PCI-E and PCI are completely incompatible. You absolutely CANNOT run a PCI-E card of any type in a PCI slot. It won't even fit.

 

OK, thanks, I figured I was wrong there.

PCI-E and PCI are completely incompatible. You absolutely CANNOT run a PCI-E card of any type in a PCI slot. It won't even fit.

 

Sorry, my mistake, the Asus M-ATX board has the following slots:

1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 -> for the Supermicro 8 x SATA card

1 PCI Express x1 -> for the Sweex 2 x SATA card

Enclosed you'll find what appear to be the most attractive options.

unRAID_server_30112010.pdf

Wow.  You certainly are thorough.

Well it looks like everything equals out in the end. Great research looks like you can easily go with your initial plan with the compared prices.

Wow.  You certainly are thorough.

 

I'll take that as a compliment!

After giving it some thought, my preference is probably the 15 disk build with the UK sourced cages.

 

This as:

*Initial cost is quite similar to the price of a 4 bay Netgear/QNAP/Synology NAS, so that is the kind of money I would be spending anyway.

*The end cost is quite similar to the 13 disk version, but gives me two more disks

*Gives me an upgrade path to the 20 disk version if I ever need that, requiring replacing the case, mainboard and power supply. But I assume I will be looking into a new mainboard at that time anyway to support the new > 2 Tb disks.

I know that torrents can benefit from more RAM, but the CPU wouldn't matter much.  I don't know about SABNZB or squeezeserver.  Generally speaking, the CPU only matters if you are doing something like encoding/transcoding video or running VMs.

 

SABnzbd will benefit from a faster CPU/more cores if you have a long par2 repair (assuming you use a multicore par2cmdline binary). You're looking at hours to repair some posts, depending on how incomplete they are.

those 5 in 3 swap bays cost a lot here in the netherlands

was watching at http://www.alternate.nl/html/categoryListing.html?cat1=7&cat2=999&cat3=9&&tn=HARDWARE&l1=Harddisks&l2=Wisselframes&

 

cheapest there was 109 euros

Yeah, so I found out as well. That part of the build is costing me the most time.

 

The best priced here are the Norco ones: http://cybershop.ri-vier.nl/computer-cases-mobile-rack-module-c-1_40.html

Still 30 EUR more than in the UK (xcase).

i think there are some miscalculations in your post

watch the sata cables, sharkoon quickports and stuff

its not correct...

i think there are some miscalculations in your post

watch the sata cables, sharkoon quickports and stuff

its not correct...

 

What do you mean, the costs? I've taken approx numbers as these can fluctuate a bit according to day and supplier.

i think there are some miscalculations in your post

watch the sata cables, sharkoon quickports and stuff

its not correct...

 

What do you mean, the costs? I've taken approx numbers as these can fluctuate a bit according to day and supplier.

 

nevermind i was calculating wrong

 

so what mobo and psu are you gonna take?

Current build options attached.

To be looked at,the case. Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro (looking for supplier with stock and reasonable price) or Coolermaster 590. This as these offer cable managment.

Find the Coolermaster at ca 70 EUR probably too much extra over the current Rebel9 (non-pro), if I can find the Rebel9 Pro at < 50 EUR that would be my preferred case.

 

For the 20 disk build I can can't find a cheaper motherboard with AMD chipset than the current Asus. So I'm forgetting that option and go for a 15 disk max build with m-ATX board. By the time I need 20 disks we are having new UEFI motherboards anyway to handle the > 2 Tb disks.

 

I pretty sure I'll order the build without cages initially and get it working. I will than add cages later.

unRAID_server_03122010.pdf

Current build options attached.

To be looked at,the case. Sharkoon Rebel9 Pro (looking for supplier with stock and reasonable price) or Coolermaster 590. This as these offer cable managment.

Find the Coolermaster at ca 70 EUR probably too much extra over the current Rebel9 (non-pro), if I can find the Rebel9 Pro at < 50 EUR that would be my preferred case.

 

For the 20 disk build I can can't find a cheaper motherboard with AMD chipset than the current Asus. So I'm forgetting that option and go for a 15 disk max build with m-ATX board. By the time I need 20 disks we are having new UEFI motherboards anyway to handle the > 2 Tb disks.

 

I pretty sure I'll order the build without cages initially and get it working. I will than add cages later.

 

sharkoon rebel 9 is around 41/45 euros

Rebel 9

(note had wrong link (arghh))

 

but thats without postal or your gone drive to those places (also cost some fuel )

 

AMD II 240e is a nice choice max 45w and also dualcore (more power than a sempron 140 when you need it)

sharkoon rebel 9 is around 41/45 euros

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/146755/sharkoon-rebel-9-economic.html

(note had wrong link (arghh))

 

but thats without postal or your gone drive to those places (also cost some fuel )

 

Correct. But I'm looking for the Rebel9 Pro, as this has a cable managment system (can route the power cables behind the motherboard).

I can find it from approx 45 EUR, but no stock. The shop that has it on stock asks 90 EUR which is either a mistake or a rip-off...

 

Postage, if I order all the components at one place is only about 10 EUR or so. If I can pick it up anywhere in the randstad area, no problem (company car with fuel card  ).

you're starting with 15 build, and 3 harddisks but without cages? how come?

where are you going to put the first 3 drives then?

so no sharkoon quickport?

isnt there any other option than the expensive norco 5in3?

its really really expensive, just to house 5 hdds

The first 3 drives can just be mounted with the supplied 5,25 to 3,5 mounting kits.

 

Yes the cages are expensive, but probably worth it for convinience in expansion. If you do not want have these costs, you could use cheaper non hot-swap HD cages to get more than 9 disks in the case. For example the Coolermaster 4-in-3's @ 15 EUR per cage.

i know but then its not hotswappable

i know but then its not hotswappable

unRAID is not hot-swapable...  The cages just make upgrades and installation of disks easier.  You still must power down. (just so you do not get the wrong ideas)

unRAID is not hot-swapable...   The cages just make upgrades and installation of disks easier.  You still must power down. (just so you do not get the wrong ideas)

 

Correct, the cages offer more convinience, although at a significant cost. Propbably for each user to decide if it's worth it.

unRAID is not hot-swapable...   The cages just make upgrades and installation of disks easier.  You still must power down. (just so you do not get the wrong ideas)

 

Correct, the cages offer more convinience, although at a significant cost. Propbably for each user to decide if it's worth it.

 

i know, thatswhy im doubting

als with the non-hotswappable cages,i can only host 4in3 so max 12 drives? instead of 15

3 years ago (when 500G drives ruled the planet), the max array size was 7.5G.  And it took 16 drives to get you there.  With 2T drives, you are there with 5 disks.  With my recent updates, the number of disks in my array has been dropping, while capacity has been increasing.  I can't see this trend changing.  3T drive are around the corner, and 4T drives will come soon thereafter.  Consider your needs and space before opting for the hulking Norco unit.  I am hopeful to do a major upgrade from my 2T/1T array to a 10-12 drive array using 4T disks when they come out and hit a good price point.  That will be ~40T.  And that's a lot of movies.

 

Another thought related to buying the backplanes.  As a user who steadfastedly stuck with fixed mounted disks in my unRAID array, I have to say that installing two hotswap (SuperMicro) backplanes has been a very pleasant experience.  But I do still have 12 slots fixed mounted.

 

The key things to have accessible IMO are the parity disk (to easily upsize), an empty slot for preclear or an emergency disk replacement, and some combination of empty and "older" disks likely to be the first to be replaced.  Can be done with 1 (5 slots) backplane and get you a lot of the benefits, but I opted for 2 (10 slots).

 

I am pretty happy with my compromise  It means that instead of opening up the computer monthly (which seemed to be about the frequency I do something drive related), I am looking at doing it annually.  When I do open it up, I will be swapping a bunch of my newer 2T drives to the fixed slots and other older 1T drives to the hot swap to facilitate easy replacement over the next year.  If indeed my drive count keeps decreasing, I will be having fewer and fewer fixed mounted drives and eventually my 10 bays may be enough.

 

Not sure this is the right choice for others, but thought I'd share another perspective.  I need to update my "Pimp your rig" post to show the updated server, but you can look to see how I have mounted the disks internally for a fraction of the price of swappable backplanes.

good to read this !!!!!

Looking forward for your new pics to come... let us know

I did what bjp999 described for a while as well, and it certainly is a good compromise.  However, when I did it I had only 6 hot swap bays, and another 6 internal bays (in an Antec p180).  At that time I was also using a lot of smaller drives (500 GB - 1 TB).  I found myself still opening up my case every month or two, because every time I added a new 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive I wanted to mount it internally (assuming that it wouldn't be replaced anytime soon), so I would have to take one of the smaller drives from inside the case and move it to a hot swap bay.  Maybe I was just going about it wrong.

 

After getting tired of that setup, I found a Norco 4220 on sale and jumped on it.  After using it for a few months I realized that the likelihood of my ever needing 20 drives was pretty slim, so I sold it.  Making the custom fanplate was at least a fun project, and I learned a lot from it.

 

Over my time with unRAID, I've discovered by analyzing my usage patterns, my storage needs, and the rate at which hard drive capacity grows that the ideal solution for me is 9 drives; 1 parity, 7 data, and 1 cache.  If I maxed that out with the current 2 TB drives, that would give me 14 TB of usable space.  I currently have 9 TB of space with about 1 TB of free space.  As my storage needs grow by around 500 GBs per month, that gives me 10 months before I reach my 14 TB limit (and hopefully 3 and 4 TB drives will be an option by then).

 

So I did just that, I built myself a 9 drive server.  I don't have any pictures yet, but I hope to post some by the end of this weekend.  I also built it in such a way that if my needs ever increase, I could upgrade it to a 15 drive server with ease (and expense).

 

So basically what I'm saying is that it takes a good amount of time using unRAID or some other similar storage system before you'll realize what you need and what you don't need.  I agree with bjp999 that the need for 20 drive monsters is diminishing fast.  However, even 5 drives is too few for many.  Try to figure out your sweet spot, then build towards that.