I have been reading this forum for about a year now and finally just finished my first unraid build. I have spent so much time trying to decide if I should use unraid or just buy a qnap or Thecus. In the end I decided to go for the cheaper option (about $700 cheaper).

I thought I would just share the details on the hardware I used in case anybody else was thinking about building the same thing.

 

I found the hardest part for me was finding a case small enough for 6 drives but was only mATX, as it needs to fit in my lounge room cabinet. Well after much searching I decided on the mini p180 case. Takes 5 internal 3.5" drives plus 3 x 5.25" bays for other drive brackets. Case is very quiet and has great air flow (my drives don't get over 30c)

 

Took me a few days to copy everything to the server then add the parity drive. Ran a parity check and everything passed. So far very happy. Getting about 75meg/s read which is great.

 

Specs below;

 

case Antec mini P180

MB Intel DG45ID

ram 2 x 2GB 6400

cpu E8400 3.0 Ghz

HD Samsung HD154UI x 3

psu Corsair VX-450

cpu cooler Noctua NH-U9B-SE2

flash drive Lexar Firefly 4GB

 

I know the cpu and ram might be a bit excessive but I had them lying around so they didn't cost me anything.

 

So far everything is great. Using it only for streaming media to my win7 mediacenter.  I installed the email notification script and unmenu. Now just need a UPS.

 

WAF is very happy with the smaller case

Nice post, thanks for the info.  You may want to submit this to the Pimp Your Rig thread.

 

I personally love the mini p180 - I built an HTPC for a friend out of one and I must say it was a real pleasure to work in that case.  It is slightly louder than my full-sized p180, but it also doesn't have the few minor problems that my p180 does.

 

My only gripe with the mini and full-sized p180 is its incompatibility with most hot swap bays and SATA backplanes.  All of the 5.25" bays use drive rails, which makes hot swap bays and backplanes more difficult to use, and sometimes even impossible.  I tried installing a Hot Sway Bay into my full-sized p180 and while it did fit, it was so wobbly that I wouldn't trust it.  I blame the drive rails.

 

However, the drive rails do make other components pleasant to work with.  For example, I'm using two of my 5.25" drive bays to hold hard drives using 3.5" to 5.25" drive brackets.  While the drive rails double the amount of screws that have to be screwed/unscrewed while swapping a drive, they do allow me to pull a drive out and work on it outside of the case, which is much simpler than the alternative.