Jumping to unraid

[takagari]

I've done a lot of looking and unraid fits the bill.

I have a number of drives on hand I'd love to slap into this system and than let it expand!

 

2 questions really.

 

1. If I wish to expand, can I simply pull a 1tb and drop in a 4tb and let it rebuild?

2. It supports 4tb and the newer 5 and  drives?

 

I plan to use a Norco 4224 case

3 MV8 cards.

 

So I'm looking for a moherboard with room for the cards, onboard video and dual gigabit

 

I also have 4 XBMC setups and could expect 2-4 going at any one time, streaming hd.

 

What would be needed for that heavy of a load.

 

Thank you. Appreciate any help!

[garycase]

1. If I wish to expand, can I simply pull a 1tb and drop in a 4tb and let it rebuild?

 

Yes, with the caveat that you can't add a drive larger than the parity drive.  I'd suggest you install as large a drive as possible for your parity drive, so you're not limited in future expansions  (you can always change the parity drive to a larger unit; but it's much more convenient to simply start off with the largest drive you may want to use as the parity unit).

 

 

2. It supports 4tb and the newer 5 and  drives?

 

Yes, 4TB, 6TB, even the new 8TB and 10TB units 

... the only potential issue is your SATA controller has to support drives > 2TB  (If it passes that threshold, all of the larger drives will work)

 

[takagari]

Thanks for the info, does the standard mv8 everyone is using support 4tb+? or is that dependent?

 

How about my BW/processing power Q? Any advice there?

[Frank1940]

With 4 XBMC setups are you going to be transcoding on the server or a media device (or player) associated with the display?

 

I cam stream three BluRay stream simultaneously from either of my two servers listed below.  Limitations on straight streaming is usually more a function of the network than the server. 

[garycase]

If you want to support 4 simultaneous streams, I'd build a system with a fair amount of CPU "horsepower".    Personally, I'd use a Haswell Core-i5 for that, although an i3 is probably okay.  Never hurts to have a bit of extra "headroom" 

[takagari]

No transcoding, Just streaming. So not a huge deal.

[Chris Pollard]

AOC-SASLP-MV8 works with 4TB+ drives.  Not sure about the older SAT2-MV8,  don't think I ever tried.

[takagari]

Than those are what I'd use for sure!

 

I Don't want tow orry about it later, so definetly want to put 3 of those on a mobo, with onboard video, and dual gigabit, want the speed/expansion room to really move files when needed.

[Chris Pollard]

With the right motherboard you can get away with 2x8 Port cards.  I'm using the onboard controllers on my systems with reverse breakout cables.

[takagari]

On board may work, assuming they have 8 ports?

 

I'll setup a 4 or 5 as a parity drive, than add every hdd I have on hand. 500gb and. see what I get

[Chris Pollard]

Yes 8 on board with reverse breakout cables.  Depends what motherboards you are looking at really.  My boards have 6 and I just bought a cheap 2 port PCIE for the other 2 ports.

[Fireball3]

I'm using the onboard controllers on my systems with reverse breakout cables.

 

That means you have a backplane/bay with mini SAS connector?

[takagari]

The 4224 uses those cables. So I'm guessing that's what he means.