First off hello all and thanks for taking time to read this thread. I got wind of XBMC as a Media center and was hooked. I bought an HTPC and was loving life until my 1tb drive filled up. I quickly realized I needed more drives, but didn't want a loud device in my Living Room. I learned of unRaid and quickly decided it was the right path to choose.

 

ok on to my build.

 

I have the following picked out for my budget build.

ASUS M4A785-M + AMD Sempron 140 Combo price:$87.98

 

Gskill 2GB ram $54.99

 

Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive $12.99

 

Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified, Single 12V Rail, $49.99

promo codes:MBTEN923,RWPSU930

total with shipping = $196.84

 

 

EDIT:I think im going to use my current case at under $200 I think its a smoking deal

 

and my current case  Cooler Master ATCS 200 MX

http://sg2.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=85&cid=22&pg=1

 

should I use this case for now, or just buy a new one reason being im not sure the fans are up to speed so to speak, and the case is 10 years old now.  for the time being this could hold me over up to 11 drives if I used the 4 in 3 cage Cooler Master offers.

 

do I buy some new fans, help a brotha out.

 

-=Jason=-

 

I think your current case is fine, and you are definitely getting at good deal on the mobo/cpu.

 

The PSU is likely fine, but I would still recommend using a better name brand such as the Corsair 430W ($30 after a mail in rebate).

 

You can save a few bucks on the RAM too if you wish.  This is what I use: Kingston 2 GB.  I always recommend a single 2 GB stick over 2 x 1 GB as it gives you more upgrade options in the future.

 

The flash drive you've chosen is fine.

 

As for the fans, that's basically up to you.  If noise is a concern for you, then buy some good quality Noctua fans.  If not, then just aim to keep your drive temps in the 30s (Celsius).  Using only green drives will help with this as well.

Raj, thanks for the heads up on your recommendation it just brought my cart total down to $178.84 and a $10 mail in rebate which I don't really count as saving since you forget about them by the time they get to your mail box.  but 168.84 out the door isn't bad.

 

and yes I'll be using all green drives man im super excited.  noise shouldn't be an issue as the computer is going in the garage, unless it gets to hot or cold and temps are a problem. I'll have to find another spot to put it.  unless I can keep it ultra quite it isn't going next to the htpc in the living room.

 

-=Jason=-

Sounds good.  Keep in mind that most current 2 TB green drives require some little bit of work before they will work with unRAID.  As far as I know, the complete list is:

 

2 TB WD Green EARS - requires jumper on pins 7-8

2 TB Seagate LP - requires firmware update

2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4 - currently no fix, so these drives are NOT recommended (see here for details)

 

I personally recommend the WD Greens since I think that the jumper solution is the simplest of them all.  I have one of the Seagate LPs as well (I use it as my parity drive), but I wasn't able to get the firmware update to work despite multiple attempts.  I'm just using it as it is and hoping for the best (which is risky).

yeah I'll be picking up a 2T drive off amazon the WD green one. I have extra jumpers at home so I don't think using them is even a fix who doesn't have jumpers laying around? 

 

-=Jason=-

I actually had to recently buy a 100 pack of jumpers because I ran out.  I agree that the jumper fix is trivial (whereas upgrading firmware on the Seagates is a total pain in the ass).  I mainly added the warning because if you didn't know about the issue and built your server without the jumpers, then it would be much more of a pain to add the jumpers after the fact (you would have to do the drives one at a time, and rebuild each one from parity, losing parity protection for ~8-10 hours each time - definitely something you want to avoid).

I just pulled the trigger on my order I can't wait to get it on monday, I wish I would have ordered yesterday so I had to weekend to get it setup.

 

-=Jason=-

I recently bought this $35 2GB ram stick and it's running fine in my HTPC.  It's Crucial's value ram.

I have a tracking number on my order   IF and i said IF it ships today i'll have my goods on Saturday  *does happy dance*  if it ships friday I'll see my product on monday.

 

 

-=Jason=-

well ups dropped off my parts and after several cuss words I got it all sorted out.

 

turns out I haven't bought a new PSU in decade, this mobo took my 24 pin cable from the PSU and also required a 4 pin cable as well. I was about to the point of cutting my 8 pin in half when I notices that it was just 2 4x4 stuck together. after plugging it in all was good.

 

no drives just yet I need to put my cash in the bank and order from amazon.com.

im going to use some electrical tape and tape up those case wires for the power buttons i think they look terrible now that I see them in the photos.

 

 

-=Jason=-