Hi hope someone can answer my questions below, I am new to unraid and I have been playing around with a trial version on an old laptop to see if it suits my needs for a new plex server, I have eveything working the way I would like apart from obviously no "real array", (I have just mounted my existing D-Link NAS for media to test at present), anyway the questions I have are:

 

Adding to an array: Do you need to use an LSI HBA card to expand the number of SATA connections I can use or can you use a normal pci sata controller once all motherboard connections are full.

 

Cache drive: As I understand it when you copy data to the array with a cache drive that data is then moved to spinning disks at a set time, however does this mean that the data is not accessible until it has been moved or is the cache drive treated as part of the array.

 

Plex meta data and cache drive: Would utilising a cache drive speed up meta data for Plex or would it be better to have a seperate unassigned devices SSD for this task.

 

Upgrading hardware: My current spare system is an old AMD Athlon 2 x2 250, if I was to build an Unraid server on this hardware, could I then swap out the motherboard, cpu and memory and just swap the usb drive or does it require a rebuild.

 

My final intended build is an Intel i3 8100, on a B360 ASROCK motherboard with an initial 8GB ram, will run Plex in a docker with HW transcoding and may run a windows 10 VM for remote access and media file management.

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Adding to an array: Do you need to use an LSI HBA card to expand the number of SATA connections I can use or can you use a normal pci sata controller once all motherboard connections are full.

LSI HBA not must, other controller such as Asmedia 1061/1062 run well too.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Cache drive: As I understand it when you copy data to the array with a cache drive that data is then moved to spinning disks at a set time, however does this mean that the data is not accessible until it has been moved or is the cache drive treated as part of the array.

All file accessiable during moving, in case file was in open state, then it won't move and move aging in next cycle.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Upgrading hardware: My current spare system is an old AMD Athlon 2 x2 250, if I was to build an Unraid server on this hardware, could I then swap out the motherboard, cpu and memory and just swap the usb drive or does it require a rebuild.

Yes, mostly swap USB stick will be fine.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Do you need to use an LSI HBA card to expand the number of SATA connections

You need to avoid controllers that use the Marvell chip sets.  For some reason, they are sometimes unstable in Unraid setups.  BTW, The LSI controllers are widely available on Ebay starting at about $50.00.  You do have to be careful that you don't get a counterfeit one.  Vet the vendor carefully and avoid most China sellers.  You can also get Server pullouts (used).  Most of these will require reflashing the firmware to 'IT Mode' as they are strictly RAID cards.  There are several vendors who provide cards that are reflashed for a modest premium over the price of the  unflashed cards.  

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Do you need to use an LSI HBA card to expand the number of SATA connections I can use or can you use a normal pci sata controller once all motherboard connections are full.

No, I have pcie sata controllers in my servers, they work fine. They are even Marvell. But I don't have any VMs.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Cache drive: As I understand it when you copy data to the array with a cache drive that data is then moved to spinning disks at a set time, however does this mean that the data is not accessible until it has been moved or is the cache drive treated as part of the array.

Each user share has a setting that controls how and whether that user share will use cache. Cache is part of the user shares just like the array so cached files are accessible.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Plex meta data and cache drive: Would utilising a cache drive speed up meta data for Plex or would it be better to have a seperate unassigned devices SSD for this task.

You can do it either way. Using cache for this is simpler and considered the "standard" way.

 

2 hours ago, richarddc79 said:

Upgrading hardware: My current spare system is an old AMD Athlon 2 x2 250, if I was to build an Unraid server on this hardware, could I then swap out the motherboard, cpu and memory and just swap the usb drive or does it require a rebuild.

Many of us have done this. I have replaced everything but the disks (and of course the disks were replaced over time with larger disks). Everything just worked.

 

The only things that might give trouble:

 

If you use a RAID controller. They can often take over the drive identifier given to the OS and Unraid won't know which disk is which.

 

If you have any VMs that use hardware passthrough. Of course if the hardware changes those VMs might need some changes.