First build - Compact/Low Power/Budget, please check

[daftKow]

Hey all,

 

Looking to put together a low-cost, low-budget, compact NAS. It will primarily be for storage and serving media to PCs (no need for transcoding). I may tinker with SABnzbd/sickbeard/couchpotato/headphones down the road, but a simple transmission plugin will likely suffice.

 

This is what I'm looking at:

 

Gigabyte GA-J1800N-D2H Bay Trail SoC Motherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4881#ov

 

Corsair 2GB DDR3 SODIMM Memory, 1333MHz CMSO2GX3M1A1333C9

http://www.corsair.com/en/corsair-memory-2gb-ddr3-sodimm-memory-cmso2gx3m1a1333c9

 

Fsp 220W FlexATX FSP220-60LE (80) Power Supply

http://www.fsp-group.com.tw/index.php?do=proinfo&id=339

 

Fractal Node 304 mITX case

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/node-series/node-304-black

 

Will start with 2x 4GB WD Reds. Once those are full, grab:

 

Syba SI-PEX40064

http://sybausa.com/productInfo.php?iid=1376

 

for another 4 SATA, will be adding HDDs in pairs to keep parity. Say 2x6TB then 2x8TB or whatever ....

 

So my questions are as follow:

 

1. Is the Bay Trail SoC sufficient for my needs? no transcoding, max 2 computers be accessing the data at once (most likely just 1).

 

2. Will 220W be enough? Or should I look into getting a 300W? I'm only aiming to get 6HDDs Reds in total. I understand the lower the wattage, the more efficient at low wattage they are.

 

3. Will that FlexATX PSU fit in the Node 304? Will I need a special adapter for the FlexATX? Or I should just look for a regular ATX PSU?

 

4. How's that 4port card? Any known issues with the Marvell 88SE9215 chipset? I understand PCIe x1 will only be about 500MB/s theoretical max, but I don't imagine that to be an issue with these drives, right?

 

Any other pieces of advice would be greatly appreciated !

 

Thank you all for your patience! I'm super excited to learn more about how to build a compact, quiet,  low-power NAS! Cheers,

[bkastner]

Taking a quick look at the server/PSU you see the following:

 

Server supports:

•ATX PSUs, up to 160mm in length (To fit in combination with a long graphics card, PSUs with modular connectors on the back typically need to be shorter than 160 mm)

 

the PSU is:

Dimensions : 150 x 81.5 x 40.3mm

 

It should fit fine, but since you can support ATX power supplies that may be a cheaper option. Especially since you can get modular PSUs to minimize your cables in the case. However, 220w seems low for 6 drives. I am sure someone here can do the math to confirm, but I would personally go somewhat higher. Yes, it will draw more power, but if you under provision the PSU you can get wonky issues, so I tend to overprovision a bit to have some headroom.

 

If you are just serving out data that cpu/memory should be fine. I originally had an AMD x2 Athlon that was only a bit more powerful, and had SAB/SB/CP/HP running.

 

One additional comment on the drive/parity piece. Regardless of whether you have 2 drives, 6 drives, or 22 drives, you still only have a single parity drive for the entire UnRAID server, so you don't need to add drives in pairs. You can add one at a time as needed.

 

[vl1969]

could you use something like this :?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128619

you can upgrade the CPU if you need more power later or get one now.

supports more memory

have 4 SATA ports on board so with 3x4T drives you can have 8T of space now.

1P + 2D

[bkastner]

That would be a good buy. For an extra $10-$20 you get twice the performance and the ability to upgrade down the road with minimal cost (i.e. just CPU).

 

I would definitely do that over the SOC solution.

[vl1969]

that was my thoughts exactly.

SoC has its uses but building server on it is not something I would do.

 

now, I could build my new HTPC on it just fine :-)

 

[trurl]

could you use something like this :?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128619

you can upgrade the CPU if you need more power later or get one now.

supports more memory

have 4 SATA ports on board so with 3x4T drives you can have 8T of space now.

1P + 2D

This is a microATX board. The case specs are for miniITX

[vl1969]

sorry, but here 2 more

 

 

http://www.staples.com/GIGABYTE-8-Series-Ultra-Durable-4-Plus-16GB-Desktop-Motherboard/product_IM1TL5855?cid=PS:GooglePLAs:IM1TL5855&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=IM1TL5855&KPID=IM1TL5855

OR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CI_Z2JCv_L0CFe07OgodWmMAmQ&Item=N82E16813157367&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Intel+Motherboards-_-N82E16813157367&ef_id=UjhkFgAABYdHuz1Z:20140425192643:s

[daftKow]

Thank you for the feedback. I was considering a G3220 with a board with more SATA ports. It will be approx $60-80 more expensive, which isn't overall a big deal.

 

Are you saying the SoC is insufficient for my needs? The G3220 needs to be actively cooled too, which means another component that may be prone to breaking (CPU fan). It will also draw more power (possibly negligible) Just wondering if it's really necessary.

 

Am I able to underclock/undervolt the G3220?

 

Thanks again.

[vl1969]

No, it's not that soc is not capable.  But in a long run you will be stuck with what you got. No upgrade, at least not easy one. And not cheap. It's better to spend a litle now than a lot later IMHO.  If you are sure you will not need more power and expansion in the next 3 years, go for it.

 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

 

 

[bkastner]

As vl1969 mentioned, SOC is not a good investment. It sounds like this is likely your first UnRAID server, which means you likely don't know what you will want to do with it down the road (you don't know what you don't know as the saying goes). Starting with a solid foundation that is easy to upgrade is a smart move so that if your needs grow beyond what you are currently thinking it's a minimal investment to get more horsepower.

 

As for the CPU fan, the likelihood of this being an issue is negligible. I've had 6-10 computers running at home concurrently for the last 5+ years and have never had a fan fail on me - not to say it can't happen, but this is really a non-concern.

 

Same with the power draw... I personally wouldn't screw around with underclocking/undervolting the CPU. Just run it at speck and be happy.

 

It's your build, and if you want the SOC solution it will likely meet your needs, but for the limited cost/power addition we are trying to better improve your odds of a happy end user experience.

[Poprin]

 

2. Will 220W be enough? Or should I look into getting a 300W? I'm only aiming to get 6HDDs Reds in total. I understand the lower the wattage, the more efficient at low wattage they are.

 

 

I'm quite confident that's not the case. Most PSU's power certification is measured at approx. 50% load. So the harder you push the power supply the less efficient it will run. Also the efficiency rating is often measured at a specific temperature, so the more load the power supply is under the hotter it gets and therefore the less efficient. So in short you should always over provision your power supply. You need to strike a balance between the cost of the unit v's the efficiency. If you had an 1000w PSU and a 300w PSU and your system was drawing 200w you would still only draw 200w from the plug (in theory if both units delivered the power efficiently). So a more powerful unit will not cost more to run at all, it's just got a much higher chance of delivering that power efficiently as it will be working at a much lower percentage of it's total capability.

 

I would suggest looking more towards a high rated 400-600w power supply unit personally. This should give you the best balance of unit cost v's efficiency.

[Packalacky]

I got this current motherboard/soc and case.

 

It's more than enough for it's intended job, running parity checks at around 130-140MB/s. Currently also have an Arch VM running form a physical SSD to run Plex, nzbget and deluge. It transcodes plex 1080p without problems and it's silent, low power and does the job perfectly. By the time I get to add 6 drives total I might upgrade, but that's a long way away.