Hey there,

 

i'm completely new to unRaid community but stumbled onto a build 3 days ago on a 117Tb server and have been obsessing with it since. I build custom gaming and rendering machines so i know my way around hardware but have never made a media server. Ive built a server using a raid controller to do a raid 6 data base but thats it. Im out of space and need to migrate my data to a more efficient storage as ill be streaming using htpc and dont need my rig on always. Im also doing another htpc for a friend who has a large media collection as well so im doing the builds at the same time. His just needs to have lots of storage in a small case as i would like to utilize mine for higher performance and expandability (will be going up to 24 drives down the road, w/ cache. i have two builds put together and am wondering which one is a better purchase; the server build comes out about 150 dollars more as of now

 

me and a group of my friends are putting our money together to get a bulk purchase of hard drives so i think im going to go with WD 4 tb red for storage. as for my server im thinking of putting in a WD black as a cache drive.

 

server parts;    $1,006.95

 

Intel Intel Xeon E3-1220V3

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116907

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 -

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148677

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SLL-F-O uATX

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182819

Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 8 

http://products.ncix.com/detail/supermicro-aoc-sas2lp-mv8-8-channel-6gb-s-sas-sata-pci-e-controller-card-b3-62032.htm

 

LIAN LI PC-A04B

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112316

 

SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W ATX12V v2.31 80 PLUS GOLD

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151117

Kingston SSDNow V300 60gb

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721106

SAS/ SATA Cable

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3ft-Internal-Mini-SAS-SFF-8087-M-to-4x-SATA-7-Pin-F-Forward-Breakout-Cable-/390525606161

 

non server parts;  $ $716.56

 

Intel Core i3 - 4130

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116946

G.SKILL Value 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231634

GIGABYTE GA-H87N LGA 1150 Intel H87

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4735#ov

Fractal Design Node 304 Black

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_110&item_id=057560

rest is the same

 

here are a few questions

ram: should i do a single stick of 4 gb ram or 2 2 gbs? also should i go with ECC ram?

 

mobos: will the extra ethernet port help me with sharing to multiple sources ? or can i assign one port to only send traffic out and the other to handle my data being written to the server? i have no idea how the 2 ports would work

 

psu: i read somewhere that each red drive on start up uses 15 w so im thinking the 360 watts will be fine for now

 

storage: his = 3 x 4 tb storage, 1 x 4tb for parity (all red), mine = 1 x 4tb red for parity, 1 x 60GB kingston SSD cache, 4 x 4 tb red

 

if you guys have any suggestions or critics pls comment

 

I think those supermicro MB's will require ECC ram, look up the specs on it. Assuming the MB is configured for dual channel ram, you'd want to use them in pairs for optimal speed (though thats probably not even noticeable for a file server)

 

You can bond 2 nics together, and use them w/unraid. It sounds like a pain to me, and you need a network switch that supports it, and your hdd's will probably never provide enough data to saturate a 1gb nic in the first place. I'd be worried if my server were 100mb, not 1000mb.

 

any reason you don't go with an SSD for the cache dirve? Your cache drive only needs to be as big (size wise) as the amount you might move within a day/storage for additional apps. SSD is the fastest way to go for the cache drive, though a 1TB black might be cheaper than a decent 160GB ssd these days?

For the server, since you're using a server grade mobo, why not go with a Xeon CPU as well.  I'd suggest the E3-1230v3 or E3-1240v3, not a huge price difference and much more horsepower, plus VT-d in case you ever decide to virtualize and need IOMMU passthrough.  Regardless, if you stick with the i3-4130 it will be ok as it supports ECC RAM.

 

You have to use unbuffered ECC RAM as that's what the board requires.  Install them in pairs.  As for the amount, 4GB is fine if you plan to use it solely as a file server.  If you plan to run plugins at all, I'd suggest 8GB.  If you ever plan to virtualize I'd suggest 16GB or more, but you could always add that later.

 

The extra Ethernet port COULD be useful.  You can do channel bonding, but as 00b5 said, you have to have a switch that supports it.  You will still be limited to 1Gb/s for each individual stream, so to truly take advantage of bonding you would have to be doing simultaneous transfers from different clients.  I don't agree with 00b5 about drives though, any current gen spinner can saturate a 1Gb/s connection (but you still wouldn't get greater than 1Gb/s because its a single stream).  Bonding can be useful, but only in very specific situations.

 

As for the PSU, it should be fine, like you said, for now.  But if you're planning to get up to 24 drives down the road, that PSU won't cut it.  Why not get a suficient PSU now?  Assuming you can repurpose the 360W once you outgrow it, I guess it's no big deal, but might as well build it to spec from the start.

 

As for your friend's build, you stated a small case.  I would suggest the Lian Li PC-Q25B along with a mini-ITX board such as the Asus H87I-PLUS.  It's a great case (see the build in my sig) and can hold up to 7x 3.5" and 1x 2.5".

Thanks guys. I will be putting in a xeon and EEC ran into my own server and ill be utilizing both Ethernet ports as multiple people will be streaming at once. Both houses are having Cat6 ethernet put in.

 

SSD was forgotten before but i put in a 60 gb as a cache, wont be using one in the cheaper server

Just wanted to clarify what I meant by "streams".  I was talking about "file transfers" where you are transferring large data files between the server and workstations, which would be able to saturate a Gb Ethernet connection (assuming you have a cache drive for writes). 

 

"Streams" as in real-time streaming media from the server to clients won't even come close to saturating a Gb Ethernet connection.  Even a BluRay ISO is only ~40Mbps.  A single Gb Ethernet connection could serve 20 concurrent BluRay ISO streams and still have a bit of headroom.

 

Point being, channel bonding can help you speed up large concurrent file transfers to multiple workstations, but it won't help you with "media streaming" unless you're serving very high bandwidth media to 20+ clients concurrently.  Of course, if you have the gear to do so, why not do it anyway.

Looks like a really good build.

 

FYI i just purchased a Supermicro X10SAT board and used non-ecc ram in it and it was fine out the box, your mileage may vary.

 

Also, is there any reason you're choosing RED drives? For a typical RAID scenario sure, go nuts but with unRAID one of the joys is that you can get away with pretty basic hardware and consumer grade kit. By saving that money there it frees you up to buy more drives! For example, I purchased 2 RED drives last year along with 2 Toshiba drives and I get the same performance and same temps for £35 less PER DRIVE. All I'm saying is, make sure you need REDs before going that route. They are great for traditional RAID but I'm less than convinced of their benefit here.

I jumped the gun a little and ordered; 8x sata controller, 1 set of cables, 1 red, 2 greens, all at 4 tb. im running out of space so im combining this with some older parts i have laying around from my antique gaming computer from highschool. Bringing back the old 775, oh god. but ill be grabbing the new tech after my mid terms in about a month.