Just ripped my Clarkconnect RAID5 server apart and turned it into an unRAID box. I've installed the free version but as I have 5 drives, it'll mean paying for unRAID. Before I do tho, just need to know if it's worth buying a faster USB drive. The one I have (2GB PNY Micro Attache) benchmarks around 20.5MB/6MB for read/write. Once unRAID is up and running, will the speed of the USB drive I've used have any effect on my unRAID performance?

In general usage the USB is primarily boot, config and OS.  As such it's tiny compared to the amount of RAM on the machine and has no interplay in the actual reading and writing of the drives.  The only recommendation is a good quailty drive rather than a freebie from a show or garage sale. 

 

The biggest thing about the USB drive you use are boot options.  Some only work as USB-HDD some as other variations.  I had issues with an OCZ Rally (only booted as USB-HDD which meant that it looked like a hard disk to the bios) but the Transcend I have boots as just about anything.  The OCZ seemed to have some issues with SMART requests also that would cause it to get very confused.

 

Test the motherboard and usb with spare drives before buying to avoid headaches!  And test hard as not all hardware is suited to the lifestyle of an unraid server.  And do check out the hardware compatibility page and the forums here for known issues.

 

Rob

 

 

. Once unRAID is up and running, will the speed of the USB drive I've used have any effect on my unRAID performance?

It will have absolutely no affect at all.  The only time the flash drive is written to is when you load it, start or stop the array, or make a configuration change.  For any of those, the amount written is tiny, and take only a time fraction of a second with even the slowest drive.

 

A usb-1.0 drive will boot much more slowly than a USB-2.0 drive, but once running, it too is barely accessed.

 

As already described, use a name brand drive and you'll probably be fine.  A smaller one is probably better than a larger one if you have an older motherboard as many were never made to boot from a larger drive... besides, you'll never need to additional space.  Something in the 1-2 Gig range is bootable on most recent MB.

 

Joe L.

I will say that it is nice to have something more than the 256m recommended so that things like unmenu and some other packages can be used.  Remember that the unraid license is tied to the serial number of your usb key (check that it does have a serial number) so upgrading your USB key is problematic.

I would recommend 2GB. (Or whatever you can afford).

 

With all the cool addon packages being developed, extra versions, etc, etc, it gives you plenty of room to work with.

 

Also, as sectors age and become marked as unusable, it leaves more free sectors that are usable, thus extending the useful life.

 

I've never found speed to be an issue with unRAID's usage pattern.

Cool. There are no probs at all booting the drive or anything (running a DFI Lanparty with dual Opteron, 2GB of Corsair, etc) but I just picked this PNY Micro Attache 2GB specifically for unRAID as it's nice and small, so really doesn't stick out of the machine much. It surely doesn't compare to my 16GB Corsair Voyager GT for performance but the physical size is perfect.

 

I see PNY listed by Lime-Tech, albeit as "slow", but I gather this puts it in the "name brand" category enough to register it (opinions?)

 

EDIT:

 

Went ahead and registered. The PNY has a 5yr warranty so I'll consider it worth trusting. Thanks guys