Okay, so I have just started looking into NAS for a Home Media Server, and have found that unRAID seems to be my best option overall.  I will be using this to hold my media, as well as provide a way of keeping backups for my computers.

 

 

My Budget: Around $1000, drives included.  Less is better, but if I need to go higher, I can if it will work out better

Drives Needed: 3 Initially, 2 3TB Data Drives, 1 3TB Parity Drive

Expandability: I plan on expanding over time, to at most 7 drives (1 Parity, 5 Data, 1 Cache drive)

Add-ons that will be used: SABnzbd, Sickbeard, Couch Potato, Headphones, Crash Plan, Plex Media Server, SimpleFeatures

Drive Choices: Not really sure.  I see that WD REDs seem popular, but Newegg seems to show that they aren't very reliable.  Is there a reason why that is?

Old Parts to use: None. I'm planning on building this from scratch

Current List of Parts:

 

Case: Lian-Li Q25B ($120)

PSU: Sliverstone ST45SF 450W ($100)

Motherboad: Asus P8H77 ($110)

CPU: i3-2120T (Sandy Bridge) 35W ($135)

RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) ($60)

Drives: 3x WD RED ($453)

Total Price: $978

 

Notes: I would like to keep this build low powered - if its running constantly, I would prefer it to be energy efficient.  On the other hand, I feel like it needs some power for running everything I listed.  The big thing that I want to make sure is that I have the right ratio of power to efficiency.  I would love to use an AMD Fusion based system, but I have a feeling that it might not cut it running all those add-ins.  What is everyone's thoughts on this build I have?

...the version T of the CPU with low TDP will only make sense if your system load will be on high level all the time.

Most likely it will be idle most of the time

.

These intel CPUs with EIST feature will idle at a very low rate...all at the same low rate, regardless of their TDP.

Ivy Bridge will idle lower than Sandy Bridge though.

...that board has got 6x S-ATA as it looks...you are one slot short for a build up tp 7 drives without an aditional controller.

 

This mobo will support up to 8 drives out of the box: ASRock B75 PRO3

Edit: ...and the micro-ATX model of that: ASRock B75 PRO3-M

I suppose I forgot that it idles a lot lower than the TDP. I will update my build with something ivy bridge based.  I really liked that case, but I'm fine with changing the motherboard to microATX, I will have to update the case too.

 

Will an i3 be good enough for everything I listed or should I look into an i5?

Ah...sorry, I did not check for mobo and case size match.

For an mITX build with more than 6 disks, you will need a controller, as there are none based on intel with more than 6 ports on-board.

The ASRock FM2A85X-ITX is AMD based and supports 7 ports as it seems, but I don't know anything about it.

 

For getting he job done......it will depend on your individual usage/workload, of course.

From what you list, plex could be the bottleneck....doing heavy transcoding will require more horsepower.

 

To be honest, I would go for an i3. because it already supports ECC RAM (which an i5 or i7 doesn't)...an i3-32xx model.

So the next upgrade path, going for a server mobo and possibly a XEON (which at this time will blow your budget) gives more options for a smooth path to grow.

My favorite case for builds with up to 7 drives 

 

I built my backup server with this case and a SuperMicro X7SPA-H-D525-O

http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-MBD-X7SPA-H-D525-O-Chipset-Mini-ITX-Motherboard/dp/B008Z2DCO6

 

It works perfectly, and is very low power -- draws 20W on idle, and a max of just over 40W running a parity check (has 5 3TB WD Reds in it)

 

However, as with the board you've listed, it only has 6 SATA ports, so you'd have to use an add-in card for a 7th drive.

 

I'm not an AMD fan, but this is the only mini-ITX board I'm aware of with 7 SATA ports (and they're all SATA-3, which is very nice):  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157357

 

If you built using that board you could expand up to 7 drives without any need for an add-in card.

 

Personally, I'd build with EXACTLY what you've listed except I'd switch to an Ivy Bridge CPU.

It will still be low power -- about 10W more than my Atom-based setup, but much more CPU "horsepower" for your add-ons.    And you'll simply have to add in a SATA card if/when you are ready for a 7th drive.

To be honest, I would go for an i3. because it already supports ECC RAM (which an i5 or i7 doesn't)...an i3-32xx model.

 

Irrelevant with this build, since an H77 based motherboard doesn't support ECC RAM.

 

The only mini-ITX option I'm aware of that would provide ECC support is this Intel board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121553

... and it only has 4 SATA ports.    You could, of course, add an Adaptec 1430SA and bump that up to a total of 8 ports (1430SA's are hard to find, but are still available on e-bay)

 

But it's probably not worth the cost of switching to this board unless you also want to switch to a Xeon and build an ESXi-capable system 

By the way, you'll want some of these (length you need depends on where the SATA ports are on the motherboard you use):  http://www.cpustuff.com/left-angle-to-straight-sata-cable/

 

They work MUCH better than normal SATA cables for connecting to the SATA ports on the backplane of the 5-bay hot-swap drive cage.

 

To be honest, I would go for an i3. because it already supports ECC RAM (which an i5 or i7 doesn't)...an i3-32xx model.

 

Irrelevant with this build, since an H77 based motherboard doesn't support ECC RAM.

 

 

.....it opens an additional option for an upgrade path later, which an i5/i7 would not.

 

If you need horsepower now, you could go with a XEON already instead of an i3

(add a cheap GPU card; of course a mITX with only one PCIe, it is either controller for 7+ drives or a GPU)

 

Upgrading to a server mobo with ECC RAM later and maybe re-use the i3.

The only mini-ITX option I'm aware of that would provide ECC support is this Intel board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121553

... and it only has 4 SATA ports.    You could, of course, add an Adaptec 1430SA and bump that up to a total of 8 ports (1430SA's are hard to find, but are still available on e-bay)

 

But it's probably not worth the cost of switching to this board unless you also want to switch to a Xeon and build an ESXi-capable system 

 

...that board is not good for an ESXi build...no vt-d support.

As said, I'd prefer the i3 over an i5/i7 because it could be reused on a server board with ECC.

If horsepower is important, I'd go to a XEON instead of an i5/i7 right away...it will run on a desktop board with non-ECC as well..all you need is a cheap GPU card.

I'd make 2 suggestions.

 

First, if you still want a T series processor so it's power consumption under load is still low I'd go for the i3-3220T. I'm not sure why Newegg says it's discontinued because it definitely isn't. Amazon has it for $128 shipped. It's also 2.8GHz vs 2.6GHz for the 2120T. 2.8GHz is more than fast enough for the tasks you listed you want to do. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093H8JCM

 

 

Second, I would consider these 4TB Seagate drives. Yes, they are external so you risk Seagate not honoring the warranty on them once you remove them from the enclosure but it's a great deal and a lot of people on the forums have had great luck with them. I have two of them. They run very cool and are really fast. For the same amount of money you're going to get 2TB of extra space. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00829THLE/

I have the i3-3220T in that same Lian Li case. The CPU has plenty enough horsepower for Plex/sab/sb/cp.

 

The specific reason I went with the T series CPU was I wanted to keep PEAK heat loads as low as possible because of the very small size of the Lian Li case. Very tightly packed components in there and I didn't want heat to be an issue.  On-the-fly transcoding in Plex can keep the CPU at high utilization for extended periods of time.

As I noted earlier, "... Personally, I'd build with EXACTLY what you've listed except I'd switch to an Ivy Bridge CPU."

 

The system dirtysanchez built is exactly that 

 

He's also posted power consumption numbers [at my "prodding" he bought a Kill-a-Watt  ], and as you can see from those, it's a very low-power system [33W at idle -- 69W at max consumption (all drives spinning, parity check in progress]    ... a bit more than my Atom-based system, but it has plenty of horsepower to run any add-ons you want, so it's a better system for that purpose.

 

If you build this system with 4TB drives you could have 20TB in that nifty little enclosure !! 

(I agree with the Seagate suggestion ... whether you buy the external units and remove the drives or the internal units depends on your "risk tolerance" vis-à-vis the warranty)

 

The only mini-ITX option I'm aware of that would provide ECC support is this Intel board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121553

... and it only has 4 SATA ports.    You could, of course, add an Adaptec 1430SA and bump that up to a total of 8 ports (1430SA's are hard to find, but are still available on e-bay)

 

But it's probably not worth the cost of switching to this board unless you also want to switch to a Xeon and build an ESXi-capable system 

 

...that board is not good for an ESXi build...no vt-d support.

As said, I'd prefer the i3 over an i5/i7 because it could be reused on a server board with ECC.

If horsepower is important, I'd go to a XEON instead of an i5/i7 right away...it will run on a desktop board with non-ECC as well..all you need is a cheap GPU card.

 

Actually, vt-d isn't a function of the motherboard, it's a function of the CPU.  HOWEVER ... in looking more closely at this board, it does indeed have a MAJOR flow -- so I would NOT recommend using it.  ... it does NOT support the E3 v2 CPUs !!

 

To be honest, I would go for an i3. because it already supports ECC RAM (which an i5 or i7 doesn't)...an i3-32xx model.

....

(add a cheap GPU card; of course a mITX with only one PCIe, it is either controller for 7+ drives or a GPU)

....

 

 

I never understand why I see people tell people to get a GPU in these threads.

 

You can set up and configure unraid fresh, without ever having to use a monitor.

....

(add a cheap GPU card; of course a mITX with only one PCIe, it is either controller for 7+ drives or a GPU)

....

 

 

I never understand why I see people tell people to get a GPU in these threads.

 

You can set up and configure unraid fresh, without ever having to use a monitor.

 

Agree -- especially when adding a GPU eliminates the ability to add a controller for a 7th drive (as the OP indicated he wanted to be able to do).  In fairness, in the same post where FordPrefect suggested the video card, he also noted that it would restrict the # of drives.

 

HOWEVER ... while you don't need a GPU permanently installed, in MOST systems you DO require a GPU to set up the initial "boot to USB" option.    The exception, of course, is with a board that supports IPMI.    The whole point is largely moot, however, as most modern motherboards that support Ivy Bridge CPUs have built-in support for the on-chip graphics ... so unless you're using one of the CPU models that do not have the built-in graphics, you've already got a "cheap GPU" 

Actually, vt-d isn't a function of the motherboard, it's a function of the CPU.  HOWEVER ... in looking more closely at this board, it does indeed have a MAJOR flow -- so I would NOT recommend using it.  ... it does NOT support the E3 v2 CPUs !!

 

Not entirely true.  In the PAST, VT-d was a function of the motherboard not the CPU.  Ever since Intel moved the memory controller on-die it is indeed a function of the CPU, but the motherboard STILL NEEDS to support it.  Not all motherboards do.  Not only must the mobo chipset support it, the manufacturer also has to expose the functionality through the BIOS.

 

It is confusing as hell, but the way I understand it is this.  The Nehalem architecture is when Intel moved the memory controller on-die.  Therefore for all pre-Nehalem CPU's VT-d was solely a function of the motherboard (chipset).  For all Nehalem and newer CPU's VT-d requires not only a CPU that supports it, but also a motherboard that supports it.  So as long as we are talking about current hardware (Sandy and Ivy Bridge), BOTH the CPU and motherboard have to support VT-d.

 

EDIT:  To muddy the waters even more, not all motherboards that do support VT-d are advertised as such.  For example, nowhere on Asus's website or on the product packaging does it say that the motherboard in my build (P8H77-I) supports VT-d, but it does in fact support VT-d.

...Wow, thanks for all the help guys!  After some thinking, I've changed a few things with my build.  I'm going to be going with the 4TB drives listed, and instead of having my plans be to expand to 7 drives, ill just stick with the 6 that the board can support.  At 4TB per drive, thats 16TB of data with 1 parity drive and 1 cache drive.  I'm fairly certain that will be sufficient for a while.  If I do decide I want to expand beyond that, I'll probably start from scratch which is fine.

 

Also, on all the vt-d talk, maybe I'm missing something, but what is the use of vt-d on a NAS?  I understand that vt-d is used for virtualization, but I'm not seeing where this comes into the equation, at least for my use case.

 

With all that being said here is my revised build.  I'm still open to suggestions!

 

Case: Lian-Li Q25B ($120) 

PSU: Sliverstone ST45SF 450W ($100)

Motherboad: Asus P8H77 ($110)

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220T (Ivy Bridge) ($128) NEW - Changed from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge

RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) ($60)

Drives: 3x Seagate 4TB External ($450) NEW - Changed from 3TB WD REDs to 4TB Seagates at no additional cost

Total Price: $968

As I noted earlier, "... Personally, I'd build with EXACTLY what you've listed except I'd switch to an Ivy Bridge CPU."

 

The system dirtysanchez built is exactly that 

 

He's also posted power consumption numbers [at my "prodding" he bought a Kill-a-Watt  ], and as you can see from those, it's a very low-power system [33W at idle -- 69W at max consumption (all drives spinning, parity check in progress]    ... a bit more than my Atom-based system, but it has plenty of horsepower to run any add-ons you want, so it's a better system for that purpose.

 

If you build this system with 4TB drives you could have 20TB in that nifty little enclosure !! 

(I agree with the Seagate suggestion ... whether you buy the external units and remove the drives or the internal units depends on your "risk tolerance" vis-à-vis the warranty)

 

Couldn't agree more.  As long as you aren't looking to virtualize, the combo in my sig is plenty powerful enough to do what you are looking to do, and it's relatively easy on the power.  Look in the build thread (link in sig) to see full power draw numbers.  And keep in mind the 69W at full tilt (parity check) is with all 7200 RPM drives, which understandably pull more power than green drives.  Thanks garycase for prodding me to get a Kill-A-Watt and get some accurate numbers. 

 

That said, if you are looking to virtualize, dropping a CPU that supports VT-d into that same build will do it.

With all that being said here is my revised build.  I'm still open to suggestions!

 

Case: Lian-Li Q25B ($120) 

PSU: Sliverstone ST45SF 450W ($100)

Motherboad: Asus P8H77 ($110)

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220T (Ivy Bridge) ($128) NEW - Changed from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge

RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) ($60)

Drives: 3x Seagate 4TB External ($450) NEW - Changed from 3TB WD REDs to 4TB Seagates at no additional cost

Total Price: $968

 

Absolutely "perfect" ==> all you'll need to do is add 3 more 4TB drives at your convenience and you'll have it maxed out.

 

When you do the build, do this:

 

(a)  Mount the Parity drive on the cage on the bottom of the case ... reserving the 5 hot-swap bays for the data drives.

 

(b)  Go ahead and install all of the SATA cables, so when you want to add a drive you don't have to do anything inside the case -- you'll only need to pop off the side;  release the drive lock; slide in the new drive; and re-lock the drive cage.  It's VERY simple 

 

Don't forget to order your left-hand SATA cables ... they make the cabling in the back of the drive cage MUCH neater  :)

Also, on all the vt-d talk, maybe I'm missing something, but what is the use of vt-d on a NAS?  I understand that vt-d is used for virtualization, but I'm not seeing where this comes into the equation, at least for my use case.

 

It has entirely to do with virtualization.  In your use case virtualization is probably overkill, as it was in my use case (hence the reason I didn't go that route).  It's nice to keep unRAID plain vanilla and not have a bunch of plugins running (that can otherwise be run in another VM) that could introduce instability.  I run Plex/SABnzbd/SickBeard/CouchPotato, in addition to a few other minor plugins, and unRAID has been rock solid.

 

You revised build looks great IMHO.

... r.e. the left-hand SATA cables ==> see Reply #7 for the link I gave you for those 

You'll want to wait until you have the motherboard mounted to measure the lengths you'll need.

... r.e. the left-hand SATA cables ==> see Reply #7 for the link I gave you for those 

You'll want to wait until you have the motherboard mounted to measure the lengths you'll need.

 

Will do.  Now I just need to wait for the funds to get this thing up and running!

...Wow, thanks for all the help guys!  After some thinking, I've changed a few things with my build.  I'm going to be going with the 4TB drives listed, and instead of having my plans be to expand to 7 drives, ill just stick with the 6 that the board can support.  At 4TB per drive, thats 16TB of data with 1 parity drive and 1 cache drive.  I'm fairly certain that will be sufficient for a while.  If I do decide I want to expand beyond that, I'll probably start from scratch which is fine.

 

Also, on all the vt-d talk, maybe I'm missing something, but what is the use of vt-d on a NAS?  I understand that vt-d is used for virtualization, but I'm not seeing where this comes into the equation, at least for my use case.

 

With all that being said here is my revised build.  I'm still open to suggestions!

 

Case: Lian-Li Q25B ($120) 

PSU: Sliverstone ST45SF 450W ($100)

Motherboad: Asus P8H77 ($110)

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220T (Ivy Bridge) ($128) NEW - Changed from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge

RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) ($60)

Drives: 3x Seagate 4TB External ($450) NEW - Changed from 3TB WD REDs to 4TB Seagates at no additional cost

Total Price: $968

 

 

From that total of 16TB it sounds like you would be using a 4TB drive as a cache drive if you used all 6 motherboard ports. I'd say don't do that. 4TB is about as overkill as you can get for a cache disk. What I would say is use that 6th 4TB for a 5th array disk and then get a cheap $15-20 dollar 2 port SATA PCIe card and tuck away a laptop drive or a SSD somewhere in the case. I, for instance, use a 320GB laptop drive as my cache drive.

I haven't really looked to much into cache drives.  I understand the general idea of them, but haven't really seen what is good/bad/ideal for one.  I realize that it doesn't need to be massive like the other ones.  When I said 16TB, I meant for all 6 disks, 4 would be data, 1 parity, and 1 cache.  Of those 6, parity would have to be a 4TB, and ideally I would have all 4 data drives at 4TB for a total of 16.  That leaves 1 more drive (whatever it should be, I may grab one of my spare drives for it) for the cache.  Of course I can use a PCIe card for a 7th drive, I feel a little worried about heat issues.  It's something I will have to monitor and decide when I get to that point in my build.

 

I suppose on that note, what is "ideal" for a cache drive? Should I be looking for High RPM, or even something in the SSD category or will just something with a decent amount of space (I have a Laptop HDD with 320gb that I'm not using) suffice?