Hi,

 

So this is my first build of an unraid system (I'm based in the UK), I'm currently trying to decide on hardware but I have a set of requirements that I can outline to help things along, plus I've already sort of got a view on the hardware myself anyway.

 

Physical Requirements

- 14 Drives

- Low Power

- Noise not an issue (it'll live in the garage)

- Aiming for 24/7 Operation (potentially with scheduled shutdowns at say 3am and restarts at about 4pm during weekdays and longer running weekends, is there an app for this in UnRaid?)

 

Operating Requirements

- VMs that will be running;

    a) Minecraft Server (only for up to 10 users, it's a personal build only)

    b) Weather Server (not very intensive, certainly no more than MC)

- Plugins:

    a) Plex (generally I run this to small computer in the living room so it doesn't do too much in terms of transcoding).

    b) TimeMachine (for the Mac)

    c) Various tool plugins

 

I think that's about it for the moment but there is a chance I'll run other VMs on here to provide services to machines in the house.  I had considered Windows Server 2012 R2 with Stablebit / Drivepool as an alternative to UnRaid, however I am slightly leaning towards UnRaid as I think it would be useful and flexible to use.

 

Hardware so far (if it can be avoided I'd rather not have mobos with NICs I can't use etc):

 

- i5 4460 S

- 128GB SanDisk X110 for VMs

- USB 3.0 UnRaid (internal header adaptor) Stick

- 500W BeQuiet! Pure Power (I think this is too much for this system, any views?  I'd like to think I could get away with 300W)

- Lycom PE-120 AHCI SATA III 6Gbps 4 Port PCI-e Adapter

- ASRock Z87 Extreme 6 (10 x Sata III ports, however I believe the NIC is unsupported, I think I read that on here?)

- 2 x 4GB Corsair Value DDR3 RAM PC3-10600 (1333Mhz) Non-ECC (I think that should be plenty)

- Edimax EN-9260TXE Gig PCI-e NIC

 

The drives will be a mix and match for now but eventually 4TB WD Greens.  The Chassis is already purchased, it's a 3U 14 bay unit that will go into the rack I have in the garage.

 

Any comments, criticisms, etc gratefully received.  I've been trawling around on this site but the hardware list seems quite out of date and these forums can take a lot of trawling around so I figured I'd post and see if I get responses.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Craig

 

 

 

Pretty solid build.  Only thing I'd say is I'd lean towards UnRAID6 rather than 5.  6 will support the AsRock's NIC no problems, I've had no issues with NIC support on 6 at all, it's worked with every Intel NIC I've tried (i217-V, i217-LM, i218-LM, i210AT, etc, etc).

 

If you do go with 6, then you should be looking towards Dockers rather than plugins.  You can run your VMs on KVM in 6.

 

As for the hardware, I'd certainly go for 16GB RAM, especially as you're running VMs.  8GB is a bit tight IMHO.  I'd swing towards a Corsair CS450M PSU, I've got a few of them and they're silent and stable.  Cheap too.  As for drives, if you want WD Greens, I'd spend a little more on WD AV-GP.  They're a Green designed to run 24/7, I've found them to be a little better performing than the WD Red, and they don't eat themselves in a month like normal Greens.

 

I'm confused why you think you need to reboot daily, but are looking for 24/7 operation?  You shouldn't need to reboot at all.

 

Ok.. I had wondered about the RAM option, I will probably look at boosting that up to 16GB for running the VMs.  Definitely will go for UnRaid 6.

 

Someone is pushing me towards i7 rather than i5, but the cost is significant, do you have a view as to whether or not this is worth it?

 

Basically for the rebooting etc I am thinking of power consumption.  Basically when the system is running overnight in the 'unsociable hours' I'd quite like it to shut down so run on a schedule if you like such as:

 

2am to 4pm Mon - Thurs shutdown

2am to 1pm Fri shutdown

2am to 10am Sat - Sun shutdown

 

If I run it on this schedule then I save a fair amount of power, unless of course I can just use a power management solution to keep consumption down but maintain 24 / 7 operations.

 

Cheers

 

Craig

I doubt an i7 will make much difference, a decent i5 will be more than fast enough.  In fact, I found the higher clock speed of my i3 more beneficial than the slower clocks of the Xeon E3 I had - dual core 3.6GHz with HT was better for running Plex than quad core 3.2GHz.

 

Once the drives are spun down, I'd fully expect a modern Haswell build to idle around 25W.  Certainly my i3 on the B85 board idles at 22W, though it only has a single i218 NIC and two fans and a 300W PSU.  Even when I was running the Xeon E3-1225v3 on the Asus P9D board which had IPMI, dual NICs, etc, idle power consumption was still only 30-32W.

 

With idle power consumption that low, you'd need to be very penny pinching to go to the effort of shutting it down.

Haswell-based systems are indeed VERY power efficient.  I recently built a new desktop for my wife using an i7-4790, with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 4TB 2nd drive.  It idles just under 30 watts.

 

The Xeon E3, say a 1231 v3, gives you the performance of an i7 at an i5 price.  It does lack the onboard GPU though, so unless you have something like a PCI graphics card it may not be a viable option.

Did you manage to get the Lycom PE-120 card working. I have just purchased a very similar based build. But I am having issues with UnRaid picking up any drives attached to the card. The card is working as I can go into the BIOS and play around with some RAID options. Not many options to play with, but otherwise UnRaid doesn't pick up any drives attached to it. Keen to know if yours is working and how you got it working.

 

 

@Strider, are you running unRAID v 6? 

Did you manage to get the Lycom PE-120 card working. I have just purchased a very similar based build. But I am having issues with UnRaid picking up any drives attached to the card. The card is working as I can go into the BIOS and play around with some RAID options. Not many options to play with, but otherwise UnRaid doesn't pick up any drives attached to it. Keen to know if yours is working and how you got it working.

 

Do not set up any RAID on the card.  Clear any configuration you may have set up.  UnRAID doesn't work with RAID (the hint's in the name!).  When you don't set up a RAID on the Lycom card, then it just works like a SATA adapter.

Hi all, yes running latest version of UnRAID V6.0.0. I have been scouring around to try find a firmware to flash the RAID off the drive but to no avail. Went into the RAID management <ctrl+m> but no option to remove RAID. So a dud card then...

 

Ordered another card with 2 ports SATA. This is a non RAID which arrives on Monday. I am sure this will do the trick.