Will these components work?

[Rajahal]

I have the following motherboard in my current homebuilt PC, and I figured that instead of buying a new motherboard for my unRAID build I might as well try to use this one (as well as a PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card to double my SATAII slots) and buy a newer, faster one for my homebuilt PC.

 

GIGABYTE GA-M61PM-S2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

 

The other components in my current homebuilt PC (and I can pick and choose which I want to use in my unRAID build) are:

 

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor

 

DYNAPOWER USA DP-50X.C617 500W ATX12V Power Supply

 

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory + CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5 (5 GB Total, I figure I'll keep all this for my PC and not waste in on the unRAID build)

 

I also have an extra WINTEC AMPO 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) that I was thinking about using for the unRAID build, since I know it doesn't need much RAM.

 

Tons of HDDs, all WD or Seagate and all are SATA II.

 

This will be my first unRAID build, so any tips and advice you can offer me will be greatly appreciated.

[RobJ]

Motherboard will probably work, no guarantees, but you can test it easily enough by preparing a flash drive (see the USB Flash Drive Preparation page), booting it and checking for access from another machine to the unRAID Web Management page (see the top of the UnRAID Manual), and checking the Devices tab to see if you can see all of your attached hard drives in one of the drive dropdown boxes.  Don't actually assign any of them, unless you actually want to use that drive.

 

I don't care for cheap power supplies, but if it works for you, fine.  I would not trust it though for many drives.

 

The higher performance memory is wasted in unRAID.  512MB will work fine, but I personally would prefer a GB or more, for better caching.

[NAS]

COuldnt agree more with the PSU comment however IRL i have found big usuabilty improvements with unRAID with more RAM

[Rajahal]

Thanks for the comments, guys, they are very helpful.  Just checking, as long as I don't assign any of my drives, I'm not at risk of losing any data when performing the mobo check, right?

 

You are right about the PSU, RobJ, it is very cheap and probably could use replacing.  I plan on my unRAID server sporting at least 6 HDDs (again, all SATA II) to start, and I will likely upgrade to 8 or more in the future (I'm getting a Pro license).  Considering that I don't want to overpower the server and waste electricity, what wattage do you recommend?  I figured 400W-500W would be fine (since my homebuilt PC easily powers 8 HDDs + 2 PCI cards with its cheapo 500W PSU), but if I can make do with less, please let me know.

 

I'm curious about what NAS said about unRAID usability improvements with more RAM...how much more did you have in mind?  RAM is so cheap now-a-days I certainly don't mind springing for 1 or 2 GBs, but what is the cut off where I will no longer notice an improvement?  Also, does better caching translate to faster transfer, read, and write speeds?  Should I bother getting Dual Channel RAM, will I notice the difference?

 

This will likely be a long-winded sidenote, but it might help you guys understand what my goals are with this unRAID build.  I've done plenty of research, and I know unRAID is what I want to use.  I also finally have the time and money to devote myself to this project (its been in the back of my mind for 6 months or more), but I still have one point of vacillation: should I build my unRAID server as ghetto as possible (reusing as many of my homebuilt PC's components as possible) and pour my money into revamping my homebuilt PC, or should I pimp out my unRAID server (essentially buying all or mostly new components) and leave my homebuilt PC as it is?  For reference, I'm perfectly content with the speed of my PC (5 GB of RAM, Dual Core 2.0 GHz AMD processor, etc.), but faster is always better, yes?  I figure a faster PC and slower unRAID server is the better option, since I will have to deal with the PC on a day-to-day basis, whereas the unRAID server is more of a backend kind of thing.  I should only be dealing with it directly if there's a problem, or if I'm adding new drives.  Of course, I want it to at least be fast enough to make use of my Gigabit network, but Gigabit LAN is common on mobo's now, so that shouldn't be a problem.  I figure that Gigabit LAN will be the biggest bottleneck in the network, since all the drives are SATA II.  There's also the third option of mixing and matching parts between the two - bring my PC from 5 GB of RAM down to 4 GB of RAM and give the extra RAM to the unRAID server, for example.  Thoughts?

 

Another question: There's no benefit in using a larger capacity USB Thumb drive, such as 2 GB instead of 1 GB, correct?  As I understand it, all that matters is the quality and speed of the thumb drive.  I'm planning on using a generic 1 GB thumb drive that I've got laying around (gotta find it, though), but I also have a 2 GB Sandisk that I could dedicate to this project, I just figured it's kind of a waste of a decently-sized thumb drive.

[JRS]

As far as I know, as long as you don't assign a drive, nothing happens to it.  But you have backups... right? 

 

On PSU... it will only use what it needs, so you can't "over power" and waste electricity.  Lower end PSU's are typically very good at wasting electricity as they tend to be inefficient, so they pull 250w from the wall to supply 130w to your system.  An 80%+ efficiency rated quality PSU is a good idea for a server, more so for a server that stores a bunch of data and is a must if it runs 24/7.  Using a low-end PSU to try out unRaid a bit... fine, to run 6+ drives 24/7, get a quality PSU.

 

On RAM, I think the biggest impact is caching of drive contents to reduce how often drives will spinup when you are only browsing what is on your unRaid box.  You can get by with 1gb, but considering you can get a pair of 2x2gb sticks for $40ish, why not.  Speed or timings on the Ram is not important - just whether or not your motherboard will recognize it.  I think dual channel memory was the most over-talked about concern when it comes to a Windows box (until triple channel came along).  I think most PC users would never notice if "dual channel" was suddently turned off.  imho it is a non-issue for unRaid.

 

Flash drive - doesn't matter.  If you boot/start your unRaid box daily, then I suppose a faster one may be a good idea.  Once it is booted, I don't know of any impact the speed of the flash drive would have.

 

unRaid has somewhat unique areas that impact your experience and its performance compared to a desktop box.  My subject preferences are:

1) Quality NIC that is on the PCIe bus (a fair number of motherboards with Gigabit onboard still have that port on the PCI bus - so check that)

2) PCIe slots - keeping as many drives on PCIe (vs the PCI bus).

3) Energy efficient

4) Amount of RAM

 

Note that I did not address ram performance, cpu performance or even hard drive performance.  For CPU - the more energy efficient, the better.  Hard drives, anything "modern" will work.  I think the WD10EADS are the ideal unRaid drive - three platters so their data transfer performance is very close to most 7200rpm drives and use 1/3 the watts at idle and run very cool.

 

 

[Rajahal]

As far as I know, as long as you don't assign a drive, nothing happens to it.  But you have backups... right?  

Backups of my 4 TB of data?  Um, no.  That's why I want an unRAID server in the first place, for data loss prevention, among other things.  I'll just unplug all my most important HDDs and try it on a junker, that should prevent catastrophe.

 

Good to know about the PSUs not wasting electricity, I didn't know that.  I plan on my unRAID server running 24/7, or at least close to that, so I think a quality PSU is justified, as you and the others have suggested.   What would you recommend for wattage and brand name?  I've heard good things about Sparkle PSUs...

 

Regarding RAM, hell I got the 2x2GB Corsair RAM that I list above for $25 (after a mail-in-rebate).  I agree, even if I pay $40, why not.  I just wanted to make sure that I will actually notice the difference when browsing my files, and it sounds like I will.  I probably will go for Dual Channel, even though, as you say, its a non-issue.  It usually doesn't cost any more, so again, why not.

 

Regarding your first listed item, "1) Quality NIC that is on the PCIe bus (a fair number of motherboards with Gigabit onboard still have that port on the PCI bus - so check that)" - I don't think I know what that means.  I understand that running 4 HDDs through a PCI slot will be slower than running them through a PCIe slot, but a PCIe to SATA controller card is also far more expensive, right?  I already have the PCI to SATA Promise card that I list above, and I would like to use that if possible, and not shell out any more money.  On my current desktop, I still get full 3.0 Gb/s transfer rates between all my HDDs, even the ones on the PCI card, so it doesn't seem to affect the performance in any way that I can tell.  If I'm wrong, though, please enlighten me.

 

All my HDDs are 7200 RPM, so I guess they won't be as efficient as they could be.  I just ordered a WD 1 TB drive, also 7200 RPM, that claims to be 'green', though I'm not sure if it will actually have an impact on the system's power requirements.

 

That reminds me of another question.  I'm planning on making that 1 TB drive my parity drive so that I have the option of adding more 1 TB drives in the future.  My next biggest HDD is 750 GB, and all the rest are 500 GB or below, so I will be essentially wasting 250 GB until I add another 1 TB drive to the array, correct?  That's something I can deal with, I just want to make sure.

 

Edit: Haha, perfect!  The 1 TB HDD I bought yesterday is the exact one you mention!  That was lucky.  I just went for it because I knew I would need at least one new HDD for this unRAID build, and Newegg had it on sale for $99.99.

 

 

 

[JRS]

For PSU's, I'm a big Corsair fan (havea 550vx for unRaid, 650tx in my desktop).  I've got an Antec EarthWatts 380 running my htpc and Earthwatts 500 running my wife's desktop.  I also like the specs on PC Power & Cooling although I don't own any.  A single 12V rail power supply is also a good idea with unRaid as all those hard drives will be on the same rail (someone smarter on PSU's can elaborate better than I on this).

 

On "1) Quality NIC that is on the PCIe bus (a fair number of motherboards with Gigabit onboard still have that port on the PCI bus - so check that)". 

 

Your onboard NIC (or LAN port) will either be on the PCIe bus, or the PCI bus.  The big problem with the PCI bus is it everything on it shares its limit (133MB/s theoretical, ~100MB/s actual).  As long as just one hard drive is being accessed on that bus, no problem, but if there is an intensive write process to one drive on that bus while another process is trying to read from another drive, they will fight over that limited bandwidth.  So when you buy a motherboard with onboard LAN port, make sure that port is on the motherboard's PCI-e bus and not on the PCI bus.  I would recommend this for any motherboard use, not just unRaid.  It is not catastrophic and I wouldn't replace a board just for that, but if buying a motherboard and expect to use the onboard LAN, make sure it is on the PCIe bus.

 

When multiple drives are sitting on a PCI card, again, as long as you only hit one of those drives at a time, you really won't notice the bandwidth limit of the PCI bus.  But if you significant other is watching a movie streaming from one drive on the PCI bus and you are saving a blu-ray rip to another drive on that PCI bus, you are more likely to cause that movie to stutter than if either or both are not.  It's up to you to evaluate how important that scenario is to you and your use.  I write to unRaid nightly, but usually <30 min for backups and occasional media saves, but I can always work around whatever my wife may be doing, so for me, no big deal.

 

You will get better parity checks with your smaller drives on PCI, your parity and bigger drives on your motherboard ports or on PCIe cards.  I've seen on the forums where some say to alternate your data drives between PCI  and non-PCI, so maybe Parity - on mobo; 1st drive mobo, 2nd drive PCI, 3rd drive mobo, 4th drive PCI, etc...  As above, how applicable is a faster parity check to you?  For me, as long as I can keep it under 12 or so hours, good enough.  No, I don't recommend replacing your promise PCI card, but before you buy your next card, evaluate your needs and buy appropriately.  More storage may be better for you than better simultaneous access and faster parity checks.

 

Green drives won't help your overrall power requirements as much, as they still require close to the same amount of juice when booting up - figure 30w per hard drive to calculate how much of a PSU you need (+ mobo + cards + cpu) as most hard drives take 25-30w spinning up, but <10w in use.  Green drives also do not save enough in use to make it worthwhile to replace a working drive with them.  But I do lean toward green drive for new purchases for unRaid, but more so because they run very cool.

 

I'm planning on making that 1 TB drive my parity drive so that I have the option of adding more 1 TB drives in the future.  My next biggest HDD is 750 GB, and all the rest are 500 GB or below, so I will be essentially wasting 250 GB until I add another 1 TB drive to the array, correct?

 

Correct - and that is one of the elegant parts of unRaid as it is tolerant of the different sizes, which means you get to use them all.

[WeeboTech]

figure a faster PC and slower unRAID server is the better option, since I will have to deal with the PC on a day-to-day basis, whereas the unRAID server is more of a backend kind of thing.

 

Pimp out your everyday box, reuse parts available for unRAID.

When you exceed 6 drives, consider upgrading parts on the unRAID box.

 

Where a few upgrades help.

1. More ram in unRAID helps caching both with directory reads and with small bursty writes.  When the cache is full, the system will flush and you will notice a stop until complete.  For reads. it may prevent spinups when doing directory review or reads of the same file over and over. In addition it provides more ram to allow addon packages to be installed.

 

2. Flash Drive Space. This depends on how much hacking or addon's you want to add. If you keep it at the bare minimim, the smaller drive will suffice.

 

[Rajahal]

JRS - Thank you, your explanations are crystal clear.  I will look into Corsair and Antec EarthWatts PSUs and I'll probably just go for the best value.  By my calculations, 500W should be more than sufficient, and will allow for the future addition of HDDs (30W/HDD * 8 HDDs = 240W, and I figure the mobo, cards, etc. can't use more than 260W).  Also, would you mind explaining what rail power supplies are, or how they are better than standard PSUs?  I'm looking at a few Antec PSUs on Newegg right now, and I'm guessing more rails are better?  Sorry for the noob questions, I've known for a while that certain PSUs are better quality than others, but I didn't know that there are other specs to look at besides the wattage.

 

What do you think of this 430W Antec EarthWatts PSU?  Seems like a reasonable price for a quality PSU...especially compared to this 450W Corsair PSU.

 

Thanks for the info on NICs and PCIe, that's good to know.  Here's the newegg specs page for my mobo, can you tell from that if the NIC uses the PCIe or PCI bus?  If not, where do you find that info?

 

I will make an effort to connect all of my most commonly accessed drives (movies, TV, music, etc.) directly to the mobo (it has 4 ports, so it shouldn't be a problem).  I do plan on streaming all of my video from the unRAID server, so stuttering video is a concern of mine.  I also plan on seeding (not leeching) torrents from all the drives in the unRAID array, so if this would cause streaming video to stutter, it may prove problematic.  In my current desktop I haven't had any trouble with seeding and video playback from the same drive, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem with an unRAID server either.  I doubt I'll be doing any scheduled backups, and if I do I'll schedule them for 3 am or sometime when I won't notice them.

 

I like the idea of alternating drives between the mobo and PCI, I'll give that a try.  I'm thinking something like: 1 TB parity on mobo, 750 GB TV drive on mobo, 320 GB documentaries drive on PCI, 500 GB movies A-S drive on mobo, 250 GB concerts and music videos drive on PCI, 500 GB movies T-Z drive on mobo, 500 GB music drive on PCI, any additional drives on PCI (since all the mobo slots would be used up by this point).  I'm also thinking that streaming music through the PCI bus will be less problematic than streaming video through the PCI bus due to the relative file size and complexity differences.  Is that reasonable?

 

Edit: I just realized, concerning this bit, that part of the beauty of unRAID is that it essentially combines all my drives into one big drive, so I will no longer need to think of single drives dedicated to movies, music, etc.  Still, is there some way I can make more complex data, such as video, favor the theoretically faster drives connected directly to the mobo?  I imagine that anytime I add new data to the unRAID server it will be placed in the first available HDD space, so there will be no preference between PCI and mobo connected HDDs.  Will this be a problem, especially concerning streaming video?

 

The parity check only needs to happen once when I first build the unRAID server, then again each time I add a new drive, correct?  If that's the case, then like you said, under 12 hrs is fine.  Expandable storage and flawless video streaming are my primary concerns, but I am interested in better simultaneous access as well.  Better simultaneous access is only worth maybe $50-100 more to me, so if it requires a $300 PCIe card, then I can do without it, for now at least.  

 

I'm glad I fortuitously chose the perfect parity drive.  I've never had any problems with my computer running hot, though I've never actively monitored the temperature either.  I trust my beautiful Antec case and its 3 TriCool fans implicitly.  I was lucky enough to catch that case on sale for $100.  I still haven't decided if I will use that case for my unRAID server and buy a new one for my desktop (which is reasonable, since that case holds 6 HDDs natively, and I could buy a 3-in-5 cage to bring it up to a 9 HDD capacity (my mobo and PCI card only supporting 8 HDDs, of course) or if I should use my piece of crap backup case that I have laying around for the unRAID, since it seems like kind of a shame to tuck that beautiful, quiet case away in a closet.  My piece of crap case only holds 4 HDDs, though, so I would still need a 3-in-5 cage or some other ghetto-rigged solution.  I'm considering bribing some engineering friends to help me build a simple rack that would allow me to stack a few HDDs in the optical bay of either case...

 

WeeboTech - Thanks for the feedback, I am going to try to reuse as many parts from my desktop as possible.  It seems that I will be able to use the mobo, CPU, maybe some of the RAM, the PCI to SATA card, and all but one of the hard drives (just have to keep the one as a local drive).  As I mention above, I'm planning on building the unRAID server with 7-8 drives initially, so I think that justifies the upgrade from 512 mb to 4 GB of RAM, at least.

 

I didn't even know hacks or add-ons were available for unRAID, what should I look at?  Anything that is definitely worth doing?

 

All - Thanks for putting up with my excessively long posts.

[JRS]

first - ditto to WeeboTech's post.  I've learned a lot from his threads here as well as Joe L, bjp999, and RobJ and a few others.  I'd recommend reading every thread these guys have posted in.

 

On rails... that's short for a reference to the +12V rail(s).  The initial Intel PSU spec called for limits on a single rail, so PSU makers started making multi-rail PSU's when GPUs started showing up that needed more +12V.  So PSU's would generally come with a dedicated rail for the cpu/motherboard and a 2nd rail for everything else, at least as I know the history.

 

Looking at the links you provided, the Antec 430 is listed with two - +12V1@17A,+12V2@17A (but that is marketing, I believe it really just has one, more on that follows).

 

I find a single rail PSU preferable as then I don't have to worry about how much is on which rail... coincidently, my preferred PSU's are all single rail.  For unRaid, you want one +12V rail as all the hard drives will  be on the same one, and someday that load will be 80 or 90% of the load of your system.  So if you have two equal rails, one will be really loaded up and the other hardly used.  To muddy up this topic up some, how many rails a PSU is marketed to have vs. how many it really has is not always equal.  For example, I believe the Antec Earthwatts in 380/430/500 are all actually single rails even though they are marketed as two.  I believe the same holds for Corsair 520/620 modular PSUs.

 

I like all the Antec Earthwatts, but I would not equate the Corsair 450vx to the Antec 430 Earthwatts, it would compare closer to the Antec 500 Earthwatts.  The wattage rating PSU makers label their PSUs with is somewhat ambigous as it is a general sum of +12v, +3.3v, +5v, etc.  I'd give Corsair the nod over Antic in quality.  If noise is an issue, go with the Corsair as it has a 120mm fan, which typically means it turns slower and therefore quieter.  I think you could easily go to 10 or 11 drives with either the Corsair 450vx or the Antec 500 Earthwatts.  But if you see yourself hitting 12+ drives within a year or two, you may be better off spending more now so you don't have to upgrade the PSU.  If you see yourself hitting 14+ drives within a couple years, than a PC Power & Cooling 610 may be the way to go.

 

Quality PSU's can generally run close to 100% load for an extended period of time (in good conditions - good airflow/temp) whereas cheap PSUs may blow if run close to 100% for more than a short while.  More than likely, your motherboard, cpu, and cards will use less than 150w, maybe even <100w.

 

On determine which bus your onboard nic is on - from within Windows, you can bring up network connections and almost allways, the "Device Name" column will either have "PCI" in it somewhere or "PCI-e".  I think on some motherboards you may see it in the bios description if you go into the bios and boot and find the menu to enable/disable the onboard LAN.  If you don't have the motherboard, then you have to find a block diagram  or a more detailed spec.  Here's the spec for your motherboard:  http://america.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-m61pm-s2_e.pdf  On page 8 there is a block diagram and it has the LAN port connected directly to the controller - I'm afraid I am not sure if it truely is connected straight to the controller or on either bus.

 

You are correct in the assumption that the only time you have to run a parity check is when you add/replace a drive, but a periodic check just to make sure everything is healthy is not a bad idea.  I try to do it at least once a month.

 

I like where you are laying out your hard drives.  As far as streaming goes, it will make for less bandwidth contention to keep higher bitrate streams (like HD) off PCI, so yea, I like your idea of putting music on the PCI - I'll have to see where mine is at.  I think you are getting the idea on how to address what your real needs are for bandwidth and how much you would want to spend.  Keep in mind that a lot of folks are running many drives all off their PCI bus and just mitigate it with their usage habits, such as moving files to their unRaid box during non-use time, etc.

 

[Rajahal]

I took a closer look at that Corsair PSU, and yeah, I think I'm going for it.  6 SATA power cables, plus the extra-long mesh wrapped cables are very slick and should be a pleasure to work with.  It will be my one little splurge for the unRAID build, since I'm going ghetto and reusing all the other parts.  Plus its only about $10 more than the Antec one, after the mail in rebate at least.  MIRs in general are kind of a pain, but Corsair's are straight forward and they do follow through with them...I've gotten them for both my Corsair RAM ($25 after $30 MIR) and a Corsair 16GB thumb drive ($20 after $20 MIR), though they took a few months to arrive.

 

Thanks for the info on rails, that makes more sense now.

 

As for the number of drives, I think 9 or 10 will likely be my maximum, more based on space constraints in the case than on need.  Hence, the Corsair PSU should be perfect.  Once I max out my case with as many drives as it can hold (6 at the moment, but I'm hoping to build some kind of rack that will allow 3-4 more), I'll start replacing my smallest drives (250 GB at the moment) with 1 TB drives, and then find people to whom I can sell or give the smaller drives. 

 

I was just looking at the USB Flash Drive Preparation page, and it says the first step is to format the flash drive as Fat32.  I'm running Vista x64 on my desktop, and if I remember correctly, Vista no longer lets you choose Fat32 as an option - it defaults to NTFS.  Anyone else have this problem?  I can always use my girlfriend's laptop (running XP) to format it, so no big deal, I was just wondering.

[Joe L.]

I was just looking at the USB Flash Drive Preparation page, and it says the first step is to format the flash drive as Fat32.  I'm running Vista x64 on my desktop, and if I remember correctly, Vista no longer lets you choose Fat32 as an option - it defaults to NTFS.  Anyone else have this problem?  I can always use my girlfriend's laptop (running XP) to format it, so no big deal, I was just wondering.

A lot will depend on the motherboard you will be using.  A great number of them will ONLY boot if the drive is FAT and will not work with FAT32.  Others will boot with either FAT or FAT32.

 

Either can be used, as I said, a lot will depend on your specific motherboard bios.  Some will deal with anything and will boot up anything, others will not.  I do not think I've ever read of a BIOS booting an NTFS formatted flash drive...

 

Joe L.

[WeeboTech]

or if I should use my piece of crap backup case that I have laying around for the unRAID, since it seems like kind of a shame to tuck that beautiful, quiet case away in a closet.  My piece of crap case only holds 4 HDDs, though, so I would still need a 3-in-5 cage or some other ghetto-rigged solution.  I'm considering bribing some engineering friends to help me build a simple rack that would allow me to stack a few HDDs in the optical bay of either case.

 

If you skimp out on a case that is not designed for good airflow you will be unhappy later on.

Especially if you plan to leave it running 24x7.

 

The Centurion 590 is cost effective and perfect for a small unRAID server.

If you plan on 9 drives, plan on a quality power supply too.  Check how much amperage is available on the 12V rail.

 

What do you think of this 430W Antec EarthWatts PSU?  Seems like a reasonable price for a quality PSU...especially compared to this 450W Corsair PSU.

 

Corsair has 33A on a single 12V rail. vs the antec having 17A on a split 12V rail.

Corsair has 6 Peripheral and 6 SATA connectors. 12 Connectors possible.. Enough for 9 drives without splitters depending on drives and drive bays choosen.

I would buy the corsair, with the rebate it's only $10 more.

Startup surge current is the issue.  When you upgrade to more modern drives. setting them to power up in standby (like staggered spinup) helps.

 

 

 

[Rajahal]

Thanks for the replies, all informative and helpful, as usual.

 

Joe L.: My question was a bit different than what your reply addressed.  I'm wondering how other people using Windows Vista have managed to format their flash drive, or any drive for that matter, as FAT or FAT32 since these are no longer options in Vista's disk formatting menus.  The only disk formatting option is NTFS.  If the solution is to use a computer running Windows XP that's fine since I have access to one, but I'm sure someone else running Vista has encountered this problem and found a way around it.

 

WeeboTech: The Centurion 590 is indeed a slick case for an unRAID build, but it only supports 4x3.5" HDDs out of the box (using the included 4-in-3 HDD cage).  So wouldn't one need to purchase many more of those 4-in-3 HDD cages to be able to use all of the available slots for HDDs?  Considering those cost about $50 each, that doesn't seem very cost effective.  If only those 9x5.25" optical drive bays were all 3.5" HDD bays...if that were the case I would purchase it in a second.

 

I did buy the higher quality Corsair PSU, it should be arriving in the mail today.  I've also received the 1 TB parity drive, so I've made substantial investments in this unRAID server already, hence I'm committed to building it.  I'll probably have to wait for another paycheck or two before I can actually go through with the build (mainly so I can afford to build my replacement desktop PC, since I'm reusing many components from my current desktop).  I think my only other purchases for the unRAID server will be 4 GB of cheap RAM (I might as well keep my better quality RAM for the desktop), and of course the unRAID license.  I'm still quite excited about this project, and I can't wait to get it started.  Thanks again for everyone's help and advice.

[WeeboTech]

WeeboTech: The Centurion 590 is indeed a slick case for an unRAID build, but it only supports 4x3.5" HDDs out of the box (using the included 4-in-3 HDD cage).  So wouldn't one need to purchase many more of those 4-in-3 HDD cages to be able to use all of the available slots for HDDs?  Considering those cost about $50 each, that doesn't seem very cost effective.  If only those 9x5.25" optical drive bays were all 3.5" HDD bays...if that were the case I would purchase it in a second.

 

I think they are about $24 if I am not mistaken.

As for 9 3.5 drives.

I have a bunch of those old metal 3.5 in a 5.25 mounting brackets I could sell cheap! LOL. 

[Rajahal]

I picked one of those mounting brackets up last night from a local computer store for $5 (better than Newegg's $10).  Unfortunately, they don't fit my Antec case.  They attach to the HDD just fine, but they don't match up with the optical drive screw holes in the case.  I made it work with some zip ties (and no screws), but its pretty ghetto.  Are you sure they'll work in that Centurion 590 case?  If so, I might consider it....how much would you sell them for?  I only really need two more, but I'd be willing to buy a few spares if you cut me a deal.

 

Also, could you provide a link to a $24 4-in-3 HDD cage?  Like I've said, the cheapest I've found is $50.

 

On a lighter note, I installed the Corsair PSU into my desktop PC last night, and man, its a beautiful sight.  The extra-long cables mean I no longer have to use extension cables for the motherboard power, plus I only had to use a single 4 pin molex to SATA power converter, since the PSU has 6 of its own SATA power connectors.  The mesh-wrapped wires help the case stay more organized too, though there's still a tangle of SATA cables between the HDDs and the mobo.

[WeeboTech]

Are you sure they'll work in that Centurion 590 case?  If so, I might consider it....how much would you sell them for?  I only really need two more, but I'd be willing to buy a few spares if you cut me a deal.

 

I'll check in my case. I have the shorter ones and I also have the older longer ones.

I've been wondering what to do with the metal, Recycle or sell them off...

 

Heh. the shipping will cost more then the units, let's see if they fit I'll weight them and let you know.

 

 

Also, could you provide a link to a $24 4-in-3 HDD cage?  Like I've said, the cheapest I've found is $50.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002&Tpk=cooler%20master%204-in-3

 

[lionelhutz]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002&Tpk=cooler%20master%204-in-3

 

Just to note, you take off the plastic front piece off this unit and then it will install just like the one provided with the case.

 

Peter

 

 

[SSD]

I picked one of those mounting brackets up last night from a local computer store for $5 (better than Newegg's $10).  Unfortunately, they don't fit my Antec case.  They attach to the HDD just fine, but they don't match up with the optical drive screw holes in the case. 

 

These screw hole locations are VERY standard and have not changed in MANY years.  If this does't fit neither would DVD Drives or those 4x3 / 5x3 docks.  My guess is that you installed them wrong.  It is easy to get them turned around or put the wrong one on the wrong side.  You might want to try again.

[Rajahal]

Thanks for the quick responses, everyone.

 

Thanks for the link WeeboTech, that Cooler Master 4-in-3 looks like just what I need.  Also thanks for the additional tip, lionelhutz.

 

I picked one of those mounting brackets up last night from a local computer store for $5 (better than Newegg's $10).  Unfortunately, they don't fit my Antec case.  They attach to the HDD just fine, but they don't match up with the optical drive screw holes in the case. 

 

These screw hole locations are VERY standard and have not changed in MANY years.  If this does't fit neither would DVD Drives or those 4x3 / 5x3 docks.   My guess is that you installed them wrong.  It is easy to get them turned around or put the wrong one on the wrong side.  You might want to try again.

 

Haha, yeah, I was kind of thinking this too, and I wouldn't be too surprised if I did (since I've never used these brackets before).  I can't see how I might have installed them incorrectly, though, since the brackets only line up with the screw holes on the HDDs one way.  I could have installed them upside-down, perhaps, but even if I did, they still should have been wide enough to slide into my case's small tabs that are intended to support an optical drive, but they weren't.

 

Here are some close-up picture of my case's optical drive bay:

 

As you can see, the only screw holes are the rectangular holes to either side of the three large, circular vents.  I could get the brackets to line up with one of those, but not both (it isn't nearly long enough).  Perhaps my case is just weird.

 

Edit: I just found this picture: http://bixnet.net/images/Bracket-Display.jpg  I installed the brackets just like that, though on the data/power cable end of the HDD, not the opposite end as shown in the picture.  I don't imagine that would make much of a difference.

[WeeboTech]

I have some of the longer metal brackets that span the length of the hard drive.

[Rajahal]

Even so, wouldn't they need to be 5.25" long (much longer than the HDD) to be able to line up with the screw holes in my Antec case's optical drive bay (pictured above)?

[SSD]

Some cases use a kind of rail, and the rail will attach to a 5 1/4" drive (or 3 1/2" drive with one of those adapters).  Once attached, they slide into the case and lock in place using a screwless mechanism.

 

Looks like that's what you've got going.  Did your case come with rails as I'm describing?

[Rajahal]

I don't remember any, no.  What you see is what I've got.  I'll double check when I get home tonight, though.  I've never tried to install an optical drive into the case (I've got an external one, and I've never had any need for another), so I've never really run into this problem before.  Looking at this picture, it seems that maybe the case was supposed to ship with those rails and perhaps mine didn't.  I just never noticed because I never needed them.

[WeeboTech]

When I looked closer at your picture I thought to myself you need the rails for that case in the top slots.

After looking at the other link, it confirmed my suspicion.