First Server Build - Acropora's Journey Into unRAID

[acropora]

Hey all!

 

Venturing into my first build here. I've had some brief discussions with various members on the board and am slowly making the dive into this build. Some of the parts have been ordered and should be arriving soon. I'll update as it goes. Feel free to comment with suggestions or advice!

 

OS at time of building: unRAID 6.1.2 Pro

CPU:Xeon E5-2670

CPU Cooler:Noctua NH-U12DXi4

Motherboard:SUPERMICRO X9SRL

RAM: Nanya 8x8GB 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R

Case:NZXT H440

Power Supply:EVGA 650-GQ

USB Thumb Drive: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33

 

Parity Drive: Seagate 8TB Archive

Data Drives: Variety of old drives

Cache Drive: OCZ Trion 150

Total Drive Capacity: TBD

 

Primary Use: Serving PLEX to friends and family

 

 

 

[JonathanM]

Feel free to comment with suggestions or advice!

Data Drives: Variety of old drives

Please thoroughly test any drives you want to put into your parity protected array. Any defect on any of your drives jeopardizes the ability to rebuild 1 totally failed drive. Back when I was first building my unraid box, I had the unfortunate logic trap of thinking, "hey, it can recover from a failed drive, so who cares if my drives are in good shape, I'll just rebuild them as they fail". Fatal flaw in that thinking ending up costing me some data loss when I had read errors on a second drive while trying to rebuild a failed drive.

 

Also, don't just throw drives in the box because you have them. Only install the capacity you actually need. More spindles = more failure points. An empty drive with a bad spot can torpedo a rebuild of a failed drive chock full of data.

[acropora]

Please thoroughly test any drives you want to put into your parity protected array. Any defect on any of your drives jeopardizes the ability to rebuild 1 totally failed drive. Back when I was first building my unraid box, I had the unfortunate logic trap of thinking, "hey, it can recover from a failed drive, so who cares if my drives are in good shape, I'll just rebuild them as they fail". Fatal flaw in that thinking ending up costing me some data loss when I had read errors on a second drive while trying to rebuild a failed drive.

 

Also, don't just throw drives in the box because you have them. Only install the capacity you actually need. More spindles = more failure points. An empty drive with a bad spot can torpedo a rebuild of a failed drive chock full of data.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Most of my drives are > 2TB and relatively new. I wasn't planning on putting in ridiculously old drives. Any suggestions on how to go about testing? I'm assuming you're referring to a SMART but I'm sure there are other diagnostic tools out.

[CHBMB]

Search for the preclear plugin on Community Applications to test your drives before adding them to the array.

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

 

[acropora]

Search for the preclear plugin on Community Applications to test your drives before adding them to the array.

 

Will definitely be doing this once I get it set up. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

As an update, I've ordered the vast majority of the parts and some have arrived over the weekend.

 

Case: NZXT H440 - This is a pretty decent case. I chose it because I noticed it holds 11x3.5 and 2x2.5 drives and is supposedly very quiet. It also came with 3 front 120mm and 1 back 140mm fan, which for $80 shipped seems like a decent deal for a steel case of this quality. I've read that there are some issues with temperature because of all the silencing material in the front. I'll be adding another 140mm fan to the top of the case to push air out. In comparison to the Fractal R5 (which houses my current PC), the build quality seems a little bit lower. The foam around the case doesn't seem as high quality and the case is significantly lighter, which means that there's most likely less foam as well. The "thumb" screws on this case are almost impossible to use. I most definitely have to use a screw driver to tighten screws as it's difficult to get a good connection without it.

 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12DXi4 - Damn this is a big ass cooler. In the picture, it may not seem like it but after comparing the height of it to the width of the case, I have some concerns. The reviews on this cooler are pretty good. I was debating this cooler wi tht he U9DXi4 (which has a dual fan set up) but decided to go with this for silence. Hopefully I made the right decision.

[born2ride]

Why do you need so much cooling?  Poor case design?

 

[acropora]

Why do you need so much cooling?  Poor case design?

 

Well, the case currently has 3x120mm in the front and 1x140mm in the back. I may be adding one more 1x140mm to the top to exhaust. As of right now, I'll have 6x3.5mm HDDs in the case with an 8-core processor. I also plan on leaving this on 24/7 so I want it to be relatively cool and quiet when possible. I've read online that the case does have some issues because there aren't enough vents. Why do you believe I have too much cooling?

[born2ride]

Why do you need so much cooling?  Poor case design?

 

Why do you believe I have too much cooling?

 

no just learning and reading.

 

did you find any cheaper motherboards in your search?

[acropora]

Why do you need so much cooling?  Poor case design?

 

Why do you believe I have too much cooling?

 

no just learning and reading.

 

did you find any cheaper motherboards in your search?

 

I've seen a couple of things but nothing that much cheaper unless it was used.

 

So I've been getting the parts in and have been running into issues. Most notably,when running all eight sticks of memory, I've been getting a POST code B7 issue  which after some research is related to memory. I've played around with different combinations and am coming to the conclusion that I may have a faulty motherboard which one boot when DIMM C1 and D1 are in usage.

 

Link for reference (page 2-10, or page 36) : http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/C606_602/MNL-1317.pdf

 

I'm currently running 32 GB of the total 64 GB in slots A1/A2, and B1/B2 and it boots and runs fine. When trying to the the suggested A1/B1 and C1/D1, it gets stuck at B7. When running 16GB in A1/A2, system boots. When running all slots filled, I get stuck at B7. Any thoughts?

[acropora]

So I figured out the issue. I read a thread about how someone with the same motherboard was getting the same message and he said there was something causing a short circuit on the ram slots. I ended up blowing air on the back of the motherboard where the ram is and voila, it worked. So I have everything running but with no hard drives besides the SSD.

 

I started the memtest but it only shows 32GB which is weird. It's been running for 5 hours. CPU temp hasn't broken 42C once yet so Noctura 12 seems to be working well.