March 26, 201511 yr How important is the CPU with an UnRaid server. I see a lot of minimal configs. I have three board options from old systems. My application is serving media (Plex), hosting dropbox and file sharing (couple users). I'll have 12 sata devices, each of these will have 2-4 spare 6Gb/s sata ports. BioStar TA880GU3+ Ver. 6.x - w/AMD Athlon™ II X4 Processor @ 3.0 Mhz - 24GB DDR3 1333 - Only 1 PCI-E x16 (x16 mode) for 8 Port SATA Card - 6 6Gb/s Sata Ports - 4 Spare Sata Ports on PCI-E for Expansion Asus M5A97 - w/AMD FX-4170 @ 4.2Mhz - 24GB DDR3 1333 - 2 PCI-E x16 (x16 Mode) ports (use 1 for 8 Port SATA Card) - 6 6Gb/s Sata Ports - 4 Spare Sata Ports on PCI-E for Expansion Asus P8Z68-V Pro - w/Intel I5-2500K 3.3Mhz - 24GB DDR3 1333 - 2 PCI-E x16 (x16 Mode) ports (use 1 for 8 Port SATA Card) - 4 6Gb/s Sata Ports (4 3Gb/s ports not used) - 2 Spare Sata Ports on PCI-E for Expansion Memory is interchangeable, only real difference is CPU performance and number of Board based sata ports. BioStar and ASUS M5A97 have 6 6Gb/s board based sata ports. Asus P8Z68 only has 4. i5 Processor is twice as fast as Phenom, and 25% faster than AM3+ FX. So really comes down to process. Ergo, the original question. More processor or more board level 6 Gb/s sata ports! Any thoughts on which would be better?
March 26, 201511 yr For a vanilla unRAID server doing nothing but file sharing, it requires very little CPU power. Virtually anything in your junk drawer will suffice. What will require CPU power is Plex if you will be doing transcoding. For 1-2 simultaneous transcodes, any of the systems you list above would be fine. If you plan to do several simultaneous on-the-fly transcodes then more CPU is better, go with the i5. For direct play streams CPU power does not matter. If you're not sure, then just go with the more powerful CPU, the i5. The number of 6Gb/s SATA ports is irrelevant. At most you will need the speed of 1-2 6Gb/s SATA ports for SSDs (for cache and/or drive mounted outside array, if you choose to use them), which all mobos listed have. The rest of the ports will be used for spinner HDDs, which can't even come close to saturating a 3Gb/s SATA port. As a side note, an additional benefit of going with the i5 is that they are much more power efficient than AMD units. It may not be a huge difference in your electric bill, but it can be noticible when you're talking about a system that runs 24x7x365.
March 26, 201511 yr ... More processor or more board level 6 Gb/s sata ports! Go with the processor power. The Core i5 is not only the fastest of the processors you've listed (by a good bit), but is also by far the most power efficient. It'll use less power and provide more "horsepower" than any of the other options. In addition, the P8Z68-V board has 8 SATA ports ... the 4 6b ports you mentioned plus 4 additional 3Gb ports. Note that no modern drive has sustained data rates that even approach 3Gb, so there's no disadvantage to using those ports. Just be sure you use 6Gb ports for any SSDs you might be using.
March 26, 201511 yr Author Excellent and prompt (and timely!) information. Thanks! This helps make the decision. ASUS P8Z68 it is!
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