Hi everyone,

 

Have been a DOS 3.3 and Windows user since day 1 with also some good experiences with Linux Mint in the last 3 years or so as well with my dabble into the Linux world after getting sick of viruses malware and constant updates of Windows.

 

I have 3 Galaxy tablets (Tab 3, Tab S and Tab S2) in the house along with 3 Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones

 

I have 2 Internet Streaming devices in the Roku 3 and an Android based Minix Neo X8-H Plus.

Both are attached to HDMI ports on my Yamaha Amp in the case of the Roku and my LGHD TV for the Minix with CAT6 LAN cables connecting the Amplifier and the Roku and Minix to my Dlink Taipan modem/router.

 

The Roku has Plex installed with the Plex server currently on my Laptop and the Minix has a specific version of XBMC on it.

 

I also have unused for 12 months or so a barebones with no hard drives 2009 vintage towercase, with a Gigabyte GA P55A-UD4 motherboard, an I7 CPU and 16gig of Non ECC unbuffered RAM with a floppy and Bluray burner.

 

After that longwinded intro I would like to do the following and am looking to see the best way forward.......

[*]The ability for my Lounge or bedroom and or my portable devices to stream 2 or 3 simultaneous 1080p streams if required

[*]On the fly transcoding as the Roku only plays MP4 and MKV and I have a lot of other video types on various hard drives

[*]CD, DVD and Bluray Ripping facility

[*]Backup facility ( I have Acronis TrueImage 2015 in Windows so I possibly could use a Windows 7 VM although I have never used a VM

[*]Storing Movies and TV Shows along with Documents Home Videos and Photos

[*]Use of SAB, Couchpotato and Sickbeard

 

Stability, ease of use, set and forget are really important and that is why from the very start I feel ECC RAM unbuffered or buffered will be an important factor in steering me away from my my current tower and just use that for maybe the Ripping facility amongst other things and another complete new system for my unraid rig.

 

I am in Australia and was hoping to use local suppliers as long as I can get a feel for what motherboard CPU combination will do all that I am after pretty easily.

 

Is Unraid 5 sufficient and if so are the Asus P5B-VM DO and SuperMicro C2SEE boards still available or what would a more current recommended model be ?

 

Is Unraid 6 a wiser move and after researching a bit it would appear Xeons and I7s are the go and AMD Opterons and AMD FX-8350 would be more economical with all needing 4 to 8 cores.

 

Any specific recommendations would be appreciated for the mobo/cpu ram type and amount combination and I will get some WD Red HDDs eventually and in the meantime I can use 3 older Seagate Barracuda 2TB, 1 WD Green 2TB I have to start it off to get it going and buy a samsung 128 or 256 gig SSD for the cache drive.

 

Price range for RAM/Mobo/CPU $400 to $1,000 I hope.......

 

Thanks for your time

 

skull

I'll just answer a small part - unRAID 6.  Period.  Don't even give unRAID 5 a thought.

 

I doubt you could find that Asus board any more, and it wouldn't be recommended any way.  For ECC, most use boards from SuperMicro and another maker (can't remember it at the moment, but others will).

I'll just answer a small part - unRAID 6.  Period.  Don't even give unRAID 5 a thought.

 

I doubt you could find that Asus board any more, and it wouldn't be recommended any way.  For ECC, most use boards from SuperMicro and another maker (can't remember it at the moment, but others will).

 

ASRock

Which model i7 do you have?