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New Unraid server shopping list


Rusty

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So after reading this forum for a while to get as much info as needed to start to build my own server, the time has come to post my shopping list to see if I am missing something or if I have hardware that could be improved.

 

My server is heavily based on nAffies server which you can read about here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6351.0

I thank him very much his effort, because it saved me a lot of time.

 

The purpose:

It will be a media server used to store all my movies, music, pictures etc... that will be mainly played from a XBMC based ION330 in the living room.

Secondary use will backup for the different documents that we have around several different PC's and laptops. All crucial documents are also in an offsite backup.

 

The shopping list:

 

CPU: AMD Sempron 140 (http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=585)

MoBo: Asus M4A78L-M (http://www.asus.nl/product.aspx?P_ID=YagmSfSD3EvKe6g7)

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M500 (http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=4196)

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM KVR800D2N6/2G (http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/PartsInfo.asp?root=&LinkBack=&ktcpartno=KVR800D2N6/2G)

Case: Nexus Edge (http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-Nexus_EDGE_full_tower_case_with_noise_absorption_foam.htm)

HD's (newly bought): Western Digital Caviar GreenPower WD20EARS (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=773)

Changed HD's based on discussion below

 

Current excisting HD's that will be put in:

3x 1TB's and 2x 500GB's.

One of the 500GB's will be used as cache drive.

 

Main goal of the server:

  • Energy Efficient
  • Future proof: hence the very large case which in total can hold 24 HDD's
  • CPU power is less important, transfer speed to the server will be handles by the cache drive.
  • Ideally I would like to use wake-on-ARP. But I am not sure what this could mean hardware wise (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6729.0)

 

So my question is then in the end, does anyone see any potential issues with this hardware or think I should consider other hardware?

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The purpose:

 

HD's (newly bought): Samsung EcoGreen F4EG, 2TB (http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=94&subtype=98&model_cd=552&ppmi=1219)

 

So my question is then in the end, does anyone see any potential issues with this hardware or think I should consider other hardware?

The new Samsung 2TB is an Advanced format drive...without no jumper to offset from sector 64 to 63.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=8012.0

 

Some will recommend to "upgrade" your PSU if you plan to run up to 21 drives +cache (unRAID limitation - including parity drive) in the near future.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2648.0

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=PSU

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have almost the same case, only the internals are different. This case is huge, and very well built, but you have to take care of the locking latches that hold the front part into the case itself, as they are very flimsy.

 

You will have to remove the aluminum front part too, to provide enough air flow to the drives.

 

See my rig to detailed pictures.

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The purpose:

 

HD's (newly bought): Samsung EcoGreen F4EG, 2TB (http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=94&subtype=98&model_cd=552&ppmi=1219)

 

So my question is then in the end, does anyone see any potential issues with this hardware or think I should consider other hardware?

The new Samsung 2TB is an Advanced format drive...without no jumper to offset from sector 63 to 64.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=8012.0

 

 

Thanks, first time I read about that. Will do my homework and probably change drives.

 

Would the Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS be a suitable replacement for the drives?

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?name=st32000542as-bcuda-lp-sata-2tb-hd&vgnextoid=1f70e5daa90b0210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD&locale=en-US&reqPage=Model&modelReqTab=Features

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Would the Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS be a suitable replacement for the drives?

 

Yes.  However I believe that you need to update the firmware to achieve good performance in unRAID.  I think the firmware update converts the drive from 4k sectors (advanced format) to regular 512 byte sectors.  Search around the forums and you should find more info about how to update the firmware.  I have read a few posts where people have had difficulty updating the firmware.  The easiest advanced format drive to use are WD EARS drives (I have 2 of them myself).  To disable the 4k sectors you just install a jumper on pins 7-8 and you're good to go.

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Would the Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS be a suitable replacement for the drives?

 

Yes.  However I believe that you need to update the firmware to achieve good performance in unRAID.  I think the firmware update converts the drive from 4k sectors (advanced format) to regular 512 byte sectors.  Search around the forums and you should find more info about how to update the firmware.  I have read a few posts where people have had difficulty updating the firmware.  The easiest advanced format drive to use are WD EARS drives (I have 2 of them myself).  To disable the 4k sectors you just install a jumper on pins 7-8 and you're good to go.

 

The WD20EARS is the same price as the others. So will probably change to that.

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MoBo: Asus M4A78L-M

 

Have you thought about how you would add SATA ports? Looks like this board will take one MV8 and one PCIe two port card. Giving you a total of 16 ports. Where do you go from there? PCI slots? Port expanders? Might be worth giving consideration to a mobo that can take two MV8s if you think you will be adding a lot of drives down the road.

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MoBo: Asus M4A78L-M

 

Have you thought about how you would add SATA ports? Looks like this board will take one MV8 and one PCIe two port card. Giving you a total of 16 ports. Where do you go from there? PCI slots? Port expanders? Might be worth giving consideration to a mobo that can take two MV8s if you think you will be adding a lot of drives down the road.

 

That is a good point, but I do not think I will go beyond 16 drives soon.

I opted for the case because in my experience in computer builds, the case can last a few years at least. Where the rest will probably be replaced soonish.

So I might replace the MoBo before I get to the limit of 16 drives.

Still I guess its worth having a look around for one that will support my total drive capacity already.

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MoBo: Asus M4A78L-M

 

Have you thought about how you would add SATA ports? Looks like this board will take one MV8 and one PCIe two port card. Giving you a total of 16 ports. Where do you go from there? PCI slots? Port expanders? Might be worth giving consideration to a mobo that can take two MV8s if you think you will be adding a lot of drives down the road.

I had an other look, but I am not sure I understand. Does the MV8 not go into a pci-e 16x port?

Because the MoBo has 2 of these.

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I had an other look, but I am not sure I understand. Does the MV8 not go into a pci-e 16x port?

Because the MoBo has 2 of these.

I believe you are mistaken.  I checked the link that you provided in your OP and on the ASUS site it says the board has the following ports:

 

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16

1 x PCIe x1

2 x PCI

 

So no the Asus M4A78L-M will not accept two of the MV8 cards it will only accept one.  Greybeard is correct this board can support 16 drives between onboard SATA and PCIe slots (8 in x16 + 2 in x1).  I believe you can also add maybe 2-4 more with a PCI controller card.  Some users avoid using the PCI slots because they share bandwidth which usually means that if you get more than 2 drives attached on the PCI bus then you could start to see a performance hit.  The board you have selected will support 16 drives no problem with a potential to go as high as 20 if you are willing to accept a little lower throughput on those last 4 drives.  There are ways to setup/allocate the disks in your array to minimize the impact of the PCI bandwith limitation.  If you seach the forum you'll find numerous discussions of this topic

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I had an other look, but I am not sure I understand. Does the MV8 not go into a pci-e 16x port?

Because the MoBo has 2 of these.

I believe you are mistaken.  I checked the link that you provided in your OP and on the ASUS site it says the board has the following ports:

 

1 x PCIe 2.0 x16

1 x PCIe x1

2 x PCI

 

So no the Asus M4A78L-M will not accept two of the MV8 cards it will only accept one.  Greybeard is correct this board can support 16 drives between onboard SATA and PCIe slots (8 in x16 + 2 in x1).  I believe you can also add maybe 2-4 more with a PCI controller card.  Some users avoid using the PCI slots because they share bandwidth which usually means that if you get more than 2 drives attached on the PCI bus then you could start to see a performance hit.  The board you have selected will support 16 drives no problem with a potential to go as high as 20 if you are willing to accept a little lower throughput on those last 4 drives.  There are ways to setup/allocate the disks in your array to minimize the impact of the PCI bandwith limitation.  If you seach the forum you'll find numerous discussions of this topic

 

Yes you are right obviously. I misread this "1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 " as in it has 2 ports.

Right so back to thinking if I should go for an other MoBo which will support more drives or if I am happy to go with 16 as a max for now.

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I guess that really depends on how soon you think that you are going to expand past 16 drives.  If you want to install more than one MV8 card you'll probably need to move up to an ATX board.  You should be able to find what you're looking for at around $100.  If it's going to be a while (like 2+ years) before you think you'll need more than 16 drives you might want to just stick with what you've picked out now. Don't forget you could use the IDE controller for a cache drive if you wanted.  So you could get 15 data + 1 parity on SATA and 1 IDE cache drive.  15 2TB drives would give you a lot of storage.

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