Please consider adding USB 3.0 support (and to use USB 3.0 to an array).  Yes, I realize it's not lightning fast and that is the main reason it hasn't been added, but it allows more flexibility.  I have three Mediasonic enclosures (4 bays each) and a nice tiny nettop that I'd like to set up as a NAS.  unRaid would be my first choice if it were a possibility (but it is not).  I'd happily pay extra (in addition to a pro license) to have this happen sooner rather than later. 

I think the main problem with this idea is not USB3, but multiple drives using one USB3 port.

 

You could just re-use your existing drives in a new unRAID build if you want to consider that.

 

parity check over USB (even 3.0)... shudder

parity check over USB (even 3.0)... shudder

 

It would be approximately the same with Port multipliers. USB 3.0 is actually pretty fast. It's the round robin sharing of the single pipe that hurts it all. I.E. PMP and USB 3.0 arrays.

 

In my tests USB 3.0 meets or exceeds eSATA speeds.

 

Now if you round robin, or rotate the drives via ports/External arrays you might get some decent speeds.

 

I.E.  Access drive 1 on internal array, Access drive 1 on external array 1, Access Drive 1 on external array 2, Access internal array drive2, access drive 2 on external array. etc. etc.

 

In my experience, if you configure the system to access the array drives consecutively per box,  i.e. drive 1 external, array, drive 2 external array, drive 3 external array. Then you will see degradation in parity speeds for sure.

This weekend I'll attempt to put together an "unRaid-like" box.  Will use Openmediavault, Greyhole and Snapraid.  The three together will be pretty close (although obviously not identical) to unRaid's feature set.  I've read accounts of users using Usb 3 and even Usb 2 drives for parity with Snapraid. 

This weekend I'll attempt to put together an "unRaid-like" box.  Will use Openmediavault, Greyhole and Snapraid.  The three together will be pretty close (although obviously not identical) to unRaid's feature set.  I've read accounts of users using Usb 3 and even Usb 2 drives for parity with Snapraid.

 

USB 2.0's max speed on a hard drive is about 30MB/s.

USB 3.0 ups this to over 120MB/s depending on your hardware. (at least with my benchmarks).

This weekend I'll attempt to put together an "unRaid-like" box.  Will use Openmediavault, Greyhole and Snapraid.  The three together will be pretty close (although obviously not identical) to unRaid's feature set.  I've read accounts of users using Usb 3 and even Usb 2 drives for parity with Snapraid.

 

USB 2.0's max speed on a hard drive is about 30MB/s.

USB 3.0 ups this to over 120MB/s depending on your hardware. (at least with my benchmarks).

 

USB 3.0 can easily exceed this (250MB/s sequential reads on my Kingston HyperX 64GB drive).

This weekend I'll attempt to put together an "unRaid-like" box.  Will use Openmediavault, Greyhole and Snapraid.  The three together will be pretty close (although obviously not identical) to unRaid's feature set.  I've read accounts of users using Usb 3 and even Usb 2 drives for parity with Snapraid.

 

USB 2.0's max speed on a hard drive is about 30MB/s.

USB 3.0 ups this to over 120MB/s depending on your hardware. (at least with my benchmarks).

 

USB 3.0 can easily exceed this (250MB/s sequential reads on my Kingston HyperX 64GB drive).

 

SWEET!! that was something I did not know!

This weekend I'll attempt to put together an "unRaid-like" box.  Will use Openmediavault, Greyhole and Snapraid.  The three together will be pretty close (although obviously not identical) to unRaid's feature set.  I've read accounts of users using Usb 3 and even Usb 2 drives for parity with Snapraid.

 

USB 2.0's max speed on a hard drive is about 30MB/s.

USB 3.0 ups this to over 120MB/s depending on your hardware. (at least with my benchmarks).

 

USB 3.0 can easily exceed this (250MB/s sequential reads on my Kingston HyperX 64GB drive).

 

SWEET!! that was something I did not know!

 

 

I tried preclearing a Seagate 4TB while still in the external enclosure for the hell of it and got the same 195MB/s reads over USB 3.0 as I did when I removed it from the enclosure and hooked it up to a SATA port.

Lots of people hating on USB3 are misinformed. Here's a good article (http://www.barefeats.com/hard168.html) of the speed of usb3 using SSD drives. Short version- some SSD drives get 700+ MB/s thru-put on usb3. Should be more then enough for a few 3.5 HDDs.