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!

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)

 

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?

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. 

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" 

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

 

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

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