I'm looking to build a new UnRaid 6 box with support for some VM's and some dockers.  I've been running 5 for years and it's great but I'm running out of room.  I'm starting with a Fractal Node 804 and 10 3.5" drives.  Not sure how to proceed from here.  Should I buy the MB with 10 SATA ports or should I get an external SATA card and get a board with less ports?  I haven't bought the processor yet so any ideas for that would be great as well.

 

Thanks!!

Will you want to be able to do hardware passthru with your VMs? Not all mobos & CPUs will be capable. Also if you want to do video passthru you will need a video card as iGPU is not supported.

I would want to future proof it as much as I could.  So yes on the passthrough.  What type of video card would I need?  Would you be able to get the benefits of a high end video card in a vm?  I'm new to the capabilities of vm's in unraid 6.

If you're looking for future proofing as best you can you could think about a case such as the Norco-4224. Can't think of another consumer-friendly chassis that can house that high of a density without going 2.5".

Lime Technology Tested Components

I love the Norco case but I already have the 804 case. It works for me because of it's footprint.  I wish I had enough space for the Norco.  I have been reading that alot of people like the SuperMicro X10SL7-F motherboard.  Unfortunately it only has 6 SATA ports.  It does have the SAS ports but I already have twelve 3TB SATA drives so SAS isn't going to work. 

 

Any other ideas for a motherboard?

 

 

I love the Norco case but I already have the 804 case. It works for me because of it's footprint.  I wish I had enough space for the Norco.  I have been reading that alot of people like the SuperMicro X10SL7-F motherboard.  Unfortunately it only has 6 SATA ports.  It does have the SAS ports but I already have twelve 3TB SATA drives so SAS isn't going to work. 

 

Any other ideas for a motherboard?

The wiki I linked you to says 14 SATA ports with that motherboard. This is because SAS ports can be used with SATA drives if you use the right cables. I don't have any personal experience with this but many builds on the forum do this.

if you're going with a discrete GPU then I suggest getting a Xeon E3 v3 such as the 1231 or the 1240.  i7 performance at i5 price.  it has all the VM features and gives you the option of using ECC RAM.

 

The SAS to SATA cable would work.  Thanks for that. Any idea which would be the best cable to buy?

 

Also, on the discreet GPU, does it make sense to get a high powered GPU to use with VM's?

Did some more reading.  I should be able to use regular SATA cables.  It's the other way around that I need a special cable, right?

Did some more reading.  I should be able to use regular SATA cables.  It's the other way around that I need a special cable, right?

As I said I have no personal experience, but I think you need a special cable to go from SAS ports to SATA drives or to go from SATA ports to SAS drives. You just need to make sure you get the right cable. I know there are posts about this on the forum. See my sig for search hints.

Did some more reading.  I should be able to use regular SATA cables.  It's the other way around that I need a special cable, right?

As I said I have no personal experience, but I think you need a special cable to go from SAS ports to SATA drives or to go from SATA ports to SAS drives. You just need to make sure you get the right cable. I know there are posts about this on the forum. See my sig for search hints.

 

That is correct. What you're thinking of is a reverse breakout cable which is SAS to 4 SATA cables. If a motherboard has two SAS ports that measn you can connect up to 8 SATA hard drives to it using two reverse breakout cables.

The SAS to SATA cable would work.  Thanks for that. Any idea which would be the best cable to buy?

 

Also, on the discreet GPU, does it make sense to get a high powered GPU to use with VM's?

If you're interesting in gaming on unraid, then yes, but see the links in my sig about GPU pass through.

Intel just announced the Broadwell Xeon E3 chips today.  Do you think it's worth it to spend the extra cash on the v4 CPU's or save it and go with v3 without the builtin graphics?

The SAS to SATA cable would work.  Thanks for that. Any idea which would be the best cable to buy?

 

I'd go with a pair of these: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=8188