Another rookie with an undoubtedly severely flawed first build plan...

[That Dutch Guy]

I have been thinking about building an unraid server for a few years now, but life and priorities kept making me put it off as a future project. Honestly, though, it was probably more inexperience and a complete lack of knowledge on the subject that was the cause of me never starting...

But, I got an old Dell OptiPlex 740 minitower for free, so I had the idea to go ultra budget build, just to get my feet wet and hold me over for a while. I'm only talking a few drives right now, and plan on using 4TB green drives so it could be a couple years before I need to seriously upgrade.

Since my wife and I have a little boy now and not that impressive of a monthly income, I need to skimp on everything since she is not convinced of the necessity of the project.

It's mostly to have backups of all photos and videos, but I do have a few TB worth of movies, tv shows and music that I would like to serve up to my Blu-ray player (Ethernet cable connected), and I'm thinking about using Plex for that. Streaming to tablets and phones in the near future would be nice, too.

 

What I have:

- the Dell OptiPlex 740 minitower case;

- PSU (about 310W);

- 160GB HDD for cache drive;

- heat sink and fan (from an AM2 socket, but I believe it should fit on an AM3 socket, too);

- G.Skill 4GB memory DDR3 1600.

 

Contemplating buying:

- AMD Athlon II X2 B28 3.4GHz Dual Core (ADXB28OCK23GM) CPU - $25-$30 on ebay;

- Either an Asus M4A78LT-M or an Asus M5A78L-M LX Plus motherboard. Seems like these can be had pretty cheap on ebay as well. Now I know, ebay can be risky, but I've seen people point to ebay for cheap solutions on a few occasions. So I figure, if I (a slightly paranoid and not very trusting individual) feel good about a certain seller, it could be worth the risk, right? (please don't burst my bubble...)

 

That leaves the HDDs. I'll be waiting for some decent deals on 4TB models (probably two to start, in addition to the 2TB and 1TB WD models I have right now). I have to sell some of my vintage speakers first, and then I can add those. Also, I won't be looking for hot swap, so I can look for the cheap options when it comes to 4-in-3 or even 3-in-2 cages.

 

If I start with 3 drives (incl. parity) plus the cache drive, can I still start out with the free version of unraid? I feel like I wrote down way too much already, but probably still managed to forget to include some pertinent information. So, if you made it all the way down here, please feel free to point out where I messed up in my planning!

 

Thank you in advance, I feel better and better about tackling this project knowing that there is a knowledge base like this place available to me.

[trurl]

Welcome!

 

v5 free is still available but don't know if it will continue to be after v6 goes final so go ahead and download it.

v6 has a 30-day trial but no free version. After you get your feet wet I highly recommend paying for v6.

 

I recommend starting here in the wiki: Configuration Tutorial

 

Take it slow and don't hesitate to ask lots of questions. Also, see search tips in my sig.

[That Dutch Guy]

Welcome!

 

v5 free is still available but don't know if it will continue to be after v6 goes final so go ahead and download it.

v6 has a 30-day trial but no free version. After you get your feet wet I highly recommend paying for v6.

 

I recommend starting here in the wiki: Configuration Tutorial

 

Take it slow and don't hesitate to ask lots of questions. Also, see search tips in my sig.

 

Thank you! I really should get some more reading done before I just dive in, so all the links look very helpful. I don't mind paying for the software, so v6 is probably the way to go.

 

I just hope I'm on the right path with my choices in hardware or if I need some serious changes in my thinking.

[trurl]

unRAID is pretty compatible with most hardware. And it typically continues to work without issue if you upgrade any hardware. Since my initial build I have changed literally everything about my hardware including upsizing all disks and never had any problems.

 

The one thing to look out for is will your power supply support all of the drives you may have. Servers usually have quite a few more drives than a typical PC. A single 12v rail is recommended. Some PC power supplies split the power available to give some to graphics and so it is not all available to the drives.

[That Dutch Guy]

Those are big reasons I like unraid: lots of compatible parts and easy to upgrade. PSU  and case are high on that upgrade list for me, should I go ahead with my initial plan first. With so few drives, I wasn't worried about the low power PSU, but I forgot to check if it's single rail. With just a few drives at first, it should be fine, but probably a good place to start the upgrades. Thanks again for your input!

[archedraft]

 

Seems like these can be had pretty cheap on ebay as well. Now I know, ebay can be risky, but I've seen people point to ebay for cheap solutions on a few occasions. So I figure, if I (a slightly paranoid and not very trusting individual) feel good about a certain seller, it could be worth the risk, right? (please don't burst my bubble...)

I purchase stuff including computer hardware all the time off of eBay and have never been disappointed to this date. I have never purchased a motherboard from eBay but I do have a friend who bought an older motherboard to replace one that failed and it worked as it should and is still working. Just make sure you read the eBay reviews. Also, eBay / PayPal are known for protecting the buyer so if you have any issues that cannot be resolved with the seller just get eBay involved and they will take care of it.

[Frank1940]

Welcome!

 

v5 free is still available but don't know if it will continue to be after v6 goes final so go ahead and download it.

v6 has a 30-day trial but no free version. After you get your feet wet I highly recommend paying for v6.

 

I recommend starting here in the wiki: Configuration Tutorial

 

Take it slow and don't hesitate to ask lots of questions. Also, see search tips in my sig.

 

Thank you! I really should get some more reading done before I just dive in, so all the links look very helpful. I don't mind paying for the software, so v6 is probably the way to go.

 

I just hope I'm on the right path with my choices in hardware or if I need some serious changes in my thinking.

 

If you go with version 6 be sure to read this upgrade WIKI:

 

      http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6

 

While it is intended for those folks upgrading from ver 5 to version 6, it also has a lot of information and links to material directly related to ver 6.  Particularity look at section 4.1 on plugins, 4.2 for docker containers, and 4.3 for VM's.