Upgrade time

[andyjayh]

After years of solid NAS performance from my unRAID server on modest hardware, I've finally made the move to v6.4 and started to install Dockers for media centre duties. Currently the server has the following spec;

 

Asus M4A78LT-M AMD 760G AM3 

AMD CPU Sempron 140 Core 

Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz

 

I've installed Plex, SickRage, SabNZBD, CP and so far its still performing surprising well with the little cpu and modest memory. However, I'm thinking I really ought to up the spec of both. I'm interested in trying some VM's also but appreciate the CPU won't support that currently.

 

What would you suggest as a step up without spending a small fortune on hardware?

I was thinking going the whole hog and putting 16Gb in there which I believe is the max for my board.

CPU wise, I was looking at this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0047T7NI2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1ASVVRBDJ9TMN&psc=1

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core (925) 2.8GHz Processor Socket AM3

Seemed like a good performance for price point. Good/bad? Worth going higher spec?

 

Also, possibly daft question but how does unRAID handle h/w change? Will it happily detect the change in hardware and reconfigure?

[tdallen]

Hi -

 

Retiring  the Sempron 140 is a great idea, that should be your priority.  The Phenom II would be a nice upgrade - just be sure your motherboard supports it (I didn’t check).  Check the Passmark ratings on your options to see the relative difference.

 

4 GB is adequate.  8 GB would a nice upgrade.  16 GB is very nice but getting a little mismatched with the CPU - which is to say, 16 GB would typically be specified for a high memory application or with a faster CPU.  No harm if you pair it with that CPU, of course.

 

unRAID should handle the hardware change without a hitch, it should just detect the new hardware and go.

[andyjayh]

Thanks, much appreciated. I’ll go for 8Gb thena nd save some cash

 

[rilles]

I have the same cpu/mobo.  you can convert your sempron into an athlon II 440 with a simple bios tweak.  I really just means you get two cores instead of one.

if you turn on vt-d in the bios you can run VMs - I found the sempron ok for VMs but it spends much of its time maxed.

 

If you do upgrade the cpu (but slim pickings for AM3 these days) I would be interested in the performance.

I was looking at a new mobo (pc-mate h270) with a kaby i3 or i5 which should not be too much.. ram is the price killer these days.

 

 

[andyjayh]

I did read about unlocking the second core on the sempron but CPU’s of this age are so cheep I thought I would just go quad. Finally went for the one I linked above and it cost me just under £30 so happy with that. Dropped straight in and running well. Yet to spin up some vm’s but so far it’s humming away with low utilisation.

I also bought an additional 8Gb and combined it with my existing 4 so I have 12Gb in the box which sits at about 20% with sonarr, radarr, nzbget and Plex running.

Found a couple of WD nas devices kicking about at home so pulled them apart and gained myself a 2Tb and 1Tb ears drives so they have also gone in.

Very happy with my upgrade as I’ve also discovered some better apps to my old Sickbeard, sabnzbd and Kodi setup.

Happy days


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JonathanM]

2 hours ago, andyjayh said:

Found a couple of WD nas devices kicking about at home so pulled them apart and gained myself a 2Tb and 1Tb ears drives so they have also gone in.

Keep in mind that ALL drives in the parity protected array should be in perfect condition. It's not safe to keep any questionable drives in the array, as they will be called upon to perform perfectly to recover another failed disk, whether or not they contain any data.

 

At the very least check SMART data after letting the drives finish a long SMART test.

 

Used external drives are notorious for being abused.

[andyjayh]

Good advise, thanks and will do the SMART test on these. I've had the drives since new and I now they have had very limited use as they led to my unRAID build in the first place, but I do take your point.