Hi All--

 

I'm looking at finally getting around to consolidating and building a media server.  I have a WHS 4-drive mini-itx based off a chenbro es34069 chassis and a readynas nv+ and am impressed with Unraid and the research I've done so far.

 

I have the following leftover core components and am looking for feedback on their suitability for a large Unraid build:

 

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (Intel P45 Express chipset) with 10? SATA and quad LAN

Intel Celeron Dual Core E3200

4GB RAM

Norco 4020 20 bay chassis

 

I'm not opposed to buying new hardware but would prefer to use what I have.  My primary goal is to set the foundation for a media server that can build and grow with me over the next few years.  The technical aspects of Linux don't scare me too badly (I'm familiar with vi and Unix) but I'm in no way a pro.

 

 

Should I consider an Unraid build with these parts or should I be looking elsewhere?  Thanks for any and all advice!

Looks good though I doubt anyone can vouch for that MB ... unRAID is free up to 3 drives, so give the MB a try and see it all works out well before you splurge on whatever components you need to buy yet

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (Intel P45 Express chipset) with 10? SATA and quad LAN

 

Here it is.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128343

Product page: http://www.gigabyte.us/search/search.aspx?kw=GA-EP45-DQ6+

 

The south bridge is listed on the unRAID hardware compatibility for GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P which is a sibling of your mobo so the first 6 sata ports should work.  The two SiI5723 chipsets that provides 4 of the 10 sata ports is not listed.  Those sata ports need to be tested.

The RTL8111C is supported in unRAID.

 

 

South Bridge (ICH10R) :

  1.  6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices

 

GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:

 1.  1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices

 2.   2 x SiI5723 chips (Smart Backup):

            4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GS0-Source, GS1, GS2-Source, GS3) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices

 

Thank you both for the advice and information--much appreciated!

 

Looking further down the road does anyone know of any plans to support 22 or 24 drives in the pro version?  I've heard of others daisy chaining second 4224 chassis with their own PS and expanding with SAS controllers.  Is this type of mass growth going to be possible with Unraid?  Yes parity checks would take forever....

Technically, 22 drives are already supported (1 parity + 20 data + 1 cache).  Past that, only LimeTech can answer.