First unRAID build (H87I-PLUS / Lian Li PC-Q25)


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Current Setup: ( I will keep this section up-to-date)

 

Hardware:

Case: Lian Li PC-Q25 Black Hot Swap Mini Tower Case

Board: ASUS H87I-PLUS Motherboard

CPU:  Intel Core i3 4130

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM (2x4GB) DDR3

PSU: Silverstone ST45SF 450W SFX

Disk: 3x 4TB WD Red (2 data xfs, 1 parity) (+1 as hot spare, pre cleared, waiting)

Cache: 250 GB Samsung SSD 850EVO 

Cache Pool: 2x 500 GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO (added 1/12/2018)

USB:  Cruzer Fit (8GB)

UPS: CyberPower Value SOHO UPS 1000VA/550W  (had to replace the original in Nov 2018)

 

running:

- unRaid Plus 6.5.x

- a collection of plugins and dockers

 

 


 

Original Post:

Team,

 

I have started to build this:

- Intel Core i3 4130

- ASUS H87I-PLUS Motherboard

- Lian Li PC-Q25 Black Hot Swap Mini Tower Case

- Silverstone ST45SF 450W SFX

- G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM (2x4GB) DDR3

 

as suggested I am using a Cruzer Fit (8GB) usb stick.

 

now here is my problem, when I try to boot from USB I get a "machine check error" and constantly rebooting.

 

I plugged in the USB to my laptop and it boots to unRAID

I plugged in an old Windows disk to the "Tower" and it started to boot windows.

 

So my suspicion is that there is a problem booting from USB.

 

I have not changed any drivers or flash but I have played in the BIOS.

 

This is my first attempt to build a computer in a long long time. Last time it was a 486 maybe ...

So I am a bit out of touch on how to proceed from here.

 

 

EDIT: Found a few references suggesting BIOS needs to be updated. So I flashed to version 1005 (6/1/2014) and it boots now.

 

EDIT: Added one more data drive to change from reiserfs to xfs due to instability of the server.

Keep you posted.

 

  Roland

Edited by roland
new cache pool
  • Like 1
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OK,

 

it is running!

The pre-clear took alost 36hrs for a 4TB WD red.

A long time to test my patience...

 

I have not been game to cut the excess wiress off, at least not until I am sure I got it all right.

 

here some pictures, hope this helps anyone:

 

the components:

IMG_20140214_193812.jpg

 

disk cage (front) - I have moved the disks down a bit since I took this picture)

IMG_20140219_122418.jpg

 

disk cage (back)

IMG_20140219_122331.jpg

 

wires ...

IMG_20140219_122409.jpg

 

 

I had one problem, the front fan started touching the filter net resulting in a lot of noise.

It just started out of the blue. Anyone seen this before?

As a short term solution I removed the filter...

IMG_20140219_205441.jpg

 

next steps:

- plex

- transmission

- rsync

maybe flexget / filebot

 

- parity !

 

 

 

  • Like 1
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Similar to mine. I had to update BIOS too. All of my bays are full and I have an SSD cache drive so I am also using all SATA ports. I went with a different processor in case I wanted to do some of the more advanced virtualization.

 

You should unbundle your SATA cables. They can interfere with each other (crosstalk) if they are running parallel for long stretches.

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You got lucky !!  Your problem was you had a CPU that wasn't supported by the version of the BIOS you had.    I gather you actually flashed the update using the unsupported CPU -- right?

The "safe" way to do this is to install a supported CPU; flash the new BIOS; and then put in the CPU you actually want to use.

 

Asus hasn't implemented it on any mini-ITX boards yet, but many of their newer uATX and ATX boards now have the ability to update the BIOS WITHOUT a CPU installed !!  A really neat feature that eliminates this old "Catch-22" of a BIOS that doesn't support the CPU you have.

 

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If you're still getting machine check errors there are a couple things I'd look into ...

 

(1)  Just unbundling your SATA cables may help.  It's definitely not a good idea to have them all tied together.  This could be causing signal issues that are causing your occasional errors.

 

(2)  Run MemTest for several cycles -- overnight for 6-8 hours is a good test

 

(3)  You may have not got an entirely good flash, since you were doing it with an unsupported CPU.  Try reflashing the BIOS.

 

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Hey Roland ... that PSU orientation, specifically the fan facing the outside of the case ... there's about a 1/4 inch clearance there when the side panel's in place ... since that's an intake fan to the PSU and exhausting from the case, have you considered re-orienting that PSU to draw from max flow through the case (and off the top of the CPU). i.e PSU fan facing inside the case?

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oxidized,

 

I based it on garycase's post here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29670.msg266348#msg266348

and his assurance that it would have no impact here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29670.msg274292#msg274292

 

I like that the cables come out in a better position and I can tuck away the "leftovers" on top of the PSU.

 

But if you guys think it might not be a good position I can change it around. Are there any indicators I could check to see if there is any impact?

 

Roland

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There is NO reason to re-orient the PSU.    It keeps the PSU intake "fresh" (plenty of space for intake air through the bottom -- FAR more than the 1/4" suggested above ), and exhausts the air out the back, so no warm air from the PSU is added to the case's heat.    And there's plenty of airflow in the case from the front and top fans.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice build, pretty much what I'm in the middle of building - I've had the 25B for years, and it's been a solid and reliable little case.  I've run mine without the front filter since I got it.  I'm now running a Noctu 140mm PWM fan in the front.  I never ran a 120mm fan in the top, leaving it to exhaust air naturally. 

 

36 hours seems unusually long for a clear - I'm doing my 3TB Red drives at the moment, the first one is at 78% with 5 hours 14 minutes elapsed (123MB/s).

 

As for setup on the board, I just did a 'Optimized Defaults', turned off the sound and turned down the iGPU to 32MB.  Only things I changed.  I'm booting off an old Sony Microvault Tiny 4GB that I've had for years, plugged in to a StarTech adapter inside the case.  PSU is a cheap AC-Bel 350W that came out of an Asus PC.

 

unbundling your SATA cables may help.  It's definitely not a good idea to have them all tied together.  This could be causing signal issues that are causing your occasional errors.

 

 

Citation needed.  :o

 

Lots of OEMs bundle their SATA cables together.  SATA cables are also screened, so unless you're running HVD I really doubt you're going to get crosstalk.  CRC error checking on the SATA interface is going to sort out any issues if there did happen to be a bit of crosstalk.

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36 hours seems unusually long for a clear - I'm doing my 3TB Red drives at the moment, the first one is at 78% with 5 hours 14 minutes elapsed (123MB/s).

Which step in preclear are you on? Pre-read? 36 hours would not be unusually long for all the steps to complete. Let us know how long yours was after it has completed all steps.

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36 hours seems unusually long for a clear - I'm doing my 3TB Red drives at the moment, the first one is at 78% with 5 hours 14 minutes elapsed (123MB/s).

 

36 hours isn't bad for a pre-clear cycle on a 4TB drive.    If you're just doing a clear through UnRAID then it's JUST a clear -- the pre-clear script does a pre-read cycle; then a clear; and then a detailed post-read test.    Takes ~ 4 times as long as just a clear would (in fact, there's a command-line option to just do the clear) ... but you can be confident the disk is okay if you run it through a couple pre-read passes before using it.

 

I gather either you're (a) just clearing the drive in UnRAID;  or (b) are still in the first phase of the pre-clear script and didn't realize that there are two more phases after it that will nearly quadruple your overall time  :)

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36 hours seems unusually long for a clear - I'm doing my 3TB Red drives at the moment, the first one is at 78% with 5 hours 14 minutes elapsed (123MB/s).

Which step in preclear are you on? Pre-read? 36 hours would not be unusually long for all the steps to complete. Let us know how long yours was after it has completed all steps.

 

Oh yeah, it's on Step 2.  ::)  Must look more closely before posting.  ???

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Man, all these pc-q25 builds make me jealous, I want to build a new setup with one of these, and maybe find a supermicro itx board, a xeon, and run some nice new 4tb hdds and V6 with VMs, all in a tiny little box.

 

I'll stick with my tower till i'm forced to upgrade for now. Maybe between now and "then" I can upgrade some 2tbs to 4tbs :)

 

Nice build, nice and neat.

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Well, my PC-Q25B is old.  The connectors on the backplane are all breaking up.  Would I buy another?  Probably.  I've had 3 years of good service from the case, but with the breaking up backplane, it's time it went out to pasture.

 

My new unRAID box is in a cheap Coolermaster uATX case, with a few bits and bobs, and it's running very well.

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...The connectors on the backplane are all breaking up.

 

???  Very strange.  Have you plugged/unplugged your disks a lot?    Hot-swap backplanes are generally designed for ~ 50 cycles (plug/unplug).    If you've done a lot more than that, then it's understandable why they'd start breaking.

 

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...The connectors on the backplane are all breaking up.

 

???  Very strange.  Have you plugged/unplugged your disks a lot?    Hot-swap backplanes are generally designed for ~ 50 cycles (plug/unplug).    If you've done a lot more than that, then it's understandable why they'd start breaking.

 

It's the other side of the backplane, where the SATA cables plug in.  The SATA power connections are particularly bad, they're nearly unusable now, so I have to use the molexes.  I was just looking, and this case is about 3 years old, and it's been in constant use, with about 6 different machines in it over that time. 

 

The rest of the case is obviously fine, it'd just need a new backplane PCB.

 

I'm quite pleased with the new case I'm using, considering the price (£33 delivered), it's nicely built, and take 6 HDDs and has two 5.25" bays.  I'm running a 120mm Silent Typhoon in the front as the only cooling, and the HDDs are running less than 8C above ambient with the fan running at 500rpm off the Asus' Q-Fan system.  The only other cooling is the PSU fan (seriously over-specced 600W OCZ 80Plus Silver unit, but it's the only PSU I have with enough SATA cables that'll reach.  ::)

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  • 11 months later...

Hi,

so my build has been running for a while now.

No issues at all. I added a 4TB parity and a SSD for Cache.

Use it mostly as a backup of my data/photos and as PLEX Media server.

 

Now I would like to hide some of my traffic as descrbed in this post:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32090.0

 

But I don't have the second network port or the required (Tomato compatible router).

Has anybody good and affordable recommendations?

 

Thanks

  Roland

 

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Roland, are you still getting the occasional Machine Check Errors. My setup (exactly as yours, but with a Celeron G1840 and I get the occasional MCE. I have not noticed any reduction or odd behaviour as a result.

 

The problem solver in me wants to get to the bottom of it though.

 

Cheers.

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Hexen,

 

I had just rebooted my tower so the syslog is only 2 days old, but there are no more [mse] errors in there.

I unbundled the cables as suggested, but same as you mentioned, even when these errors were around I never had any issues, so I stopped looking. Your question prompted me to check, but nothing (in 2 days of not much use)

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

After having this running now for over a year I think it is time I try unRAID v6.

 

So I got myself a second USB and a second KEY, now the question is, is the hardware actually good enough for unRAID v6?

 

Currently it only runs a few PhAzE plugins (Plex, Trasnmission, Filebot)

These should just run again in V6.

But if I want to take advantage of Dockers or VMs, will my hardware support that?

And if not, what would I have to invest in?

 

Current Setup:

Case: Lian Li PC-Q25 Black Hot Swap Mini Tower Case

Board: ASUS H87I-PLUS

CPU:  Intel Core i3 4130

RAM: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM (2x4GB) DDR3

PSU: Silverstone ST45SF 450W SFX

Disk: 2x 4TB WD Red (1 data, 1 parity)

Cache: 120 GB Samsung SSD 840EVO

USB:  Cruzer Fit (8GB)

 

Thanks

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After having this running now for over a year I think it is time I try unRAID v6.

 

So I got myself a second USB and a second KEY, now the question is, is the hardware actually good enough for unRAID v6?

 

Currently it only runs a few PhAzE plugins (Plex, Trasnmission, Filebot)

These should just run again in V6.

But if I want to take advantage of Dockers or VMs, will my hardware support that?

And if not, what would I have to invest in?

 

 

Absolutely it's more than good enough for v6.  Only thing I'd be wanting to do is a bigger cache device, but even that is likely to be unnecessary.

 

Definitely move to Dockers, they really are the way forward.  Even MS is working with Docker for Windows 10, so Dockers are going to become very, very popular which is nothing but a good thing.

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Thanks,

 

I followed the upgrade instructions on the wiki. I had a second key and USB so that made it a bit easier (less risky) and everything went smoothly.

As a starting point I stuck to the PhAzE plugins and as they work in 5 and 6 it was super easy to be back up and running in no time.

 

Will certainly look at Dockers next and then VMs :-)

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  • 1 month later...
Will certainly look at Dockers next and then VMs :-)

Posting this here just as a record, as I couldn't find a definite answer elsewhere:

 

I've got the H87I-Plus paired with an i5 4570S (which is VT-d capable, unlike the i3 being discussed here) and can confirm that device passthrough works with this motherboard. Currently passing a 750ti through to a Windows 8.1 VM on 6.0-rc5.

 

I couldn't find any clear information online on whether it would work with the H87 chipset (and this board specifically, despite VT-d appearing in the BIOS), so I just wanted to get this information online for anyone in the same position in the future! Sorry if there's a more appropriate place for it.

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