Micro ATX cases and MOBO for unRAID?

[teamhood]

Hey all,

 

I have this idea floating around inside my head about building a smaller unRAID server to bring up to my lake house. I would like it to be small, maybe hold about 4 or 5 hard drives.... and I was wondering if anyone else has looked into using unRAID for this type of applications?

 

I have never used a micro ATX board before and/or cases... I have started my search, but thought I would tap the knowledge base to see if anyone has any recommendations on small cases... (who's got my smaller stacker case  )

 

I am assuming the most difficult part is going to find a MOBO... but if we could find something that could compete with ReadyNAS... that would be sweet

[TCIII]

teamhood,

 

The Asus P5PE-VM motherboard that some members are using is a micro ATX motherboard and is widely available from mwave.com, newegg.com, zipzoomfly.com, etc.

 

I just bought one to evaluate as a replacement for the original Intel micro ATX motherboards that the unRaid server uses.

 

Regards,

TCIII

[mutant_matt]

I'm using the P5P-VM in a "Normal"ish midi-tower case.  Reason I chose this is, it's got 4 5.25" bays, 2 3.5" bays and room for more 3.5" bays down the bottom.  At least for a while, this will fulfill my requirements (I haven't decided if I want to rip my DVD collection, yet ).  Other reason, it was dirt cheap, brand new for GBP23 / USD41 (well, that is at least dirt cheap in the UK!!) and I have bought some 5.25" triple fan "blanking plates" to go at the front.  These pull air in the front and you can feel a surprising amount of cold air flowing over the drives.

 

HTH!

 

Matt

[Two Wire]

I am going to do the same thing using an ASUS MB and a small enclosure. I'm going to put a handle on the case so that I can carry it to my in-laws, or daughters house when I visit. This, and my laptop, should give me some late night entertainment.