March 17, 201016 yr Author Suddenly, I feel like I'm in a bar with some guy saying "Hey, that guy over there says he thinks you're a wuss!". Yep! Oh, hold on... let me grab my popcorn... Wow... and you guys think I should be spending my time on more valuable activities!
June 19, 201016 yr I am planning my first unRAID server box. I've gone through the forum, done research left and right, and to be honest, the choices are so huge and somewhat bewildering for a newbie…that I feel compelled to post a topic here. I've been weighing the options, and although cpu power doesn't make much of a difference, apparently, I feel like getting a decent one will not do much harm, since the difference in price isn't actually that big (and I would get lower power draw in the long term). I've read this thread - twice - and I am still at a loss whether to go the 'easy' route, with an Atom / SUPERMICRO X7SPA mainboard, or rather a Core i3 with an ASUS P7H55 - or something else entirely. Speed is a concern, because I am a photographer and need to access my library frequently, but I also like something that's quiet and is not wasteful with power. Then again, I am a total newbie, but I love the concept of unRAID, and kinda can't wait to assemble my first machine (one that can grow considerably with time - those digital cameras produce some huge RAW files, both in photo and in video modes - and I have my movie collection to take care of, too….
June 20, 201016 yr The X7SBA could possibly support 14 drives with an added 8 port Supermicro SASLP controller. Speed should be adequate to serve files given enough ram. If you plan to do any kind of batch image conversion on the linux OS or VMware, then go for a more beefy machine. Otherwise you'll do fine. I did not think I would grow to 20 drives, but after a while all the archiving and other backups. I ended up building a large 20 drive beast. So I have one small machine for the most critical and used files. and a 20 drive beast for the longer storage archives. After using IPMI, I'm sold. it really does help when you want to put a machine in the corner and not have to drag a keyboard/monitor for basic system/bios review.
June 20, 201016 yr @WeeboTech, thanks for your quick reply... I won't do the image conversion on the box, it's just supposed to serve the files to my main computer, where i'll work with them. IPMI is only on the Supermicro/Atom board from what I gather, right? I still need to connect it to a monitor the first time i boot up, right? Which means the Core i3/ Asus P7H55 OR Zotac H55ITX-A-E combination looks pretty sweet (and it has room to grow). I'm just not sure whether to go with something new and sort of unproven, even if it is beefy and efficient at the same time...but it sure is tempting
June 20, 201016 yr If you do not value the IPMI as much, I think the ASUS board looks sweet. Even if you are traveling through uncharted territory, there's plenty of technical people here who can comment.
June 20, 201016 yr ...I actually just placed my order, for an ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO 785G Mobo & AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.90GHz CPU combo - sort of in-between those options, I think. we'll see where it goes!
July 1, 201016 yr @WeeboTech, thanks for your quick reply... I won't do the image conversion on the box, it's just supposed to serve the files to my main computer, where i'll work with them. IPMI is only on the Supermicro/Atom board from what I gather, right? I still need to connect it to a monitor the first time i boot up, right? Which means the Core i3/ Asus P7H55 OR Zotac H55ITX-A-E combination looks pretty sweet (and it has room to grow). I'm just not sure whether to go with something new and sort of unproven, even if it is beefy and efficient at the same time...but it sure is tempting You don't need to connect a monitor the first time. If you have a router you can get the IP address of the IPMI from there.
August 5, 201015 yr The new Supermicro pinetrail based ATOM system ended up using 9 watts less than the i3-530 at idle. That's only $8.67 a year if you pay $.11 per kWH. I ended up purchasing the i3-530 after I completed researching the performance aspects, but the Supermicro is a solid performer with a great feature set and excellent power efficiency. Cost is about $200 either way. If I end up doing something different with my system 6 months from now, the i3-530 system will be more useful to me. I finally did some power tests with my supermicro board and I get 21W all disks spun down - that is 15W less than the i3-530 at idle. The main advantage is that the ATOM CPU has passive cooling - 1 less fan to worry about breaking down and less noise. IPMI - I can't live without it now If it is just a file server then performance is not really a problem.
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