starcat Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Thanks to everyone. I'm still reading and learning and I still think it'll fit my needs. I saw comments about expandability, etc. that was high on my personal requirements. I'm also of the opinion that noise is subjective. My personal PC is pretty much silent as it has a passive video card and is in an Antec Sonata case. The only time I hear anything is when the hard drive or DVD is being read. The unRAID's ability to spin down drives and only have the drive active on the items that is streaming is one of the main attractions for me. I'm hoping that I can sort my collection of data so that I can have a minimal amount of drives that aren't normally sleeping going. Get yourself the Norco 4220 and unRAID, it is a perfect fit, all carriers are in there. You can put 3x 140mm fans in the middle and make it basically absolutely quite with temps 40-42C for ST1500 drives (which runs on the hot side). Link to comment
abeta Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 Get yourself the Norco 4220 and unRAID, it is a perfect fit, all carriers are in there. You can put 3x 140mm fans in the middle and make it basically absolutely quite with temps 40-42C for ST1500 drives (which runs on the hot side). One of my personal requirements was a turnkey system of sorts. ie, Someone else builds and supports the server and software. I was trying to avoid the "science: project approach of either building a whole new server or figuring out everything on my own. I simply not looking for another major project to eat up my spare time : The Lime Tech boxes seems to serve one of those requirements (but can't confirm since I'm still waiting on answers from Lime Tech) and the forum seems to address at least part of figuring stuff out on my own but now I'm wondering about what kind of support can I expect from Lime Tech. ie, Its been awhile on pre-sales questions is it going to be the same when I have a real problem? Link to comment
starcat Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Ooh, ok, I see - sorry to jump in with a general suggestion :-) Anyway, unRAID is a great product and the readybuild systems from LimeTech are too. Link to comment
abeta Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 Ooh, ok, I see - sorry to jump in with a general suggestion :-) Anyway, unRAID is a great product and the readybuild systems from LimeTech are too. No worries. Assuming I can get a response and quote :'(. Link to comment
wholly Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Tom's response time to my queries have always been reasonable and normally within 24 hours but I suspect that he tries to take weekends to be with family and forget about trying to juggle 21 spinning drives at once (Imagine the nightmares). I'd expect a response some time normal businesses would be open. Not everyone is crazy enough to work 24x7 and the great news about the unraid community is that support is available nearly 24x7 from very knowledgeable users that want everyone to succeed. (Update: I see elsewhere that you've been reasonably patient (9+ days) waiting for a response. I think, unless Tom's been away, that you've been reasonable. Hopefully Tom will get back to you soon. He did just wrap up 4.5 so hopefully that will free him up a little to catch up.) In response to the "Would I do it again?" - I've got to say that it's seeming pretty darned good. It's pretty sweet to stick in a drive and have it just work. Link to comment
abeta Posted December 13, 2009 Author Share Posted December 13, 2009 In the other thread, its been 9-10 days and several email reminders so I'm not sure what's going on other than its getting lost somehow. Link to comment
WeeboTech Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 In the other thread, its been 9-10 days and several email reminders so I'm not sure what's going on other than its getting lost somehow. Please send a private message on the board. I'm sure he'll see it. For those who have purchased systems, the feedback on support for them seems to be very satisfied. Link to comment
Rajahal Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 I would definitely do it again, and I think the decision will be even easier once version 5.0 comes out. I am still running unRAID version 4.4 stock and it works very well for what I need. However, I was never successful in installing even the most popular unRAID add-ons (unMenu and BubbaRAID) despite several attempts. Therefore, I am very excited about the new simplified plug-in architecture promised for version 5.0. I suppose my only other complaint is with performance. The read/write performance is fine (even without a cache drive), but the lag when waiting for a drive to spin up is a bit excessive (15+ seconds in my case). Still, from a bang-for-your-buck perspective, unRAID is unbeatable. Link to comment
abeta Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Therefore, I am very excited about the new simplified plug-in architecture promised for version 5.0. I suppose my only other complaint is with performance. The read/write performance is fine (even without a cache drive), but the lag when waiting for a drive to spin up is a bit excessive (15+ seconds in my case). I placed my order earlier this week, hoping it ships by Friday so I have a chance of receiving it before Christmas . Anyway, questions on your response. I've seen a blurb that Lime Tech was hoping to have an alpha or beta for 5.0 around Christmas, but I haven't actually seen anything that says when the target date might be. ie, Early next year, spring, etc. Any pointers where I might have missed? On the drive spin up part where you says its 15+ seconds, does it just sit there and wait or do you get an error and have to just wait before trying again? Link to comment
Rajahal Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 As far as I know, there is no concrete release time for 5.0. Tom said hopefully by x-mas, but who knows. I don't mess with betas anyway, so it doesn't really matter to me. I'll wait until its final. Regarding the drive spin up lag I experience, in most cases it just sits there. I generally browse my media via Windows Explorer (Windows 7), and it will just freeze and wait while the disk is being spun up. The really annoying thing is that Win7 doesn't let you do anything else while you wait, you just have to just sit there and stare at it. I'm used to it enough now where it doesn't really bother me that much (certainly not enough to drive me away from unRAID), but sometimes I'll have a guest over browsing through my media and they'll encounter the lag, start frantically clicking, and decide that my computer is a POS. I then get to explain that 'the files you are looking at are actually located on the server over there in the corner, and sometimes you have to wait for a disk to spin up'. By this point, the 15 seconds has passed and they get to browse my collection in with a new sense of wonder and amazement because I said the word 'server'. So it all works out I do remember one application throwing up an error when it encountered the lag, but I can't remember what application that was. That has only happened maybe once or twice in the year plus that I've been using unRAID, so it certainly isn't a major concern. Most programs (like XBMC) just sit and wait and don't complain. Of course, I know the solution to my problem - set the drives to never spin down, or at least raise their spin down times from 1 hour to something higher. I don't, though, because I want the power saving advantages of spun down idle disks. As you said, its one of the advantages of unRAID over other NAS and RAID systems. I would rather wait 15 seconds a few times a day than pay the extra few dollars when the power bill arrives. Link to comment
starcat Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Rajahal, why not switch to Mac OS X on the client side if you don't want a freeze :-) Cheers! Link to comment
abeta Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 I do remember one application throwing up an error when it encountered the lag, but I can't remember what application that was. That has only happened maybe once or twice in the year plus that I've been using unRAID, so it certainly isn't a major concern. Most programs (like XBMC) just sit and wait and don't complain. Of course, I know the solution to my problem - set the drives to never spin down, or at least raise their spin down times from 1 hour to something higher. I don't, though, because I want the power saving advantages of spun down idle disks. As you said, its one of the advantages of unRAID over other NAS and RAID systems. I would rather wait 15 seconds a few times a day than pay the extra few dollars when the power bill arrives. Ah coolness. I don't think I'd mind the wait either, I think I mind error messages that make me click stuff again more . I was thinking the normal default spindown will be fine as like you I'm probably accessing the unit only in the evenings anyway and I did see a user script to keep the directories in memory so I might decide to try that as well when I get the unit. Link to comment
Chris Pollard Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Rajahal, why not switch to Mac OS X on the client side if you don't want a freeze :-) Cheers! OS X does it too. Link to comment
boof Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Of course, I know the solution to my problem - set the drives to never spin down, or at least raise their spin down times from 1 hour to something higher. I don't, though, because I want the power saving advantages of spun down idle disks. As you said, its one of the advantages of unRAID over other NAS and RAID systems. I would rather wait 15 seconds a few times a day than pay the extra few dollars when the power bill arrives. ..or install the cache_dirs scripts which will at least eliminate (in most cases) the browsing lag. Only spinning up the drive when media is accessed. Link to comment
starcat Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Rajahal, why not switch to Mac OS X on the client side if you don't want a freeze :-) Cheers! OS X does it too. Definitely not, and probably the finder only, but not the other apps running. Link to comment
starcat Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Of course, I know the solution to my problem - set the drives to never spin down, or at least raise their spin down times from 1 hour to something higher. I don't, though, because I want the power saving advantages of spun down idle disks. As you said, its one of the advantages of unRAID over other NAS and RAID systems. I would rather wait 15 seconds a few times a day than pay the extra few dollars when the power bill arrives. ..or install the cache_dirs scripts which will at least eliminate (in most cases) the browsing lag. Only spinning up the drive when media is accessed. Could you please post some ponters? Thanks! Link to comment
Chris Pollard Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Rajahal, why not switch to Mac OS X on the client side if you don't want a freeze :-) Cheers! OS X does it too. Definitely not, and probably the finder only, but not the other apps running. It hangs finder..... same as in windows it hangs explorer. In fact in 10.4 it would often cause finder to restart, and would almost always disconnect all your sessions to unraid. Link to comment
abeta Posted December 17, 2009 Author Share Posted December 17, 2009 Of course, I know the solution to my problem - set the drives to never spin down, or at least raise their spin down times from 1 hour to something higher. I don't, though, because I want the power saving advantages of spun down idle disks. As you said, its one of the advantages of unRAID over other NAS and RAID systems. I would rather wait 15 seconds a few times a day than pay the extra few dollars when the power bill arrives. ..or install the cache_dirs scripts which will at least eliminate (in most cases) the browsing lag. Only spinning up the drive when media is accessed. Could you please post some ponters? Thanks! http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=4500.0 Link to comment
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