September 11, 201411 yr I'm looking to build my first unRAID solution, but i'm having troubles deciding on the components. Cost isn't a factor, but it does need to be reasonable. I see what others are building, but i'm not necessarily "on board" with the solutions of some. I do know some things that I would like to do, and I hope that others have some suggestion to help fill in the gaps. One thing is I want it to be powerful enough to do what I want, but as quite as I can get it. I'm trying to figure out an ITX solution becuase I want it small. I'm looking to do: 1 Parity Drive (WD Red 4TB, or Seagate NAS 4TB) 5 Storage Drives (WD Red 4TB, or Seagate NAS 4TB) 1 Cache/Plugin Drive (SSD, haven't decided on size yet) *I would do eight drives if I picked the DS380B case. Plugins: PLEX, Webserver/Owncloud Case: LI PC-Q25B, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339 SilverStone DS380B, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163255 *I like both of them. Everyone mentions the cooling is great in the Q25B. I thought about getting the SilverStone DS380B for more room, but I keep reading about cooling issues. MB: Intel, don't know what one yet CPU: Intel i5 Quad, perhaps?, don't know exactly RAM: ECC, perhaps 8GB? PSU: Not sure SATA Controller: I would think I would need a simple SATA controller for more than six drives As far as Plex goes I want to be able to support two streams. Most of the time it will be just one stream. Any thoughts?
September 11, 201411 yr ECC ram puts you squarely into server class ITX boards. FYI. I just recently finished a Q25 system and used the Asus H87i-PLUS and it was a pleasure to work with. But it doesn't support ECC ram (why ECC ram?? this isn't ZFS you know ) my build specs and (short) story are here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=35184.0 P.S. if it isn't stressed enough in my thread there, or any other. get the SFX PSU.
September 11, 201411 yr Author ECC ram puts you squarely into server class ITX boards. FYI. I just recently finished a Q25 system and used the Asus H87i-PLUS and it was a pleasure to work with. But it doesn't support ECC ram (why ECC ram?? this isn't ZFS you know ) my build specs and (short) story are here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=35184.0 P.S. if it isn't stressed enough in my thread there, or any other. get the SFX PSU. (HeHe) Well I guess it doesn't have to be ECC RAM. I'm open to anything. I'm just used to always getting that kind of memory with my background in Enterprise IT. I looked at your board, but i'm not too sure it would be able to handle two streams of video via PLEX? Could it? The PSU you use looks like it would be a good choice no matter what I choose for the board and CPU.
September 11, 201411 yr the board doesnt have much say in "horsepower" when you're talking current generation parts, thats in the CPU you choose. You could put an i7 on that board and it will handle streams without a problem. The celeron g1840 i put on mine (my unraid doesnt have any other functions than server files) idles back to 800mhz constantly during a parity check. Gives you an idea how little processing power unraid really needs.
September 12, 201411 yr Author Yes, I should have looked at what CPUs you can put on the motherboard. I'm thinking an i5 Quad should be ample, but would it be overkill for streaming two streams? Should 8GB of memory be enough, or should I go with 16GB? I'm not familiar with the possible constraints of using unRAID with the plugins.
September 12, 201411 yr are these streams going to be transcoded or native playback on the devices? This is the biggest factor for processor selection in your proposed setup.
September 12, 201411 yr Author I had to think about that one a little. Yes, the streams would be trans-coded, but no more than two at a time.
September 12, 201411 yr Some of the newer Haswell Core i3 CPUs could do it, the general recommendation is 2,000 Passmarks per 1080p stream. http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php Many i5 CPUs would do, as well - but check since there are some low end models.
September 12, 201411 yr Author OK, I have it figured mostly out after looking more around, and other things clicking into place... MB: ASUS H871 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132032 CPU: Intel Quad-Core i5-4690K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117372 RAM: Crucial 16 (2 x 8GB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148545 PSU: Silverstone ST45SF 450W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256063 CASE: LIAN LI PC-Q25B http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112339 USB Flash Drive: SanDisk 8GB Cruzer Fit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2C01XU2491 SATA CC: SYBA SY-PEX40039 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card [so I can expand past six drives] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124045 Now, I have one more question can you have more than one cache drive, or perhaps a cache drive and a separate plugin drive?
September 13, 201411 yr You can have more than one drive yes but not as 'cache' (save for BTRFS drive pooling, but thats advanced stuff). Your second drive would have to be mounted manually at boot up and is more advanced. The cache drive should cover everything you need because you can set it so that things stay on the drive rather than move to the array. The "K" in the processor title means this is an unlocked CPU, meant for overclocking. Overclocking is something you will not be doing with the unRAID server so you could probably find an equivalent i5 based on clock rate and save a few bucks.
September 13, 201411 yr Author Looks like there is a $10 difference between the 4690 and 4690K. So I take it that the "i5-4690" is the regular CPU? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116989
September 13, 201411 yr Author Will that SATA Controller Card work OK? I've never used a pass-through SATA Controller card before, so I just want to make sure. I have only used SAS RAID cards in large rack servers.
September 13, 201411 yr Ive never used an add-in controller card either so I couldn't tell you for sure. Perhaps plug it into the search function and see if it comes up??
September 13, 201411 yr Author Looks like there is a list of compatible SATA cards. http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Compatibility#PCI_SATA_Controllers According to the list it will work with a minor scripting change. ...So, I think I'm all set. Time to order! Thanks mr-hexen for all your help! I'll post more as the parts get in, and I'll link from here to my rig setup under that part of the forum.
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