I'm starting my first unraid build and want some input on the componenets.  I will be purchasing some today due to the sales going on so quick input would be appreciated.  I have no experience with linux, but from reading here, sounds like unRaid is pretty simple to figure out.  This will be for a HTPC media server to hold my blu-ray files to stream from to my HTPC. 

 

Case: Norco 4220

 

MoBo: SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SEA-O

 

CPU: Intel Celeron E1500 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

 

Memory: the mobo comes with 2G DDR3 1333 SDRAM

 

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX

 

SATA controller cards: SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz

 

HDD's will be WD Caviar Green drives, either 1.5's or 2's, depending on the drop in price on the 2 TB.

 

 

Regarding the HDD's, if I get a 2 Tb for the parity, I will be able to run 1.5's and 2's intermingled correct?  As long as the parity is equal to or larger than the rest of the drives, it will function correctly right?

 

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

 

 

 

Those sata cards would be better in a PCI-X capable motherboard. I know they'll work fine in a PCI slot but the mans asking for opinions. 

Your going to restrict them to 133MB/s as this motherboard only runs 32bit / 33Mhz PCI slots. Fine for streaming but parity check and generation will be slower.

 

Are you really going to run 20 HDDs, if not I'd be tempted to go with a pair of 1430SA PCI-E cards for 8 drives plus the 6 MB sata ports.

I would think that chassis will get plenty hot enough with 14 HDDs running. You could always add an MV8 later if you do need more SATA ports. 

 

Buy some replacement fans for the chassis, the shipping ones are beastly loud.

 

Otherwise looks like a fine choice of hardware... 

I plan on having about 3-5 drives in there initially and increase capacity as needed.  I probably won't reach 20 drives until probably another year or more out, heck, maybe even two or more if I go with 2TB drives! 

 

I plan on running some panaflo fans in place of the Delta screamers.... I had a delta screamer on a gaming rig a few years back.... I think my hearing is just now recovering. 

 

If I go with the C2SEA mobo, I see the specs list a PCI-X x16 (x4) slot and a PCI-X slot, That would allow me to install 2 SATA cards eventually in those as PCI-X, so 16 drives with the cards and the mobo has 6 SATA connectors, so that would be more than enough without having to worry about plugging into a regular PCI slot.  Am I missing something?  The mobo is out of stock at newegg until the 1st, so the mobo selection can be delayed tad.  I guess I pull the trigger on the case, PSU and CPU today then.

I plan on having about 3-5 drives in there initially and increase capacity as needed.  I probably won't reach 20 drives until probably another year or more out, heck, maybe even two or more if I go with 2TB drives!   

 

I plan on running some panaflo fans in place of the Delta screamers.... I had a delta screamer on a gaming rig a few years back.... I think my hearing is just now recovering. 

 

If I go with the C2SEA mobo, I see the specs list a PCI-X x16 (x4) slot and a PCI-X slot, That would allow me to install 2 SATA cards eventually in those as PCI-X, so 16 drives with the cards and the mobo has 6 SATA connectors, so that would be more than enough without having to worry about plugging into a regular PCI slot.  Am I missing something?  The mobo is out of stock at newegg until the 1st, so the mobo selection can be delayed tad.  I guess I pull the trigger on the case, PSU and CPU today then.

 

It is PCIe (express) not PCI-X (extended)

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Core2Duo/G45/C2SEA.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

 

 

1 (x16) PCI-Express 2.0,

1 (x4) PCI-Express (using x16 slot),

1 (x1) PCI-Express,

2x 32-bit PCI slots

 

You may put in a 4 port card and a 2 port card in the x4 and x1 slots respectively.

Someone else will need to provide an answer if the x16 slot can handle a card other then a graphics card.

 

Hope this helps.

Okay, talk about feeling like an idiot! I should've caught that.  I wasn't thinking when I looked at the specs.

 

I'll look at those SATA boards when the time comes.  The 6 SATA ports should last me for another 6 months or so I'm assuming...

1 (x16) PCI-Express 2.0,

1 (x4) PCI-Express (using x16 slot),

1 (x1) PCI-Express,

2x 32-bit PCI slots

 

You may put in a 4 port card and a 2 port card in the x4 and x1 slots respectively.

Someone else will need to provide an answer if the x16 slot can handle a card other then a graphics card.

 

I thought the x4 slot _was_the x16 slot?  I also have a MB with a similar config (Asus P5E-VM DO) and was hoping to use the 2 PCI Express slots for 2 SuperMicro 8 port AOC-SAT2-MV8.  Now I'm wondering if I need a new MB?

 

Cheers,

Paul

Supermicro do two cards, A PCI-e - AOC-SASLP-MV8, which we are awaiting stable support for under linux/slackware and thus unRAID.

And the PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 which is already supported, stable and very fast given a PCI-X 100 or 133 slot. 

 

The MB you are talking about has three PCI-e slots, the nearest to the CPU is PCI-e x16, the next slot down is physically a PCI-e x16 slot but only electrically wired for x4, the little slot is the x1 PCI-e connection.

 

 

How much of a bottleneck or slowdown would result in using the PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 ni the PCI-E slots? Would it effect playback of HD material, mainly BluRay's, that are streamed from the server?  Hopefully, by the time I need to go to a SATA card, they PCIe version of the card will have support. It'll take me some time to fill up 9-12 TB of additional data before I use up the onboard SATA connections.

How much of a bottleneck or slowdown would result in using the PCI-X AOC-SAT2-MV8 ni the PCI-E slots? Would it effect playback of HD material, mainly BluRay's, that are streamed from the server?  Hopefully, by the time I need to go to a SATA card, they PCIe version of the card will have support. It'll take me some time to fill up 9-12 TB of additional data before I use up the onboard SATA connections.

 

The AOC-SATA2-MV8 goes in the PCI slot not the PCIe Slot.  There would not be a significant bottleneck on single disk reads. The slot is capable of 133Mb/s, Many of the top end drives at the current time reach about 120MB/s.

The bottleneck comes in parity calculations when reading/writing to multiple drives.

Just make sure your parity drive is on the motherboard or a PCIe (EXPRESS) card.

 

By the time you need to expand to the PCI ports, the drives may be bigger or the PCIe (express) cards may be denser. So you may not reach this issue.

Any ideas for a good AMD board then as well?  I know Gigabyte boards have that issue with screwing up the size of the primary drive, is that an easy workaround?  I run a Gigibyte AMD board for my HTPC and am actually a AMD fan, and was going with Intel for the unRaid box solely due to it benig the most popular route around here.

 

How would this board work?  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128395 What about with the SATA PCI-x133 boards? 

Thats a great choice. Take a chance on a AMD Sempron 140 and it might unlock into a 240 with that board. SB710 or SB750 needed for this trick...

 

Plenty of PCI-e slots, good number of sats ports onboard, Gb NIC and onboard VGA.

 

New PCI-X boards are rare - workstation or server boards usually. I think Asus still make some decent workstation motherboards (ws designation). What would be ideal is a dual (pci-x) or triple bus (pci-x and pci-e) motherboard... Probably need a hardcore motherboard specialist like Tyan, Arima or Supermicro and a dual Opteron (940 or f) motherboard. Dual cpu and 4GB RAM per CPU. Pair of Supermicro SAT-MV8s one per pci-x bus (good for 600MB/s apparently).

 

Total overkill for unRaid but your parity checks would be super fast! Of course your electric bill would be scary as would the costs.