Hi, I just found out about unRAID and I like what I see.  I am looking to use this with a Mac Mini which I use as a HTPC to store DVD rips, photos and music.  My question is if I build my own how much money can I save and how much RAM and CPU power do I need?  I don't need to buy any drives yet since I have 3 that will work.  I just plan on using it to store my media and using my Mac Mini with XBMC/PLEX to play the media.

 

Also has anyone recently built one similar to what I need for under $500?

 

Thanks

I built my rig in my sig for under $500 without the drives.

Agreed, mobo you shouldn't have to spend more then $150 (gigabyte, asus), cpu no more than $50 to $100 max (go for an amd, has heaps of horse power for a unraid server), ram $50 is enough (kingston value ram, though some have spare ram lying around), case about $80 to $100 but can spiral up to $200 (depending on taste or likes), no need for a graphic's card, most mobo's have onboard vga,if you start small you wont need disk enclosures, most people have spare disks lying around and sata cables spare too. Good luck.

thanks, I will start looking.  Does anyone have a mobo, cpu (not a Celeron) disk controller or case you like/recommend?  I always get my stuff from newegg so any links to them would be great.

Here is basically my build for board, cpu, ram and case:

 

BIOSTAR A760G M2+   $55.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138138

 

AMD Sempron 140  $32.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698

 

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) $52.99 + $2.99 shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134117

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 $69.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119152

 

 

So you would be at $214.95

 

Then just need a power supply (look for a single rail 12V) and a few drives and you've got a basic system.

Here is what I got for $267.04

All from Newegg.com

Free shipping and promo codes come and go from day to day.

The day after I order my case with $9.99 shipping cost it had free shipping and was $2 cheaper.

 

1) Corsair 400 W PSU -$51.99 (free shipping and promo code discount)

2) 2x 2gig Lexar Firefly flash drives - $22.97 (with shipping)

3) Sempron 140 CPU - $32.99 (free shipping)

4) Biostar A760G MB

5) 2x 1gig Kingston ValueRam DDR2 800

6) Rosewill R101-P-BK Case

7) extra 120mm fan with speed control - (total for items 4, 5, 6 & 7) $159.09 (with shipping)

 

(Already have 3 1tb Seagate 7200.12 drives and 2 Seagate 500mb 7200.11 drives) more than I need.

(MB comes with 1 SATA cable and I have at least 2 that came with my Seagates). I only 3 need to start.

 

Grand total $267.04

 

All part should be in tomorrow.

Very good mobo gabbott, 6 sata ports should be sufficient to start off. You would be hard pressed getting that value from other brands which those amount of sata ports squirrellydw. Be sure to see if the chipsets of this board is compatible with unraid's OS, see the link below:

 

http://www.lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardware_Compatibility

 

Which from a quick glance it looks like a fully supported mobo for unraid. But if you decide to go for another mobo, it'll be worth looking at the link to see what is listed to what you'll like to get. You forgot to mention a USB thumb drive, but like most tech-savvy users like us, everyone has one spare that they don't use or you can get one for $5-10 bucks these days too, see the hardware listing for compatible USBs too. Good Luck.

 

Here is basically my build for board, cpu, ram and case:

 

BIOSTAR A760G M2+   $55.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138138

 

AMD Sempron 140  $32.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698

 

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) $52.99 + $2.99 shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134117

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 $69.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119152

 

 

So you would be at $214.95

 

Then just need a power supply (look for a single rail 12V) and a few drives and you've got a basic system.

I know this is a little over kill but I have always had good experince with Supermicro, what do you think?  I like ASUS, Supermicro and Gigabyte.  I was looking for one that had on board video, 6 SATA and on board USB on the mobo so I could keep the flash drive inside the case.

 

SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SBC-Q-O LGA 775 Intel Q35 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182151

 

I agree with the above recommendations (look at my sig and you'll see I'm running an almost identical setup).

 

The supermicro is overkill, as you said.  Features like dual NICs will be unused in unRAID.  It is ultimately your choice, of course, but I would recommend a good quality budget board like the Biostar mentioned above.

 

It's tough to give you an exact number since my server is a combination of used parts and new parts, and has been upgraded many times.  However, I remember spending somewhere around $300 as an initial investment on my server (and a good part of that was hard drives).  This was over a year ago, so prices have changed drastically, of course.

So with the above recommendation I don't need a raid card, since the board supports 6 sata drive correct?

The Biostar M2+ has 6 onboard sata ports, so yes you can run up to 6 sata drives without needing an additional card.

 

I've also seen reports on the newegg reviews that the PCIe x16 slot supports more than just video which is a good thing for expansion.

Here is basically my build for board, cpu, ram and case:

 

BIOSTAR A760G M2+   $55.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138138

 

AMD Sempron 140  $32.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698

 

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) $52.99 + $2.99 shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134117

 

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 $69.99 shipped free

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119152

 

 

So you would be at $214.95

 

Then just need a power supply (look for a single rail 12V) and a few drives and you've got a basic system.

 

Then is looks like I will go with this and this PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

 

Last question for now.  How hard/easy is it to set up unraid?  Still not sure about the whole cache and parity drive thing yet?

A 650W PSU is definitely overkill for a 6 drive server.  Go with the 400W (sweet deal with the MIR right now, too).  I run 8 drives on a 380W PSU (see my sig).

 

Setting up unRAID stock (meaning no add-ons) is very easy.  Just follow the step-by-step instructions, you shouldn't have any problems.  If you do, the forums are here to help.

 

The majority of the add-ons are very easy as well, but some of them require a bit more knowledge and familiarity with command line stuff.  Every add-on as some sort of step-by-step, though, and plenty of users to help you through it.

 

If you want your data to be protected against a drive failure, you will need to use a parity drive.  This is the standard use of unRAID.  While it is technically optional (your server will run just fine without a parity drive), it is highly recommended.  I think you will be hard pressed to find any unRAID users who aren't using a parity drive.

 

A cache drive is optional, it will only help with write speeds, not read speeds.  In reality, a cache drive only defers the inevitable slow write into the parity protected array, but from your end, your writes will appear faster.  If that doesn't make sense, just ask.  Recent improvements in the 4.5+ series of unRAID have made faster writes without the need for a cache drive possible.  To quote some numbers, on my server (which is basically identical to the one you are about to build) I see write speeds of ~20-25 mb/s without a cache drive, and ~60-65 mb/s with a cache drive.  Some users report speeds up to 40 mb/s without a cache drive, but I personally haven't seen that.  Since I write large files to my server on nearly a daily basis, a cache drive is worth it to me.  If you will not be writing to the server very often, then most likely a cache drive won't be worth it for you - it is all up to how you plan on using your server.

The only reason I picked that PSU was for furture expansion but not sure when that might be.  I will go with the 400 and not use a cache drive.  I do want my data to be protected, I was going to buy a QNAP or a synology untill I found out about unRAID.

 

Thanks for all the help.

Yeah, getting unraid "installed" is pretty easy. Put all your hardware together, get unraid put on a USB flash drive and then boot from the drive. Once booted up, just browse to the IP or //TOWER (the default hostname) on another machines web browser. From there you configure and mange your unraid box.

 

The Wiki and FAQ here on the site has lots of great info.

If you plan on going upwards of 15 drives in the future (which your case can handle if you packed it with 3 x 5-in-3 drive cages and your mobo can handle if you added on one or two SATA expansion cards), then I believe the 650W PSU would be justified.  However, like I said, my 380 W PSU handles 8 drives just fine, and I would expect it to handle up to 10 drives before I might run into issues (assuming I continue using low power 'green' drives).  Therefore, 400W should get you a bit further, into the 11-12 drive range.  You can use a PSU Calculator to confirm that.

The only reason I picked that PSU was for furture expansion but not sure when that might be.  I will go with the 400 and not use a cache drive.  I do want my data to be protected, I was going to buy a QNAP or a synology untill I found out about unRAID.

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

I've only been an unRAID user for about a month now but not new to streaming media. I've been running XBMC for over 5 years and always streamed my media. At one point it just used to be a windows xp box setup with shares in my basement, then I build a freebsd machine and configured samba from scratch, then went the freenas route...

 

I've already seen firsthand how well unraid works. About a week ago one of my 1.5TB drives filled with HD movies had a faulty sata cable and my server no longer was seeing it yet that was transparent to me. Because of the parity drive, those shares were still available to read and write to even though the drive wasn't there.

Should I buy a second registration key?  Don't know why I would really need one I have never had a flash drive go bad

It is value for money to buy another licence for like another $30 USD more. I wish I did, not just for a faulty USB (Which I'm sure Tom would help you out if this were to happen), but you might want/need another use for it as a offsite backup server, or as a file server for other purposes, etc... If your feeling your hip pocket is a little deeper, buy another licence.

Unless you're really squeaky for funding of unRAID, get the second key. You don't have to claim it immediately and you might be surprised to learn setting up a second unRAID box can be useful. I, for example, am going to be building a second box just to store kids' videos and such... rather than worry about XBMC/Netgear EVA9100 handling permissions correctly, they'll just be able to hit a separate box that I ensure is pure. It's astonishing to me, apropos of nothing, how many kids videos are rated NR... I've always inferred this meant adult levels of naughtiness going on, but apparently, many kids shows don't even bother to get an official rating.

 

Or the second key makes for a fine birthday present!

OK, no problem.  You mentioned permissions and I was going to ask this later but I will ask now.  I plan on using this to store movies, photos and music mainly.  Can I set it up so only I can delete files and my wife will only have read access?  I will by using XBMC or Plex along with iTunes.  I'm not to worried about it if I can't but it would be a nice option.

My understanding (and by no means should you view this as an expert opinion) is that unRAID doesn't do anything extraordinary with permissions... Assume you'll have to arrange permissions from whatever app you're accessing the array with. Chances are pretty good this is what you want anyway; my experience suggests that no two apps are going to handle permissions the same way.

 

EDIT: More info on User shares here.

By the way, you could just as easily set up a share (in my case, something like "Kids Stuff") and point them at that, instead of building a whole new box. I'm hoping that having a second box storing only kid-friendly material will make it easier on me down the road.

oh, all new versions of unRAID free?

Yes, you pay for the license, and get free updates for life.