had to go with something tried and true for ESX/Virtualization.
April 2, 201313 yr I would strongly recommend opting for a Supermicro board - I recently rebuilt my two year old system in order to go this route. The Supermicro hardware is tried and tested and I'm sure that Tom will ensure support continues for these boards. He has shown a preference for Supermicro hardware in the ready-built systems he offers/offered. An Ivy Bridge uses slightly less power, is slightly faster, and supports 1600MHz memory. However, some have experienced problems with passing through more than two PCIe cards under ESXi when using an Ivy Bridge. Reverting to Sandy Bridge resolved their problems. This may, ultimately, be resolvable in BIOS or in ESXi, but don't rely on that. Even if I do opt for ESXi, I have no expectation of needing more than 16 drives for unRAID in the foreseeable future, so I am not worried about this restriction. If you do go for an Ivy Bridge on a Supermicro mobo, make sure that your mobo comes with a V2 BIOS already installed - you can opt for the X9SCM-iiF model to be sure of that.
April 2, 201313 yr If you do go for an Ivy Bridge, make sure that your mobo comes with a V2 BIOS already installed - you can opt for the X9SCM-iiF model to be sure of that. The ones I received from newegg recently came with 2.0b.
April 3, 201313 yr Author I can't stress how much I like the supermicro boards for server builds. I've been using them since the mid 90s. Each board has provided me years of reliability. My last machine was in use 24x7x365 for over 6 years. The popular supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O has 4 PCI slots, 32GB ram capability and IPMI built in. Once you set up a server with IPMI, you never want to go back to dragging a monitor and keyboard along. With the right CPU and hardware you can divide up the machine's resources with virtualization. You could even run OS/X in a virtual machine. As far as processor, you can buy cheap now, and upgrade later. I would still suggest going with that motherboard. The i3 can probably handle all your file serving and app needs. I do not know if it will handle the transcoding for plex. The popular CPU around here for that motherboard is the I7 Xeon E3-1230. It will set you back more money, however I'm sure it will have the horsepower to do anything you throw at it. You can probably go with a less powerful xeon. I choose that one as it has an 8M cache and supports hyperthreading. SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182253 Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115083 Some people choose the v2 ivy bridge CPU's. Do research on the forum for that one. I'm not as familiar with that setup since I had to go with something tried and true for ESX/Virtualization. THanks WeeboTech! I have started looking at those boards and doing a bit more research. Virtualization is not a big factor for me right now. By V2 Ivy bridge processors do you mean the Xeon processors only or will it take Ivy bridge I3 (3rd gen) processors as well? I would strongly recommend opting for a Supermicro board - I recently rebuilt my two year old system in order to go this route. The Supermicro hardware is tried and tested and I'm sure that Tom will ensure support continues for these boards. He has shown a preference for Supermicro hardware in the ready-built systems he offers/offered. Who is Tom? An Ivy Bridge uses slightly less power, is slightly faster, and supports 1600MHz memory. However, some have experienced problems with passing through more than two PCIe cards under ESXi when using an Ivy Bridge. Reverting to Sandy Bridge resolved their problems. This may, ultimately, be resolvable in BIOS or in ESXi, but don't rely on that. Even if I do opt for ESXi, I have no expectation of needing more than 16 drives for unRAID in the foreseeable future, so I am not worried about this restriction. If you do go for an Ivy Bridge on a Supermicro mobo, make sure that your mobo comes with a V2 BIOS already installed - you can opt for the X9SCM-iiF model to be sure of that. PeterB, Do you have a Xeon processor on your rig or an i3? Do you know if the V2 BIOS supports the 3rd gen (Ivy bridge) i3 processors? THanks guys. Very good information to have.
April 3, 201313 yr I would strongly recommend opting for a Supermicro board - I recently rebuilt my two year old system in order to go this route. The Supermicro hardware is tried and tested and I'm sure that Tom will ensure support continues for these boards. He has shown a preference for Supermicro hardware in the ready-built systems he offers/offered. Who is Tom? Tom == LIMETECH.
April 3, 201313 yr THanks WeeboTech! I have started looking at those boards and doing a bit more research. Virtualization is not a big factor for me right now. By V2 Ivy bridge processors do you mean the Xeon processors only or will it take Ivy bridge I3 (3rd gen) processors as well? It says "Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 & v2 series, Intel® 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen Core i3, Intel® Pentium® and Celeron processors" - Socket H2 (LGA 1155) You can read more about what it supports here. (or contact the support group at supermicro). http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/xeon/c202_c204/x9scm-f.cfm Other information which may help you make decisions. http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/65861.aspx http://lanoc.org/review/pc-hardware/5096-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7-sandy-bridge-comparison
April 3, 201313 yr Do you have a Xeon processor on your rig or an i3? I have Xeon - I don't think the iCore offers any advantage. Do you know if the V2 BIOS supports the 3rd gen (Ivy bridge) i3 processors? Yes, it does.
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