Another First unRaid Build

[simonporter007]

So have been lurking over the posts here for a while, trying to decide on the right set of components vs price and it's ridiculously hard! Have managed to come up with the following, comments welcome.

 

Purpose: To start with I'll be mainly using it for storage and streaming to XBMC clients (Ouya, fully equipped desktop PC). Looking for fast file transfer over Gb ethernet.

Future: Possibly try out Plex, just because people seem to love it but I've not touched on it yet. At the moment I'd prefer to keep apps separate but possibly later on I might put this all in one case, especially if it was possible with Virtualization to keep data more secure with apps crashing etc.

 

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor

MB: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case

Power: Corsair RM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Prices: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/31a9i

 

I'm going to start off with 1TB cache, and 2x 1TB drives I already have in my old ReadyNAS. Then will look to replace the cache with a 2TB/3TB drive not long after to further increase the storage drives to 2TB/3TB a piece as and when needed.

 

Cheers,

 

Simon.

 

[joshpond]

One suggestion with the motherboard, you might have to do some digging for an matx size board but look for one that can support ESXi and passthrough easily. You'll keep your options open. I believe the cpu will support iommu (AMD passthrough).

I'm using an a Asrock 970 extreme4 which works really well so far. (I'll write it all up when I get done) it can passthrough the 4 onboard sata ports and still leave the fifth for a data store.

I believe the 970 extreme3 can too.

Josh

 

P.S. also increasing the size the cache drive doesn't increase size the array. You probably don't really need to that unless you planning on storing a lot apps there and moving more than 1tb to the array a day.

Unless by cache drive you mean parity drive.

 

Sent by tapatalk

 

[simonporter007]

Thanks John, yes good spot. I completely meant Parity drive and not cache drive in my OP. D'oh!

 

Looks like the ASRock 970 extreme3 is the most affordable option for the virtualization stuff, I must admit I had only briefly glanced at the requirements there, so thanks for pointing that out.

 

I'm now wondering if I should just ditch the virtualization stuff and save it for another build later down the line. I've seen that some people run the apps/plugins from cache drive. Is that a safer way to protect against data loss so the storage drives aren't touched? I don't like the idea of having running applications on my NAS - paranoid the disks might die! Maybe incorrectly so.

 

The other option is to sort out a raspberry pi I can borrow on permanent loan for free with the usual sab,sickbeard,couchpotato and reduce the components in the NAS.

 

Any recommendations what sort of CPU I'd be needing for just streaming to xbmc boxes/reading and writing relatively quickly for file transfer and how that compares with the bare minimum for Plex? I am now wondering if I'm over powering the build for no reason, if I take off the virtualization requirement.

 

Cheers,

[joshpond]

Hi Simon,

 

It's hard but the thing to sort out first is what you want to use it for.

 

I've seen that some people run the apps/plugins from cache drive. Is that a safer way to protect against data loss so the storage drives aren't touched?

 

Probably two main reasons, one is that if you write/have apps directly on the array that run all the time you array drives stay spun up and yes more writes which does increase the risk (although small). The draw back is that if the cache dies then you also lose all the apps/plugins you have running. That is all I can think of at the moment. My app/s plugins are installed on the array through unmenu but transmission/torrents was running on the cache. About to move over to virtualisation.

 

If all you are doing is streaming to xbmc then the minimum for plex is plenty. I'm running a sempron 140 which is plenty. CPU doesn't affect file transfer. HDD speed and then network speed will limit you first.

 

Personally I'm moving to virtualisation to keep more things seperate and some things I run need to be on Windows.

 

The FX 4300 is enough to run a few VMs.

 

Josh