Building an UNRAID server


Blade

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2 tb is bigger than 1 tb. ;D

 

all kidding aside i have never used the wd drives but i hear good things.

 

 

by the way your hooked now aren't ya?  Trust me in about three weeks your gonna be just like me, pimpin unraid all over the ml forum :D look up a post here called "quite possibly the best compliment to unraid" (i think thats what it was called)

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Thx again. Do I need something special to daisy chain the fans?

No, the fans should all ship with they type of molex connectors pictured above.  Everything should work out of the box.

 

So the single core would be enough to run the add-ons (unmenu and the other goodies)?

Yes, absolutely.

 

Can anyone comment on these hard drives and how well they work with unraid? Thx

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317

WD Green drives are great, they work perfectly with unRAID.  I'm currently using two of those exact drives (1 for parity, 1 for data), and I've never had any problems.  I don't notice them being any slower than my 'black' edition drives either.

 

My one recommendation with buying new drives is to only buy them one at a time, if at all possible.  If you buy a batch of drives, you are increasing your likelihood of experiencing a 2 drive simultaneous failure, since all the drives in the batch may have the same manufacturer defect.  If you space out your drive purchases, you reduce your chances of getting several drives from the same bad batch.  If you absolutely must buy several new drives at one time, try to get a grab bag of different brands, for example, a WD Green 1 TB, a Seagate 1 TB LP, and a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1 TB.

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Is 4Gb RAM too much as well?

 

RAM is so cheap these days, I'm inclined to say that it doesn't matter.  Stock unRAID won't really use much more than 2 GB of RAM, but if you use any of the add-ons (especially torrents and/or the directory cache thingy), then 4 GBs of RAM will definitely come in handy.  The main thing is just don't waste your money on high performance "gaming" RAM, just buy the cheap, budget stuff.  This is my new favorite unRAID RAM, I'm going to be running 4 GBs of it soon.  I wouldn't pay $25 for it, though, I keep finding it on sale (through the Newegg newsletter) for about $20.  You can't tell from the picture (since the picture is of the wrong RAM!), but the RAM is incredibly short, about half the size of a standard RAM stick.  This doesn't affect the performance at all, I just think its cool  :D

 

Also, I would go for DDR2 800.  Being an older standard, it fills the sweet spot between price and selection at the moment.  Plus, you most likely won't notice the performance increase from using more expensive DDR2 1066 or DDR3 RAM.  Some unRAID users even underclock their RAM and CPU to save power.

 

If you aren't in too much of a rush, just sign up for the Newegg newsletter, then buy the next RAM kit that goes on sale.  Or find your favorite kit and use the auto-notify feature.

 

If you really want to make the purchase today, I would get something like this 4 GB kit or this 2 GB kit.  If you go for a 2 GB kit, I would recommend getting a single stick of 2 GB RAM as opposed to a 2x1GB RAM kit.  While technically a bit slower (single channel vs. dual channel), a single 2 GB stick will leave your other slots free for future expansion.  And with unRAID, you won't notice the difference in speed.

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Curious, how loud would this box be? Assuming your drives are idling most of the time you are in the room with the box (let's say it's in your bedroom, so when you are sleeping it's not doing much ;-) )

 

I'm terrible with dB ratings, but would you say it would be more like a:

 

  • Drobo (currently have one)
    A laptop with fan running (not a macbook, I know they are terribly loud, as I have one ;-) )
    A typical desktop computer
    a cable/PVR box
    a vintage Model T at full throttle

 

Thanks! :)

 

 

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My unRAID server with 4 drives (1 WD Black, 1 WD Green, 1 Seagate (all 1TB), plus one OLD 40GB IDE) runs a bit louder than my desktop, but I attribute that to the junk 80mm fans it has. The case is at least 6 years old, fans are still kicking, but I'm waiting for them to start dying so I can sell myself on a new case, likely the CM 590.

 

I recently picked up the same 4-in-3 dock that the CM 590 has and the fan is almost dead quiet - but the LED is Bright... I ended up taping them off with duct tape until I feel the need to swap if for a Scythe.

 

So typical desktop computer is probably accurate, unless your running Panaflows in there.

 

-Markus

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm planning to build a new unRaid server and I would like to have some feedback about my hardware:

 

CASE:NORCO RPC-4220 4U Rackmount Server Case

MOTHERBOARD:ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO

PSU:Corsair TX750W 750W

VIDEO CARD:onboard

MEMORY:G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 240PIN Dual Channel

CPU:AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz

CPU Heatsinks:TBD

HDD for Storage:WD SATA 1TB (x3)

SATA Controller:Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Marvell 6480 8 Channel SAS/SATA RAID PCI-E Card

  • NORCO C-SFF8087-D SFF-8087 to SFF8087 Internal Multilane SAS Cable (x2)
  • NORCO C-SFF8087-4S Discrete to SFF-8087 (Reverse breakout) Cable (x2)

 

FANS:TBD

NIC CARD:onboard Gbit

 

My storage will be expanding pretty soon.

 

Thank,

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