I'm currently defining the specs for my first unRAID build and could use some experienced users' feedback.

 

Here's my list (prices are what I'd pay(CAD), link is to newegg for the description):

• Cooler Master 590 - $70.15
  
• CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W - $51.77
  
• AMD Sempron 140 - $32.98
  
• Kingston KTL-TCM58/2G 2GB 1X2GB DDR3-1066 240PIN - $63.59
  
• ECS A890GXM-A AM3 - $129.99
  

For a total of $348.48 + hardrives (I plan 2*2tb to start and buy unRAID,5in3's, and sata cards as needed)

 

The reason I chose the motherboard I did was that it was the only board that met the following criteria on newegg - AM3 socket, onboard video, dual gigabit

 

Now, I want dual gigabit so that I can connect my laptop and my desktop to the server and have them both read/write simultaneously. But I'm not sure, does unRAID support this behavior??

If not, any recommendations on motherboards?

 

Thanks!

UnRaid does not currently support using both ethernet ports at once. When and if it does they will be bonded together to increase speed. What you are looking for is a ethernet gigabit switch such as this:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320046&cm_re=gigabit_switch-_-33-320-046-_-Product

 

This just happened to be the cheapest switch on newegg.

 

Hook up both your computers and your unRaid box and they will all communicate.  Cables are real cheap at monoprice.

 

Otherwise it looks good. I'd recommend choosing a widely used motherboard as that is the most critical for compatibility.

Hi Dease. The question of Dual NIC support has been raised a few times on the forum (I myself have raised this question too), and is no 'out of the box' support for it. There is limitations to the unraid OS for this feature, though their has been some members have got this working, purely only for a dual-subnet use only, having their rig serve two separate network connections for two separate subnets.

In terms of raw speed increase, I believe (and others too) would see no benefit as your limited to the disks speeds, bus speeds of the disk interfaces, parity disk writing data when you're writing to the volume, internal speeds of the main board, etc... For streaming, at present and in the future, 1Gbps is more then enough for your home media network. 

 

I'm currently defining the specs for my first unRAID build and could use some experienced users' feedback.

 

Here's my list (prices are what I'd pay(CAD), link is to newegg for the description):

• Cooler Master 590 - $70.15
  
• CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W - $51.77
  
• AMD Sempron 140 - $32.98
  
• Kingston KTL-TCM58/2G 2GB 1X2GB DDR3-1066 240PIN - $63.59
  
• ECS A890GXM-A AM3 - $129.99
  

For a total of $348.48 + hardrives (I plan 2*2tb to start and buy unRAID,5in3's, and sata cards as needed)

 

The reason I chose the motherboard I did was that it was the only board that met the following criteria on newegg - AM3 socket, onboard video, dual gigabit

 

Now, I want dual gigabit so that I can connect my laptop and my desktop to the server and have them both read/write simultaneously. But I'm not sure, does unRAID support this behavior??

If not, any recommendations on motherboards?

 

Thanks!

thanks for the info!

 

Too bad regarding the dual NIC's. If I understand correctly, I simply connect both computers to the switch and then connect the switch to the server and I'll be able to read/write simultaneously from both pc's?

Would the switch interfere with a router? ex: all three connected to the switch to share files, with the two pc's sharing an internet connection thru a router.

 

New motherboard and now ddr2 ram:

GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H -$89.00

Kingston HyperX 2GB 2X1GB PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 - $57.88

thanks for the info!

 

Too bad regarding the dual NIC's. If I understand correctly, I simply connect both computers to the switch and then connect the switch to the server and I'll be able to read/write simultaneously from both pc's?

Would the switch interfere with a router? ex: all three connected to the switch to share files, with the two pc's sharing an internet connection thru a router.

 

New motherboard and now ddr2 ram:

GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H -$89.00

Kingston HyperX 2GB 2X1GB PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 - $57.88

 

That will work just fine..

 

Internet -> Router -> Switch -> Your Computers and Server

so the router would only be connected to the switch? could I skip the router alltogether and just do internet->switch?

 

On another note, has anyone had any experience with these USB drives? They seem ideal for unRAID.

so the router would only be connected to the switch? could I skip the router alltogether and just do internet->switch?

No, you cannot do without a router.  It also provides the network-address-translation function.  Once you have more than one device on your lan you need a router.  Now, the router does not need to be a gigabyte router.  It can be an inexpensive 100Mbit router.  (it is exactly how I have my LAN set up.  I have a 100Mbit router connect to my cable-modem, and an inexpensive 1000Mbit 8-port switch connecting all the high speed devices on the LAN with one port connecting to the router.

 

On another note, has anyone had any experience with these USB drives? They seem ideal for unRAID.

 

Never seen those before, but they do look pretty nice for unRAID.  A bit expensive, though, not sure it's worth it.

 

As others have said, you have the choice of either buying a nice Gigabit router (personally, I use the DIR-655 and love it) or a cheap non-Gigabit router and a Gigabit switch (I use this one to add an extra 4 ports to my network).  Also make sure your cables are all Cat5e or Cat6.  Cat5 is not rated for Gigabit LAN.  I buy all my hardware at Newegg, and all my cables at Monoprice.

 

Whiles the Gigabyte motherboard you linked will likely work, be wary of HPA issues on Gigabyte boards.  Search these forums for HPA and you'll see all kinds of warnings and horror stories.  The safest bet is to just avoid Gigabyte altogether.  My favorite brand is Biostar, though SuperMicro and Asus are very reputable as well.

 

Definitely look for a board that has 6 onboard SATA ports, onboard video, and of course, Gigabit LAN.  I highly recommend the board in my sig, or the newer versions of it.

On another note, has anyone had any experience with these USB drives? They seem ideal for unRAID.

 

These are nice and small ! 

I don't know much about those, but thew small PQI usb sticks work for unRAID aiso

http://www.pqi.com.tw/product2.asp?oid=200&cate1=200&proid=343

I can second this on the topic on the Gigabyte HPA, Virtual Dual BIOS or 'Backup BIOS image to HDD'. It has thankfully hasn't happened to me, which is why i switched to a Asus mobo to purely avoid this. biostar are good mobo's too.

 

On another note, has anyone had any experience with these USB drives? They seem ideal for unRAID.

 

Never seen those before, but they do look pretty nice for unRAID.  A bit expensive, though, not sure it's worth it.

 

As others have said, you have the choice of either buying a nice Gigabit router (personally, I use the DIR-655 and love it) or a cheap non-Gigabit router and a Gigabit switch (I use this one to add an extra 4 ports to my network).  Also make sure your cables are all Cat5e or Cat6.  Cat5 is not rated for Gigabit LAN.  I buy all my hardware at Newegg, and all my cables at Monoprice.

 

Whiles the Gigabyte motherboard you linked will likely work, be wary of HPA issues on Gigabyte boards.  Search these forums for HPA and you'll see all kinds of warnings and horror stories.  The safest bet is to just avoid Gigabyte altogether.  My favorite brand is Biostar, though SuperMicro and Asus are very reputable as well.

 

Definitely look for a board that has 6 onboard SATA ports, onboard video, and of course, Gigabit LAN.  I highly recommend the board in my sig, or the newer versions of it.

Thanks for the feedback on the motherboard, here's my new choice:

ASUS M4A78L-M

 

I'm apprehensive about going mATX because I'm not sure if there's enough expansion slots to expand to 20+ drives without bottlenecks? If it can, what would the configuration of the cards-slots be?

 

Ideally I'd like to have a slot free just for flexibility

 

An ATX option might be:

ASRock A785GXH/128M

If you are planning to go to 20 drives then don't scrimp on the motherboard.  The ATX one you picked out would work better for moving to 20 drives and keeping most/all on the PCI-e bus.  The only problem you may run into is if the PCI-e x16 slots can be used for something other than a video card.  Some manufacturers only allow video cards to work in those slots.

The ASRock board looks good to me.  I've only ever used an ASRock board once (built a desktop for a friend about a year ago), but it seemed to be good quality, and it is still running strong.

 

You can also look at SuperMicro boards, but they are more expensive.

I mount my USB drive in the case (plug in usb header), use the flash share to read/write to it. Works well and the drive is safe. So far have never needed to open the case to remove it.

 

Asrock looks a really nice board. 16x, 4x and x1 means 20 drives easy. M3A785GXH with three X16 slots looks even better ($110 US), uses DDR3 memory.

 

20 drives on an mATX ( assuming x16, x1 and  2PCI). Would be something like this; 8 sata on x16 + 4 sata on X1 + 6 sata onboard + 2 sata on the PCI. So it is do-able. The limit of a mATX board (8 sata on x16, 4 sata on the x1, 6 onboard, 4 in each PCI slot gets you 26 sata ports, thats without messing with port multipliers). 16 drives is the expected high speed PCI-e hosted limit on those boards. 

 

You will be swapping PSU (10 drives) and case (16 drives) before getting 20 drives working with your current buy list, I wouldnt get too hung up on 20 drives. 16 x 2TB drives gives you 30TB of storage (more than most SME companies have). That Asus board is a good, uses the 760G (RS780L chipset) which works really well. Good price. DDR2 memory. Already tested.

Seeing how the sata cards break down I think I'll be good with the ASUS mATX.

 

New question. My current storage setup is 2*2tb raid1 internal, WD studio II 4TB (2*2tb) in raid1, and WD studio II 2TB (2*1TB) in raid 1, so 10TB with 5TB usable. But in unRAID I could have 8TB usable. The studioII's are user serviceable so I can remove them easily enough but I'm wondering about warranty. Say one of the studioII's drives dies, I'd remove both studioII's drives, put them back in the enclosure - would WD be able to see(and care?) that I wasn't using it in the enclosure? Any way to make this work + keep warranty?

 

Say I buy one (maybe two) new 2tb drives, what would the best way to migrate the data be?

The only way to know for sure would be to call up WD and ask them if it would void their warranty.

 

As far as I know, there is no way for WD or any company to be able to tell if their drives have been used in another device based on software or the drive contents alone.  They may notice things like scratched/torn stickers or missing screws, so just be careful when you go about it.  Some tech companies like to put little holographic stickers on things that you aren't supposed to take apart - if that is the case, then that missing sticker will likely void your warranty.

 

Assuming none of the above is a problem, my approach would be to just not mention that you ever used the drives outside of WD's enclosures.  If they fail, tell WD that they failed and that's that.  No need to mention unRAID or anything else.

An ATX option might be:

ASRock A785GXH/128M

I've got the board (ASRock A785GXH/128M) as suggested here, but I stuck adding 12th hard drive - it stopped booting from USB. I didn't find any USB-FDD options in the BIOS. Who has the board with more than 11 drives setup please advise.

Thanks