FIRSTLY..i have about 3tb of space left on my server (Proliant N40L) and a couple of 2tb drives knocking about gathering dust, they will not fit in the currant server as it is full, the reason i am embarking on this project is because i mainly use the server as a media server (Plex media server plugin) and it works flawlessly over the local network which is CAT6 GB LAN throughout, however, it is terrible at streaming over wifi and 3G, i have read around and it is because the CPU is not up to the job (i am going to experiment also with splitting it out to pc to test hardware and theory).

 

i have two board at my disposal THIS P8P67 Pro or THIS P8H 61-MLE, the advantage of the P8H board is that it is MATX format but it only has 4 SATA ports, the P8P67 has 8 SATA ports and a couple pciE slots for add in cards but is full ATX and will probably draw more power. I have around 16GB of RAM around me in 4GB modules to use up and also THIS INTEL i7 which has a max TDP of 95W so not to power hungry but not a 65W or a 135W, middle of the road so no real need to move away from the CPU i have, although i do have THIS INTEL G840 LGA 1155 which will fit both boards being 1155 sockets and scores 2575 on CPU passmark and it is currently running my main HTPC nicely. The power supply i have at my disposal is THIS PRO82+, not sure if it will do the job or if i can hang anymore than 7 drives off of it.

 

I think the main problem i am going to have is choosing is the case, i dont mind spending a little bit on it and doesn't need to be micro as it sits in my utility room but i would like the bays to be hot swappable on the whole.

 

Below is some pictures of my redundant hardware.

 

 

This is the main hardware i have to rape and inside you can see the power supply, board, CPU (i7) and THIS ZOTAC GTX 460 GPU, there is a pump in there for the water cooling and the front bay houses the resevoir a 3.5" drive bay and 2.5" drive bay and optical drive, i dont think i am going to use this case as it would need some heavy modifying.

 

So in short i would like to be able to increase capacity to at least 10 drives, be power efficient-ish, and be able to transcode plex over wifi/3g/4g without issues (MY MAIN REASON FOR DOING THIS).

 

One other thing, The room that houses this server also has two pc's in it which the kids and myself use, is it possible to have the server with UNraid and windows 7 in unison ?, seeing as the server is on 24/7 could someone just come in and boot into windows or something and then shut windows off when they are finished so its not pulling on resourses and becomes a server again ?..this would free the space of another pc, not sure what VM is but does it do something like that ?

I'll spend more time on this later, but will toss out a few random thoughts to give you a few things to ponder ...

 

=>  The 2600k is an excellent CPU ... definitely no need for anything better.

 

=>  The micro-ATX board is fine.  It only has one PCIe slot with more than one lane (the x16 slot) ... but you don't need that for a video card, so you can use it for an add-in 8-port card and easily have > 10 drive capability.

 

=>  Lots of case options.  Lian-Li has an inexpensive case in their "LAN-Cool" lineup that would work nicely for 12 drives:  The PC-K65 holds 6 3.5" drives internally (with 2 140mm fans blowing directly across them, which should provide EXCELLENT cooling), and has 3 5.25" drive bays, so you could add a CoolerMaster 4-in-3 cage, which has a 120mm fan that cools those drives very well.

 

Forgive the Newegg links (I know you can't use them ... but they provide nice overviews of the gear):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112354

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002

 

=>  You would, of course, need a 8-port add-in controller ... I'd use the SuperMicro SAS2LP-MV8

 

r.e. Virtualization ==> Yes, you could build a system to run ESXi, virtualize UnRAID as a VM; and create a couple other VMs for other OS's.    However -- that adds a LOT to your costs;  you still would most likely want a client PC to boot and access the VMs;  and © you already have a couple PCs you use.    I suspect you'd be happier with the performance if you simply continued to use the PCs you already do -- and perhaps upgraded their OS drives to SSDs, so they'd boot in 10-20 seconds.

 

=>  My favorite cases for holding large number of drives are a couple of full-tower Lian-Li's, but they tend to cost $400+ ... not sure if that's a deterrent or not 

 

More later ... I'm going to be gone for a few hours.

 

 

Great.  Looking forward to that, why choose the smaller matx board.. efficiency ? It would mean having to take the board out of my htpc and putting in the atx one.  The atx one is ready to go and has 8 satas, two being 6gbs and my cache drive is a ssd.

 

Those addon sata cards are not cheap.

The ONLY reason I noted that the micro-ATX board was okay is that you said "...  the advantage of the P8H board is that it is MATX format ..."  ==>  which I interpreted to mean you'd prefer a micro-ATX board 

 

The ATX board is excellent ... and has multiple PCIe slots with > 1 lane, so it's actually a better choice should you need any future expansion.  It also has 8 SATA ports, so you may not even need an add-in card for a while (especially if you migrate to 3 and 4GB drives).  So by all means just use it 

 

So ... assuming you're going to use that board with your 2600k, you're basically ready to go => you just need to choose the case you're going to use and assemble the system !!    With 8 SATA ports on board, you could even get a trusty old Adaptec 1430SA (no longer sold, but plentiful on e-bay at very reasonable prices) to bring your system up to 12 ports ... which is a bit more than your 10-drive goal [but more is always nicer  ].

 

One issue you need to consider:  The PSU you noted has plenty of power ... BUT it's not a single-rail unit, so to support 10-12 drives you'd need to do a bit of re-wiring of one of the 12v rails and put a few drives on it.    If this is a challenge you don't want to tackle, you should get a nice 650w single-rail unit.

 

Do you have a favorite UK site you like to shop at?  If you post a link, I'll have a look and tell you which of the cases they carry I'd suggest ... although you may have already picked that out.

 

But at this point, it seems all you need is to (a) choose a case; (b) decide what to do about a PSU;  and © put it all together 

By the way, I just posted a note on your question r.e. Plex => you do, of course, realize that if you migrate to this system, Plex can EASILY do the transcoding on your UnRAID box 

Yes just saw it, regarding the comments on the CPU spec for transcoding, the Intel G840 i have here looks to be capable of transcoding 1080p being it is dual core and 2.80Ghz..AND..it is 65w as opposed to the i7 which is 95w....not sure what that would equate to in real monetary costs over a year 

 

I am also currently looking at a case that one of my PC's is housed in, i have a really old crap one i could dump the guts into as the case it is currently in is THIS CASECOM CASE which will house what i currently have although its a bit to much bling for me  ..i dont mind paying £60/£70 for a case if you could recommend better from that site or elsewhere. On a footnote RE the PSU, i also have THIS BE QUIET PSU sitting in the casecom case..not sure if its a single rail though...We seem to be at the same place, case and PSU..everything else is here, i am going to start testing the transcoding capabilities of the G840 to see if its viable, though i will end up with an unused i7 which is a shame...to 95W or 65W, that is the question 

I wouldn't worry about the 65w TDP vs. 95w TDP.  The thermal design power is the MAXIMUM power the CPU will draw.  Under normal use, with very low CPU utilization percentages, they both draw MUCH less.    Use whichever system makes the most sense -- no reason to re-purpose a system you're using when you have another one that can just as easily serve your UnRAID upgrade needs.

 

Unfortunately, your other PSU is also multi-rail.

 

I'd use your i7-2600 CPU, get a new single-rail PSU (Seasonic X series or Corsair HX series are excellent choices -- Corsair TX is also okay at a slightly lower cost);  and pick a nice case that has good cooling and enough space for the drives you want to support.   

 

The site you listed has this combo that looks pretty nice [case plus a 650w single-rail PSU]:

http://www.ebuyer.com/220862-coolermaster-cm690-ii-lite-with-coolermaster-gx-650w-psu-special-offer-bundle-rc-692-kka3

 

I mentioned it before, but IF you're comfortable with a soldering iron and a bit of re-wiring, you can use the 2nd rail on a multi-rail PSU to support 5 or 6 drives; and then won't need to buy a new PSU.

 

The auxiliary PCIe connectors for graphics cards (which you undoubtedly don't use in this instance) come from the other rail ... so if you wire these with drive connectors (SATA or Molex as needed), you can "split" the load of your drives onto 2 rails.    While I've done a LOT of soldering and rewiring in my day, these days I'd just buy a nice new single-rail unit ... but it's NOT hard to do if you want to save the $$

 

excuse my french, i am sh*t hot with a soldering iron..sobasically your saying just cut off all the plugs except the sata ones and replace with sata plugs ?

I'm also shxx hot with a soldering iron 

 

No -- you need to be sure you're using the 2nd 12v rail.

 

Your power supply should have a cable or two with PCIe auxiliary connections on them [6 or 8 pin ...see the bottom row here:  http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html ]

 

Cut THOSE connectors off, and then use the 12v from those (the yellow wire) as the 12v source for an additional feed for drive power.  However, you need more than just 12v, so you'll have to "tap" another power line for the 5v (red wire) power.    Note the molex and SATA pinouts shown in the same diagram for how to wire them.    [The orange wire on the SATA connector is a 3.3v wire, but this is generally not required]

 

 

Is it easy to move the array to the new hardware. Are there steps I need to follow?

Is it easy to move the array to the new hardware. Are there steps I need to follow?

 

It's very simple ... even more so since you're already running v5

 

Just be sure you know which disk is your parity drive and (if you have one) cache drive.  Just install them all in the new system; connect them to your SATA ports; and boot the UnRAID flash drive.  I believe it will already "know" all of the drive assignments ... but if not, the only important ones are the parity drive and cache drive ... all of the others can be assigned in any order.

 

Two things I would do BEFORE moving the system:  (a)  Upgrade to RC16c; and (2) Run a parity check to be sure everything's okay ... and if not, get the problem(s) resolved before doing the move.

 

Thanks Gary.  Parity check is scheduled to run every friday so was done yesterday without errors. .. this should be ok to go ahead then

Catastrophe has struck  :'( I have ruined the pins on the lga socket for cpu. Why did they change it from having pins on the cpu... less chance of it happening..I was trying to straighten them up and some have broken off.

 

guess im in the market for a new board now. Any recommendations ?... this board was expensive.. this will be solely for server.

Catastrophe has struck  :'( I have ruined the pins on the lga socket for cpu. Why did they change it from having pins on the cpu... less chance of it happening..I was trying to straighten them up and some have broken off.

 

guess im in the market for a new board now. Any recommendations ?... this board was expensive.. this will be solely for server.

 

Ouch !!!    The good news is that Socket 1155 boards are still plentiful, so there's no problem replacing it with a board that you can still use your i7-2600 with 

... you don't need a particularly high-end board ... just be sure you get one with an available PCIe x4 (or above) slot for an add-in controller card; and enough SATA ports so that the onboard + 8 is definitely all the ports you want.

 

hmmm..what do you think to plan C... i regard your opinion as you are from the same camp as me. Well you know i have two pc's sitting here, the casecom one which i was going to use the case from for the interim untill i can afford the case/psu combo has THIS MOBO in it, it has 8 ports and two of them being 6gb so i was thinking of hanging the SSD cache drive off that and also the 3TB parity off the other but this got my attention and was wondering should i be concerned ??

 

Chipset:

 

    6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices

    Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

 

Marvell 9128 chip:

 

    2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices

    Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1?

 

* SATA3 RAID 0 4x and SATA3 2x performance are maximum theoretical values. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.

* SATA3 SSDs are not recommended for use in RAID 0 mode on Marvell SE9128 ports.

 

Did i read right somewhere that UNraid is RAID 10 ?? therfore i wont be able to use the two 6GB SATA ports ?, i thought of using this board as it is already in the case i plan to use for the interim with a corsair closed circuit water cooled rad on it, i only need to change the power supply and pop the drives in, this will mean i can get a more budget board to house the i7 in.

 

The downshot is that the board is a 1156 socket so i cant use the i7 in the server but the CPU in this board is THIS CPU and i would think is up to the job of transcoding.

 

What would YOU do gary..buy the board for i7 to use in server or just put your array in this already assembled unit and buy a cheaper board for the i7 to use as the PC 

What would YOU do gary..buy the board for i7 to use in server or just put your array in this already assembled unit and buy a cheaper board for the i7 to use as the PC 

 

I'd probably use what you have for the UnRAID box and buy a new board for the i7, since a PC is more likely to actually "need" [  ] the extra "horsepower" of the i7.

 

Cool..i was hoping you would say that...but should i be worried about the SATA ports on this board, namely the 6GB ones not being RAID 10, is UNraid going to be able to use the ports ?

Cool..i was hoping you would say that...but should i be worried about the SATA ports on this board, namely the 6GB ones not being RAID 10, is UNraid going to be able to use the ports ?

 

Since there are several different chips supporting SATA ports on that board, there is a possibility that not all the ports will be useable ... but certainly the 6 ports provided by the chipset are (and I suspect the others are too).    But the only way to know for certain is to simply try it 

... and the board has plenty of PCIe x16 slots, so you can easily add any additional controllers you need to support more ports.

 

AFAIR the Marvel 9128 chipset is also used on RocketRaid 620 cards....it should work fine with unRAID V5-RC.

 

You do not need any chipset RAID function, BTW...only do use/set straight AHCI mode for all ports...unRAID is pure software implementation and supplies its own driver for the RAID functionality.

Hmm.... something is afoot. Plugged drives in and set bios to boot from flash, how long should it take to boot up, I have it hooked up to a monitor and seems to be hanging a bit. Certainly taking longer to boot than it did before

If you do not see the boot-menu of the unRAID stick, which will let you choose between unRAID and memtest, there is something wrong with your stick....try and redo the preparation.

Booting unRAID after that is a matter of seconds, sub-minute on a modern build..

 

Edit: when migrating from an existing, running build, the most "wait-time" during boot might be related to populating/requesting the IP. Maybe your DHCP server is denying the request because of a change in MAC-Address?

Yep. Got the menu straight away and opted to boot unraid os...has been hanging here..

 

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/photos/115425996052755724168/album/5900517186662515297/5900517187347716898?cbp=8knmu6qx0tzc&partnerid=gpmobile:android&sview=2&spath=/app/basic/stream&sparm=source%3Dapppromo%26gpsrc%3Dgpmobile:android%26partnerid%3Dgpmobile:android/

 

for a good 15 mins and just as I am writing this its moved to..

wget: unable to resolve host address 'unraid-simple features.googlecode.com'

 

Yep. Got the menu straight away and opted to boot unraid os...has been hanging here..

 

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/photos/115425996052755724168/album/5900517186662515297/5900517187347716898?cbp=8knmu6qx0tzc&partnerid=gpmobile:android&sview=2&spath=/app/basic/stream&sparm=source%3Dapppromo%26gpsrc%3Dgpmobile:android%26partnerid%3Dgpmobile:android/

 

for a good 15 mins and just as I am writing this its moved to..

wget: unable to resolve host address 'unraid-simple features.googlecode.com'

 

It sounds like it doesn't have internet access.  There are two Ethernet ports on that board ... try using the other one (perhaps UnRAID is using the one you don't have a connection to).

 

Sorry for delay in reply..i did actually do that and it it booted and i could access UNraid via the webGUI, the GPU i have sounds like a jumbo jet taking off, because there is no software to controll the fans, same for the cooler on the CPU, the fans are running at full tilt, i removed the GPU but UNraid will not boot with it in and i see no way around this in the bios ...might start a different thread on these issues..