Time to upgrade, need some help and suggestions

[Heffa]

My build is getting on five years old now and its time for an upgrade. My parity drive is throwing a bunch of SMART warnings and rather than just replace the drive I figured I'd build a new system while trying to use as many parts from the old as I could. It primarily acts as a Plex Server with one client (three at the most). This is the current system:

 

Case: Lian Li PC-Q08B

Motherboard: Zotac H55ITX-A-E

CPU: Intel Core i3 530

Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3

unRAID Drive: SanDisk Cruzer Micro 8GB

Cache: SSD Crucial C300 64GB

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB (WD15EADS) x 3 (1 Parity)

Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB (WD15EARS) x 2

 

The case has been great but I'm looking to upgrade to one with more room for drives, I'm thinking the Fractal Design Node 804. This would also give me the ability to use a micro-ATX board. These are the options I see:

1. Keep the CPU/MB/RAM the same, get a card to provide more SATA ports

2. Keep the CPU but upgrade the MB (and RAM?) to provide more SATA ports

3. New CPU/MB/RAM

 

If my CPU is still adequate I'd like to go for option two in which case what MB should I go for? Additionally if I could make my system more energy efficient with option three what CPU/MB/RAM combo should I go for? Many thanks

[tdallen]

Your current components are paired up well together and are upgradable, but you won't be able to keep any of them if you do a major upgrade.

 

The motherboard and CPU are socket LGA1156, while the current standard is LGA1150.  That board calls for 1066/1333 RAM (not sure what it really is), while the current standard is at least 1600.  Still, RAM can be upgraded if you need more than 4GB.  And a Core i7 8XX would be a cheap pickup on eBay if you need more CPU.

 

There are motherboards with more than 6 SATA slots, but it's pretty common to put in an add-in SATA controller and you have a PCI 2.0 x16 slot... but please confirm that it is available and that you don't have a video card in there.

 

All the modern Haswell CPUs are more efficient than the first generation Core chips, but I can't tell you exactly how much.  Your primary use is Plex but you must not do too much transcoding - your current CPU would max out pretty quickly under heavy load.

[00b5]

My build is getting on five years old now and its time for an upgrade. My parity drive is throwing a bunch of SMART warnings and rather than just replace the drive I figured I'd build a new system while trying to use as many parts from the old as I could. It primarily acts as a Plex Server with one client (three at the most). This is the current system:

 

Case: Lian Li PC-Q08B

Motherboard: Zotac H55ITX-A-E

CPU: Intel Core i3 530

Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3

unRAID Drive: SanDisk Cruzer Micro 8GB

Cache: SSD Crucial C300 64GB

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB (WD15EADS) x 3 (1 Parity)

Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB (WD15EARS) x 2

 

The case has been great but I'm looking to upgrade to one with more room for drives, I'm thinking the Fractal Design Node 804. This would also give me the ability to use a micro-ATX board. These are the options I see:

1. Keep the CPU/MB/RAM the same, get a card to provide more SATA ports

2. Keep the CPU but upgrade the MB (and RAM?) to provide more SATA ports

3. New CPU/MB/RAM

 

If my CPU is still adequate I'd like to go for option two in which case what MB should I go for? Additionally if I could make my system more energy efficient with option three what CPU/MB/RAM combo should I go for? Many thanks

 

#2 is out, don't waste your time there

#1 is fine, but i wouldn't go that router either, and here is why:

 

An option you didn't list was getting new hdds? You have 3 1.5TB hdds (one is parity). You should consider just buying larger drives, and swapping them all out. If you have the onboard sata slots, reuse the 2 good 1.5TB if you want. I just saw some 5TB toshibas for $140. Get 3 of those, and just swap out  your drives. Fixes your smart errors, and moves your from 3tb of space to 10tb, all in the same footprint. Toss/recycle/whatever the failing 1.5TB, use the others via usb/etc/whatever as backups, etc. Lastly, if you want more CPU power, you could swap in (as suggested already) a faster i7 (ebay for $65 or so). I'd stick with your itx mb and that case. Now, if you don't like your case, that is different

 

#3 works as well, but surely after doing all that, you'll also want to buy new/additional/etc hdds? Depends I guess on your budget and true needs right now.

[Heffa]

There are motherboards with more than 6 SATA slots, but it's pretty common to put in an add-in SATA controller and you have a PCI 2.0 x16 slot... but please confirm that it is available and that you don't have a video card in there.

 

The slot is empty so I could get a SATA controller.

 

 

#2 is out, don't waste your time there

#1 is fine, but i wouldn't go that router either, and here is why:

 

An option you didn't list was getting new hdds? You have 3 1.5TB hdds (one is parity). You should consider just buying larger drives, and swapping them all out. If you have the onboard sata slots, reuse the 2 good 1.5TB if you want. I just saw some 5TB toshibas for $140. Get 3 of those, and just swap out  your drives. Fixes your smart errors, and moves your from 3tb of space to 10tb, all in the same footprint. Toss/recycle/whatever the failing 1.5TB, use the others via usb/etc/whatever as backups, etc. Lastly, if you want more CPU power, you could swap in (as suggested already) a faster i7 (ebay for $65 or so). I'd stick with your itx mb and that case. Now, if you don't like your case, that is different

 

#3 works as well, but surely after doing all that, you'll also want to buy new/additional/etc hdds? Depends I guess on your budget and true needs right now.

 

I completely forgot to mention that I would buy new HDDs to replace the failing one(s) which ever option I go for. I appreciate your suggestion, I had almost completely ruled out 1 but now I'm having second thoughts. The case is fine except that it has no room for expansion and the airflow is not great. If I were to go for a new build what CPU/MB/RAM is recommended given my usage?