Hello guys,

 

It's been a while since I've messed with my Unraid box because it's just been rock solid reliable for a very long time, but I'm starting to fill it up so I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action for an upgrade would be.  I'm very happy with the performance, but I'm having a hard time trying to find the limitations of my current hardware and was wondering if I might be able to tap the knowledge of the forum.

 

Current setup:

BIOSTAR TA785G3HD AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138181

 

It's old and it works just fine, but I have 6 SATA ports on it and they're all full

 

I have 5 Green 2TB drives.  4 of them are WD, and 1 of them is a Seagate.  I also have an old 320G drive in there for a cache drive.

 

I just upgraded to 5.0.6 today and got it all squared away because I was under the impression that you needed to do this to allow bigger hard drives to be used.

 

My question(s):

What would be the maximum size drive that I could use for the onboard SATA on this motherboard?

 

Is there an inexpensive SATA controller card that I could add to this setup that would allow me to add 4 channels for a maximum of 10 drives?

 

I have room in my current case for another 2 hard drives, and in the future it will hold 12 if I find another cage.  I would like to be able to do 10 drives in that's feasible.

 

If I could buy an inexpensive controller, then my plan would be to buy either 2x 4TB drives or 2x 6TB drives, replace the parity drive with one of the new ones, and then add the old parity drive back in as a data drive and tack on another big one.  Does that make sense or should I just keep the same # of drives and start replacing them as I can?

 

I would like to use the drives that I currently have, but im up for suggestions if it's not the best solution.

 

thanks in advance,

Luke

What would be the maximum size drive that I could use for the onboard SATA on this motherboard?

 

Difficult to say with certainty, but I suspect your system supports drives > 2TB, as most modern boards do.  Very simple test:  Connect ANY drive larger than 2TB to a SATA port ... if it's "seen" okay by UnRAID, then any drive will work.

 

Note:  If it does not work, check for BIOS updates to the board -- an update may have added large drive support.

 

Since you plan to upgrade to a 6TB parity drive, just go ahead and buy one -- if it works on the motherboard ports, that's great.  If not, then just use it with the add-in controller you're planning to buy.

 

 

Is there an inexpensive SATA controller card that I could add to this setup that would allow me to add 4 channels for a maximum of 10 drives?

 

Yes.  You should use the PCIe x16 slot (assuming you're using the integrated video and don't have a video card), which will provide much better bandwidth for the add-in card.    If you really just want 4 more channels, this little PCIe x2 card will work fine:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124060

 

... but you may want to buy a PCIe x8 card that provides 8 additional ports so you'll have more expansion capability in the future.  [and you'll certainly want that if your board doesn't natively support > 2TB drives]

 

 

... my plan would be to buy either 2x 4TB drives or 2x 6TB drives, replace the parity drive with one of the new ones, and then add the old parity drive back in as a data drive and tack on another big one.  Does that make sense or should I just keep the same # of drives and start replacing them as I can?

 

Yes, that makes sense.    Whether you want to buy 4TB or 6TB drives depends largely on just how large you want to grow the array.    4TB drives are less expensive per TB, but clearly limit the growth potential.  But if you don't need to add a lot now, you could buy a couple of those, and then move to 8 or 10TB units as they become more readily available [8TB drives are already available].

 

Another thought:  If you're using the PCIe x16 slot for a video card, I'd simply remove it and use the onboard video, so you have that slot available for an add-in controller.    It's a much better choice than using your x1 slot.

 

Also, when you're testing for > 2TB support, be sure you look and see what UnRAID "sees" for the size of the drive.  Even if the BIOS doesn't show the larger drives, UnRAID may ... it depends on the characteristics of your controller.  I've seen several older systems where the BIOS doesn't see the size correctly, but the drives work just fine as long as the OS supports them (whether Linux or Windows).

 

I do have the x16 slot still available as I don't even have a monitor hooked up to this machine.

 

I was looking at the pricing and a 4tb is probably where I would end up for now.  It's taken me about 5 years to fill up what I have now.

 

I have a question regarding pcix slots.  Can you put any card in the x16 slow as long as it's lower?  for instance could I put a x4 card into a x16 slot?

 

I think one of the cheaper controller cards that has 4 ports would be fine for me, that would put my total # of drives to 10.  I'm not too worried about performance as I typically use a cache drive.  I'm assuming that with one of those cheaper cards I would still have enough bandwidth to stream 2 bluray images at the same time... but I could be wrong.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

Luke

I have a question regarding pcix slots.  Can you put any card in the x16 slow as long as it's lower?  for instance could I put a x4 card into a x16 slot?

 

I think you mean PCIe slots. And yes, you can put any card into an x16 slot (excluding compatibility issues which are very rare).

 

Interestingly, you can also put a card into a narrower slot. For example, putting an x16 card into an x8 slot. In fact, it is somewhat common for motherboards to offer 2 apparently x16 slots for video cards (i.e., the connector is long on both slots), but inside one has only 4 lanes (x4) or 8 lanes (x8) connected. x16 video cards work fine, just a little slower on high speed graphics.

 

I've even heard of people melting the plastic at the end of a short slot and inserted a longer card and it works fine too (albeit at reduced bandwidth).

Given the rate you're acquiring data, 4TB drives make good sense -- more economical, and will last you well into the future.    By the time you need more, you can likely move to much higher densities.

 

As Brian noted, there are two characteristics of PCIe slots:  the physical slot size (x1, x2, x4, x8, x16) and the actual number of active lanes.    Many boards have x16 or x8 slots that have fewer active lanes -- either 4 or 8.  But ANY PCIe card should work in ANY slot that it fits in ... it will only use either the number of lanes the card supports (if that's smaller than the number the slot provides) or the number of lanes the slot has active (if the card supports more).

 

Many boards use open-ended slots for the smaller slots (x1, x4, etc.) ==> i.e. the rear of the slot isn't closed, so a card with more lanes will fit in the slot.    Or you can simply remove the rear of the slot (VERY carefully) to allow the same thing.    I've not seen anyone melt it off (as Brian noted) ... but I've seen plenty that were simply cut off with a Dremel tool.

 

Thanks for the help guys, I may go ahead and order one of those cards that you linked and a 4TB drive or two.  If I order 2 4TB drives, it should net me 6 more TB of storage because I'll reuse the old parity drive.

 

Any drives that are the hot ticket right now, or should I stick with the tried and true WD greens?  performance is not as important as cost and reliability.

... Any drives that are the hot ticket right now ...

Everyone, it seems, has his favorite...  So check the Good deals forum, HDDs are frequent there.

...  or should I stick with the tried and true WD greens?  performance is not as important as cost and reliability.

 

If you're happy with the greens, they're fine.  Personally, I only buy the WD Reds these days -- slightly more efficient than the greens, and a year longer warranty.