Help selecting MB and sata cards for 16+ drives

[pfp]

I just learned about unRAID a few days ago and have been doing lots of reading.  I'm still not 100% convinced but am seriously looking at giving it a go.  I'm very good with Windows systems but my knowledge of Linux is limited to following other peoples instructions back when I was doing lots of TiVo hacking a few years back.

 

Right now I have 11 sata drives (most either 1tb or 1.5tb, and one new 2tb drive) in external cases connected to my media center pc via usb.  All but the 2tb drive are completely full.  Power consumption is a concern for me so all drives cases are plugged into a single power strip which is turned off when the data is not needed.  Note: Most the drives are the WD green ones.

 

None of the data is truely irreplaceable but it would be costly and time consuming to replace a good portion of it so having some type of protection would be nice.  That plus I'm a true geek and the fun of building a box is almost worth the cost involved.

 

I see two big issues right now.

• Finding supported hardware for at least 16 drives
  
• Moving all my current data into unRAID without purchasing lots of new drives
  

 

 

When it comes to the hardware I've got alot figured out:

• Case: Antec Twelve Hundred
  
• PSU: Antec CP-850
  
• 4in3: Scythe SCY-HDSx4
  
• RAM: 2gb - I assume Crucial as that's what I always use
  
• HD: New 2tb drive for parity (hopefully can be used to migrate data too)
  

 

Then there is the part I'm not sure about:

• MB - Considering my lack of Linux expertise I'd rather go with the most supported board.  However, the only three officially suppored boards listed on the wiki are generally not available any more.  I did notice that the specs for the LimeTech MD-1510 currently show the Supermicro C2SEA (NOT C2SEE) motherboard.  The Supermicro C2SEA is currently available.  Does anyone know if this board is really being used by LimeTech now and if it will get that illusive third check mark for compatibility?
  
• Sata:  Assuming I use the C2SEA it provides only 6 sata ports.  This leaves me needing 10 more with just two PCI express slots to use.  Are there any compatible 6 or 8 port PCI express cards under $200?  I found an 8 port PCI-X card but this MB does not support PCI-X.  How do I get to 16 sata ports?
  
• CPU: I plan on using the box simply for storage.  What would be the most cost effective, low power CPU I could use but still have enough power to handily run unRAID?  (Update: Celeron 450)
  

 

It's probably not worth worrying about how to move the data till I get get the hardware aspects figured out.  I also have not researched this aspect too much yet so I may just find something on my own.

 

 

p.s.  Just finished setting up a test machine with two drives (only have one IDE channel) - WOW was that easy!!!  Even got unmenu installed.  The hardest part was finding an old PC that supported boot from USB.  Otherwise it was simple.  I hope managing one is that easy too.

[DoeBoye]

I just recently built a system around the Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H. It has 6 built-in SATA ports, 3 1x pci-e slots, 1 8x pci-e slot, and 1 16x pci-e slot.

 

I currently have 7 drives plugged in using the onboard ports and the 2 port 1x pci-e sata card from monoprice.com. I have 3 of the 2-port cards currently plugged in, and the board registers all of them. This is a good thing, as it seems some/many boards limit the 8x and 16x slots to supporting video cards only... Currently I am using the SATA board plugged into the 16x slot, and will be adding a 400GB drive to the 8x slot. My long term plan is to eventually have 12 drives running...

 

Once my system is finished (In the process of converting all my movies to isos), I will be testing for Level 1 and 2 compatibility. From my own usage, I can tell you that the system has been rock solid. No random reboots or bandwidth issues.

 

The only oddness I have come across is that S3 sleep is not functioning correctly. I tested it before and it worked as expected, and I believe it may have something to do with the add-on SATA cards I have installed since testing it initially. It shuts down when told, and wakes up via magic packet (WOL), but unfortunately, it appears to completely shutdown, rather then going into s3 (Though it still wakes up without problem, it just reboots the machine....).

 

It's become less of an issue for me, however, as I realized it would almost never have the opportunity to go into S3 sleep, as I am using it to store my email locally, and the drives are constantly being accessed by my work PC anyhow...

 

Though I haven't tested it, logic would dictate that you should not have a problem if you use 4-port sata cards rather then the 2-ports that I am using, and that should give you a minimum of 18 drives (6 on-board + 3*4-ports). Again, I HAVE NOT TESTED 4-port cards, so buyer beware etc etc ...

 

[EDIT] Just realized that 4-port cards may not be supported in 1x ports. If that is the case, you would need to go with 2 4-port cards in the 8x and 16x, and 2 port cards in the 1x slots.... Or find a supported denser PCI-e card... I think an 8-port PCI-e card is in the process of getting supported, but you'll have to talk to the experts on the board . [/EDIT]

 

As far as processor, from what I have read on this board, if you are not running other apps concurrently (torrents etc), entry level cpus are fine. I am using the Sempron 140, and it works a treat!

 

Hope this helps!

 

Cheers,

 

DB.

 

PS: As an aside, I initially was going to use the Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H, but the shipment was delayed so I bought the UD4H locally. I believe some other users are also using the UD3H, so it does have more backing.... Though I think it is one of those boards that does not support SATA controllers in its 8x and 16x slots... You may want to query the forum for more input from users who actually own one...

[pfp]

Update:

 

For the CPU I'm thinking the Celeron 450 at 2.2ghz.  It has a TDP of 35w which appears to be 30w lower than any other series of chips available for this board.  If the extra power isn't going to do me any good no sense in burning more juice.

[One2go]

Check out what I used http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5102.0 this mobo will do 17 drives with 2 PBI-e x8 and 2 PCI-e x2 slots. With the GigaByte boards and others you have to be careful and see if the 2nd PCI-e socket does not disable 2 of the PCI-2 x1 sockets.

 

Here are some picks of my rig which gas almost the same parts. I am using 2TB  Samsung drives, so far I have 4 used and as soon as they get lower in price I'll add more. I am also using the Adaptec 4 port controller having to use what works with the Unraid software.

 

Side View:     Back View:     The Drives:     The Mobo:     Command Console:

[prostuff1]

How much do you want to spend to put the whole thing together?  That will limit the number fo choices we can through at out.  There are a couple Supermicro boards that are pricy but have PCI-X slots. This board has 2 PCI-X and this board have 4 PCI-X slots and then you can use the SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 to get 8 ports per PCI-X slot.

[pfp]

I did see that board and while I'm not too hot on $250 just for a MB the net result isn't much different.

 

MB: $250, 8 port sata card: $100 = $350 and 14 sata ports

or

MB: $125, 2 4 port sata cards (Adaptec): $200 = $325 and 14 sata ports

 

The bigger issue for me is nearly guaranteed compatibility.

 

 

[prostuff1]

I did see that board and while I'm not too hot on $250 just for a MB the net result isn't much different.

 

MB: $250, 8 port sata card: $100 = $350 and 14 sata ports

or

MB: $125, 2 4 port sata cards (Adaptec): $200 = $325 and 14 sata ports

 

The bigger issue for me is nearly guaranteed compatibility.

 

Either MB should work just fine.  I think WeeboTech is using the more expensive Supermicro Board in one of his setups.  If/when I need upgrade to more disks and don't have the space I will probably go with a similar MB to the $250 Supermicro.

[WeeboTech]

I did see that board and while I'm not too hot on $250 just for a MB the net result isn't much different.

 

MB: $250, 8 port sata card: $100 = $350 and 14 sata ports

or

MB: $125, 2 4 port sata cards (Adaptec): $200 = $325 and 14 sata ports

 

The bigger issue for me is nearly guaranteed compatibility.

 

Either MB should work just fine.  I think WeeboTech is using the more expensive Supermicro Board in one of his setups.  If/when I need upgrade to more disks and don't have the space I will probably go with a similar MB to the $250 Supermicro.

 

As far as I know the supermicro components are compatible.

With the higher end Supermicro board there is the capability to achive a whopping 50 ports in the future.

(42 as of today, 50 when an 8 port x8 card is fully compatible with unRAID).

Not that you can fit it all easily in a case.

 

I planned to go to the supermicro for it's simpler setup.

2 8 port supermicro Sata cards, +4 internal ports to unRAID  = 20 ports.

The extra 2 ports for internal SSD's for caching and nfs serving.

With the extra slots I will probably put in another card to present some eSATA backup ports.

Using the older Cooler Master Stackers, It's possible to get 20 drives in that case using the Supermicro 5in3's.

The board also has a jumper to enable automatic power on. This means i can remove the front panel in the supermicro to achive 20 drives. I bet the Antec 1200 can fit all the removables without this requirement.

 

I think the PCIe set up may be slighty faster. Possibly a little more power efficient. But don't take my word for it. I've read the 3210 chipset is not the most efficient.

 

I've had supermicro motherboards and servers for years. They are not overclocking specialties, but they are very reliable.

One of my workstations was up without rebooting for over 500 days before I shut it down.

It was only shutdown because a hard drive in the mirror failed. The machine was so old, I didn't even bother to upgrade it. I just moved the data to another supermicro machine.

 

I think it's also attractive to consider the ability for remote KVM over IP via IPMI.

This is a big selling point for me. I just have too many machines. heh.

[pfp]

WOO HOO!!!!

 

Finally got all my data transferred to the array.  Now it's time to do a little reorganizing of the data. 

 

The 14th drive arrived yesterday along with the sil3132 adapter - unfortunately I ordered the "low profile" card so I'll have to figure out how to get it in the case.  The 15th (and final for now) drive should arrive today.  I might actually be able to close this baby up and get it off my desk in the next few days.