I'm a newb to DIY NAS.

 

Budget: $300 not including HDs.

Drives: 6Tb of space on ~3 drives to start as I explore unRaid.

Expandability: Only in terms of space, and slowly at that.

Desired Plugins: PLEX, Crashplan, SickBeard, Transmission

Short History: I bought a direct attached Drobo years back, plugged it into foxconn nettop running WinXP and installed plex, utorrent, crashplan and a few other odds and ends. It has worked well until recently; I lost the drive in the nettop. I started looking around for another solution and i've finally been convinced by all the drobo horror stories and want move to a more open solution.

 

I want something that can be setup with minimal fuss the first time and can be maintained with a periodic, "Is it on fire?" check; I'm not looking to tinker with the thing. The list of unRAID 5 plugins (http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID5_Plugins) pretty much covers all my bases and I'm set to try it out, but I want to wade into the shallow end with pretty cheap hardware.

 

I've been able to price out a low power/cost machine on NewEgg and was looking for feedback.

 

MB: ASRock AM1B-ITX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157490

 

CPU: AMD Sempron 3850 Kabini http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113366

 

RAM: 4GB (2x2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396

 

PWR: (I've read not to skimp here.) SeaSonic SSR-360GP http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151117

 

~ $200 so far.

 

CASE: scavenge/reuse if I can, otherwise maybe Fractal R3?

 

HDs: I'll probably run unRAID from USB, maybe a spare small SSD as a cache. The HDs will be scavenged from other places, and finally the best drive(s) from the existing drobo will be moved over once its empty of data. But if I buy, I'll probably go WD Green...

 

Is this _too_ low end for unRAID; will I just be disappointed?

 

Is my hardware selection supported? Primarily I didn't find any reference to the  RTL8111GR NIC chipset in the forums, and I'm not sure what to make of the SATA info from the ASRock site "2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by AMD AM1 Series Socket 25W Quad-Core APU, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug, 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug". No "controller" is listed for the first pair of SATA, but the ASMedia ASM1061 seems ok.

 

Suggestions? Back to formula? Thanks - eric

I' running:

MB: ASUS AM1M-A (90MB0IR0-M0EAY0)
CPU: AMD Athlon 5350, 4x 2.05GHz
RAM: 4GB Corsair
SATA Expansion: Digitus DS-30104-1, PCIe x2
4 HDDs

@25Watt idle

 

Have some issues with 6beta, but Unraid runs smooth.

With an ITX board I'd go with an SFX power supply -- this is a good choice:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256097

 

You may/may not actually need that, depending on the case you select; but it gives you the option of using a mini-ITX case and not being overly cramped internally.

 

This is certainly a low-end system; but except for the possibility of a NIC issue (as you're aware) it should work fine.  I presume you're aware that the board only supports 4 SATA ports ... so to go beyond 4 drives you'll need to add an add-in SATA controller card.

 

this really looks like a nice build! could you tell us if you had any problems with the nic if you end up buying it?

That CPU is low end.  It's probably fine for basic NAS duties and low end plugins like Crashplan, SickBeard and Transmission but you also mentioned Plex.  Plex requires some horsepower if you want to transcode for your player devices.  It's generally recommended to have a PassMark score of at least 2,000 to transcode a single 1080p stream - the AMD is under that.

 

http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

 

On the Intel side you could step up to a 4,000 PassMark CPU for an extra $20.  I'm not sure about AMD CPUs, but I think it's worth looking into.  Regarding motherboards, I'd spend an extra couple of bucks and get something with a better known NIC and 6 SATA slots.  You might also consider getting a motherboard with an x16 slot that functions at least at x8 mode.  You have better options for a SATA expansion card with an x8 capable slot than you do an x4.  Sorry I don't have specific recommendations - my experience is on the Intel side.

@tdallen: Thanks for the PassMark advice.

 

I noticed the Athlon 5350 Kabini http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113364 is PassMark ~2600, still within the 25W range, and only a small jump in price. I think I'll switch it out in my newegg cart.

 

I'm not sure how much transcoding my PLEX will do. I watch via a Roku 3 on a single TV, and very occasionally via my NookHD. Most of my movies are DVD (480) encoded with handbrake, and what little recorded TV I watch is usually 720p; both seem like they should play pass-thru.

 

 

@daenor: Yep, will keep this thread updated.

 

 

@garycase: Thanks for the link, but the thing is intended to sit in a closet upstairs. Will probably go w/ mid-tower and be able to use a full size PSU.

 

 

@Owel: Great news... lots of the same gear. The Realtek 8111GR cause any issues? Have you done anything about the 2x SATA or you just mirroring for now?

 

Thanks - eric

as you can see, i have a sata expansion card to add up to 4 more drives

 

@Owel: Ahh.. I had my blinders on.

 

Although the chipset isn't listed, this looks to be the same controller http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815287028?

I'm going to suggest going with a single 4gb stick for better expansion later.  The loss of dual channel will NOT be noticed. But the potential instability of 4 sticks later on will be.

I'm going to suggest going with a single 4gb stick for better expansion later.  The loss of dual channel will NOT be noticed. But the potential instability of 4 sticks later on will be.

 

Agree that using a single 4GB memory module is a better idea than using 2 x 2GB modules, as it will leave a slot free for adding more memory later.

 

However ... there's no "... loss of dual channel ..." involved in doing this => this board does not support dual channel memory operation        There's also no "... potential instability of 4 sticks later ..." => the board only has 2 memory slots 

Hahaha you are indeed right.

just recently embarked on a similar journey myself.

 

MB: Asus H87I-PLUS ($75, ebay)

CPU: Celeron G1840 ($50, ncix.com)

Ram: 2GB Cruicial ($25 ncix.com)

Cost for above: $150

 

That leaves me $150 for a case and power supply...to which I'm leaning Q25B and SFX PSU (really, just to keep Gary happy, lol)...should be plenty left over for those items in the budget.

 

my point is, check classified ads for good savings. as I saved $50 on the MB alone.

Update... Finally got all the parts in and assembled my rig. I've decided to go with unRaid 6 (b9) so that I can use docker from the start.

 

So far:

1) I've got a 4TB parity drive, a 3TB data drive and an 80 GB drive formated as btrfs (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=33806.0) . After a few months of stable performance, I'll move a spare 2TB drive over to unRaid.

 

EDIT: Running unRaid of a 16 GB Sandisk Cruzer Fit... yay!

 

2) Copied my media library over, source was USB attached drives so I don't think reporting performance (was terrible) will be any use.

 

3) Setup for Plex was straight forward, super easy and it's working like a champ.

 

PLEX: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=33805.0

 

4) I struggled with Crashplan for a while, but it seems to be working. I have no idea what I did, other than follow http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=33864.0 and after a few false starts, it started working.

 

I'm now working on SABnzbd, Sickbeard and Transmission. Hopefully I'll just be checking for fires soon.