You guessed it...new build. Please have a look

[Lunatic]

Hi everyone,

 

First time poster, getting excited to order some hardware and build a new unRaid server. I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thanks.

 

Tentative hardware selection:

 

Coolermaster Centurion 590 ATX Tower Case Black 9X5.25 1X3.5 4X3.5INT - How many fans do I need?

 

Corsair VX550W 550W ATX 12V 41A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan

 

Gigabyte EP45-DS3L ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 PCI-E 2PCI SATA2 HD Sound GBLAN Motherboard

 

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.5GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail Box

 

Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory

 

Gigabyte Radeon HD2400 XT PCI-E 256MB GDDR2 VGA DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card - Couldn't find anything cheaper

 

Scythe Slip Stream Kaze Jyuni 120MM Fan 1200RPM 68.5CFM 24DBA x2

 

Cooler Master Neon Blue LED 120MM Case Fan 3PIN 22DBA 1220RPM 42.734CFM 3PINS x4 - Do I need all these fans?

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive OEM  x6

 

Kingston Data Traveler 1GB USB2.0 Flash Drive 

 

Roughly $530 CDN - $70 in MIRs = $460 before HDDs. I was looking to stay around $400 - $500.

 

Cheers,

 

Lunatic

[SSD]

Pick a MB that at least a few other users with moderate sized arrays are having good luck with. The CPU is pretty unimportant. Look for a PCI based video card (geeks.com had one for $10)

 

It's not the number of fans that's so important, but the airflow you are able to produce around your hard drives. An elegant approach can mean fewer, well placed fans, a less elegant approach may mean more. The goal is to keep your drive temps in 20s and 30s, not in the 40s and 50s. 

 

As one with a 550 watt PSU, I can tell you I wish mine were a tad bit larger. I'd suggest going to 650 if you want to use Seagate drives (see below). Look for single rail designs!!!

 

I would suggest considering the 1.5T Seagate drives. They are higher density and give better performance than the 1T versions. They will also use less power (because you need fewer of them).  They will let you scale to a larger array size. The downside is you spend more for the parity drive and parity checks have to process 1/3 more sectors.

 

Because my PSU is a bit underpowered and knowing what a PITA it would be to install a new one, I have started using the WD GP drives.  They use about 1/2 the power of the Seagates. They are not quite as fast because they spin at 5400 RPM, but their high density closes the gap significantly. They also generate less heat. They are more than fast enough to saturate your Gb network so will not be a bottleneck.

 

Lots of choices. Have fun and good luck!

[WeeboTech]

Video card - get a cheap pci card, Geeks.com or eBay. You want minimal here so you are not using too much power and/or creating heat.

Power supply - Looks like the one selected is single rail, you should be good. I doubt you will need more then 650 if you decide to go larger.

Fans - I have 2 120MM exhaust fans on top, 1 120MM fan on back and the power supply fan.

I'm also using the coolermaster fans from newegg. pack of 4 for 12.99. not the best, but better value then the scythe fans I choose. (Plus I have spares).

 

How do you plan on mounting these drives?

FWIW, I'm using 9 of the iSTAR Trayless SATA Removables. It's working very well.

 

 

Re 1.5 T drives. Depending on budget there could be some benefits on using these. At least for one parity and one data drive.

It's been reported in other areas that the 1.5T drives are at the speed of velociraptor these days due to the 375GB platters.

I have all 1GB's, but I'm now thinking of upgrading my parity drive for the extra umph!

 

 

Also, although the centurion is a great case, I've found it works best with taping certain vents to provide directed airflow.

See this post and assocated gallery link for pics on my rig and where to tape off.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2031.msg20486#msg20486

 

 

 

 

[Lunatic]

thanks guys for the replys

 

bjp999, one of my dilemas has been which HDD to start my build with. 1 TB or 1.5 TB. I haven't looked at any other drives other than Seagates. I like their 5 year warranty and have been happy with them in past purchases. I'll have a look at the WD GPs. As for a PSU, dell.ca has a Corsair TX750W for $101 CDN which was roughly the price I was going to pay for the VX550W, which I found they also have on sale for $90.

 

WeeboTech, I like your rig. I had already seen it before and like the idea of the Trayless removables. In my mind I see myself starting off with 3 drives and then going to 6 max. However, give it some time and I may change my mind and continue to add to that. So I'm still debating on the inital size to go with.

 

Thanks again

[Romir]

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200: Overkill and pricey for unraid but it is the most energy efficient core 2 and competitive with the 35w AMD cpus. Great for vmware use or just having a fast cpu that idles at very low wattage.

 

Video card: As said above, find an cheap old pci card. Even a 15 year old 2mb one is fine. Once you've gotten the hardware setup you can run it without the card and save 10~ watts too.

 

Power supply: I've run 20 hard drives along with other power hungry hardware on a 600 watt seasonic, so I don't really see the need for more than that 550w. But, the corsair 750 is a very popular enthusiast psu and highly recommended for 16+ drive arrays so I'd probably go with it anyway. The downside is that it would be slightly less efficient when being used at the lower capacity (say 30% instead of 40% with a 550w).

 

Motherboard: 5 pci-e slots is nice. Syba 2 port pci-e cards are the cheapest way to add more full speed ports, but it's unknown just how many of them you could use at once. I think gigabyte's DES power saving mode is software only though, which is a shame because that cpu supports idling with only 1 phase power. That could be another 5-10 watts saved. Not having 8 onboard sata ports like the tried and true 965p boards bugs me though. I've been considering switching to a lower power 780g board myself but they're all 6 port boards.

 

Hard drives: The 1.5tb seagates price per gigabyte are cheaper than the 1TBs on both ncix and newegg.ca. That's reason enough to go with them. They'll also save you money by delaying the need for additional ports, save you on cooling and fans or drive trays, cause less disks to spin up when accessing user shares,  and make less vibration plus noise. Parity sync speeds aren't a problem because the drives have an average read speed of 100mbps. That works out to 4 hour and 20 minute sync check times which compares well with most unraid arrays. I'm in the process of replacing 14 drives with 4-8 1.5tbs and am extremely pleased with the four I have. 15 1.5tb data drives are a cool 20.4tb which seems like more than enough maximum capacity for almost anyone with todays drives. That's 450 45gb blu-ray isos or 2400 dvd9s.

 

Case: 9 5.25 drive bays are great. If you go the inexpensive route with 2 more 4 in 3 devices be sure to make a list of the drive locations with the serial numbers and keep it in the case. The 120mm fan in front of those are more effective and quieter than any tray system.

[jimwhite]

Power supply: I've run 20 hard drives along with other power hungry hardware on a 600 watt seasonic, so I don't really see the need for more than that 550w. But, the corsair 750 is a very popular enthusiast psu and highly recommended for 16+ drive arrays so I'd probably go with it anyway. The downside is that it would be slightly less efficient when being used at the lower capacity (say 30% instead of 40% with a 550w).

 

Actually, the Corsair 750 has a remarkably flat efficiency curve, which has a slight peak at ~40%.... very nice

 

[Lunatic]

Ok, here is what I have decided:

 

1x  Corsair TX750W 750W Atx 12V 60A 24PIN Atx Power Supply Active Pfc 120MM Fan

 

6x  5.25 TRAY-LESS SATA HOT-SWAP BAY STARTECH.COM

 

2x  nGear SATA Serial ATA Hard Drive Data Cable 24 Inch 7 Pin W/ Locking Connectors

 

3x  Cooler Master Neon Blue LED 120MM Case Fan 3PIN 22DBA 1220RPM 42.734CFM 3PINS

 

1x  Kingston Data Traveler 1GB USB2.0 Flash Drive

 

2x  Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1500GB 1.5TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive Oem

 

1x  Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory

 

1x  Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.5GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail Box

 

1x  Coolermaster Centurion 590 ATX Tower Case Black 9X5.25 1X3.5 4X3.5INT

 

1x  Gigabyte EP45-DS3L ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 PCI-E 2PCI SATA2 HD Sound GBLAN Motherboard

 

I'm a little over my target price because I added the Trayless Removables as per Weebotech's suggestion

 

Thanks to all for the comments

[WeeboTech]

1x  Corsair TX750W 750W Atx 12V 60A 24PIN Atx Power Supply Active Pfc 120MM Fan

 

6x  5.25 TRAY-LESS SATA HOT-SWAP BAY STARTECH.COM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215046

 

3x  Cooler Master Neon Blue LED 120MM Case Fan 3PIN 22DBA 1220RPM 42.734CFM 3PINS

 

This is what I use. I move the one blue led fan to the back so I can see the cables in the back if I need to get there.

I use these for the other case openings

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103052

 

I'm a little over my target price because I added the Trayless Removables as per Weebotech's suggestion

As far as the 6 tralyess, consider shipping with them, It may pay to get as many as you can fit now so you save on shipping later.

I know it's more, but it saves later on depending on what you expect to max out at.

(plus it looks really cool when they are all in the case LOL!!).

 

For a power supply, what do you plan to max out at?

9 drives can easily be handled by the 520watt corsair or the 620 (just a thought).

If you plan to go all the way to 15 drives in that case, then the 750 would be a buy towards the future.

Just seems odd, according to corsair's website, 20 drives would be satisfied by smaller supplies.

 

[Lunatic]

As far as the 6 tralyess, consider shipping with them, It may pay to get as many as you can fit now so you save on shipping later.

I know it's more, but it saves later on depending on what you expect to max out at.

(plus it looks really cool when they are all in the case LOL!!).

 

For a power supply, what do you plan to max out at?

9 drives can easily be handled by the 520watt corsair or the 620 (just a thought).

If you plan to go all the way to 15 drives in that case, then the 750 would be a buy towards the future.

Just seems odd, according to corsair's website, 20 drives would be satisfied by smaller supplies.

 

 

I just finished placing the order for the components mentioned a couple of posts up, and I got free shipping. I'm thinking that 6 drives will be my limit but that may change down the road and if it does, I'll add more Trayless along with the drives. For now I'll start with 3 drives, run the free version of UnRaid and eventually upgrade to Plus when I need to add another drive...

 

The 750W power supply was on sale for $99.99 CDN plus $20 MIR compared to $102 for the 550W

[WeeboTech]

That's a good deal on the power supply, I would have jumped on it too.

If you are usiing the trayless units, then you will want to only install the ones you are going to put drives in for now.

Leave the current centurion covers in place, but tape them up with clear packing tape.

The goal is to create a path of air to be pulled from the front of the trayless units.

This involves taping off a few vents on each side and the underside. after that you will be golden.

[Lunatic]

If you are usiing the trayless units, then you will want to only install the ones you are going to put drives in for now.

Leave the current centurion covers in place, but tape them up with clear packing tape.

The goal is to create a path of air to be pulled from the front of the trayless units.

This involves taping off a few vents on each side and the underside. after that you will be golden.

 

I was going to install all 6 Trayless because that is the reason to get them in the first place, to be able to add/replace drives without opening the case, but I can see your point as well in regards to air flow.

 

My concern right now is if the Trayless are going to be compatible with my 2 Seagate 1.5 TB drives. I found their website listing the Trayless to support up to Terabyte drives:

"Supporting the latest generation of hard drive storage up to Terabyte (1TB) SATA hard drives, this Trayless SATA hard drive bay is a true time saver allowing for quick insertions and removals of any 3.5" SATA II/I hard drive"

 

I guess I'll find out when I put it together

[WeeboTech]

With the trayless removable units... it's not the size of the ship. It's the motion in the ocean... 

 

In short the Trayless units present physical access to the SATA Interface itself.

What you will need to be careful about is cable placement. Although locking cables work well on the motherboard side, the locks do not engage on the trayless units. Therefore if there is any stress, the cables may slip out over time due to the vibration of drive usage.

 

Another con to be aware of, the key does not disengage power. The trayless units are not hot swap friendly.

Therefore I suggest turning the machine off when swapping drives.

In all the drive will survive a live pull, but the drive will still be spinning when it is pulled.

In addition, some of them stick a slight bit, so you need to wiggle the drive a bit.

 

For $15.00 I live with the cons.