Hey Everyone, I really appreciate you taking the time to check out my post.  I was looking for some build advice.  I've been through the hardware compatibility list on the Wiki, and it appears to be a bit outdated.  I'm steering away from any Gigabyte boards to avoid any HPA problems as outlined in the wiki.  (Unless someone knows a modern board that will work.)

 

So, my requirements is to keep this build somewhere around the $800 mark - but I do enjoy a good challenge.  Primary purposes would be for media streaming to at least two devices at once.  I'd also like to be able to throw up a virtual machine or two for testing and maybe a small minecraft server for my kid.

 

For the systemboard - I'm looking for something with as many sata 6gb/s ports as I can find - ideally 8. But I can always add a card on later.  I don't know how well the built in RAID controllers work with UnRAID - but to save money, a built in RAID controller for the Parity functions would be nice. 

 

How would something like this work?

 

ASRock H97M LGA 1150 Intel H97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157525&cm_re=ASRock_H97M_LGA_1150_Intel_H97-_-13-157-525-_-Product

 

Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell Quad-Core 3.0GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54430

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116895

I realize this may be overkill - but with the added virtual machines, this might be a good idea.

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231489

 

Now, as for the drives.  I'm torn between 3TB Western Digital Reds, or Greens.  I hear the reds are more reliable and the greens are much more power efficient.  But since unRAID only spins up the disks its needs at the time - i'm not sure it's a real concern.  I'd use 1 3TB drive for parity, and at least an additional 6tb for storage for starters.  3 drives total.  I'll expand down the road.

 

For the PSU and the case, I am open to all suggestions.

 

Thank you for your time and your suggestions.

 

 

 

  I'm steering away from any Gigabyte boards to avoid any HPA problems as outlined in the wiki. .

 

Yet you listed a Gigabyte board 

 

 

... I'm looking for something with as many sata 6gb/s ports as I can find - ideally 8.

 

... and you then selected a board with 6 ports 

 

You might want to consider this board instead (not Gigabyte, and has 8 SATA ports): 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157503

 

 

...  I don't know how well the built in RAID controllers work with UnRAID - but to save money, a built in RAID controller for the Parity functions would be nice. 

 

... you don't need any RAID controller for any purpose.  UnRAID is providing the fault-tolerance.    There's NO need for an additional RAID controller -- internal, external, software, or otherwise.

 

 

Now, as for the drives.  I'm torn between 3TB Western Digital Reds, or Greens.  I hear the reds are more reliable and the greens are much more power efficient.

 

The Reds are much more power efficient than the Greens.  They're also more reliable; and have a longer warranty.  I'd definitely go with the Reds.

 

 

I'd use 1 3TB drive for parity, and at least an additional 6tb for storage for starters.  3 drives total.  I'll expand down the road.

 

Not possible.    The parity must be as large as any other drive in the array.    If you want to use a 6TB drive for data, then the parity drive must also be a 6TB unit.

 

For the PSU and the case, I am open to all suggestions.

 

Use a high-quality power supply (Seasonic X series or Corsair HX series).    The size depends on how many drives you eventually want to support ... but typically 500w is plenty.

 

As for a case suggestion -- that's a very personal choice, and depends a lot of how many drives you ultimately want to support.    My two favorite manufacturers are Lian Li and Fractal Design.  Both make several excellent cases that can support a fair number of drives.    First you need to decide if you're going to use an ATX or micro-ATX motherboard;  then have a look at the cases that will accommodate that choice.

 

Sorry, I posted the wrong URL for the board - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157525&cm_re=ASRock_H97M_LGA_1150_Intel_H97-_-13-157-525-_-Product

 

And yes - when I said 6 TB, I was taking about (2) 3TB drives for a total of 6TB.  But thank you for the clarification.

I'm regretting buying a 3TB parity drive, as I'm already considering expanding my array and the 4TB drives are coming down in price.  If I were doing it again I'd splurge on a larger parity drive up front to save the effort of switching parity drives in the future.

Definitely agree you should buy the largest parity drive you can afford.    I only buy 6TB drives these days ... and if there were larger ones available, I'd only buy those.