Is this setup fine for UnRaid?


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Wedding photographer here. I want to build a basic unraid box to keep my RAW wedding photos on.

 

Case: Node 804

Motherboard: Supermicro X11SAE

CPU: Intel G3930

Memory: Crucial 4GB CT4G4RFS8213

PSU: SeaSonic G-550

HD: WD Reds (8TB, x8)

 

Anything I should swap out or add? Or is this fine?

 

 

Edited by ZachOly
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Hello and welcome.

 

It sounds like you are buying new parts.  There's been some discussion about the newest Kaby Lake CPUs (like the G3930) on the Supermicro X11 boards - they need the newest BIOS to support Kaby Lake and they don't always come with that.  That's worth researching as you can't flash the BIOS with a Kaby Lake CPU.  Here's a thread to see if this would apply to you.

 

I tend to overbuy, so with that disclaimer I'd be tempted to move from the Celeron G3930 up to the Pentium G4560 - the extra $23 gets you a lot more performance.  I'd also be tempted to go with 8GB of RAM - unRAID caches writes to the server in memory briefly before flushing them to disk and any extra RAM is used for that caching.  Also memory performance is slightly better in a dual channel configuration, so 2x4GB would work nicely if the budget allows an extra $26.

  • Upvote 1
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Thanks for that tip. I'll add an extra 4GB stick. 

 

I'm trying to spend less than I would on a Synology 1817+, so I still have a bit more money to play with. 

 

In terms of the Mobo/CPU, is there another alternative "value" combo that I should consider? My only real consideration is 8 SATA ports. 

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2 hours ago, ZachOly said:

Case: Node 804

Motherboard: Supermicro X11SAE

CPU: Intel G3930

Memory: Crucial 4GB CT4GRFS8213

PSU: SeaSonic G-550

HD: WD Reds (8TB, x8)

 

Just to supply a different viewpoint on this order, if you're looking to spend less money than you would on a 1817+, and you are only looking for basic NAS functionality, you could save some cash by not going with a server class motherboard and NAS drives.

 

I couldn't find a link to the ram you listed, so I'm not sure if that is ecc ram, (which is a whole conversation unto itself - @garycase!), but if it's not, and you have no interest in ecc ram, a server class motherboard running a celeron processor and non-ecc ram, is overkill.

 

If cost is a primary driving factor, you could substitute a decent consumer-class board, bump the cpu up to a pentium, and add 4gb of ram, and still be under the cost of the current build.

 

Also, don't feel you need to go with WD Reds. They're a great drive, but you can find decent 8TB drives for substantially less. A few years ago, consumer-level NAS-specific drives didn't even exist. You can pick up non-NAS drives for $200, and other brands of NAS drives for around $300. Check out the Good Deals forum for a starting point. As a inconsequential data point, I personally have 17 non-ssd drives in my array, and none of them are NAS drives. In my 7+ years of using UnRaid, I have had maybe 3 drives fail (and as far as I can remember, those have been all 2TB-era drives... probably WD EARS :)).

 

In a perfect world, everyone would be running server-class boards with ecc memory, NAS-rated drives, and Xeon processors, but the reality is that a significant percentage of UnRaid users are using - without issue - consumer-class boards, non-ecc ram, celeron/pentium/i3 processors, and whatever drives they have lying around.

 

 

Edited by DoeBoye
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18 minutes ago, Sphinkx said:

The case you select doesn't support full atx. So you have to take a micro atx. 

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SAE-M.cfm

 

Other popular SM board

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSH-LN4F.cfm

 

 

 

 

 

Do either of these run into the Kaby Lake issue?

Edited by ZachOly
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I agree with DoeBoye, if a simple NAS is all you are after, then a server class motherboard with a low end CPU is overkill. As well, as mentioned the 8TB RED drives are nice, but there are alternatives out there, the Seagate 8TB archive drives work just fine. You can also add an HBA to support your drives, something like a Dell H310 flashed to IT mode comes to mind. Do you have a backup plan for the data that will be on this NAS?

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53 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

You can also add an HBA to support your drives, something like a Dell H310 flashed to IT mode comes to mind

 

Good point. I forgot to mention most consumer boards have 6 or less sata ports. An 8-port SAS card like the Dell H310 (Used server pull on ebay for $50), or even a 2-port SATA card (Make sure to get a non-Marvell controller... The Monoprice SIL3132 is decent - $12.40).

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Just checked your updated link to the ram. ECC ram definitely throws a wrinkle into my suggested cost-saving scenario :). ECC ram means server-class board, so you won't save any more cash in that area... Though something like @tdallen suggested for drives will still save you a bunch of cash...

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