January 23, 201412 yr Hi there, I'm helping my buddy build an unRAID box for storing photos - we don't need any significant processing power, just enough to run unRAID. I'm having a hard time determining what is the best solution between a mobo with lots of SATA connectors plus a CPU, or an embedded board, and extra SATA cards. Budget is the focus here - ideally something with room for 12-15 drives in the future. We have a few case options picked out, so it's just the MoBo options that we are struggling with. I wish Raj's designs were updated.. that's where my first box was built form - the thread says they'll be updated on his blog, but nothing there that's less then 2 years old. Anyone build a budget 12-15 drive box recently that could share their parts list? Cheers!
January 23, 201412 yr Budget starts when you can use things you already have. If you have to buy, then go for used parts on ebay. Don't waste money on a high-end board with many ports since you won't be able to reach 12-15 without an extra controller. Make sure your board has 1 or 2 PCIe x8 ports to populate with controller cards. (x4 ports are also good to go) Here's my toy: Maxed out, it will have 15 drives (with some additional modding i can push it to 17) - in a midi tower! It's not very comfortable to switch drives but I don't expect to do it every day. And IMHO it is a budget build. Mainboard ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO 15,00€ CPU Sempron 140 17,20€ Case Chieftec CS600 10,00€ (needed a third drive carrier to mod my existing case; better look for another case where you don't need backplanes at all; spend the money on a case without backplanes if possible; you will have better cooling and less noise) RAM 2x 2GB DDR3 12,00€ PSU Corsair 600W 40,00€ Cooler Stock AMD 0,00€ Fans 2x 80x80x10 case front 8€ 1x 80x80x20 case back (optional) 2x 80x80x15 replace backplane fans 15€ SAS Controller 2x DELL Perc H310 70€ (you don't need 2 of them - I just bought them together) SAS cabling 2x FSC T26139-Y4023-V501 forward breakout 30€ 2x DELL stock forward breakout (came with the controllers) 0€ some SATA cables that I already had 0€ Backplanes SNT2131 2x5.25"-->3x3.5" 25€ SNT2131 2x5.25"-->3x3.5" 25€ unRAID license 90€ If my excel is right, it sums up to 357€ (without drives - that is what I already had - at the moment 11). For my second toy and testing machine I found on ebay: Mainboard Supermicro X7SBA 30€ CPU Intel Celeron 445 6€ Both deliver enough performance for backups and streaming over SMB.
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