Can anyone tell me if the unRAID RB-1200's are in stock now. I still see the notice on the front page about them being back ordered and I'd like to get a few.

 

thanks,

Phil

wowm i wonder what it means when it says on back order

 

you can just build them yourself. the parts are listed

I know I can build it myself but I was trying to support unRaid directly since I like the product.

 

thanks,

Phil

 

 

 

wowm i wonder what it means when it says on back order

 

you can just build them yourself. the parts are listed

I -emailed them on 3/11 about the same think and never did get a answer back.

 

I ended up ordering parts to make my own which actually saved some money. I didn't get hot swap bays which saved the money, figure its not that big of deal to change drives. Plus I don't need the addon card right now, 6 SATA ports on board is enough so I can get that down the road.

 

But like you I just wanted to support UnRaid if possible and to get the exact same parts as their server they have a great price, I would have bought one. Plus with the extra key I could have kept my existing server as is for another use.

I understand the sentiment that one would want to purchase an official LimeTech server to support LimeTech and unRAID.  However, given the incredibly low markup that LimeTech charges on their hardware, I question how effective it actually is.

 

For example, given today's non-sale, retail prices, an RB-1200 would cost:

• Cooler Master Centurion 590 case - $69.99
  
• IcyDock drive cages - $314.97 (3 units)
  
• High-quality Asus P5LD2-VM motherboard with on-board video and GigEthernet - out of stock at Newegg; $128.15 elsewhere
  
• Intel Celeron E1500 2.2GHz dual-core processor with 800MHz FSB - out of stock at Newegg; $38.50 elsewhere
  
• 1GB DDR2/533 RAM operating in dual-channel mode - $26.99 (Official LimeTech brand of RAM unknown, plus I couldn't find any DDR2 533, so I 'upgraded' to DDR2 667)
  
• A pair of Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI disk controllers - $139.98 (2 units)
  
• High quality Enermax or PC Power & Cooling 550W single +12V rail power supply - $119.99 (525W, but it was the closest I could find)
  
• 2GB USB2.0 Flash device containing unRAID Server Pro - $9.99 (I don't think this is the exact model that LimeTech uses, but it is close enough)
  

+ ~$100 to cover all shipping and taxes (estimated)

Total: $948.56 (that's without the unRAID Pro license, even!)

 

Note: This is not intended to be an exact match of the RB-1200, just close enough for the purpose of demonstration.  I have not thoroughly checked compatibility of these parts, so you should not go out and buy them expecting to have an RB-1200 replica.

 

Granted, LimeTech is able to purchase hardware in bulk and hopefully get cheaper prices than the retail prices I listed above.  However, I can't imagine that LimeTech is able to make much off these servers, even with a markup.  I speculate that LimeTech makes about the same amount if not more from purchases of the pure licenses or the pre-configured flash drives.

 

Thoughts?

I understand the sentiment that one would want to purchase an official LimeTech server to support LimeTech and unRAID.  However, given the incredibly low markup that LimeTech charges on their hardware, I question how effective it actually is.

 

For example, given today's non-sale, retail prices, an RB-1200 would cost:

• Cooler Master Centurion 590 case - $69.99
  
• IcyDock drive cages - $314.97 (3 units)
  
• High-quality Asus P5LD2-VM motherboard with on-board video and GigEthernet - out of stock at Newegg; $128.15 elsewhere
  
• Intel Celeron E1500 2.2GHz dual-core processor with 800MHz FSB - out of stock at Newegg; $38.50 elsewhere
  
• 1GB DDR2/533 RAM operating in dual-channel mode - $26.99 (Official LimeTech brand of RAM unknown, plus I couldn't find any DDR2 533, so I 'upgraded' to DDR2 667)
  
• A pair of Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI disk controllers - $139.98 (2 units)
  
• High quality Enermax or PC Power & Cooling 550W single +12V rail power supply - $119.99 (525W, but it was the closest I could find)
  
• 2GB USB2.0 Flash device containing unRAID Server Pro - $9.99 (I don't think this is the exact model that LimeTech uses, but it is close enough)
  

+ ~$100 to cover all shipping and taxes (estimated)

Total: $948.56 (that's without the unRAID Pro license, even!)

 

Note: This is not intended to be an exact match of the RB-1200, just close enough for the purpose of demonstration.  I have not thoroughly checked compatibility of these parts, so you should not go out and buy them expecting to have an RB-1200 replica.

 

Granted, LimeTech is able to purchase hardware in bulk and hopefully get cheaper prices than the retail prices I listed above.  However, I can't imagine that LimeTech is able to make much off these servers, even with a markup.  I speculate that LimeTech makes about the same amount if not more from purchases of the pure licenses or the pre-configured flash drives.

 

Thoughts?

 

Agreed. Couldn't imagine there is much of margin even for the dealers, especially a low tier dealer. licenses is were its at.

But for us buyers it is a great deal that they can pass on. For instance because I couldn't get the RB-1200 and had to buy the parts I had to skip out on the hot swap bays to save some money. So I am getting less for my money.

 

Granted they are not making a ton of money at the great price they offer. But remember that selling 10 of these things and making $10 each is better then selling nothing and making nothing. (just nember out of the air)

Just my perception and I'd love to hear others...

...from tracking this for several months is that Lime Technology really doesn't want to sell this low margin hardware. Their (his) real strategy is to use  the hardware to seed the market by helping people get up and running without the hassle of finding specs, sourcing parts, risk of choosing wrong items, damaging them during transit, assembly, etc.

Building a system is both easier than many would expect, and yet not why many people choose to install a server. Some like to build things like this and are handy and intuitive (there are no manuals, no kits per se...each build is a la carte). But some people just want the objective; a working server that protects their data and streams media. For them, it would seem, a complete, or built to order system would be their choice. Hence the high relative demand and low supply of the pre-built unRaid Server models.

If Lime Tech wanted to sell these things, they would be in stock, or a lead time would be given, or at minimum, the website would have been updated with news since January! I wonder what other sources there are for hardware that is prebuilt and meets the unRaid spec (key tech specs as well as lots of open SATA drive bays, etc.)? I'm also curious about how many unRaid users would have chosen to buy prebuilt rather than build their own had systems been available?

 

I don't think the perception is totally correct.

From various emails, Tom is very busy and has a back log of unRAID orders.

New here. Stumbled upon unraid while looking for NAS (mainly for centralised storage use).

 

I would like to buy the RB-1200 but it would seem that none is available to be bought...strange way of doing business online. No ETA, no response to email...nada. Oh well, back to drawing board.

 

I am not a tinkerer and would not be confident to do a build on my own - so many options, gotchas, watch-outs.

 

Does anyone know if or when limetech will start selling the servers again?

 

 

Nope, we have no more information than you do.  If you live in the US, I would be happy to build a server for you, or help you through the process of building one yourself.  PM me if you are interested.

Thanks for the helpful reply. Not in US, I am afraid.

 

I am in Sydney, Australia. Not sure if there are any Sydneysiders in the forum who can assist.

IF your in or around the Columbus Ohio area i would be willing to put a server together for you also.

 

I could spec out an RB-1200 for you and break down the cost by part if need be.

 

PM me if your interested.

 

EDIT: beat me to the answer it seems.

You may find this useful, it is based off the RB-1200:

 

Budget Build - Austrailia Version

Thanks for the reply and link to build parts. I have to read up (a lot more) to get comfortable to DIY. I may pop back in here to get some more help from you guys. Appreciate the community self-help here.

 

In the meantime, I am actually open to the idea of buying a used RB-1200. Would anyone here be upgrading and need to offload a RB-1200? Please let me know if you are. As I said, I am not a tinkerer and would prefer a pre-built.

Considering the RB-1200 is only a few months old, I doubt you'll get any takers on that.  Still, never hurts to try.

You'd be surprised at how easy it is to put together your own PC.  It's not as daunting as you'd expect (it used to be much worse but has gotten progressively easier) and there are a bazillion and 1 detailed full picture guides available.  I just found this one that was posted recently by MaximumPC... blue gloves and all!  Keep in mind you wouldn't have anywhere near this amount of setup since you wouldn't have a video card or sound card and some other odds and ends for instance.

 

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_perfect_pc_stepbystep_illustrated_howto_guide?page=0,9

I can understand where markwid is coming from.  A little over a year ago I purchased a MD-1510.  The price didn't seem too much higher than what it would cost to build myself.  When I received the unit, I was pleased to see how well cables were routed, etc.  I've just got zero skills when it comes to things like that (even though I've built several PCs since the 80s) lol..

Thanks everyone for the encouraging replies; much appreciated.

 

And not in vain, I must let you know. Because I just took the plunge yesterday after loads of reading up. Some updates here – caveat that I am a newbie to UnRaid.

 

Status of unraid DIY:

1. Build specs for 10-bay unraid:

CPU: 2.7GHz AMD Sempron 140 – AUD$39

Motherboard: Asus M4A785T-M – AUD$85

RAM: 2GB DDR3 Kingston – AUD$59

Power Supply: Corsair 400CX – AUD$69

Case: Antec 300 – AUD$87

USB stick Lexar Firefly 4GB – AUD$16

Expansion card: PCI SATA Raid controller (4 port) – AUD$39

Hard Drive Bay: Cooler Master 4-in-3 STB-3T4-E3-GP – AUD$35

Hard Drives current: 2 x 2TB WD and 4 x 1TB (various)

 

Cost: AUD$429 + hard drives

 

+ UnRaid license key (Plus for now) – USD$59

 

2. Build completed – well kind of. UnRAID server up and running doing parity sync – this will take many hours.

 

3. Will start creating shares and copying stuff over. Reason is, I bought 2 new 2TB drives to install first and do incremental migrate from existing 4 1TB drives already filled with stuff.

 

4. More time needed but I am quite impressed with UnRAID so far.

 

Ahhh, parity sync completed, here is a pic

http://img.skitch.com/20100423-bf93myntjrbc1xx4jekgry7np9.jpg

 

Looks good, markwid!  My only concern is your 4 port PCI SATA Raid controller.  While it will certainly work for unRAID, it will result in slower parity checks once you fill it up with drives.  A PCIe-based card would be better.  If parity check speed isn't much of a concern for you, then don't worry about it.