Newbe question


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Hi,

I am a newbe of Unraid and I would like to ask the following question :

I have an Asus P5B Deluxe mainboard that I would like to use to build an Unraid Pc to be used as storage for my video files library (around 30 TB now on different hard disks).

The case I have has space for 10 3.5" hard disk and Power supply is a Corsair 650W.

The mainboard has only Sata2 is it suggestable to use additional PCI-E board Sata3 to connect hard disks?

Is it convenient from cost point of view to adopt Unraid solution compared to buy a NAS?

 

Many thanks for your suggestions 

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unRAID as a storage solution is not fast so I don't think in your case moving from SATA2 to SATA3 will make a huge difference. That being said, if you don't have enough onboard SATA connectors for your ten drives, then getting an HBA is the only solution. In terms of your convenience question, only you can answer that. Name brand NAS's aren't cheap and you are locked into their OS although they offer many plugins, it's not quite the same flexibility that unRAID offers IMO. If you want to look at an HBA, I would suggest a Dell H310 flashed to IT mode, you can find them on eBay and the instructions to flash them are on here, you'll have to search to find them, then you'll need SATA breakout cables for your drives, those can also be found on eBay.

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2 hours ago, gianpippo51 said:

Hi,

I am a newbe of Unraid and I would like to ask the following question :

I have an Asus P5B Deluxe mainboard that I would like to use to build an Unraid Pc to be used as storage for my video files library (around 30 TB now on different hard disks).

The case I have has space for 10 3.5" hard disk and Power supply is a Corsair 650W.

The mainboard has only Sata2 is it suggestable to use additional PCI-E board Sata3 to connect hard disks?

SATA2 is fine. That motherboard is pretty old, but will well work great for basic NAS function to get your feet wet at zero cost. (UnRaid's trial license will give you 60 days to kick the tires before you commit any funds.)

 

Quote

Is it convenient from cost point of view to adopt Unraid solution compared to buy a NAS?

 

Many thanks for your suggestions 

Oh yes. Turnkey NAS solutions tend to be more costly and lack the ability to support larger arrays. A 10 disk NAS solution is going to cost you a lot more than adapting your P5B Deluxe for unRaid use. Since you have your disks and motherboard already, the only cost to adopting unRaid is the license after the 60 day trial. With a turnkey NAS, you'd be spending thousands to buy all new proprietary hardware.

 

If you are asking about free NAS solutions like FreeNAS, I think you'll find unRaid to be a superior solution. You could try both and see. But we have a lot of FreeNAS users coming to unRaid, and very few (virtually none) going the other way.

 

Get the trial license and try it out.

 

Edit: In addition to the controller @ashman70 mentioned, I like the LSI SAS9201-8i. About $50 on eBay and does not require flashing.

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1 hour ago, ashman70 said:

Sound advice, just be careful of the LSI SAS9201-8i from China, I wouldn't trust them and returning them could be a nightmare, I'd stick with North American sellers, just my 2 cents.

 

Yep - I agree. I did get a SAS9201-16i from Hong Kong. It had ONE dead port but otherwise works fine. A bit disappointing but not a big deal for me.

 

But I agree - getting a used one from a US server pull is best.

 

But I would buy from Hong Kong 100 times before buying anything marked refurbished. I think returned defective merchandise gets cleaned and then gets a 2 minute "plug it is and see if it works" test. And if it does they call it refurbed. I bought 2 "factory refurbished" WD Live media players a few years back. Only one worked right - other had some weird quirk that I couldn't fix and, and wound up sending back twice to get one that worked. Within a couple months it failed also. I was stuck. The seller was great. The units factory sealed. But refurb sucked. I had 3 others that I bought new that worked great. Still work great. That's not my only refurb story but that was the worst. After that I said never again. "Factory Refurbished" is code name for "trouble"!

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I'm using a P5B (see signature).  It works great for unRAID, but don't put a Supermicro card in there - use LSI as suggested.  I'm running all my drives off of an IT Flashed IBM M1015 (LSI based).  While running a Supermicro card I found it was more stable to run all drives on the card - and I haven't gone back to the motherboard ports since getting the M1015.  Yeah, there's a long story there... 

 

My recommendation is to buy large hard drives, don't plan to use all 10 the case is capable of handling.  8TB drives are the sweet spot - they can be had for $200-$250 (as low as $150 if you are willing to shuck an external enclosure).  My additional recommendation is to get an 8 port SATA controller so you can run all your drives off it, if you want/need to.

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I think I have a P5B mobo in one of my systems, but that has to be about a decade old now - I think it was release in 2006.  If you are just using the system for file storage then you will likely be ok, but if you want to use it for VMs and run a bunch of dockers then you might want to bite the bullet and buy something newer.  Especially since I believe this only supports up to 4x2GB of DDR2 memory.

 

But do you really want to build a file server that you hope to be using for a long time with a 10 year old motherboard? 

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