Old CPU/2GB RAM: unRaid v6?

[mr-hexen]

Too late now, but I'd have skipped the RAM upgrade since you're most likely to transition to a new system in the next 6 months (probably earlier).

 

I ran my system with 2GB ram for a few months and only upgraded to 8GB (for ~$50CAD) when I wanted to test out VM's. Dockers are very resource efficient and Plex doesn't make use of lot's of ram, its more CPU bound.

 

My system was put together for less than you'd think (excluding drives), check out my build thread for details. I was able to secure the mITX motherboard for a good deal off ebay Canada (I'm in the Toronto, ON area).

[joefig44]

I likely won't upgrade in the next 6 month though if it doesn't what I want it to do.  The current unRaid on v4.4 with low hardware has been running for 9+ years and I haven't had the urge until now to upgrade it (only because I want to run v6 with the added functionality quoted.

 

I think I'm going to grab the CPU as well, and hoping that will do me for years to come.

[tdallen]

Before you spend the money, I'd recommend adding everything up and making sure what you are doing is cost effective vs. buying new parts.  If you take a look at my signature you'll see I've built a system very similar to what you will be building.  Here's my story:

 

• Started off with a Core 2 Duo E6400 and 2GB of RAM.  unRAID v5 trials went well, time to commit!
  
• unRAID v6 coming, I could really use some more RAM... $130 for 4x2GB DDR2 RAM, ouch!
  
• Hmm, Plex seems to need more horsepower... $75 for a used Q9550 on eBay
  
• Oh, higher TDP... $15 for a new CPU cooler
  
• Hmm, I'm rapidly filling up my 3x3TB starter array and my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports... $75 for used SAS2LP
  
• Old hardware... my motherboard, the SAS2LP and unRAID 6 aren't getting along... $30 for another SAS/SATA cable to get all my disks on the controller to see if that helps...
  
• Need someplace to put the new disks... $25 for a 4in3 drive cage
  
• Still having trouble with unRAID v6, old motherboard, and SAS2LP... $85 for a new power supply
  

So everything is running great now and I love unRAID.  But I dropped at least $435 on that old server satisfying my urge to tinker and solve problems.  And what did I get?  An old, power inefficient LGA775 box with maxed out expansion capabilities and the performance level of a mid-tier Core i3.  In retrospect with a little more money I could have bought a new case, power supply, motherboard with 6 SATA ports, Core i3 and DDR3 RAM.

 

So what would I do in your shoes?  If you want to invest in this machine I'd keep the expense to a minimum.  First update the BIOS and make sure you don't brick the motherboard.  Then go with the Q9550 because it costs a lot less and try to get the DDR2 used on eBay - you want to run with at least 4GB but 6GB is better.  But I wouldn't do much more than that - I'd either keep the expense to a minimum or sink the money into a new machine.

 

Anyway - sounds like fun no matter which way you go, but I wanted share some 20/20 hindsight.

[joefig44]

Thanks for that, yes, I plan to just do RAM and CPU right now:

 

4GB RAM = $75 Cdn off ebay

Q9550 = $70 Cdn of Kiiji locally

 

So for under $150 I've upgraded to 6GB Ram and Quad Core2Duo CPU for unraid v6.

 

Then I'll likely grab a WD Red 3TB drive for swapping parity drive as suggested earlier, and I should then be rocking and rolling for at least a 3-4 years I would think for what I need.

 

If I do get into more apps and the hardware proves not enough, I'll upgrade then.

But to be honest, as I age, I have less time and desire to tinker and would rather pay for an appliance such as a Qnap or Synology that can do it with less fuss.

 

 

[garycase]

Agree it's cost effective to do the minor upgrades of RAM and CPU.    Remember that anything else -- larger disks; more 5-in-3 cages; bigger power supply; etc. are all things that are "infrastructure" items ... i.e. they'd be part of any new system anyway, so those aren't really "upgrade" expenses for your current system.

 

I think you'll be very happy with the performance of v6 on a Q9550.

 

With only 4.5TB of storage you can grow that system a LOT within the 6 onboard SATA-II slots you have without any performance bottlenecks on parity checks, which is often the motivation for upgrading to better hardware.    You can reasonably grow to 9 or 10 drives by adding a 4-port PCIe x1 SATA controller card [since you have PCIe v2 slots, an x1 slot has 500GB/s of bandwidth ... this is excellent for 2 drives; works well with 3; and isn't "bad" even with 4].

 

I think you'll easily get 3-4 more years out of that setup unless you get the urge to build a few virtual machines 

[joefig44]

Could you elaborate on what use I could get out of running virtual machines on the NAS?

[garycase]

Could you elaborate on what use I could get out of running virtual machines on the NAS?

 

My comment was intended as tongue-in-cheek ... I don't think you need any VM's for what you have in mind.    And actually your upgraded CPU [Q9550] actually supports vt-d, so it will run a VM just fine if you want to experiment a bit with the concept.    And 6GB is even enough memory to support a single modest VM.  What you won't be doing with that system is building a gaming VM with a passed-through high-performance video card