September 16, 200916 yr [updates at the end of the thread] Finally, after lots of decisions over what to buy, my UnRaid Components have arrived! I will hopefully be building the machine tonight. My requirements were: A case that fits inside a 45cm*45cm*50cm (w,d,h) AV cupboard A silent case Most drive bays possible Low power Cheap, but quality components The UnRaid server will be used to store DVD copies (Video-TS) and TV Recordings, standard and HD recordings. Also some music. The server will be directly connected to a MediaPortal HTPC for now via GigEthernet. Once my Router is upgraded to Gbit, then it will go directly into that. The spec chosen was as follows: Case: Antec Mini P180 SATA Cables: Plexus Serial ATA 2.0 (SATA) 7-pin Cable (Red) 46cm / 18" - Qty: 3 SATA PCI Card: Extra Value Serial ATA 2 Port PCI Card - Qty: 1 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard - Qty: 1 RAM: Extra Value 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram - Qty: 1 PSU: Corsair 450W HX Series Modular PSU - 7 Year Warranty - Qty: 1 CPU: Intel Celeron 430 1.80GHz Socket 775 FSB800 512kb Retail Boxed Processor - Qty: 1 CPU Fan: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Low Profile Socket 775 Processor Cooler - Qty: 1 Flash Drive: Lexar 2GB USB Flash Drive JumpDrive FireFly - Qty: 1 Hard Drives: Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Green - Qty: 2 I already have another 2 x1TB HDs and a couple of 250GB ones. The only real risk I took was with the cheap SATA PCI card, its generic with a SiL3512 chip, so hopefully OK. Oh and the RAM, but it had generally favourable reviews. I have 2x 1TB drives already 95% full of data in my existing HTPC that need to be added, so my plan is to build the UnRaid server with the 2 new 1TB HDs and then copy across 1TB of data from the HTPC at first, and then move that HD into the UnRaid server and wipe it, then copy across the remaining 1TB of data and then move that HD into the system. So all in all, 4TB drives, 3TB usable. 2TB of which will be used. Once everything is running nicely for a while i'll probably add a few more 1TB drives. Pictures and review will be posted later on once the machine is built!
September 16, 200916 yr The only real risk I took was with the cheap SATA PCI card, its generic with a SiL3512 chip, so hopefully OK. Oh and the RAM, but it had generally favourable reviews. You can get the Silicon Image PCIe 1X card for about $20-$25. It's a really good performer for that price. Also, I would recommend your next upgrade to be a Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM 32MB cache drive for your parity drive. I know all your other drives are 1TB, but the added speed of seagate will help with parity writes. It's a nice case, I would love to read and see more about the build when it is done. I like the rosewill micro atx cases, very small and cost effective!
September 16, 200916 yr Author I'm a bit weary of the 1.5TB drives at the moment, have read a few times about them dying. I'll wait a while! I'll try and remember to take pics of the build, and document what I can.
September 16, 200916 yr I'm a bit weary of the 1.5TB drives at the moment, have read a few times about them dying. I'll wait a while! I'll try and remember to take pics of the build, and document what I can. I have 2 of the 1.5TB Seagates any have not had a problem with them. The one that is giving me a pain is the 1TB seagate i have in the array. Thankfully it does not have any data on it right now so it will be easy to remove if need be.
September 16, 200916 yr I have 2 of the Seagate 7200RPM 1.5TB 32MB Cache. One I've had for over 6 months (and has old firmware) One I've had for 1 month with new firmware. I have not had any issues with either. I just purchased a Seagate 5900 RPM 32MB Cache drive, Did a preclear and it was 100% perfect. Doing a new parity genreation and I'll be migrating to it in a day or so.
September 16, 200916 yr Thanks, i'll keep that in mind, as I'm tempted to buy one more drive. It is worth it for your parity drive. I benched my drive (alone) at 120-125MB/s. The lower RPM drives bench at about 90-100MB/s. I would only use the 7200 1.5tb for Parity and/or a filesystem where you have allot of access to allot of iles. I.E. My document store and my active torrent filesystem. For movies and/or large files, even mp3's, the Green drives are well worth the cost savings. I have a 7200 RPM 1.5tb for parity, and one for Document/torrent store. I have a 5900 RPM LP for movies (just because the size of the folder grew greater then 1tb). The rest are all 5400 RPM WD green drives. This works really well for me. My system happens to be busy 24x7.
September 16, 200916 yr Author OK, stage 1 complete - PC is built. The Arctic Cooling fan installation is terrible, so I advise against this exact model (ive had other AC ones that have been fine). It has some silly plastic clips to attach the heatsink to the motherboard. Not very impressed, broke one, nearly snapped the motherboard etc!! Other than that its all good. One HD in at the moment, just getting to know UnRaid and have yet to add a parity drive. Data is copying over, but the connection is only 100Mbit/sec (direct link between two PCs). It should be gigabit, but assume my cables arent good enough, so will buy a Cat6 cable tomorrow and see. I don't have a gigabit router, so am going to directly link my HTPC and UnRAID box for now. The Antec case is very nice, but could have done with decent instructions so that I knew what everything was, keep finding new screws/panels!
September 18, 200916 yr Author All running as it should, except for one big issue - my network between the UnRAID machine and HTPC is only running at 100Mbit, not gigabit. I have a HTPC connected directly to the UnRaid server with a Cat6 cable. THe network is fine, I can transfer files etc, but only at 100Mbit, not Gigabit. Is there anything I need to do/configure on the UnRaid server? Is there a way to check that it has the right driver etc? (Assume its ok as the NIC works)
September 18, 200916 yr I have a HTPC connected directly to the UnRaid server with a Cat6 cable. THe network is fine, I can transfer files etc, but only at 100Mbit, not Gigabit. Are you talking about a cross over cable or using the autocross over feature of your network card? I.E. is there a switch between them? You can probably use the ethtool to set some of the paramaters. root@Atlas ~ #ethtool ethtool version 5 Usage: ethtool DEVNAME Display standard information about device ethtool -s|--change DEVNAME Change generic options [ speed 10|100|1000 ] [ duplex half|full ] [ port tp|aui|bnc|mii|fibre ] [ autoneg on|off ] [ phyad %%d ] [ xcvr internal|external ] [ wol p|u|m|b|a|g|s|d... ] [ sopass %%x:%%x:%%x:%%x:%%x:%%x ] [ msglvl %%d ] ethtool -a|--show-pause DEVNAME Show pause options ethtool -A|--pause DEVNAME Set pause options [ autoneg on|off ] [ rx on|off ] [ tx on|off ] ethtool -c|--show-coalesce DEVNAME Show coalesce options ethtool -C|--coalesce DEVNAME Set coalesce options [adaptive-rx on|off] [adaptive-tx on|off] [rx-usecs N] [rx-frames N] [rx-usecs-irq N] [rx-frames-irq N] [tx-usecs N] [tx-frames N] [tx-usecs-irq N] [tx-frames-irq N] [stats-block-usecs N] [pkt-rate-low N] [rx-usecs-low N] [rx-frames-low N] [tx-usecs-low N] [tx-frames-low N] [pkt-rate-high N] [rx-usecs-high N] [rx-frames-high N] [tx-usecs-high N] [tx-frames-high N] [sample-interval N] ethtool -g|--show-ring DEVNAME Query RX/TX ring parameters ethtool -G|--set-ring DEVNAME Set RX/TX ring parameters [ rx N ] [ rx-mini N ] [ rx-jumbo N ] [ tx N ] ethtool -k|--show-offload DEVNAME Get protocol offload information ethtool -K|--offload DEVNAME Set protocol offload [ rx on|off ] [ tx on|off ] [ sg on|off ] [ tso on|off ] [ ufo on|off ] [ gso on|off ] ethtool -i|--driver DEVNAME Show driver information ethtool -d|--register-dump DEVNAME Do a register dump ethtool -e|--eeprom-dump DEVNAME Do a EEPROM dump [ raw on|off ] [ offset N ] [ length N ] ethtool -E|--change-eeprom DEVNAME Change bytes in device EEPROM [ magic N ] [ offset N ] [ value N ] ethtool -r|--negotiate DEVNAME Restart N-WAY negotation ethtool -p|--identify DEVNAME Show visible port identification (e.g. blinking) [ TIME-IN-SECONDS ] ethtool -t|--test DEVNAME Execute adapter self test [ online | offline ] ethtool -S|--statistics DEVNAME Show adapter statistics ethtool -h|--help DEVNAME Show this help root@Atlas ~ #ethtool -s eth0 root@Atlas ~ #ethtool -S eth0 NIC statistics: tx_packets: 333276 rx_packets: 637575 tx_errors: 0 rx_errors: 0 rx_missed: 0 align_errors: 460 tx_single_collisions: 0 tx_multi_collisions: 0 unicast: 368674 broadcast: 268901 multicast: 0 tx_aborted: 0 tx_underrun: 0 root@Atlas ~ # root@Atlas ~ #ethtool -i eth0 driver: r8169 version: 2.3LK-NAPI firmware-version: bus-info: 0000:05:00.0
September 18, 200916 yr Author Its a patch cable between the two PCs,, no switch, one of the NICs must be doing the auto-crossing I've done some digging and driver updating, and I have a feeling its the drivers or NIC on the HTPC. There is a second NIC with much newer drivers, so I'll reconfigure the PC and give that one a go and hopefully sort my issues. Away for the weekend though, so will have to wait! Update: Updated drivers but still no joy. I have noticed however that in the speed/duplex properties of the card it only lists things relating to "100", no "1000" mentioned. Whereas the 2nd NIC in the machine has many mentions of "1000", so I think that when i'm back (currently changing it remotely with logmein) I'll swap the cable between the cards so the UnRAID machine is connected to the NIC listing 1000 and the other one can just connect to the rest of the network where 100 is adequate
September 18, 200916 yr Author A bit more googling brings up quite a few mentions of my NIC and others with problems getting it to work at Gbit speeds. Nice to know its not just me! Guess i'm lucky the motherboard came with two different NICs (different manufacturers/chips)
September 18, 200916 yr My requirements were: * A case that fits inside a 45cm*45cm*50cm (w,d,h) AV cupboard * A silent case I could not help being a little concerned about your cooling and airflow. I don't know your setup, size of the Mini P180, or how well ventilated the AV cupboard is, so you may be fine, but I would still recommend taking a moment to think through the airflow both within the case, and outside the case. "Silent case" usually means minimal airflow, and a tight cupboard, especially if there is a back to that compartment, or (*horrors*) a front door to it, may result in overheating. unRAID servers are notorious for trying to cram as many drives as possible into as small a space as possible. The simple rule for the interior of the case is to make sure that there are no dead air pockets near any of the heat-sensitive components, such as drives and motherboard chipsets. There needs to be at least a little airflow across most surfaces of every drive. The area around the exterior of the case needs to be well ventilated too, because that is what sets the ambient temps for the interior of the case. Another way to think about the problem is to visualize the flow of heat, what are the sources of it, and how will it escape from the system. Heat does rise, *if* there are large open air spaces to do so. The more you pack hot components together, the more likely that you will have to add active airflow, and that means fans. They don't have to be loud or strong, but they do have to move air, everywhere it needs to be moved. Sometimes a little fan noise is unavoidable. Again, you may be fine, but I believe you should at least give it some thought.
September 18, 200916 yr Author Not to worry Rob, there is plenty of airflow! When I designed my silent HTPC i spent a lot of time and money on not only making it quiet, but ensuring there was plenty of airflow. I've taken the lessons learned there to build the UnRAID box. I have a cupboard designed for AV equiptment, there is no back and all the shelves are full of holes to allow airflow. I have an Antec AV Cooler on my AV Receiver (http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/antec_av_cooler.htm), and one of those laptop fans under my XBox etc. I have a thermometer in there too to keep an eye on the temps. My HTPC has been in there for a couple of years, and on 24/7 and it runs nicely,no heat issues. I say "silent" but as the cupboard quietens a lot of the noise I can actually turn up the fans and make the pc a little noisier. The Antec Mini p180 has not only a 120mm fan on the rear, but a huge (200+mm?) fan at the top. Currently its blowing out cold air, which is rather amazing! I guess once my other HDs are put in the case it may warm up. The HD in there at the moment goes from 20(ish)degrees when idle to a max of 33.
September 18, 200916 yr Sounds great! You clearly have had some experience in this area. I had no idea if this was a first project or not, many of us learn this the hard way!
September 21, 200916 yr Author OK, so at stage 4 Resolved my network issue, turns out one of the two NICs on the motherboard is a bit rubbish and cant support Gigabit even though it should, so swapped over the cables to the second port an now have Gbit connection to the 'tower'. Getting a "Network Utilization" of around 30%, which I read is good for Gigabit, I'm guessing im writing over the network at around 30 - 40MB/sec (or are my calculations wrong? ) Step 5: Adding a second HD Step 6: Adding a Parity drive Step 7: Buy my UnRAID license and add another couple of drives!
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.