Here is a link to my other thread where I discussed what it is I'm looking for.

 

To quickly sum up, this will be a unRAID server which should be capable (in rare instances) to provide media to 2-3 locations simultaneous.  It will typically be streaming to 1-2 locations.  I will use XBMC on all clients, along with Plex.  I also plan on using a few other add ons.  I'm a fan of this setup because I can start off with 3 3TB HDs and expand to quite a bit more over time.

 

My big concern is that this may be overkill for my purposes.  What do you guys think?

 

Case: $99.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

 

Motherboard: $84.99

GIGABYTE GA-F2A85X-D3H FM2 AMD A85X

 

CPU: $89.99

AMD A8-5600K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7560D

 

RAM: $69.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

 

PSU: $59.99 ($39.99 after $20 Rebate)

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

 

TOTAL

$404.95 ($384.95 after $20 Rebate)

 

EDIT:  I wasn't sure if I should have posted this in my other thread or created a new, but I thought making a new one made sense so my planned build was post #1 instead of #20 something.  I know on some forums people freak out if you clutter the home page with too many threads, so sorry if I'm making too many!

I would go with a modular or semi-modular power supply such as SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151107

...unRAID does not need a GPU...doesn't make use of it...a desktop board most likely will need it in order to boot/POST.

 

I'd still go with the ASROCK and if you really think you'll need that, go for an i3.

 

mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157329

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116773

 

this will outrun the AMD solution in terms of performance and energy consumption.

Transcoding / downsizing to a mobile device should still work with a smaller CPU, like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116777

 

...unRAID does not need a GPU...doesn't make use of it...a desktop board most likely will need it in order to boot/POST.

 

I'd still go with the ASROCK and if you really think you'll need that, go for an i3.

 

mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157329

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116773

 

this will outrun the AMD solution in terms of performance and energy consumption.

Transcoding / downsizing to a mobile device should still work with a smaller CPU, like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116777

 

So you think it makes more sense to go with the dual core Intel over quad core AMD?

I would go with a modular or semi-modular power supply such as SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151107

 

I will look into this.  Are you recommending for the sake of wire clutter?

You might want to consider this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113334

Might be a little more in price but it's a lower TDP at 65 watts vs 100 watt and will save you some money in the long run and it's about the same GHz.

 

Otherwise I think it's an awesome system...overkill...sure it is if you're only streaming media but at least you have plenty of room to grow with 8 sata ports, graphics are done by the processor which saves you a pci slot and extra money/power for a separate card, two pci-ex slots for controller card expansion as well.  Anyone would be happy of this setup.

 

You might want to consider this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113334

Might be a little more in price but it's a lower TDP at 65 watts vs 100 watt and will save you some money in the long run and it's about the same GHz.

 

Otherwise I think it's an awesome system...overkill...sure it is if you're only streaming media but at least you have plenty of room to grow with 8 sata ports, graphics are done by the processor which saves you a pci slot and extra money/power for a separate card, two pci-ex slots for controller card expansion as well.  Anyone would be happy of this setup.

 

Not that I'm trying to pinch pennies here, but under my uses, where do you think I can scale things down?  I prefer to lower the cost and power consumption if I'm just wasting money on over the top stuff here.  And I feel like I am because this thing has equal or better specs across the board than my home PC!!

nice setup.

I think the PSU is a bit low on power but it will do for a while.

the reason I say low on power is , it on have 46A on the rail

based on what I have seen calculated here

if you use 7200rpm drives it will only hold 6-7 at best.

after that you might  need a better PSU.

 

case is very good, can hold up to 6HDD  as is.

and can be expanded to 12 with 3x 5x4 cages.

 

as for MB/CPU  well as you might guess I am partial for AMD and Ford over there is Partial to Intel :-)

I say go with AMD, it's usually cheaper and in my experience have better upgradeability  over Intel. but ultimately it is your choice.

as for performance, most test show that performance difference margin is very slim between  Intel and AMD. almost negligible for most use-cases.

 

Streaming to clients of XBMC doesn't require any processing power because the client is doing most of the work.  I stream multiple movies throughout my house and I only run a single core sempron without issues.  With Plex the server is doing most of the work so a multicore processor is best.  When you say 2-3 locations, I'm assuming you mean in the same house/network and not different houses across vpn/internet?

 

Hardware wise, this is cheap but powerful and cheap but expandable.  Chances are you won't find anything else this cheap that you can do so much with and be able to expand.  If you go with a processor without a graphics portion built in you're going to have to pay for a video card, this is more money and also costs you a slot and sometimes will use more power as well as sometimes generate more heat.  I think going with a motherboard that supports processors with graphics built in (whether it's amd or intel) is the way to go for cheap unraid systems because unraid doesn't need graphics cards...unless you buy a server motherboard with a graphics card built in to the motherboard like the supermicros/tyans and have their own chipset/memory but they are almost twice as expensive as what you're spending now.

 

If I were to build a new unraid system today, I would seriously consider going with the FM2 motherboard with 65 watt quad core, that's all I can say.

 

The modular supply:

A - Wire Clutter

B- If power supply fails, unplug the cables and swap it out vs mining all of the cables out. With  semi-modular, you will still need to mine the MB cables out.

C- Flexibility.  Start of with your hard drives plugged into the cases native cages using regular sata power cables.  If you need to expand using 5in3 cages, swap out the cable for a molex connector.

 

Your case can grow to support up to 15 drives if you ever need to get that

 

As far as specs, I have an amd system and If I was doing it now, I would go with the i3/i5 option.  I am betting that as you start using it, you are going to start wanting to use it for more than just a storage system.  When that 100W AMD proc ramps up, it will be dumping some heat in the room.

 

As far as it having better specs than your main machine, you are going to potentialy put several thousand dollars/euros or currency of choice worth of drives in it and use it to store entertainment and possibly backup copies or your personnel files.  You want quality/stability.  People make the argument it is not a backup system for your PC's, but my position is that it is better to have a copy on your unraid server than to have no backup copy at all.

 

I saw a post one time with a signature line of "I'm to poor to buy cheap" after thinking about it, I have come to agree with it.

I am with ZeroK.

 

PS>>  Iwill be parting out my current unriad system in a month

I will 2 4in3 cages available for grabs.

and even 3 hotplud modules for them as well.

 

just FYI 

I personally would choose a higher quality PSU and would not touch a gigabyte board. Never ever cheap out on your psu. It supplies all your power so don't use builder grade. For the board there are known issues with using gigabyte boards all over the forum. Rather than worrying I would just avoid them all together.

as for MB/CPU  well as you might guess I am partial for AMD and Ford over there is Partial to Intel :-)

 

...no not really.

I am currently building several AMD based servers 

Intel, in that range gives more "bang for the buck" and lower energy consumption.

 

If you need to go AMD for a home.server,, "do it right", I'd say.

Which means, if you're going for a desktop board, go for a Socket AM3+ (from ASUS and a FX CPU or an Opteron 33xx...

or for low performance an AM3 Sempron / X2)...this combo supports ECC-RAM, which you can't have from intel in the desktop range.

So you think it makes more sense to go with the dual core Intel over quad core AMD?

 

...the AMD is not a "real" Quad AFAIK...the i3 supports HT - a "semi" QUAD.....the Pent-G does not, but it should do fine...even the Celeron G1610 would probably do the job in the real world.

Just compare: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3240-vs-AMD-A8-5600K

 

Also, the i3 comes with AVX instructions...something maybe plex or other pieces of software will utilize in the future for transcoding stuff.

As said...energy consumption would be much better...even in idle, I believe...even the stock cooler of the i3 will do...cooler, less noise, no extra parts on the bill.

nice setup.

I think the PSU is a bit low on power but it will do for a while.

the reason I say low on power is , it on have 46A on the rail

based on what I have seen calculated here

if you use 7200rpm drives it will only hold 6-7 at best.

after that you might  need a better PSU.

 

case is very good, can hold up to 6HDD  as is.

and can be expanded to 12 with 3x 5x4 cages.

 

as for MB/CPU  well as you might guess I am partial for AMD and Ford over there is Partial to Intel :-)

I say go with AMD, it's usually cheaper and in my experience have better upgradeability  over Intel. but ultimately it is your choice.

as for performance, most test show that performance difference margin is very slim between  Intel and AMD. almost negligible for most use-cases.

 

Switchman - You are right.  I will look into some modular power supplies.  More expensive, but neater and easier to work with.

 

ZeroK - It'll probably never hit 3 clients simultaneously, but if it does it'd be 2 at the house and one remote location outside of the house using a phone or iPad or something.

 

VL - You think 600w is under doing it?  Maybe I'm calculation differently but I'm not sure how you got 46A on the rail.  The sticky says 5A for the board and then 2-3A per HDD depending on which one you're using.  So even 10 HDD @ 7200RPM would be 30A + the board would be 35A.  On a 12v board we're looking at 420w on a 600w system.  Is that okay?

 

Ford - I like the comparison link.  I'll look further into comparing AMD and Intel as it appears clear that we're not comparing apples to apples when saying quad core AMD vs quad core Intel.  If I go with Intel would I get by with the dual core?

 

Mobias - What's wrong with Corsair PSU?  The sticky recommends them! Haha.  I'll be taking a look at a few more boards too when comparing Intel to AMD.

hay LL

I do not mean 600W is under doing it

if you check the stats for the PSU  it only have 46A on 12v rail

"Output  +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@46A, [email protected], [email protected]"

 

the sticky says 2A-3.5A per HDD if it is less than 7200RPM

and can be up to 4A per HDD if they are 7200+ RPM

thus

let say 5A for MB

(46-5)/3 = ~13 drives

(46-5)/3.5 = ~11 drives

 

but I like to err on the side of caution  :-)

 

besides you have other stuff to run from that.

HDD MD are not the only thing that can be on that rail.

 

 

 

hay LL

I do not mean 600W is under doing it

if you check the stats for the PSU  it only have 46A on 12v rail

"Output  +3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@46A, [email protected], [email protected]"

 

the sticky says 2A-3.5A per HDD if it is less than 7200RPM

and can be up to 4A per HDD if they are 7200+ RPM

thus

let say 5A for MB

(46-5)/3 = ~13 drives

(46-5)/3.5 = ~11 drives

 

but I like to err on the side of caution  :-)

 

besides you have other stuff to run from that.

HDD MD are not the only thing that can be on that rail.

 

Very interesting.  I was doing all conversions of everything I'd need to wattage and assumed that that was correct.  Still learning all this PSU lingo.  So if everything is running at the 12V rail then why do they even list the others?

 

This is weird cause people on the XBMC forums are saying that this PSU is overkill:

 

 

This build is way overkill. Way too much power. keep in mind that folks run 12 disk servers with single core chips.

 

I would recommend something equivalent to the last gen intel celeron G5xx or G6xx - these are still more than you need. how many drives?

 

My server uses a G650 with 4 GB of slowish ram, a 550 W power supply, with 13 disks, and I have room with this PS for at least 3 more drives. I serve as many as 5 different pc's simultaneously - the only hiccup is if you try to stream the same file to multiple devices at the same time; as you might imagine.

 

A 600 W ps would be good for a 24 disk array, iirc.

 

Keep it simple and small, remember you want this to run 24/7/52.

 

good luck. You might check out the unraid compulsive design thread over at the unraid forum, too.

So if everything is running at the 12V rail then why do they even list the others?

 

Everything doesn't run just on 12Vdc.  The other voltages are used also.  You just don't need that much current capacity at those voltages so most people do no worry about them.  But high current capacities are required in PC's, typically high-end video cards and in our case, lots of disk drive and 12Vdc is used.  The disk drive motors run on +12Vdc and when you spin up all the drives at once, you have a large instantaneous current flow/requirement.

 

You also do not want to run the power supply at 100% load.

 

You can use this to get an ideal of your loads.  Add all the cards or equivalent that you think you may need, for example a SATA port expander as a PCI-e X8 card.  Also set the Capacitor aging to 30%.  This will get you in the ball park.

 

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

 

When I load it up with my system and what it is capable of supporting, ie drives, controllers etc, it gives me the following.  When I manually calculated it I think I was a little above this value.  I also like to have about 10 to 20% safety factor so I went with a 750 watt version as  a 700 watt version was not readily available at the price point I purchased this one at.  Read I stumbled across a sell at my local Frys for ~$65 out the door.

 

Minimum PSU Wattage: 570 W

Recommended    620W

 

Ford - I like the comparison link.  I'll look further into comparing AMD and Intel as it appears clear that we're not comparing apples to apples when saying quad core AMD vs quad core Intel.  If I go with Intel would I get by with the dual core?

 

I strongly believe so.

See this from the plex wiki: http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/FAQ:_Plex_Media_Server_and_NAS#How_can_I_tell_what_speed_CPU_the_NAS_needs_to_have_in_order_to_transcode_the_type_of_media_that_I_want_to_watch.3F

The higher the resolution and the higher the media bitrate the faster the CPU will need to be. As a very general minimum, Plex recommends the following:

 

At a minimum, a Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz CPU

For 720p transcoding, a Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz CPU

For 1080p transcoding, a Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz CPU

Note, that those specs imply both a specific CPU type (i.e., Core 2 Duo) and a clock speed (i.e. 1.6ghz). Some NAS units use Intel ATOM CPUs. ATOM CPUs are slower than Core 2 duo CPUs when running at the same clock speed. Check online benchmarks that compare the CPU in the NAS to the minimums listed above. As a general rule, no ATOM CPU is fast enough to transcode 1080p media, and only the fastest ones can transcode low bit-rate 720p media. These recommended speeds assume there is a single client needing to transcode. If there is more than one client, and the need to simultaneously transcode to them, an even faster CPU will be needed. (i.e. If you want to transcode 2 streams, double the CPU power. 3 streams, triple it etc)

 

...then compare the recommended intel CPU from the Plex wiki with the Pentium-G:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/382/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E8300_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G2120.html

 

Thus, the Dual-Core intel will be able to transcode two 1080p streams simultaneously.

And its single threaded/core performance is approx . 25% better than that of the AMD A8-5600K.

 

 

Also consider these two arguments:

- do you need transcoding at all...the newest IPad has a higer resolution than your standard TV...it will be able to eat the stream raw!...maybe other mobile devices of yours do as well

- do you need this LIVE or can you afford preparing the lower res material and just store it ...?

So after taking some suggestions from fellow members, I've made some modifications to the build.  Besides my uncertainty on the motherboard, I'm starting to think this will very reasonably fit my needs.  It's $40 cheaper and should consume less power. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Case: $99.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

 

PSU $69.99 (49.99 after $20 Rebate)

CORSAIR CX750M 750W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

 

Motherboard: $62.99

ASRock B75M R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

 

CPU: $67.99

Intel Pentium G2020 Ivy Bridge 2.9GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80637G2020

 

RAM: $69.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

 

$350.95 ($330.95 After $20 Rebate)

not really sure but it looks like to use the onboard video oyu need CPU with integrated graphics

and celeron you choose is not it

Made an edit.  Thanks for pointing that out!!!

looks good I think.

The Sandy Bridge CPUs are from two generations (Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge -> Haswell) before the current generation Haswell architecture. You want the Ivy Bridge based Pentium G2120 (since there are no Haswell based Pentium chips on the market yet).

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116777

The Sandy Bridge CPUs are from two generations (Sandy Bridge -> Ivy Bridge -> Haswell) before the current generation Haswell architecture. You want the Ivy Bridge based Pentium G2120 (since there are no Haswell based Pentium chips on the market yet).

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116777

 

I think the issue here is that with the MB selected you need CPU with graphics on board, the one you sugest does not seam to have that option