Looking to build a NAS using Unraid for Raid 5 with parity disk. The disks will mainly be a couple 1.5TB disks + parity for starters, with the ability to expand with more 1 or 1.5tb disks. It will house my growing collection of x264 HD files as well as critical other data like HD home videos and music.

 

Please let me know if this hardware will work together and any suggestions on better hardware to use for approx. the same prices:

 

Asus P5QL Pro (6 sata ports)

E5200 CPU

Corsair 650TX PSU (will this be enough to eventually support six sata disks? or do I need this much power? What's the min. I would need)?

Antec Three Hundred or Centurion 590 case (which one is better?)

Kingston Datatraveller 2GB USB (for the Unraid OS)

 

Drives wise, I currently have a 1.5TB 7200.11 which I understand I probably shouldn't use due to freezing issues.

 

What large (at least 1TB) are the cheapest/most reliable to use for this RAID 5 NAS?

unRAID is not RAID5 or any other traditional RAID.

Your parts list is all data/obsolete hardware.    Unless you're simply trying to use existing hardware you already have, you should do a bit more research and use both newer hardware AND significantly larger hard drives.  The "sweet spot" in terms of cost/TB these days is 3TB ... although 4TB drives are getting pretty close if you watch the sales.

 

As for your power supply question:  Yes, 650w is PLENTY for 6 drives ... in fact it's far more than you need => a quality 450w unit would be more than adequate.

 

 

I run unRAID on a P5B with a 400 watt power supply for 6 disks.  I have run it with a Core2Duo E6400 and a Pentium Dual Core E5300, and now a Core2Quad Q9550.  I've run it with 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB RAM.  It runs fine on all those configurations, though for unRAID 6 you may find yourself wanting more than 2GB memory.  I wouldn't spend money to acquire older hardware like this but if you have all/most of it you can certainly use it.

 

I agree with Gary - I would not spend good money on 1TB drives.  I have had good luck with WD 3TB Red NAS drives.

I'm fairly new to unRAID (maybe under 6 months of usage) and I can tell you, go with the most reasonable biggest drive you can for parity now, because having to replace your 1.5TB with a larger drive for a parity-resync will take a while.

 

The motherboard and CPU are ok-ish. Like others said, they are a bit long in the tooth, but should be fine if you aren't going plugin happy in unRAID 5 or 6.

 

The 650TX would be overkill, but would serve nicely if you decided one day to go gung ho with a lot more drives.

 

I like the Antec 300. I used to use that for my unRAID server initally, before moving to a Fractal Define R4, then R5. The 300 gives 6 3.5" bays, plus any you can stuff in the 5.25" bays. Only thing is that it doesn't block noise at all, and is quite the dust magnet.

 

USB drive should be fine.

 

 

Are some of these parts (case, PSU) all leftovers or hand me downs?