First build, could use some help.

[JerryV]

Hi everybody! Been browsing the forums for quite some time now and since my Synology is filled up it is time for me to enter the unRAID future! I could use some help with deciding on which components I should buy.. So what am I Looking for in system ?

 

Media streaming (including transcoding), Sharing over SMB/AFP, Backing up of data, perhaps a VM in the near future.

 

• Budget? Around €1000-1250 for the system excluding hard drives.

• How many drives? Ultimately around 20-24 drives.

• unRAID Add Ons?

UnTorrent

SABnzbd

SickBeard

CouchPotoato

Plex Media Server

AirVideo

 

Perhaps a VM later on..

 

• Drives? For main storage green and reds. For the parity and cache black red and enterprise.

• Spare parts?  Just the green drives.

 

Parts in mind:

 

PSU

Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W http://goo.gl/qXaUW

Corsair AX760 ATX Power Supply http://goo.gl/tTd0F

 

MOBO

ASRock Z77 Pro4-M http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Pro4-M/

Supermicro X9SCM-IIF http://goo.gl/8yNIO

 

What about the Asus 8C WS?http://goo.gl/kBzqs

 

CPU

Intel Pentium G2020 http://ark.intel.com/products/71070

Intel Xeon E3-1230V2 Boxed http://goo.gl/J0U0P

 

RAM

Vengeance® — 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) http://goo.gl/2CVxW

2x Kingston 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC CL11 DIMM w/TS Server Elpida F -  http://goo.gl/SBreG

 

CASE

Lian Li PC-D8000 http://goo.gl/TA8zx

 

CONTROLLER

SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 http://goo.gl/SwjDC

2x IBM ServeRAID M1015 SAS/SATA Controller http://goo.gl/3foKh

 

DISKS

1x Western Digital Caviar Black 3TB (new) http://goo.gl/yCfW7

1x Western Digital RE4 1TB (new) http://goo.gl/dX5ke

7x Western Digital Red 3TB (new) http://goo.gl/3RBDP

8x Western Digital Green 2TB (own them already) http://goo.gl/zis5Z

 

Future: fill her up with Western Digital Red 3TB's or 4TB's?! Perhaps SSD for VM?

 

 

Any questions, corrections and advice are welcome, needed and appreciated! 

Thanks for your input.

[Frank1940]

Look for a Power Supply with a single 12 volt rail.  (The dual rail supplies are intended for gaming rigs with high wattage GPU's.)

 

All of the power connectors in a dual rail PS for the hard disks are on one rail.  Therefore, you usually have less than half of the 12volt total amperage available for your hard disks. 

[garycase]

... Perhaps a VM later on..

 

So you may want to use a motherboard/CPU that's ESXi compatible.

[e.g. an X9SCL-iiF with a Xeon E3-1230]

 

Agree with the single-rail suggestion for a PSU.  I'd use a Seasonic X-650 modular  [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088 ]

 

There's no real advantage to using a 7200rpm drive for your parity drive when all of the data drives spin slower.    I'd just use WD Reds for everything -- although if you want a 4GB parity drive you can't do that right now (no 4TB Reds yet).    For this, the Seagate drives work very well ... and cost about half of a WD RE series 4TB 

[JerryV]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll go look at the PSU and MOBO to see what it costs over here.

[Ford Prefect]

...just in case you will stick (or start) with the G2020....the DDR3-1600 RAM is overkill...use a G2120 instead or use DDR3-1333.

In case you follow the route to an ESXi build, remember that the X9SCM-iiF will require unregistered ECC Memory (UDIMMs).

The G2020 or G2120 will support that as well.

[JerryV]

Thank you for the advice Ford.

Strangely enough this memory is not more expensive than the 1333's..  i'll go look into the different CPU's.

 

Good to know, the ESXi build is something I need to consider further; the price difference is pretty significant.

[GFOviedo]

Why not use a Supermicro mobo?

[JerryV]

They seem pretty expensive over here.. They cost almost €100 more; is it worth the difference?

[garycase]

They are very reliable boards -- but whether or not it's worth the difference is up to you.

 

With ECC memory your system will be more reliable;  the Xeon gives you the capability to run ESXi very well; and the quality of the board is exceptional.

 

They DO cost more -- but if you factor in the total cost of what you're going to spend for a 20-24 drive system the difference is really very nominal.

 

[GFOviedo]

They seem pretty expensive over here.. They cost almost €100 more; is it worth the difference?

 

After everything I've spent, I wish I had gone with a supermicro MOBO and Norco 4020.

[Ford Prefect]

+1 for Supermicro Boards....these are Server-Boards, no fuzzy OC/Multimedia thingies on it that could fail but will never get used with unRAID.

I also strongly suggest to go for one with IPMI (a "-F" model, like X9SCM-iiF).

 

For creating an ESXi build with unRAID in a VM you need the XEON, because only that will support vt-d in oder to be able to passthrough the controller.

With an Ivy-Bridge Pentium G or i3 you can start with that board, because they will support ECC RAM, which is required by the board chipset.

You can always upgrade to a XEON later....IMHO running "bare metal unRAID on that board is already worth it.

[garycase]

Definitely agree with IPMI => you'll never need to connect a monitor, keyboard, or mouse to the server -- you can do it all from any other PC on the network 

[PeterB]

My initial build was based on an Intel mobo/i3 cpu.  More recently I had the opportunity to redeploy that hardware, enabling me to upgrade to Supermicro/Xeon, a move I don't regret.

[dikkiedirk]

Hi everybody! Been browsing the forums for quite some time now and since my Synology is filled up it is time for me to enter the unRAID future! I could use some help with deciding on which components I should buy.. So what am I Looking for in system ?

 

Media streaming (including transcoding), Sharing over SMB/AFP, Backing up of data, perhaps a VM in the near future.

 

• Budget? Around €1000-1250 for the system excluding hard drives.

• How many drives? Ultimately around 20-24 drives.

• unRAID Add Ons?

UnTorrent

SABnzbd

SickBeard

CouchPotoato

Plex Media Server

AirVideo

 

Perhaps a VM later on..  Supermicro X9 board plus Xeon E3-1230+

 

• Drives? For main storage green and reds. For the parity and cache black red and enterprise.

• Spare parts?  Just the green drives.

 

Parts in mind:

 

PSU Maybe Seasonic M12II 650W+ or X-650+

Antec EarthWatts Platinum 650W http://goo.gl/qXaUW

Corsair AX760 ATX Power Supply http://goo.gl/tTd0F

 

MOBO  Supermicro X9 board with IPMI plus Xeon E3-1230+

ASRock Z77 Pro4-M http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Pro4-M/

 

CPU see above

Intel Pentium G2020 http://ark.intel.com/products/71070

 

RAM ECC UDIMMs

Vengeance® — 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) http://goo.gl/2CVxW

 

CASE  Norco 4220

Lian Li PC-D8000 http://goo.gl/TA8zx

 

CONTROLLER Flashed M1015 + Expander

SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 http://goo.gl/SwjDC

 

DISKS

1x Western Digital Caviar Black 3TB (new) http://goo.gl/yCfW7

1x Western Digital RE4 1TB (new) http://goo.gl/dX5ke

7x Western Digital Red 3TB (new) http://goo.gl/3RBDP

8x Western Digital Green 2TB (own them already) http://goo.gl/zis5Z

 

Future: fill her up with Western Digital Red 3TB's or 4TB's?!

 

 

Any questions, corrections and advice are welcome, needed and appreciated! 

Thanks for your input.

 

In regard to possible VMs in ESXi remarks are in RED

[JerryV]

In regard to possible VMs in ESXi remarks are in RED

 

Heh, thanks dikkiedirk! Was just browsing around to find some alternatives.

[garycase]

As I noted earlier, using an ESXi capable motherboard/CPU adds a lot of future capability to your setup -- and since you indicated some desire to virtualize, it makes sense to make that change to your configuration.    The SuperMicro X9SCM-iiF, Xeon E3-1230, and 16-32GB of ECC memory would be a great choice (I'd start with 16GB ... a pair of 8GB modules ... leaving room for 2 more if you have a lot of VMs)

 

As for the case -- the Lian-Li you are looking at is a GREAT case ... plenty of internal space with EXCELLENT cooling for the hard drives.    The Norco that's been suggested is also very good, but it's a rack-mount case, so unless you have a rack (or don't mind it just sitting there) the tower case may be preferable.

 

The AX series power supply you listed is superb.  No reason to change.    The Seasonics are also superb units; but certainly no better than the AS series Corsairs.

 

[JerryV]

Thank you for all the input so far! It's been very helpful.

 

As for the case -- the Lian-Li you are looking at is a GREAT case

Yeah, I like the looks and internal space. It's even way cheaper than the NORCO. Since I don't expect to use the hot swap capability a lot, I think this one is the better choice for me.

[garycase]

I think this one is the better choice for me.

 

Absolutely agree.  Not only are you not planning to use hot-swap cages;  but you don't NEED them with this case.  The drives are VERY easy to install/remove.  You simply unlock the drive lock; then pull out the drive(s) you need to remove.    To install a drive, you just screw four thumbscrews in the drive (no tools needed); then slide the drive in its bay.

 

... and it's got spots for SIX 120mm fans in front of the drive cage, so you'll have superb airflow over the drives that will keep them far cooler than any hot-swap cage would 

 

 

[Ford Prefect]

two more things:

 

...the M1015 could be hard to source.

It also needs to be cross-flashed....see here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26774.0

Some sellers are offering it already flashed.

Also you want a full-size bracket with it, to properly mount it inside your case (most come with half-size only).

And you need cables, as most likely, it will come without  any.

In order to attach 4 S-ATA disks to one port of the M1015 directly, you need "Forward Breakout" cables, like these: http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10254#1025406

Don't know what length will suit you with that case.

 

...you need another USB or a small SSD...include enough space for a datastore to host your VM disks.

[JerryV]

...the M1015 could be hard to source.

I've found a great address to for the M1015's here in Europe (refurbit.nl).. So i'll probably go with multiple M1015's instead of 1 with an expander card. Or does the expander card provide any serious advantages?

 

Given multiple M1015's, which do you guys think is the better MOBO? The Supermicro x9scm-f/x9scm-iif or the Asus P8C WS?

[BobPhoenix]

...the M1015 could be hard to source.

I've found a great address to for the M1015's here in Europe (refurbit.nl).. So i'll probably go with multiple M1015's instead of 1 with an expander card. Or does the expander card provide any serious advantages?

 

Given multiple M1015's, which do you guys think is the better MOBO? The Supermicro x9scm-f/x9scm-iif or the Asus P8C WS?

The expander has the disavantage of reducing parity check speeds slightly I get 60-100MB/s on mine.  With multiple M1015s I would up that by 10-20% I figure.  Also it is usually cheaper to get multiple M1015s then it is to get a single M1015 plus expander - at least if you buy used off ebay anyway.  The expander has the advantage that it only uses up a single PCIe slot to support 24 drives attached to a single M1015 - which was more important to me than speed or cost.  Will let Ford comment on MB.

[Ford Prefect]

...basically I aggree wth BobPhoenix about the pros and cons with an expander.

BTW: the expander has a FW too, see: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25412.0

What I can add is, using an expander together with two M1015s delivers a multipath setup with increased redundancy (all will still be working when one M1015 fails).

But I actually do not know if this is supported by unRAID (or the MPT-Fusion driver in unRAID).

 

I am not using one with an unraid build, but have one fully populated in a ZFS based build.

An internal scrap with all disks on that expander in two z3 array (3 parity disks, one array with 11 disks, the other with 7 disks)

reports a speed above 600MB/sec each of these with a scrap running in parallel, so I cannot complain.

My guess is, in real life experience, you won't notice a difference in speed.

 

 

I cannot comment on the ASUS mobo, I am simply a fan of SM boards.

If I were to choose between the two X9SCM variants, I'd go with the -iiF, since it comes with two NICs that will work right away in ESXi (the -"-F" needs a non standard driver injected for the second NIC).

Both SM boards are proven to work with vt-d and with multiple M1015s, see: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=22327.msg235970#msg235970

[garycase]

The Asus board is nice, but I would also go with SuperMicro.  They're simply hard to beat ... and once you've used IPMI you'll never go back 

 

Just buy this and quit thinking about it:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182773  :)

[JerryV]

What I can add is, using an expander together with two M1015s delivers a multipath setup with increased redundancy (all will still be working when one M1015 fails).

Interesting, I'll start with the two m1015's and wait till I find a good deal on the expander.

 

I'd go with the -iiF

Good to know!

 

Just buy this and quit thinking about it

Yes sir! 

 

Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated!

[cirkator]

You mentioned the site "refurbit.nl" for M1015´s. Since I am in Europe too and will maybe someday want one of these cards aswell, can you send me the direct link to the cards please.

I tried to find them on their site, but couldn´t.

 

Thanks