Hi there,

 

I'm a complete unRAID novice, and have just been looking into getting something set up for a week or so.  I bought an industrial RAID server for what I believe to be a great deal on craigslist, but I was advised by a friend to run its specs by this forum.  I hope I wasn't hoodwinked, but this was a reseller with an address, so a refund wouldn't be out of the picture.

 

The core details as they were presented to me, with my own observations in parentheses:

 

Arima HDAMA Dual Socket 940 AMD Opteron board (Although a sticker says AccelerTech on the board)

TWO AMD Opteron 240 processors

630Watt Redundant Triple Power Supply (do they all need to be plugged in?  I don't have three power sources)

DDR ECC slots (I need to get some RAM for it)

 

Here's an external pic from them, although I can take my own internal pics now:

 

I was told to ask if this can run SATA II speeds, and will be able to run unRAID, etc.  Thanks a lot!

If this is the board [ http://www.legendmicro.com/store/5679_Arima-HDAMA-AMD-Socket-940-Server-Board---Pull-HDAMA.lmsp?RID=23 ], it looks like it should be supported under unRAID while having a lot of options for drive expansions. You will need to pickup a SATA controller to run SATA drives. The two PCI-X 64bit/100Mhz slots are perfect for the 8port SAS controller card (16 drives total). The other two PCI 64bit/66Mhz slots are perfect for the 4 port SATA TX4 controller cards (8 drives total). With those filled, you should be at 24 drives.

 

PCI Slots

- 2 PCI-X (64bit/100MHz) slots

- 2 PCI (64bit/66MHz) slots

- 2 PCI (32bit/33MHz) slots

They also have a second model [ http://www.legendmicro.com/store/5674_Arima-HDAMAF-AMD-Socket-940-Server-Board---Pull-HDAMA-F.lmsp?RID=23 ] which has 4 SATA ports built in.

 

Both have ATI Rage graphics, which is supported.

 

I'm not certain about the gigabit NICS, but Linux should support them, however I'm not certain if unRAID includes the drivers by default.

I think this SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 is the 8port PCI-X card others are using. Though it may be picky with which HDDs are used with it -- http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=4932.0

Extra questions:

 

Do I need to plug it in three times?  There are three power sources.

The triple redundant supplies are in case of power failure. Only one needs to be powered to get the system working.

 

Those Arima motherboards had a variant with a SIL 3114 sata onboard, running at 66Mhz. So you could be lucky and have 4 onboard sata ports.

 

There is a guy in the UK knocking out those motherboards for about $50 with 2GB ram and a couple of CPUs. Low power they ain't, but they make super servers.

I'd would imagine it would make a lot of noise like would any server grade disk enclosure would make, hope you have a sound proofed room to put it in . But it would make a perfect unraid server seeing it has all the components, disk trays, etc...

For home use and to reduce the power that this thing is going to burn I'd only run one CPU (obviously pointless running two for only unraid use, but if you have in mind to run a full Slackware distro install, perhaps get VMware Server on it and several VMs running as well, I'd keep the extra CPU) and I would only connect one PSU seeing that the additional two PSUs will draw more power if your going to have them plugged into a power source and running, unless your keen for redundancy? Looks a mighty fine server.

The prospect of it being incredibly loud is a little off-putting, but I'll let some trial decide.  I appreciate the idea of only running one processor to save power, can I do that through the in-browser control panel?

 

Funny, I was just looking at the same picture on eBay.

 

That's them alright.  It was a strange place.  Definitely seemed to be rushing my decision and purchase "we only have a few left...", I hope that wasn't their business model.

I appreciate the idea of only running one processor to save power, can I do that through the in-browser control panel?

No, but you can do that with pliers.