I know, there's tons of these here. But I just wanted to run this by all of you, let me know if you catch something off.

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 - $49.99

 

GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $54.99

 

ICY DOCK MB455SPF-B Multi-Bay Backplane Module x 3 $356.97

 

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply $99.99

 

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail $39.99

 

PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card - OEM x 2 $119.98

 

Total = $721.91

 

I understand that 4GB of Ram is overkill, but the price difference between 4 and 2 is something like $8. I also have a spare 2.6 x2 Black Edition processor that I didn't list above. The only thing I'm on the fence about is the Icy Dock Backplane, they seem rather expensive. Is there anything similar that you could recommend? Only thing I really require is for them to be hot swappable.

 

Thanks!

Only thing I really require is for them to be hot swappable.

 

Thanks!

Just so you know, unRAID is not "hot-swappable"

 

Yes, the trays are very convenient, (and I have 12 IDE equivalent trays in my current server) but you must stop the array, power down, and then reboot when changing or adding a drive to unRAID.

 

Just did not want you to confuse the "tray's"marketing of "hot-swappable" with the reality of many RAID configurations, unRAID AND others.  A lot depends on the disk controller involved, and the disk driver, and lastly the RAID system using the drives.

 

If you change drives infrequently (like most of us, I think), the effort of tightening 4 screws on each drive, and doing without hot-swappable "trays" could save enough to buy a few more drives.

 

Joe L.

The hot swappable requirement is purely due to the convenience of not having to fiddle inside the case or unscrew anything. Thanks.

The only thing I'm on the fence about is the Icy Dock Backplane, they seem rather expensive. Is there anything similar that you could recommend? Only thing I really require is for them to be hot swappable.

 

Lime-tech uses the SuperMicro model which is reported to be very reliable.

 

I like the trayless SATA models.  Some don't.

 

The hot swappable requirement is purely due to the convenience of not having to fiddle inside the case or unscrew anything. Thanks.

 

I do not think they are truly hot swappable as it depends on the controller.

However it is very convenient to change drives. Instead of opening the machine and changeing screws.

You pull out a tray and change screws. To me that means allot.

 

There are Kingwin ones;

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990004

 

You give up 3 drive bays but still they're fairly cheap. I'd try these if I was buying again. Downside is the 2 x 40mm fans are likely noisy and they use special adapters to make the drives connect with activity LED working so you need a molex power plug for every drive unless you don't bother with the LED activity light connection.

 

Or IstarUSA

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215085

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121913

 

I have the last ones linked above. They are nice but you have to screw the drive to the tray. Also, they have a led light/button and you can turn a drive off which could be considered a downside to some (accidental push of button). The drives on the full one have never gone above 40C yet. 80mm fan is better than many of these with wee fans.

 

Note the slots in the sides of the IstarUSA 4 into 3 device I linked to and also note that these slots are not on the 5 into 3 devices. The case you list has tabs for the 5.25" drives to slide onto and without the corresponding slots on the 5 into 3 modules they will not install. You can get them in but it requires case hacking.

 

The other option is to just get one of these assuming you are hiding the server where noise will not be an issue (since this will be loud);

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021

 

Peter

 

You give up 3 drive bays but still they're fairly cheap. I'd try these if I was buying again. Downside is the 2 x 40mm fans are likely noisy and they use special adapters to make the drives connect with activity LED working so you need a molex power plug for every drive unless you don't bother with the LED activity light connection.

They're actually very quiet... but for how long ?? 

 

You give up 3 drive bays but still they're fairly cheap. I'd try these if I was buying again. Downside is the 2 x 40mm fans are likely noisy and they use special adapters to make the drives connect with activity LED working so you need a molex power plug for every drive unless you don't bother with the LED activity light connection.

They're actually very quiet... but for how long ?? 

 

 

I think if you have enough exhaust fans and good suction in the case design, you could get away without the fans.

At the very least this is what I did with success on the 1Bay istar trayless SATA units.

 

Something I didn't comment on before.

 

You may want to think about using an Adaptec 1430SA PCIe x4 to get 4 SATA ports and some type of 2 SATA port PCIe x1 SiL3132 based card for another 2 ports rather than having 6 to 8 drives on that slow PCI buss.

 

Peter