Anyone looked at the Acer Aspire Easystore?

[BLKMGK]

I have a friend who is interested in building an unRAID and I'm trying to find him something small and pretty reasonably priced. I'm not sure this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859321013&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-052810-Latest-_-ServerSystems-_-59321013-LH5A&PID=361116&SID=FW8w6bxb&AID=10485908 meets all of that but it's a nice tiny 4bay box running a low power ATOM. It's got WHS on it now, yuck, but at least that means maybe it could be treated a bit liek a PC and have something better loaded. Just not sure it could boot from USB or anything.

 

Thoughts for something small as a cheap alternative? I've not built an unRAID in awhile and hardware moves FAST!

[jdmlight]

Unfortunately, with that Acer Aspire Easystore, if no one here has tried using it you'd have to buy it to see if unraid would work on it.

 

How about this?: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6482.0

 

$57 for motherboard, CPUs, and RAM.  It's not fast, and it's not likely to be power-efficient, but it certainly is cheap.

 

The Good Deals section is a good place to start.

[bcbgboy13]

Thoughts for something small as a cheap alternative? I've not built an unRAID in awhile and hardware moves FAST!

 

Usually small and cheap do not go together...

 

But you can start with motherboard from here:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=5133.45

or use another mini-ITX motherboards with 4 - 6 SATA ports.

 

Case - like this one (choice of black, silver or red color):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265

Can hold up to 7 HD

 

You decide on the rest.

 

[lionelhutz]

Someone tested it and posted the results. Basically, the box would only boot from the USB if there were no drive installed. To boot from the USB with drives installed was not tested, but it's assumed that you have to open the box to access a jumper to allow BIOS access breaking a seal and likely voiding the warranty and then you need a ~$80 cable to connect a monitor.

 

I also believe that the box would allow the drives to be hot plugged after booting but that is a pain to re-start the server. Pull the drives, boot it then re-insert the drives, assign the drives then start the array...

 

Peter